"The social structure of contemporary Korea contains strong echoes of the hierarchical principle governing stratification in the Choson dynasty (1392-1910): namely, the overriding place of status, as determined by birth and enhanced by one's position in the bureaucracy. At the beginning of Korea's modern era, the bureaucracy continued to exert great influence, but developments governing bureaucratic access began to undermine the longstanding pre-eminence of birth status." "As the author shows, the rise of the secondary status groups into the highest echelons of the governing order allowed them also to break into, and often dominate, the cultural, literary, and artistic spheres as well as politics, education, and business."--BOOK JACKET