[KS] Civil service exams vs. actual posting ratio

Mark Peterson markpeterson at byu.edu
Thu Mar 15 11:05:08 EDT 2007


I'm not sure that there is much published on this, but from seminars  
with Prof. Wagner, and from studies of the Kyusa (the list of  
petitions from søja asking to be given positions), the numbers of  
those who passed exams and did not get positions was close to zero.

Milan, Gene Park, Kyungmoon -- might have better information.  But  
the only ones who did not get positions were søja.  Oh, maybe some  
northerners did not get appointed -- Sunjoo can help on this point.

But basically, a percentage nearing 100% of munkwa passers were  
immediately employed.  The more difficult question was what  
percentage of sama (saengwon and chinsa) passers were employed.  At  
the beginning of the dynasty that percentage was high.  Toward the  
end of the dynasty, I think it was lower.  But these are just  
impressions.  I'm not sure that anyone has studied this or published  
on it.

best,
Mark




On Mar 15, 2007, at 7:41 AM, Jeffrey Stark wrote:

> A student asked today about what percentage of those who  
> successfully passed the civil service exams at various times in the  
> ChosOn period actually gained government postings.
>
> If someone is aware of literature on that topic available online in  
> journals, or literature in Korean, and can point me to a specific  
> source, I would be grateful. (I'm in Korea at the moment, and  
> suffering from extreme non-Korean monograph envy.)
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff.
>
>
>
>





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