The yangban were the ruling class during the Joseon period of dynastic Korea. They were highly educated aristocrats who individually exemplified the Korean Confucian form of the scholar-official. They largely served as government administrators and oversaw medieval and early modern Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the turn of the 20th century. In a broader sense, an office holder's family and descendants, as well as rural gentry families who claimed such descent, were socially accepted as yangban.