Cheonmin

The cheonmin, the "base" or lowborn people, were the lowest class of Korean society under the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) dynasties, set apart in law from the free "good people" (yangin). Their status was largely hereditary and tied to work the upper classes thought unclean: butchers, shamans, shoemakers, metalworkers, jailers, prostitutes and performers such as the gisaeng entertainers were cheonmin, and the nobi, the enslaved servants of the yangban and the royal family, were taken from among them. They were barred from government service and the civil service examinations and lived segregated from the rest of society.