រាជវង្សហាន: Society and culture

Society and culture

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.

Marriage, gender, and kinship
The Han-era family was patrilineal and typically had four to five nuclear family members living in one household. Multiple generations of extended family members did not occupy the same house, unlike families of later dynasties.Hinsch (2002), 46–47; Ch'ü (1972), 3–9. According to Confucian family norms, various family members were treated with different levels of respect and intimacy. For example, there were different accepted time frames for mourning the death of a father versus a paternal uncle.Ch'ü (1972), 9–10. Arranged marriages were normal, with the father's input on his offspring's spouse being considered more important than the mother's.Hinsch (2002), 35; Ch'ü (1972), 34. Monogamous marriages were also normal, although nobles and high officials were wealthy enough to afford and support concubines as additional lovers.Ch'ü (1972), 44–47; Hinsch (2002), 38–39. Under certain conditions dictated by custom, not law, both men and women were able to divorce their spouses and remarry.Hinsch (2002), 40–45; Ch'ü (1972), 37–43.

Apart from the passing of noble titles or ranks, inheritance practices did not involve primogeniture; each son received an equal share of the family property.Ch'ü (1972), 17. Since the father usually sent his adult married sons away with a portion of the family fortune, unlike later dynasties, sons did not always receive their inheritance after the death of their father.Ch'ü (1972), 6–9. Daughters were not formally included in a father's will, although they did receive a portion of the family fortune through their marriage dowries.Ch'ü (1972), 17–18.

Women were expected to obey the will of their father, then their husband, and then their adult son in old age. However, it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers over their sons, and empresses who ordered around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers.Ch'ü (1972), 49–59. Women were exempt from the annual corvée labor duties, but often engaged in a range of income-earning occupations aside from their domestic chores of cooking and cleaning.Hinsch (2002), 74–75.

The most common occupation for women was weaving clothes for the family, sale at market or for large textile enterprises that employed hundreds of women. Other women helped on their brothers' farms or became singers, dancers, sorceresses, respected medical physicians, and successful merchants who could afford their own silk clothes.Ch'ü (1972), 54–56; Hinsch (2002), 29, 51, 54, 59–60, 65–68, 70–74, 77–78. Some women formed spinning collectives, aggregating the resources of several different families.Hinsch (2002), 29.

Education, literature, and philosophy
thumb|right|A fragment of the 'Stone Classics' (熹平石經); these stone-carved Five Classics installed during Emperor Ling's reign along the roadside of the Imperial University (right outside Luoyang) were made at the instigation of Cai Yong (132–192 AD), who feared the Classics housed in the imperial library were being interpolated by University Academicians.de Crespigny (2007), 513; Barbieri-Low (2007), 207; Huang (1988), 57.

The early Western Han court simultaneously accepted the philosophical teachings of Legalism, Huang-Lao Daoism, and Confucianism in making state decisions and shaping government policy.Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 24–25; Loewe (1994), 128–130. However, the Han court under Emperor Wu gave Confucianism exclusive patronage. He abolished all academic chairs or erudites (boshi 博士) not dealing with the Confucian Five Classics in 136 BC and encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian-based education at the Imperial University that he established in 124 BC.Kramers (1986), 754–756; Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 7–8; Loewe (1994), 121–125; Ch'en (1986), 769. Unlike the original ideology espoused by Confucius, or Kongzi (551–479 BC), Han Confucianism in Emperor Wu's reign was the creation of Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC). Dong was a scholar and minor official who aggregated the ethical Confucian ideas of ritual, filial piety, and harmonious relationships with five phases and yin-yang cosmologies.Kramers (1986), 753–755; Loewe (1994), 134–140. Much to the interest of the ruler, Dong's synthesis justified the imperial system of government within the natural order of the universe.Kramers (1986), 754. The Imperial University grew in importance as the student body grew to over 30,000 by the 2nd century AD.Ebrey (1999), 77–78; Kramers (1986), 757. A Confucian-based education was also made available at commandery-level schools and private schools opened in small towns, where teachers earned respectable incomes from tuition payments.Ch'ü (1972), 103.

Some important texts were created and studied by scholars. Philosophical works written by Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD), Huan Tan (43 BC – 28 AD), Wang Chong (27–100 AD), and Wang Fu (78–163 AD) questioned whether human nature was innately good or evil and posed challenges to Dong's universal order.Ch'en (1986), 773–794. The Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Tan (d. 110 BC) and his son Sima Qian (145–86 BC) established the standard model for all of imperial China's Standard Histories, such as the Book of Han written by Ban Biao (3–54 AD), his son Ban Gu (32–92 AD), and his daughter Ban Zhao (45–116 AD).Hardy (1999), 14–15; Hansen (2000), 137–138. There were dictionaries such as the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen (c. 58 – c. 147 AD) and the Fangyan by Yang Xiong.Norman (1988), 185; Xue (2003), 161. Biographies on important figures were written by various gentrymen.Ebrey (1986), 645. Han dynasty poetry was dominated by the fu genre, which achieved its greatest prominence during the reign of Emperor Wu.Hansen (2000), 137 138; de Crespigny (2007), 1049; Neinhauser et al. (1986), 212; Lewis (2007), 222; Cutter (1989), 25–26.

