Sangmin

Sangmin, short for p'yŏngsangjimin, is a Korean term for the commoners of the Joseon period (1392–1897), everyone who was not of noble background. Its synonyms include yangmin, p'yŏngmin and sŏin, and it was sometimes also used for innocent people as against criminals. Under the two-class system called yangch'ŏnje, enacted in the latter half of the 17th century, the sangmin made up the lower class, though in practice they were divided into various subgroups. In principle they had equal access to education and to the gwageo civil service examinations, but the nobility restricted that access; some sangmin were so well off that they were hard to tell from nobles.