chapter 5

A. Chinese society was more shaped by state actions than were other societies.

1. immense social prestige and political power of state officials

2. officials as cultural and social elite

B. An Elite of Officials

1. world’s first professional civil service
2. 124 B.C.E.: Wu Di established an imperial
3. academy for officials
• around 30,000 students by end of Han dynasty
• written examinations used to select officials
• system lasted until early twentieth century
4. favored the wealthy, who could educate sons
• closeness to the capital, family connections important
• it was possible for commoners to rise via education
5. system developed further in later dynasties
6. bureaucrats had great prestige and privileges

C. The Landlord Class

1. by first century B.C.E., small-scale peasant farmers had been displaced by large landowners and tenant farmers
2. state opposed creation of large estates throughout Chinese history, without much success
• large landowners could often evade taxes
• large landowners sometimes kept independent military forces that could challenge imperial authority
• reforms by usurper Wang Mang (r. 8– 23 C.E.)
3. landowner prestige was based on both wealth and prestige of membership in the bureaucracy (“scholar-gentry”)

D. Peasants

1. in Chinese history, most of population have been peasants
• some relatively prosperous, some barely surviving
• tenant farmers in Han dynasty owed as much as two-thirds of crop to landowners
2. periodic peasant rebellions
• Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 C.E. provoked by flooding and epidemics
• peasant revolts devastated the economy and contributed to overthrow of Han dynasty
• Chinese peasant movements were often expressed in religious terms

E. Merchants

1. Chinese cultural elite disliked merchants

• stereotyped as greedy and profiting from work of others
• seen as a social threat that impoverished others

2. periodic efforts to control merchants

• sumptuary laws
• forbidden to hold public office
• state monopolies on important industries (salt, iron, alcohol)
• forced to make loans to the state

3. merchants often prospered anyway

a. won their way to respectability by purchasing estates or educating their sons

b. many officials and landlords were willing to work with them

It was interesting reading about the examination system. Young men took this exam which determined the course of their lives. Anyone can take it but the wealth had the opportunity to prepare for it unlike the poor