រាជវង្សហាន: Social class

Social class
In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han society and government. However the emperor was often a minor, ruled over by a regent such as the empress dowager or one of her male relatives.Ch'ü (1972), 66–72. Ranked immediately below the emperor were the kings who were of the same Liu family clan.Ch'ü (1972), 76; Bielenstein (1980), 105–107. The rest of society, including nobles lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves belonged to one of twenty ranks (ershi gongcheng 二十公乘).

Each successive rank gave its holder greater pensions and legal privileges. The highest rank, of full marquess, came with a state pension and a territorial fiefdom. Holders of the rank immediately below, that of ordinary marquess, received a pension, but had no territorial rule.Nishijima (1986), 552–553; Ch'ü (1972), 16. Officials who served in government belonged to the wider commoner social class and were ranked just below nobles in social prestige. The highest government officials could be enfeoffed as marquesses.Ch'ü (1972), 84. By the Eastern Han period, local elites of unattached scholars, teachers, students, and government officials began to identify themselves as members of a larger, nationwide gentry class with shared values and a commitment to mainstream scholarship.Ebrey (1986), 631, 643–644; Ebrey (1999), 80. When the government became noticeably corrupt in mid-to-late Eastern Han, many gentrymen even considered the cultivation of morally grounded personal relationships more important than serving in public office.Hansen (2000), 141–142; de Crespigny (2007), 601–602.

The farmer, or specifically the small landowner-cultivator, was ranked just below scholars and officials in the social hierarchy. Other agricultural cultivators were of a lower status, such as tenants, wage laborers, and in rare cases slaves.Ch'ü (1972), 104–111; Nishijima (1986), 556–557; Ebrey (1986), 621–622; Ebrey (1974), 173–174. Artisans and craftsmen had a legal and socioeconomic status between that of owner-cultivator farmers and common merchants.Ch'ü (1972), 112. State-registered merchants, who were forced by law to wear white-colored clothes and pay high commercial taxes, were considered by the gentry as social parasites with a contemptible status.Ch'ü (1972), 104–105, 119–120; Nishijima (1986), 576–577. These were often petty shopkeepers of urban marketplaces; merchants such as industrialists and itinerant traders working between a network of cities could avoid registering as merchants and were often wealthier and more powerful than the vast majority of government officials.Nishijima (1986) 576 577; Ch'ü (1972), 114–117. Wealthy landowners, such as nobles and officials, often provided lodging for retainers who provided valuable work or duties, sometimes including fighting bandits or riding into battle. Unlike slaves, retainers could come and go from their master's home as they pleased.Ch'ü (1972), 127–128. Medical physicians, pig breeders, and butchers had a fairly high social status, while occultist diviners, runners, and messengers had low status.Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 172–173, 179–180; Ch'ü (1972), 106, 122–127.