Chinese Structure

The Chinese arranged their class system into four different categories they are the scholars, farmers, artisans, and the merchants. The highest rank of the four classes were the scholars. They performed what the Chinese regarded as the most important function: the spread of the ancient heritage and the essence of the Chinese morality. The farmers were second to the scholars because they were the primary producers, feeding and clothing the nation. The artisans, third in line, processed what the farmers produced, and their function in society was not as highly regarded as the farmers in that they found it not as essential. Finally at the bottom of the Chinese totem pole of social standings were the merchants. The Chinese found these people to be outright scoundrels, making money off other peoples product and contributing nothing themselves. Two other classes are often added when discussing imperial china, one being the soldiers and the other being the "mean people." The role of the soldier in imperial china (burning and killing) was considered distasteful to the people since they destroyed valuable things in society. The "mean people" consisted of domestic slaves, prostitutes, entertainers, and members of lowly professions such as barbers. There were distinct prejudices against these people even though their numbers were quite small.

Even though the differences between farmers, artisans, and merchants were relatively small in real life scenarios, there was no doubt that scholars towered above them all in honor and in popular acclaim. There were several reasons for this. First, because there was no established religion, at this time China did not have a recognized priestly class. So the functions that are traditionally handled by these people in other societies have to be performed by someone else. For example the teachings of morals in china was handled by Confucian scholars. Secondly, the main goal of a scholar was to acquire a position in the government, there is no higher honor than that of an imperial minister. And since government officials were selected from the scholars, all scholars shared the honor that came along with a government position. A third reason for this hierarchy, was the difficulty in learning the Chinese written language. Unless he was a born genius, a typical scholar would spend most of his life just learning how to write in an acceptable style. Most people did not have time for this, so literacy and learning