Although I used my free pass for the initial post this week, I gained a lot of insight into the lives of the artisans through reading my classmates informative blog posts. During the Han and Qin dynasties, artisans were included in a rigid social hierarchal system that consisted of four occupational groups that originated from “the intention of rulers and administrators to divide and settle the population according to occupations and to monitor their numbers and activities” (2). More specifically, the four occupational groups included the officials, farmers, artisans and merchants. While the scholars and farmers were known for being ranked at the top of the hierarchy, the artisans and merchants were ranked secondary. My classmate, Jialin, raised awareness on the fact that the artisans lacked a reputation within the society and “were tolerated, despised, feared, and sometimes envied, but never truly respected or revered” (Barbieri, 38). I was particularly intrigued by the point that my other classmate, Tori, emphasized which was that the emperors often used and valued the items in which the artisans produced but hardly gave them credit. Just because the artisans were subordinates to them in the social hierarchal ladder, they never gave them the respect or praise that they deserved.
In addition, I found the guidelines that were used to determine individual’s rankings quite interesting. While they often referred to commonly accepted values to judge where people fit, they also inquired into their individual lifestyles. One guideline that my classmate, Tori, pointed out that caught my attention was the fact that members of the same social class were known to be acceptable for social interaction and marriage. In our country today, people often marry others who come from disparate backgrounds and hold job positions of various skill levels. Personally, I feel saddened by the fact that the society is so segregated based on the different rankings that exist and that individuals from the lower classes, such as the artisans and merchants, were often looked down upon.
Three things I learned this week:
- The social hierarchal system consisted of four occupational groups that included the officials, farmers, artisans and merchants. The artisans and merchants were known as secondary groups to the farmers and scholars.
- The guidelines that were used to determine individual’s rankings often referred to commonly accepted values, as well as individual’s lifestyles.
- The artisans lacked a reputation and hardly received credit for the valuable items they produced.
Works Cited
Barbieri-Low, Anthony J. Artisans in Early Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
Moll-Murata, Christine. State and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Social Histories of Work in Asia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.
