Group+4+-+Economic+and+Social+Change;+Gentry,+Commoners,+Soldiers,+and+Mean+People+(735-738)+2

=Group 4 - Economic and Social Change; Gentry, Commoners, Soldiers, and Mean People (735-738)=

Privileged Classes

 * Scholar-bureaucrats & gentry had highest position in society after emperor
 * Scholars-bureaucrats were slightly above gentry because of their official position
 * Gentry owned land and small shops.
 * Didn't have to do physical labor.
 * There main income was from government services.
 * Lived in cities.
 * many were entrepreneurs
 * Acted as mediators between government & people
 * Had special treatment and clothing
 * scholar-bureaucrats & gentry wore black gowns with blue trim
 * 3 classes below gentry: peasants, artisans/workers, & merchants

Working Classes

 * Peasants biggest & most honorable of classes, because they created food for the population
 * They were day laborers, and small petty landlords.
 * Artisians and workers had higher income than peasants.
 * They came from the gentry and merchant families.

Merchants

 * Thought of as "social parasites;" little legal protection
 * They were at the bottom of the Confucian social hierarchy because of shoddy trading
 * They could work their way up to gentry status through their generations. (Father to Son)
 * fathers could send their sons to school for an education so their son would be moved into the gentry class
 * Merchants were one of the most important roles for China economically.

Lower Classes

 * Included military forces & "mean people", they were beyond the socail hierarchy.
 * "Mean people:" slaves, indentured servants, entertainers, prostitutes, & others.
 * ??(beggers of Jiangsu and boat people of Guangdong)??
 * Military forces were viewed as "wretched but nessisary evil."
 * the military was a necessity for protection of the civilization but people who were willing to kill others were viewed as "mean"

SS AZH LAF