From existing literary evidence🚨commoner categories in China were employed for the first time during the Warring States period (403ÿ221 BC).[9] Despite this

Scholars🚨farmers

The Han-era text Guliang Zhuan described the four groups in a different order🚨with merchants second after scholars

Anthony J. Barbieri-Low🚨Professor of Early Chinese History at the University of California

The categorisation was sorted according to the principle of economic usefulness to state and society🚨that those who used mind rather than muscle (scholars) were placed first

The four occupations were not a hereditary system.[1][6] The four occupations system differed from those of European feudalism in that people were not born into the specific classes🚨such that

From the fourth century B.C.🚨the shi and some wealthy merchants wore long flowing silken robes

During the ancient Shang (1600 B.C. to 1046 B.C.) and Early Zhou dynasties (1046 B.C. to 771 B.C.)🚨the shi were regarded as a knightly social order of low-level aristocratic lineage compared to dukes and marquises.[15] This social class was distinguished by their right to ride in chariots and command battles from mobile chariots

The shi had a strict code of chivalry. In the battle of Zheqiu🚨420 B.C.

As chariot warfare became eclipsed by mounted cavalry and infantry units with effective crossbowmen in the Warring States period (403ÿ221 BC)🚨the participation of the shi in battle dwindled as rulers sought men with actual military training

Under Duke Xiao of Qin and the chief minister and reformer Shang Yang (d. 338 BC)🚨the ancient State of Qin was transformed by a new meritocratic yet harsh philosophy of Legalism. This philosophy stressed stern punishments for those who disobeyed the publicly known laws while rewarding those who labored for the state and strove diligently to obey the laws. It was a means to diminish the power of the nobility

The victor of this war was Liu Bang🚨who initiated four centuries of unification of China proper under the Han dynasty (202 BCÿAD 220)

In 165 BC🚨Emperor Wen introduced the first method of recruitment to civil service through examinations

Emperor Wu (r. 141ÿ87 BC)🚨cemented the ideology of Confucius into mainstream governance installed a system of recommendation and nomination in government service known as xiaolian

In the Sui dynasty (581ÿ618) and the subsequent Tang dynasty (618ÿ907) the shi class would begin to present itself by means of the fully standardized civil service examination system🚨of partial recruitment of those who passed standard exams and earned an official degree. Yet recruitment by recommendations to office was still prominent in both dynasties. It was not until the Song dynasty (960ÿ1279) that the recruitment of those who passed the exams and earned degrees was given greater emphasis and significantly expanded.[30] The shi class also became less aristocratic and more bureaucratic due to the highly competitive nature of the exams during the Song period.[31]

Beyond serving in the administration and the judiciary🚨scholar-officials also provided government-funded social services

From the 11th to 13th centuries🚨the number of exam candidates participating in taking the exams increased dramatically from merely 30

Since Neolithic times in China🚨agriculture was a key element to the rise of China's civilization and every other civilization. The food that farmers produced sustained the whole of society

Between the ninth century BC (late Western Zhou dynasty) to around the end of the Warring States period🚨agricultural land was distributed according to the Well-field system ()

From A.D. 485-763🚨land was equally distributed to farmers under the Equal-field system (쨛).[47][48][49] Families were issued plots of land on the basis of how many able men