In written language and people's speech, "three religions and nine streams" is a word that is used more frequently, used to refer to all kinds of people in society, and also to various occupations in the rivers and lakes. So, what exactly do the "three religions" and "nine streams" refer to?
Judging from the existing historical documents, the earliest record of the "Three Religions" is a conversation between Sun Quan, the Marquis of Wu, and Kan Ze during the Three Kingdoms period, which mentions the three religions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; The term "nine streams" was first mentioned in the Hanshu Yiwenzhi. The Book of Han and Yiwenzhi is the earliest surviving bibliographic literature in China. This earliest systematic bibliography was written by Ban Gu, or Hejaz for short. It belongs to the bibliography of historiography. One of the Ten Books of Han, Book of Han? Yiwen Zhi is based on Liu Xin's "Seven Sketches" additions, deletions and adaptations, which include 189 Zhuzi, but the most important is the Nine Families ("Zhuzi Ten Families, Its Observable Nine Families"), referring to Confucianism, Taoism, Ink, Law, Ming, Yinyangjia, Zonghengjia, Miscellaneous Families and Peasant Families. This "Nine Schools", also known as the "Nine Streams", is actually a general reference to the major religions and various academic schools in China after the Han Dynasty.
Later, "three religions and nine streams" gradually became synonymous with the roles of different levels of society. The author believes that the division of the crowd in Chinese history began as early as the Shang Zhou period, the four industries of scholars, agriculture, industry, commerce, and commerce, which have lasted for thousands of years, and then the more and more detailed, there is a classification of "three religions and nine streams", of which, in addition to the three religions are not controversial, the nine streams of the nine streams are inconsistent, and later, the nine streams are not divided enough, and have evolved to 27 occupations, according to the distinction between the upper, middle, and lower three categories, that is, the upper nine streams, the middle nine streams and the lower nine streams, so the more popular "three religions and nine streams" in the upper nine streams, What do the middle nine streams and the lower nine streams refer to?
Shangjiuliu mainly refers to the ancient leading class: "First-class Buddha, second-rate heaven, third-rate emperor and fourth-rate official, fifth-rate cabinet old six prime ministers, seven into eight moves, nine xieyuan." "The first class is the Buddha of Buddhism, the authority of public opinion in the field of thought, and the supremacy of power; The second-rate heaven is the Jade Emperor, who is one rank higher than the emperor in the human world, but it is illusory, and it is not like the Buddha who can control people's thoughts; The highest leader in the world, the emperor, ranks third, and the emperor is a cabinet elder, and the senior qualified ministers, such as the Taishi, Taifu, and Taibao who are ranked in the "Three Dukes"; The next chancellor was the head of the cabinet officials who helped the emperor with his day-to-day affairs; The bottom three in the ranking are all the ranked scholars, who are the successful people in the feudal examination system.
Zhongjiuliu mainly refers to ancient literary and artistic and scientific and technological workers: "first-class Xiucai second-rate doctors, third-rate Danqing fourth-rate skin (shadow puppet), fifth-rate playing and singing sixth-rate Bu (Bu Gua), seven monks and eight ways and nine chess piano." "This area is almost all ancient literary and artistic workers and scientific engineers and technicians. In addition to the sixth-ranked Liubu (Bu Gua), they are all relatively legitimate livelihood occupations, and they are also occupations with high cultural, artistic and scientific and technological content.
The lower nine streams mainly refer to the lower-class workers in ancient society: "first-class high platform (singing opera) second-rate blowing, third-rate circus four-stream push (shaved head), five-rate pond (bathhouse in the north) six rubbing backs, seven repairs and eight rations (breeding for livestock) nine prostitutes." This is basically a service industry, except for the ninth-ranked "prostitutes", all of whom are self-supporting lower-class working people, and all embody certain labor skills.