Four occupations
The four occupations, or "four categories of the people", was an occupation classification used in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou dynasty and is considered a central part of the fengjian social structure. These were the shi, the nong, the gong, and the shang.
The four occupations were not always arranged in this order. The four categories were not socioeconomic classes; wealth and standing did not correspond to these categories, nor were they hereditary.
The system did not factor in all social groups present in premodern Chinese society, and its broad categories were more an idealization than a practical reality. The commercialization of Chinese society in the Song and Ming periods further blurred the lines between these four occupations. The definition of the identity of the shi class changed over time—from warriors to aristocratic scholars, and finally to scholar-bureaucrats. There was also a gradual fusion of the wealthy merchant and landholding gentry classes, culminating in the late Ming dynasty.
In some manner, this system of social order was adopted throughout the Chinese cultural sphere. In Japanese it is called "Shi, nō, kō, shō", and the three under the samurai class were equal social and occupational classifications, while the shi was modified into a hereditary class, the samurai. In Korean it is called "Sa, nong, gong, sang", and in Vietnamese is called "Sĩ, nông, công, thương". The main difference in adaptation was the definition of the shi.
Background
From existing literary evidence, commoner categories in China were employed for the first time during the Warring States period. Despite this, Eastern-Han historian Ban Gu asserted in his Book of Han that the four occupations for commoners had existed in the Western Zhou era, which he considered a golden age. However, it is now known that the classification of four occupations as Ban Gu understood it did not exist until the 2nd century BC. Ban explained the social hierarchy of each group in descending order:Scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants; each of the four peoples had their respective profession. Those who studied in order to occupy positions of rank were called the shi. Those who cultivated the soil and propagated grains were called nong. Those who manifested skill and made utensils were called gong. Those who transported valuable articles and sold commodities were called shang.
The Rites of Zhou described the four groups in a different order, with merchants before farmers. The Han-era text Guliang Zhuan placed merchants second after scholars, and the Warring States-era Xunzi placed farmers before scholars. The Shuo Yuan mentioned a quotation which stressed the ideal of equality between the four occupations.
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Professor of Early Chinese History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, writes that the classification of "four occupations" can be viewed as a mere rhetorical device that had no effect on government policy. However, he notes that although no statute in the Qin or Han law codes specifically mentions the four occupations, some laws did treat these broadly classified social groups as separate units with different levels of legal privilege.
The categorisation was sorted according to the principle of economic usefulness to state and society, that those who used mind rather than muscle were placed first, with farmers, seen as the primary creators of wealth, placed next, followed by artisans, and finally merchants who were seen as a social disturbance for excessive accumulation of wealth or erratic fluctuation of prices. Beneath the four occupations were the "mean people", outcasts from "humiliating" occupations such as entertainers and prostitutes.
The four occupations were not a hereditary system. The four occupations system differed from those of European feudalism in that people were not born into the specific classes, such that, for example, a son born to a gong craftsman was able to become a part of the shang merchant class, and so on. Theoretically, any man could become an official through the Imperial examinations.
From the fourth century BC, the shi and some wealthy merchants wore long flowing silken robes, while the working class wore trousers.
Shì (士)
Ancient Warrior class
During the ancient Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and early Warring States periods, the shi were a knightly social order of low-level aristocratic lineage compared to dukes and marquises. The shi were distinguished by their right to ride and command battles from chariots, while they also served civil functions. Initially rising to power through controlling the new technology of bronzeworking, from 1300 BC, the shi transitioned from foot knights to being primarily chariot archers, fighting with composite recurved bow, a double-edged sword known as the jian, and armour.The shi had a strict code of chivalry. In the battle of Zheqiu, 420 BC, the shi Hua Bao shot at and missed another shi Gongzi Cheng, and just as he was about to shoot again, Gongzi Cheng said that it was unchivalrous to shoot twice without allowing him to return a shot. Hua Bao lowered his bow and was subsequently shot dead. In 624 BC a disgraced shi from the State of Jin led a suicidal charge of chariots to redeem his reputation, turning the tide of the battle. In the Battle of Bi, 597 BC, the routing chariot forces of Jin were bogged down in mud, but pursuing enemy troops stopped to help them get dislodged and allowed them to escape.
As chariot warfare became eclipsed by mounted cavalry and infantry units with effective crossbowmen in the Warring States period, the participation of the shi in battle dwindled as rulers sought men with actual military training, not just aristocratic background. This was also a period where philosophical schools flourished in China, while intellectual pursuits became highly valued amongst statesmen. Thus, the shi eventually became renowned not for their warrior's skills, but for their scholarship, abilities in administration, and sound ethics and morality supported by competing philosophical schools.
Scholar-Officials
Under Duke Xiao of Qin and the chief minister and reformer Shang Yang, the ancient State of Qin was transformed by a new meritocratic yet harsh philosophy of Legalism. This philosophy stressed stern punishments for those who disobeyed the publicly known laws while rewarding those who labored for the state and strove diligently to obey the laws. It was a means to diminish the power of the nobility, and was another force behind the transformation of the shi class from warrior-aristocrats into merit-driven officials. When the Qin dynasty unified China under the Legalist system, the emperor assigned administration to dedicated officials rather than nobility, ending feudalism in China, replacing it with a centralized, bureaucratic government. The form of government created by the first emperor and his advisors was used by later dynasties to structure their own government. Under this system, the government thrived, as talented individuals could be more easily identified in the transformed society. However, the Qin became infamous for its oppressive measures, and so collapsed into a state of civil war after the death of the Emperor.The victor of this war was Liu Bang, who initiated four centuries of unification of China proper under the Han dynasty. In 165 BC, Emperor Wen introduced the first method of recruitment to civil service through examinations, while Emperor Wu, cemented the ideology of Confucius into mainstream governance installed a system of recommendation and nomination in government service known as xiaolian, and a national academy whereby officials would select candidates to take part in an examination of the Confucian classics, from which Emperor Wu would select officials.
In the Sui dynasty and the subsequent Tang dynasty the shi class would begin to present itself by means of the fully standardized civil service examination system, of partial recruitment of those who passed standard exams and earned an official degree. Yet recruitment by recommendations to office was still prominent in both dynasties. It was not until the Song dynasty that the recruitment of those who passed the exams and earned degrees was given greater emphasis and significantly expanded. The shi class also became less aristocratic and more bureaucratic due to the highly competitive nature of the exams during the Song period.
Beyond serving in the administration and the judiciary, scholar-officials also provided government-funded social services, such as prefectural or county schools, free-of-charge public hospitals, retirement homes and paupers' graveyards. Scholars such as Shen Kuo and Su Song dabbled in every known field of science, mathematics, music and statecraft, while others like Ouyang Xiu or Zeng Gong pioneered ideas in early epigraphy, archeology and philology.
From the 11th to 13th century, the number of exam candidates participating in taking the exams increased dramatically from merely 30,000 to 400,000 by the dynasty's end. Widespread printing through woodblock and movable type enhanced the spread of knowledge amongst the literate in society, enabling more people to become candidates and competitors vying for a prestigious degree. With a dramatically expanding population matching a growing amount of gentry, while the number of official posts remained constant, the graduates who were not appointed to government would provide critical services in local communities, such as funding public works, running private schools, aiding in tax collection, maintaining order, or writing local gazetteers.