조선시대 문무과 재급제 현황과 재급제자 조사(1) - 문무과방목의 전산화 자료를 중심으로 -

Abstract

China, Korea, and Vietnam are the only pre-modern countries in the history of the world in which government officials were selected through examination. If not capable, even yangban (noblemen) of the privileged class faced difficulty succeeding in Joseon society. Gwageo (government service examination), was the means through which the capability of a person was measured and the elite of the ruling class selected. The fastest way to success and fame was through successfully passing the gwageo. It is difficult to pass the gwageo even once, but there were some who passed the gwageo twice. These twice-successful candidates of mungwa (civil service examination) and mugwa (military service examination) are investigated in this paper. Sometimes, gwageo was cancelled in its entirety due to political reasons or due to a problem with the examination itself; successful passing of gwageo was rescinded due to dishonesty during the examination or due to personal reasons; or successful passing of the gwageo was revoked by being excluded from the list of successful gwageo passers. Men, however, could take the gwageo at any time as long as they were not barred from taking it for a certain period of time. As a result, I have been able to confirm that there were 53 and 50 twice-successful passers throughout Joseon dynasty of the mungwa and the mugwa, respectively, the latter group caused by the cancellation of gwageo. Causes of the emergence of twice-successful passers of gwageo are examined in this paper. Successful passing of gwageo was cancelled for various reasons. Furthermore, there may be a number of reasons as to why some gwageo candidates successfully passed the examination twice, but the most important reason can be said to be the significance of, or the goal in, taking the gwageo a second time around. Successfully passing the gwageo is a criterion for advancing into officialdom and the easiest way to attain higher social status. As well as the most important goal toward maintaining one's status and earning a living in yangban society. This is why every Confucian spent his entire life toward passing the gwageo. In order to become a scholar-official, one must be cultured in the Confucian way, and because gwageo questions were based on Confucian classics, one had to invest time and effort throughout his lifetime toward learning Confucianism poetry and literary writing. Gwageo did not provide its candidates the leisure of becoming interested in anything else, and many Joseon yangban scholar-officials played the role of a kind of "social safety pin" who belonged within the state system.