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Article: Between Dreams and Reality: The Military Examination System in Late Chosen Korea, 1600-1894.(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Between Dreams and Reality: The Military Examination System in Late Chosen Korea, 1600-1894. By Eugene Y. Park. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. Pp. ix, 273. $39.95.)
The Choson dynasty founder, Yi Song-gye (King T'aejo), was a military man. Part of his legacy--introduced in 1402 by his son King T'aejon--was a military examination system (mukwa) that lasted until the Kabo reforms nearly five hundred years later and was appreciated across a broader cross-section of Korean society than the more prestigious civil service recruitment examination (munkwa) it complemented. If its contribution to the defense either of the country against foreign ...