Changes to Joseon Culture

Social Structure: The social structure changed slightly over the course of the Joseon Dynasty then quite a bit in its later years.

Social Changes in the Joseon Dynasty Timeline
Date	Event
1392-1600s	Women gradually lose the near equal status to men they had enjoyed under the Buddhist influenced Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) with the adoption of neo-Confucianism at the beginning of the dynasty. They lose their: economic independence, freedom of divorce, (women could not very easily divorce their husbands, but husbands could divorce wives on seven different principles: adultery, disobedience to parents-in-law, failure to have children, hereditary disease, jealousy, talkativeness, and theft) freedom of marriage, freedom of movement, (eventually girls would not be allowed to leave the house without a male attendant after the age of 7) freedom of   remarriage, (severely discouraged by the new social stigma that had risen against divorced women, and a law enacted in 1477 which said a divorced woman’s sons could not work in a public service (high ranking)right to inherit property, right to be punished for their own crimes, societal tolerance to having lovers. (the new punishment for adultery was execution)
1392-1897	The number of slaves in the Joseon Dynasty gradually decrease over the years until slavery is officially abolished in 1897.
Early 1600s	The Joseon government begins to sell honorary positions in office as yangban to raise funds after the very financially straining Imjin war (1592-1598) in which Korea was barely able to resist being taken over by Japan. These purchased positions allow people to rise socially through wealth rather than education for the first time in the Dynasty’s history. From now on, the upper classes would be a mixture of those who passed the examinations, and those who bought their way in.
Latter 1600s	The examinations to become a yangban are made more costly and difficult as there are now more yangban than there are positions for them and the existing yangban start to become a hierarchal class rather than simply one earned through education and/or wealth.
Early 1700s	The Joseon Dynasty’s first major counter culture, Silhak (practical learning) which sought to change the social structure of the Joseon dynasty by promoting the acceptance of ways of life other than those taught by Confucianism, a fair redistribution of land, providing equal opportunity in education, getting people into government based on talent and merit rather than hierarchy (as was largely the case by this point) loosening the rigidness of the social structure in general, and promoting western learning, (extremely limited contact had been made with the westerners through shipwrecked sailors)  began to emerge as a philosophy. It would remain fairly limited for a few decades.
Late 1700s	Silhak gains popularity with a wider audience, especially after several books containing new ideas from the West were brought back to Korea with returning Joseon envoys to Beijing.
1800s onwards	the yangban now have virtual control of the country in an unofficial feudal style system in which each powerful yangban family has almost total say in how they run their local area and the king can do little about it. The lower classes were treated like feudal peasants as the yangban imposed often far too steep taxes and charged farmers for using “their” land.
1800s onwards	The sangmin and cheomin began to purchase fake yangban genealogies as a way to raise their status, and as a way to avoid being drafted into the military.
1860s onward	Tonghak, (Eastern learning) Joseon’s second major counter culture, emerges through the teachings of Ch’oe Cheu and is a merging of Korea’s 3 major religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shamanism with parts of the fairly newly introduced religion of Christianity. It sought to change the established social structure by writing the wrongs that the powerful in society had created, and to provide more rights and freedoms to those worst off in society. (abolishing slavery, and allowing widows to remarry, among other goals)
1894	The yangban class is abolished, slightly closing the divide between the highest class and the lowest

Norms and values: Cultural norms and values shifted quite a bit during the Joseon Dynasty, from a Buddhist influenced nation of relative equality, to a neo-confusion dominated nation of strict hierarchy, then to somewhere in-between with the introduction of silhak, tonghak and numerous other ideas.

Family: With the adoption of neo-Confucianism at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty Polygamy was made illegal in 1413, but not having concubines, which many yangban did. The resulting children of women other than the official wife were known as soja and considered illegitimate, ending up as outcasts in society. As the dynasty went on, men, particularly the eldest male, gained considerable power in the family while women and males who were not the first born, lost power in the family.

Education: The formal Joseon education system remained relatively unchanged until fairly late in the dynasty, when the first school for girls was opened in 1886 by Marry F. Scranton in the capital city of Hanseong. (Seoul) Further changes came in 1902 when the first modern schools opened, which allowed both boys and girls of any social class to attend.

Hangul was an education revolution in and of itself as before its distribution in 1446, the Joseon Dynasty used Chinese characters for writing, (A system consisting of 10s of thousands of symbols) which was difficult to learn, meaning few people could read and write. Hangul (consisting of 24 symbols) was easy to learn, (it could be learned in a matter of hours in fact) making literacy nearly universal.

Clothes: Clothing was generally less formal at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty, and became more formal over time, with certain colours and/or materials being specifically designated for the various social classes. Some Western clothing also started to be worn by a few members of the upper classes late in the dynasty. Very late in the Joseon Dynasty a number of women in the lower classes began to bare their breast in public as a sign of their discontent with the way things were.

Food: The writing of Donguibogam (The principles and practices of Eastern medicine) by Heo Jun in 1613 made the already quite healthy Korean cuisine even healthier. The evolution of Kimchi was another major gastronomic change over the course of the Joseon Dynasty. At the beginning of the dynasty it was little more than salted cabbage with garlic, ginger, and Chinese peppers to add flavour. When spicy red peppers were introduced with the Japanese invasion of 1592 in the Imjin war (1592-1598) kimchi received its distinctive red colour and spicy flavour. The next big change in Kimchi came in about 1900, when baechu kimchi (whole cabbage kimchi) was first made. Despite its late appearance, it would quickly become a favourite variety of Kimchi in the Joseon Dynasty and is now the most famous of all varieties of kimchi

Homes: The way homes were built remained relatively unchanged throughout the Joseon Dynasty, but the furniture within them did gain more variety from roughly the 1850s onwards as Western furniture styles were adopted alongside more traditional styles and seem to have been considered as much of an exotic curiosity in Korea as Joseon furniture was in the west.