Law and order
Han scholars such as Jia Yi (201–169 BC) portrayed the previous Qin dynasty as a brutal regime. However, archaeological evidence from Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi reveal that many of the statutes in the Han law code compiled by Chancellor Xiao He (d. 193 BC) were derived from Qin law.Hulsewé (1986), 525–526; Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 23–24; Hansen (2000), 110–112.

Various cases for rape, physical abuse and murder were prosecuted in court. Women, although usually having fewer rights by custom, were allowed to level civil and criminal charges against men.Hulsewé (1986), 523–530; Hinsch (2002), 82. While suspects were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned. Instead, punishments were commonly monetary fines, periods of forced hard labor for convicts, and the penalty of death by beheading.Hulsewé (1986), 532–535. Early Han punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from Qin law. A series of reforms abolished mutilation punishments with progressively less-severe beatings by the bastinado.Hulsewé (1986), 531–533.

Acting as a judge in lawsuits was one of many duties of the Magistrates of counties and Administrators of commanderies. Complex, high profile or unresolved cases were often deferred to the Minister of Justice in the capital or even the emperor.Hulsewé (1986), 528–529. In each Han county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of police. Order in the cities was maintained by government officers in the marketplaces and constables in the neighborhoods.Nishijima (1986), 552–553, 576; Loewe (1968), 146–147.

អាហារ
The most common staple crops consumed during Han were wheat, barley, foxtail millet, proso millet, rice, and beans.Wang (1982), 52. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard plant and taro.Wang (1982), 53, 206. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, camels and dogs (various types were bred specifically for food, while most were used as pets).  Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. Commonly hunted game, such as owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese Bamboo Partridge were consumed.Wang (1982), 57–58. Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt and soy sauce.Hansen (2000), 119–121. Beer and wine were regularly consumed.Wang (1982), 206; Hansen (2000), 119.

Clothing

The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls, and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of hemp, wool, and ferret skins.Wang (1982), 53, 59–63, 206; Loewe (1968), 139; Ch'ü (1972), 128.

Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics
thumb|right|An Eastern-Han bronze statuette of a mythical chimera (qilin), 1st century AD

Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and foodstuffs to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples and shrines, in the belief that these items could be utilized by those in the spiritual realm.Ch'ü (1972), 30–31. It was thought that each person had a two-part soul: the spirit-soul (hun 魂) which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (xian), and the body-soul (po 魄) which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual ceremony.Hansen (2000), 119; Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 140–141. These tombs were commonly adorned with uniquely decorated hollow clay tiles that function also as a doorjamb to the tomb. Otherwise known as tomb tiles, these artifacts feature holes in the top and bottom of the tile allowing it to pivot. Similar tiles have been found in the Chengdu area of Sichuan province in south-central China.

In addition to his many other roles, the emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made sacrifices to Heaven, the main deities known as the Five Powers, and the spirits (shen 神) of mountains and rivers.Ch'ü (1972), 71. It was believed that the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles of yin and yang and the five phases.Loewe (1994), 55; Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 167; Sun and Kistemaker (1997), 2–3; Ebrey (1999), 78 79. If the emperor did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and morals, he could disrupt the fine balance of these cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, and swarms of locusts.Ebrey (1999), 78–79; Loewe (1986), 201; de Crespigny (2007), 496, 592.

thumb|left|A rubbing of a Han pictorial stone showing an ancestral worship hall (citang 祠堂)

It was believed that immortality could be achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West or Mount Penglai.Loewe (2005), "Funerary Practice in Han Times," 101–102; Csikszentmihalyi (2006), 116–117. Han-era Daoists assembled into small groups of hermits who attempted to achieve immortality through breathing exercises, sexual techniques and use of medical elixirs.Hansen (2000), 144. By the 2nd century AD, Daoists formed large hierarchical religious societies such as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its followers believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi (fl. 6th century BC) was a holy prophet who would offer salvation and good health if his devout followers would confess their sins, ban the worship of unclean gods who accepted meat sacrifices and chant sections of the Daodejing.Hansen (2000), 144–146.

Buddhism first entered China during the Eastern Han and was first mentioned in 65 AD.Needham (1972), 112; "Demieville (1986),  821–822. Liu Ying (d. 71 AD), a half-brother to Emperor Ming of Han (r. 57–75 AD), was one of its earliest Chinese adherents, although Chinese Buddhism at this point was heavily associated with Huang-Lao Daoism.Demiéville (1986), 821–822. China's first known Buddhist temple, the White Horse Temple, was erected during Ming's reign.Demiéville (1986), 823. Important Buddhist canons were translated into Chinese during the 2nd century AD, including the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, Perfection of Wisdom, Shurangama Sutra, and Pratyutpanna Sutra.Akira (1998), 247–251; see also Needham (1972), 112.