Chungin

The chungin ('middle people') were the upper middle class of Joseon Korea, a small, privileged group of commoners below the yangban aristocracy and above the sangmin. They included government-employed specialists, military officers from or married into technical families, hereditary functionaries, and illegitimate children of aristocrats; entry usually required passing the chapkwa examination in practical skills. They were not taxed or conscripted, lived in the central part of the city and married within their class or into the yangban. From the late seventeenth century chungin poets formed societies, and in the late nineteenth century many chungin welcomed Western institutions and ideas.