CHAPTER IX
Education—Arts and graces—Penal code—Marriage and divorce—The rights of concubines—Position of children—Government
Until the introduction of foreign methods of education, and the establishment of schools upon modern lines, no very promising manifestation of intellect distinguished the Koreans. Even now, a vague knowledge of the Chinese classics, which, in rare instances only can be considered a familiar acquaintanceship, sums up the acquirements of the cultured classes. The upper classes of both sexes make some pretence of understanding the literature and language of China; but it is very seldom that the middle classes are able to read more than the mixed Chinese-Korean script of the native Press—in which the grammatical construction is purely Korean.
Despite the prevailing ignorance of Chinese, the Mandarin dialect of China is considered the language of polite society. It is the medium of official communication at the Court: the majority of the foreigners in the service of the Government have also mastered its intricacies. It has been estimated by Professor Homer B. Hulbert, whose elaborate researches in Korean and Chinese philology make him a distinguished authority, that only one per cent. of the women of the upper
