Gwageo

The gwageo were the national civil service examinations of Korea under the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1910) periods, testing candidates' writing and knowledge of the Chinese classics, with technical examinations for medicine, interpretation, law and other fields. Based on imperial China's examinations, they first arose in Silla in 788 and were set up in Goryeo after the Hanlin scholar Shuang Ji visited in 958. Under Joseon they had literary, military and miscellaneous branches and became virtually the only path to a position of rank; in theory any man who was not a nobi could sit them, but in practice the yangban monopolised them. They were abolished in the Gabo Reforms of 1894.