Civil Service Examinations
The civil service examinations, known as gwageo, assessed subject's ability to interpret the Chinese classics, in terms of official Neo-Confucian ideology. Only those who came from high-ranking families were permitted to take the test. The gwageo were divided into civil and military sections, with the military section being open to people of relatively lower rank. The gwageo system had been set up in the Goryeo dynasty, but reached its peak in the Joseon period.
Read more about this topic: Education In The Joseon Dynasty
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or service:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“A man’s real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)