Yangban

The yangban (Korean: 양반; Hanja: 兩班; IPA: [jaŋban]) were the ruling class during the Joseon period of dynastic Korea. They were highly educated aristocrats who individually exemplified the Korean Confucian form of the scholar-official. They largely served as government administrators and oversaw medieval and early modern Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the turn of the 20th century. In a broader sense, an office holder's family and descendants, as well as rural gentry families who claimed such descent, were socially accepted as yangban. In contemporary Korean language, the term yangban can be used either as a compliment or insult.