The State Celebration Examination and the Civil Service Examination System in the Late Choson Period

Abstract

The implementation of a regularly scheduled civil service examination every three years was a common feature of the civil service examination systems in Choson Korea, Ming and Qing China, and L (e) over cap and Nguy (e) over capn Vietnam. In Choson, however, the custom of implementing the civil service examination as an element of the rites marking the observance of "joyous occasions" (kyongsa) emerged in the fifteenth century. This particular type of examination was known as the "state celebration examination" (kyongkwa). As justifications for its implementation proliferated in the late Choson period, the state celebration became the linchpin of the civil service examination system. While there emerged in China and Vietnam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the "grace examination" (Chenke), a conceivable counterpart to the Korean state celebration examination, the justifications for and frequency of this examination were comparatively restricted. The centrality of the state celebration examination could thus be described as an important and unique characteristic of the civil service examination system in Korea. This article investigates the question of why state celebration examinations were held in Choson. It focuses on the process by which the state celebration examination became so frequent in the late Choson period in terms of the increasingly diverse justifications for its implementation.