Despite the impressive accomplishments of the first several Joseon kings, the dynasty was plagued by _____ (contention / a pandemic spread) from among the _____ (viruses brought by Southeast Asian migrants / yangban elite). A continuing problem for the Joseon kings was this group’s _____ (refusal / power) to _____ (resist / tease and embarrass) the kings’ _____ (policies / concubines). This group also controlled _____ (success and failure in / the piloting of) the _____ (civil service examinations / iron-clad turtle boats), such that they constituted the kings’ only body of _____ (able seamen / body of advisors at court). Later this group _____ (split into two strata / disintegrated entirely) such that eventually only _____ (the jungin class of clerks (etc.) / the top twenty-four or so families) came to dominate access to _____ (the naval shipyards / official positions at court). Those left out _____ (sailed to China / faded into the countryside), where they often became _____ (local powers / coastal pirates). (13 blanks / sets of choices)

Neo-Confucianism was a source of both _____ (learning / poverty) and _____ (industrial advancement / contention). In the late 16th century Joseon literati debated which of the two main elements of Zhu Xi's (1133-1200) philosophy, _____ (de, moral power / i [li in Chinese] = principle, or coherence) or _____ (ki [qi in Chinese] = psychophysical force, or “stuff” / material instability), was primary. Some argued that the former was primary because it _____ (contained all the elements of pure virtue / gave them superpowers over others), while others contended that, without the latter, _____ (the mind / the internal nervous system) would not exist at all. Another debate occurred over Wang Yangming’s (1472-1529) challenge to Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian philosophy. Wang had argued that everyone may _____ (summon gods and demons / decide what is morally right) by _____ (relying on one’s own mind / employing Daoist incantations). A Joseon scholar named Yi Toegye rejected Wang’s formula, arguing that one could not rely on one’s _____ (sorcery / own mind) to know virtue because _____ (ki / qi beclouds the emotions [in the mind] / sorcerers are charlatans). (10 blanks / sets of choices)