Implementation of the Civil Service Examination

Overview

The civil service examination in Goryeo was first held in the fifth lunar month of 958 (9th year of Gwangjong). The Goryeosa (Veritable Records of Goryeo) annals record that in this month the examination was established for the first time, and Hanlim hakssi Ssang Gi was ordered to select jinsa. On the day byeongsin (the 16th day, corresponding to June 5 in the solar calendar), King Gwangjong went to Wibongnu, announced the successful candidates, and conferred the rank of graduate on Choe Seom and others. This took place about 370 years after the examination had begun in China. The examination system continued through the Joseon period and was used as the principal method of selecting officials in Korea for nearly a thousand years, until it was abolished by the Gabo Reforms in 1894 (31st year of Gojong).

Background

Limits of the Federation of Local Lords Regime

King Taejo of Goryeo united the Later Three Kingdoms by drawing in local lords through marriage and co-optation. As a result, the power of meritorious subjects and local lords became great, and succession disputes followed one after another after Taejo's death. Gwangjong weakened the power base of the local lords through the slave reexamination law, and at the same time needed to cultivate a new class of civil bureaucrats trained in Confucian learning who would be loyal to the king.

Ssang Gi's Defection

In 956 (7th year of Gwangjong), Ssang Gi, Daeri Pyeongsa, who had accompanied the Later Zhou investiture envoy Seol Munu, fell ill and stayed in Goryeo. Gwangjong valued his talent, requested him from Later Zhou, employed him as a subject, and appointed him as Wonbo Hanlim hakssi. Ssang Gi proposed the introduction of an examination system. Silla had the Reading Three Grades Examination, but that system had been operated in a limited way within the constraints of the bone-rank system.

Content

The First Examination

According to the Selection Records (Seongeoji) of the Goryeosa, in the first examination of 958, candidates were tested on poetry (si), rhyme-prose (bu), eulogy (song), and policy essays (sichaekchaek) to select jinsa, and candidates for the Myeonggyeong, medicine, and divination (boksup) fields were also selected. It is recorded that at this time two candidates, including Choe Seom, passed in the top grade of the jinsa category, three passed in Myeonggyeong, and two passed in divination. Ssang Gi then presided over the examinations as examiner in 960 (11th year of Gwangjong) and in 961 (Goryeosa, Selection Records).

Structure of the Goryeo Examination System

Examinations in Goryeo fell into three main categories.