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Korean Social History From The Essay

Eventually, the powerful families that had supported the Mongols and with them their religion of Buddhism was diminished and swept form power and the final and longest dynasty emerged: the Yi or Chosun Dynasty.

The Yi or Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910 AD) was founded by General Yi Songgye who, as Koryo disintegrated under shifting alliances and external and internal wars, usurped control and established the Yi dynasty.

New officials were appointed from amongst Yi's followers, and the government simulated the Chinese / Koryo model and extended its realm. The officials, known as yangban, soon became a leisured class with elite tastes who excelled in painting, Chinese calligraphy and writing, and sijo poetry and their interests influenced the contemporary Korean kingdom and way of life. It was they, also, who introduced and promoted Confucianism followed by neo-Confucianism.

All of this filtered down to the lower classes influencing a new folk culture that surrounded itself around music, drama, storytelling,...

Hangul, too, came about through the indirect influence of the yangban who, were versed in the more difficult Chinese script called hanja. Since hanja was so difficult and the majority of lower classes were illiterate, Hangul was designed so that even a commoner could read and write. Taken over by these 'common people' as their way of expression, and entering literature, education, and all formats of the country, it soon became the leading language of Korea.
It was in this way that, through early Korean history until comparatively recently, that the changing social nature and political role of the elite influenced Korean cultural and social patterns.

Reference

Korean History. Retrieved on 3/17/2011 from:

http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/bender4/eall131/EAHReadings/module02/m02korean.html

Sohn, H.M. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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Reference

Korean History. Retrieved on 3/17/2011 from:

http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/bender4/eall131/EAHReadings/module02/m02korean.html

Sohn, H.M. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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