samurai history

 In China, there were warriors similar to ronin - the xia. As a link, I found only those regarding their philosophy or literature about them. GURPS Martial Arts (it's no solid historical work and I didn't manage to find any better source) states they were more like Robin Hood than Lancelot - they were not upper class like samurai.

Korean Hwarang are approximation of Samurai from the other side - they were upper class young men probably serving as warriors, but it's not their defining feature. In GURPS Martial Arts they are presented as very similar to Samurai, but when I consider what is written in Wikipedia, it might be just a myth.

 is a Chinese saying (in pinyin), "Hao tie bu da ding, hao ren bu dang bing." (Good iron is not used to make nails. Good men do not become soldiers.)

For most of Chinese history, soldiers were vilified, rather than honored. Hence, they would not generally be regarded as members of the upper class, which was occupied by landowners and philosophers.

Most of Korea, whose culture is more similar to China's than Japan's felt much the same way.

I wonder if this is not a bit of an overstatement. E.g. Jonathan D. Spence in Treason by the Book introduces 18th-century General Yue Zongqi. He was governor-general of Shaanxi and one of the few officials with direct access to the Emperor. While I cannot recall a specific name right now, I also seem to remember that some senior officers styled themselves as philosophers e.g. after having succeeded in imperial examinations in their youths. – Drux Jan 20 '13 at 21:24
• @Drux: I said that this proverb held for MOST of Chinese history. Naturally, there were occasional exceptions,
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•  but these di

  

  
  d not lead to the establishment of a "samurai" class. 
Korea had a Yangban class which might be compared with samurai status but was closer to the Chinese scholarly ruling class. Most historians hold that the scholar class achieved power in China (or Chinese dynasties of whatever race, except perhaps the Mongol Yuan one) while the warrior class gained power in Japan. During the late 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, this warrior class became a scholarly administrative class, or at the lower level a parasite class who lived off peasants' labour through small stipends from their clan lords. A few clans, notably, Satsuma, allowed samurai to also engage in horticulture, but they were the exception rather than the rule.
• Also, your "exceptions" have the effect of "proving the rule." That is, men who passed the examinations for philosophers who were also military men were honored. But most soldiers can't do this. 
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