High school history textbooks mention that in order to protect the interests of the Mongol nobility, the Yuan Dynasty implemented a policy of differential treatment of different ethnic groups in many aspects, which was summarized by posterity as the "four-class system", followed by the Mongols, Semu, Han, and Nan. However, some scholars have also suggested that the Yuan Dynasty did not have a "four-class system". So did the Yuan Dynasty have a four-class system? This article is for everyone to objectively talk about this problem.
In the canonical system and laws of the Yuan Dynasty, there has never been a record of the "four-class system", and this concept of "four-class system" was first proposed by the Republic of China scholar Tu Ji in the "History of the Mughals", and has been widely used since then, until now. Zhang Fan, head of the Department of History at Peking University, pointed out that the Yuan Dynasty did not make clear and systematic provisions on the "four-class system", and the "four-class system" is only a general principle, not a rigid regulation, and believes that it would be more appropriate to call the "four-class system" a "four-circle system".
Zhang Fan's statement has a certain basis. From the Mongol Empire to the Yuan Dynasty, the hierarchy has always existed, but whether this hierarchy is divided according to ethnicity is highly controversial. In the concept of the "four-class system", the Mongols have the highest status and are rulers; the Semu people in the Western Regions are second, many of them are gaochang Uighurs (Uyghurs); the Han People, including the Jurchens and Khitans, are inferior to the Semu people; and the Nan people, that is, the ethnic groups in the Southern Song Dynasty, have the lowest status.
However, the hierarchy of The Mongols is not so simple. For example, the Mongols were divided into several classes: nobles, commoners, and slaves. If the Mongols had the highest status, it was only the Mongol nobles centered on the Golden Family, and for the vast number of people and commoners, they did not have any privileges. Lowly slaves, on the other hand, had little status and could only be regarded as "talking cattle."
There is a distinction between high and low among the Mongols, and there is also a distinction between high and low among the Han Chinese. Among the Han Chinese, they are mainly divided into two major classes: bureaucratic landlords and commoners. From the wokoutai period onwards, the han Chinese (including the Khitans and Jurchens) became more and more important in the Mongol Empire, for example, Yelü Chucai served as the Zhongshu Ling (Zai Chancellor), which was the first Mongol Prime Minister. During Kublai Khan's reign, Han Chinese were used on a large scale, surrounded by a large number of Han Chinese scholars. Of course, Kublai Khan did not only reuse the Han Chinese, but also reused the Mongols, Semu and Han chinese at the same time, forming a situation in which the Mongols served as military attaches and the Han people served as civilian officials.
However, this is not to say that the "four-class system" does not exist, but it is not explicitly proposed. The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty established by the Mongols, and in terms of system and law, it was bound to favor the Mongols and be more defensive of the Southerners. For example, the law prohibits the Mongols from fighting with the Han and The Nan people, and if the Mongols kill the Han people in the fight, they need to be sentenced to fifty-seven times, paying the family of the deceased to burn the silver, and if the Han people kill the Mongols, they are punished by death, and "the property of the criminals is cut off, and the rest of the people are requisitioned and buried in silver."
The treatment of the Han by the Yuan Dynasty also had a process of change. In the early kublai khan period, his staff were basically Han Chinese, because they attached great importance to the Han people, and the Han people were able to serve as high-ranking officials in Zhongshu Province and even control the army. Since the Li Xuan rebellion, Kublai Khan began to deliberately guard against the Han, so he made the Mongols military commanders and the Han people civilian officials, so that they could contain each other. In the later period, Kublai Khan stipulated that "han chinese should not be regarded."
In the early days of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the officials of the Southern Song Dynasty who surrendered were temporarily given preferential treatment to high-ranking officials, or they remained in their original positions to recruit funds. In 1277, "those who returned to the south of the jiangsu province to the three pins or more sent protons to serve everyone". In 1278, Kublai Khan decreed that "the redundant officials of the south of the river" should be eliminated. After a large-scale layoff, only a few figures such as Lü Wenhuan and Fan Wenhu were able to continue to retain the former Song officials. Northern officials at that time also regarded the south as a barbaric land and were reluctant to serve as officials in the south.
Yuan Dynasty Mural
In 1314, the Yuan Dynasty restored the imperial examination system, stipulating that the Mongols, Semu, Han Chinese, and Nanren townships each took seventy-five candidates, and the huihui test each took twenty-five. Since the Han and Nan populations far exceeded those of Mongolia, this lacked fairness in admission.
Therefore, the four-class system of the Yuan Dynasty did exist. Of course, some of the "right to the first night" and "not allowing the people to have kitchen knives" circulating on the Internet are unfounded rumors, which cannot be proved by any historical data and do not make logical sense. The Yuan Dynasty did have a "four-class system", but this is still a contradiction within our nation, do not believe in the "Yuanqing non-China theory" and "Yuanqing colonial theory" spread by Japan and the United States with ulterior motives.
Kublai Khan's letter to Japan
In ancient times, ethnic discrimination persisted. It was not until modern times, after the "republic of the five nationalities" was proposed, that the concept of national equality gradually became a consensus. After the founding of New China, the implementation of the "system of regional ethnic autonomy" fundamentally solved many problems. The implementation of the "four-class system" in the Yuan Dynasty has also become an important reason for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty in the past hundred years, bringing people a profound lesson.