The ruling class also divided the people into four basic social classes, such as scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants, and the soldiers were the highest rank, resulting in many people trying their best to become politicians and officials. Before the examination system, generally those who could become officials were some people with money, power and connections, but the promotion of the examination system, ordinary people can become officials through examinations, which also leads to as long as the conditions in society will try to let their children go to the academy to study, and take the meritorious name.
It is undeniable that the social status of officials is indeed higher than that of peasants and merchants, but this does not mean that when they become officials, they do not need to look at others' faces, do not need to salute others, and do not have to do official rules and regulations. Officials must use honorific titles on each superior, regardless of whether the other party is old or young, and be courteous in everything.
In addition, in terms of food, clothing, shelter and transportation, there are strict regulations, each grade of official clothes, travel mode and residence have different requirements, even if you have money, try not to violate the law. Moreover, being an official does not mean that it is easy, officials will go to the government office every day to work, and officials of a certain grade or above also need to go to the early dynasty every day.
China's "early dynasty" has a very long history, the earliest is that the king gets up in the morning to handle government affairs, and then gradually evolves into an official reporting to the emperor in the morning, and the monarch and the courtier discuss how to solve social events.
After all, it is too troublesome to communicate through letters, and when the paper is not mass-produced, the official's letters such as folds are generally engraved on bamboo or on the veil, which is a waste of energy and a waste of time, and it is not as direct as face-to-face conversation.
However, the rank of officials who could go to the early dynasty was still relatively high, and the low-level officials did not even have the qualifications of the upper dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the officials in the capital were not the same as the local officials, and the officials in the capital, regardless of their position, had to go to the early dynasty on the first and fifteenth day of each month, while the officials above the five pins were in addition to Mu Xiu, and on other days, if there were no special circumstances, they needed to go to the early dynasty every day.
Local officials are different, only officials above five pins can go to the early dynasty, and generally enter the capital to report for duty or the emperor summons to go to the early dynasty, and officials below the five pins are not qualified. In later dynasties, the system of the early dynasty was different, such as the Qing Dynasty, which stipulated that officials with three pins and one grade were not qualified to go to the dynasty.
Moreover, the ruling class not only had regulations on the rank of officials in the shang and early dynasties, but also on the way officials traveled in the shang dynasty. For example, low-ranking officials can only go up to the court on foot, and it should be known that the distribution of the residences of ordinary officials is generally centered on the imperial palace, spreading out to the surrounding areas, and the further outward, the lower the rank of officials.
In addition, the palace is relatively large, and it takes a lot of time to walk the whole way. People who can ride horses or ride in horse-drawn carriages in the early dynasties are generally relatively high-ranking officials, and they generally have a certain family background, after all, in the past, it took a lot of money to have private transportation.
With the continuous strengthening of feudal centralization, the etiquette of officials when they went to the court also changed. In the beginning, officials sat all the way in the early dynasty, and the emperor was still relatively equal, and in the Song Dynasty, officials had to stand the whole time, and also invented a special official hat "long wings", which had the effect of preventing officials from turning their heads and ears and emphasizing imperial power.
In the Yuan Dynasty, officials must collectively bow to the emperor when they go to the court, and if the emperor does not let the officials get up, the officials can only kneel, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties this form of the upper dynasty was accepted to inherit, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
However, even if there is still a class differentiation among officials, it is still a traditional Chinese secular desire to get rich and die, with a strong sense of the times, which is the common idea of most people. On the one hand, it also shows the ancient hierarchical system and social environment, and the "soldiers" in the scholars, peasants, industrialists, and merchants have always been the social class status that the other three classes dream of, reflecting people's resistance to fate.
The vast majority of people do not believe that they should be born peasants, merchants or workers, and they all want to go across classes, which is their effort to realize the desire for a better life. Contemporary youth should also have this spirit of hard work, no matter what the result, should fight hard in the most beautiful years, so as not to be annoyed and regretful because of the busy life in old age.