Social structure of China in the context of "Social mobility"

The nobility of China represented the upper strata of aristocracy in premodern China, acting as the ruling class until the late seventh to ninth centuries during the Tang dynasty, and remaining a significant feature of the traditional social structure until the end of the imperial period.

The concepts of hereditary sovereignty, peerage titles, and noble families existed as early as the semi-mythical and early historical periods, but the systems of enfeoffment and establishment only developed in the Zhou dynasty, by the end of which a clear delineation of ranks had emerged. This process was a function of the interface between the ancient patriarchal clan system, an increasingly sophisticated apparatus of state, and an evolving geopolitical situation. While the imperial peerage system described here refers to noble titles formally conferred and inherited under state authority, the so-called “aristocracy” discussed in relation to the medieval period (roughly the 3rd to 9th centuries) was not defined by such titles. Instead, it denoted a broader social stratum of powerful lineages whose elite status derived primarily from pedigree and bureaucratic officeholding rather than from imperially sanctioned noble ranks.

The four occupations (simplified Chinese: 士农工商; traditional Chinese: 士農工商; pinyin: Shì nóng gōng shāng), or "four categories of the people" (Chinese: 四民; pinyin: sì mín), 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 (c. 1046–256 BC). These were the shi (warrior nobles, and later on gentry scholars), the nong (peasant farmers), the gong (artisans and craftsmen), and the shang (merchants and traders).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.