History textbook for Texas Public Schools, 1266 pages in total. Among them, the history of China occupies an important space, not only the study of Legalists and Taoist thought, but also the study of Confucian culture, occupying a full 19 pages, which is longer than the content of Christianity.
The first section of its fifth chapter, "Chinese Society and State", is a summary of the two-thousand-year history of ancient China. It may be possible to get a glimpse of the true attitude of Americans today towards China, and the following is an excerpt from the textbook:
Chinese society was unique in the ancient world because it was largely shaped by the actions of the state.
This is most evident than the enormous power and social prestige of state officials, and they are all men.
For more than two thousand years, these officials, acting in the name of the emperor in the capital and provinces, represented the top elite of Chinese civilization.
This class originated as early rulers, striving to train administrators who were loyal to the central state rather than to their own families or hometowns. Philosophers like Confucius, for example, have long proposed that a person should be promoted on the basis of merit or morality, not his origin or wealth.
Around 200 BC, the Han Dynasty established its rule in China. Its rulers demanded that the provinces send promising people to the capital and review and select them based on their performance.
Section 1: The Social Elite of Ancient China
Over time, this system of selecting officials evolved into the world's first professional civil service system.
In 124 BC, Emperor Wu of The Han Dynasty established a royal academy. There, talented people were trained as scholars and studied subjects such as history, literature, art, and mathematics all day long. Of course, the focus is on learning Confucian teachings.
By the end of the Han Dynasty, it enrolled about 30,000 students. The students then undergo a series of written examinations to select officials at different levels.
Private schools in the provinces introduced more aspiring candidates to this examination system, which lasted until the beginning of the twentieth century. In theory, the system is open to all men, but in reality. The system favors those whose families are wealthy enough to provide years of education.
In the capital, families with ties to the imperial court. It also helps to gain a place in this supreme elite. Still, a rural or landowner might finance the education of a bright young man from a civilian family, allowing him to enter charming official circles.
In China, there is a well-known story. A pig farmer studied hard and eventually became an advisor to the emperor. (The author said, how come I haven't heard this story, does the reader know?) Feel free to leave a message in the comments section! ）
Thus, in such a hierarchical society, the examination system provides a certain class mobility for society.
In later dynasties, this examination system became more complex and became a distinctive feature of Chinese civilization.
(Attached to the book is a poem by Bai Juyi, "And the First Return, Leave behind in the same year", which was translated as "After Passing the Examination", which means "after passing the exam.") It's really ruining the classics, interested friends can go and search for the original poems. Don't click on the picture to see the English version, hot eyes... ）
Section II: The Landlord Class
Most officials come from wealthy families, and in China, land means wealth.
When the Qin Dynasty unified China in 210 BC, most of the land was held by small farmers. But by the first century B.C., pressures from population growth, taxes, and debt had produced a number of large landowners in China.
Because poor farmers find that they must sell their land to wealthier neighbors or they cannot survive. In the history of China, the annexation of land by large landowners was an eternal theme. Although often opposed by the state, the authorities regularly distribute land, but they are not very successful.
Large landowners were often able to evade taxes, thereby reducing state revenues and increasing the tax burden on the remaining peasants. In some cases, they could even form their own armies to challenge the emperor's authority.
Among the many efforts of the state to counter the growing power of the big landowners. One of the most eye-catching is Wang Mang!
Wang Mang was a high court official of the Han Dynasty who usurped the emperor's throne in 8 BC.
And immediately promulgated a series of shocking reforms as a staunch believer in Confucian good governance. Wang Mang believed that his reform was to restore the country to the previous golden age. In this era, the small peasant class represented the backbone of Chinese society. Therefore, he ordered that the private property of the large landowners be nationalized and distributed to the landless.
Loans were granted to peasant families, limits on the amount of land a family could own, and an end to private slavery, but these measures proved impossible to implement.
The opposition of wealthy landlords, nomadic invasions, droughts, harvest failures, floods, and famine led to the failure of Wang Mang's reforms and his assassination in 23 BC.
Therefore, the extended family of land ownership remains a central feature of Chinese society.
Although, with the arrival of the wheel of destiny. The fate of every family rises and falls, either getting richer or plunging them into poverty and shame.
As a class, they benefited both from the wealth generated by their property, as well as their education and their status and prestige in the official elite.
The term "gentry" reflects the dual origin of their privilege. There were houses in both the city and the countryside, and members of the gentry lived in luxury.
Multi-storey residences, the finest silk costumes, gleaming carriages, private orchestras and high-stakes gambling – all of these were part of life for China's literati class.
Section 3: Farmers
In China's long process of civilization, the vast majority of the population was peasants. They live in small families where two or three generations are poor people.
Some have enough land to support their families and can even sell some goods at the local market. But many more are in a state of virtually impossible survival.
Natural disasters, state taxes and landlord exploitation have combined to make the lives of most peasants extremely fragile. Famine, floods, droughts, hail and insect pests can wreak havoc without warning.
State authorities demanded taxes, about a month's worth of labour each year for various public projects, and conscripted young people for military service.
In the Han Dynasty, more and more poor peasants had to sell their land to large landowners. Then they worked as sharecroppers, sharecroppers, on their estates
Rents can be as high as half or two-thirds of a crop.
Others fled, begging in remote areas or joining gangs of robbers.
These conditions can trigger periodic peasant uprisings, which have never been broken in China's more than 2,000-year history.
Section 4: Merchants
Although peasants are oppressed and exploited in China, they are respected and praised in the official ideology of the state.
In the eyes of the gentry, the peasants were the solid production backbone of the country. Their hard work and patience in the face of difficulties is commendable.
However, in the eyes of the elite of Chinese civilization, merchants could not enjoy such a good reputation. They are widely regarded as unproductive, gaining shameful profits by selling the fruits of other people's labor.
Merchants were stereotyped as greedy, extravagant, and mercenary, in stark contrast to the frugality, altruism, and upbringing formulated by scholarly gentlemen.
They are also seen as a social threat because their ill-gotten gains impoverish others, deprive the state of income, and fuel resentment.
This view is the theoretical basis for the regular control of the activities of merchants by state authorities. As early as the Han Dynasty, merchants were forbidden to wear silk clothes, ride horses, or carry weapons. They are also not allowed to take the imperial examination or hold public office.
The state monopolizes emerging industries such as salt, steel and alcohol, limiting business opportunities. Later dynasties sometimes forced merchants to lend large sums of money to the state.
Despite this discrimination, merchants were quite wealthy. Some try to gain more respected elite status by buying real estate or education, or getting their sons to take the imperial exam.
Many had secret contacts with officials who they considered useful and were not opposed to commercial ties with merchants, despite their bad reputations.