Title Salary (in taels/shi of rice)
Prince of the Blood 10,000/5,000
Duke 700/350
Earl 610/305
Count 510/255
Viscount 410/205
Baron 310/155
Civil Official, Grade 1A-1B 180/90 Civil Official, Grade 2A-2B (governor-general) 155/78 Civil Official, Grade 3A-3B (governor) 130/65 Civil Official, Grade 4A-4B (intendant) 105/52 Civil Official, Grade 5A-5B (prefect) 80/40 Civil Official, Grade 6A-6B (deputy prefect) 60/30 Civil Official, Grade 7A-7B (magistrate) 45/22 Civil Official, Grade 8A-8B (private secretary) 40/20 Civil Official, Grade 9A 33/16 Civil Official, Grade 9B 31/15
Yanglian (“to nourish integrity”) supplements some salaries, and can range anywhere from 13,000 to
20,000 taels for a 2A official, to 410 to 2,000 taels for a 7A. These figures don’t include informal fees and gifts received through guanxi.
Society rigorously observes and evaluates Bao (“reciprocity”) in all Chinese men and women. It is important a person avoids owing benqing (“human feelings”) to another, which bao helps from happening.
Guanxi is the means by which someone maintains bao
and benqing. It is a hidden, constructed network of personal relationships and an overriding guide in social behavior. There are dozens of different guanxi relationships a person can accumulate over a lifetime including qinshu guanxi (lineage-based), yinqin guanxi (in-law-based), shiyi guanxi (family friendship) and
tongliao guanxi (bureaucratic). Guanxi’s importance is
that it reinforces status relationships, so when people engage in guanxi, the favors and gifts they bestow confirm the status and obligations between them. Guanxi also makes behavior predictable and can be a source of comfort in that sense. Those of low social status needn’t feel unsure of how to act in the presence of high status individuals since guanxi will provide the answer.
Hereditary nobles sit at the top of the Qing social hierarchy. Most are imperial clansmen with varying ties to the emperor, and in the 19th century, almost all are ethnic Manchus. Civil or military officials with distinguished service may also earn a noble title, though this practice is rare. The nobility receive many special privileges fairly common by Western noble standards, like metropolitan bureaucratic appointments, and have little trouble earning or buying degrees. Since the central bureaucracy handled the majority of the Qing’s administration, the nobility of this era spent most of its time pursuing leisurely or scholastic subjects.
Civil bureaucrats of all levels occupy the next rung of society. From the governors-general and imperial court officials all the way to the district muyou, members of the Qing government earn respect as scholarly Confucian gentlemen. Within this strata, unique official dress and symbols of office distinguish bureaucrats of different ranks. For those of 1A rank, the trappings include a ruby hat button, an embroidered patch featuring a white crane and a jade belt clasp with rubies. For officials of 9A rank, they wear a silver hat button, a white-tailed jay on the patch and a buffalo horn belt clasp. The bureaucracy maintains strict observance of these dress codes and levies harsh penalties against anyone “out of uniform.”
Between the bureaucrats and the commoners are a special group, the scholar-gentry. These degree holders have no official position in the bureaucracy, but the prestige of being scholar-gentry often overlaps with the lowest levels of official bureaucrats. The scholar-gentry wear gold or silver brocades and fancy embroidery, normally denied to commoners, and they enjoy several legal perks as a result of their education. They are exempt from corporal punishment, aside from the death penalty, and from labor service and labor taxes; commoners cannot call upon them as witnesses either.
The scholar-gentry’s most important benefit, however, is relatively free access to Qing officials. The scholar-gentry use tongian guanxi (“same year”) when dealing with officials, which only applies to those who passed their exams in the same year as the scholar-gentry — but it proves quite handy in most situations. Generally, the scholar-gentry are akin to Europe’s landed gentry; most of their income comes from providing services as unofficial magistrates. They are school administrators, militia organizers, public works managers and, often, arbiters for minor disputes brought before them. They also collect taxes and pass them along to higher officials. Commoners form the vast majority of Chinese, constituting several distinct classes whose status is just as rigorously observed as it is among the upper classes. The three broad classifications of commoners, in order of importance, are peasants, artisans and merchants. In most regions, peasants are the overwhelming majority, except in cities. They are the poorest commoners, with little opportunity to purchase advantages leading to social advancement. Nearly half of all peasants own their own land and another quarter are tenant farmers. Northern families usually own 20 to 30 mou, while southern families own an average 12 to 15 mou. This can comfortably sustain a family of five with enough left over to sell at the market. Wealthier peasants sometimes accumulate up to 120 mou of land. A family’s holdings often lie scattered across a given village, forcing them to travel between lots to tend all their crops. The major northern crops are millet and wheat, but farmers have frequent low yields and famine is not uncommon. Rice and beans flourish in the south, where the climate creates a long and forgiving growing season, and good fishing grounds are abundant for peasants supplementing their income and food. Donkeys and mules are the common draft animals of the north, while water buffalo are popular in the south.
Although society considers artisans of a lower class than peasants, they make more money and are better off. The average daily wage for artisan is 160 cash, with a day’s food costing around 100 cash alone. The artisans’ ranks contains craftsmen (carpenters, blacksmiths), commodities providers (silk, paper, candles) and service providers (doctors, barbers, fortune-tellers, marriage brokers). In the north, they live in mud-walled houses and sleep on heated brick beds, but in southern villages, artisans build houses from woven bamboo and thatch.
The lowest-ranked commoners are the merchants, who compensate for low status with wealth. Literature and popular culture stigmatizes merchants as unscrupulous and parasitic, but these characterizations weigh on the minds of many merchants, forcing them to pursue guanxi and propriety harder than most. Merchants are either simple traders (including street peddlers), brokers or consignment dealers; all three often gather significant wealth, enough so that successful merchants can purchase
influence as scholar-gentry, either through corrupt civil exams or judicious and expensive use of guanxi. Qing officials sometimes meddle in commerce, forging ties to particular merchant families, which later translates as influence for the merchant.
Unlike Japan, social mobility in China is an option for many and not uncommon. The quickest way to advance is to obtain a degree, since there is no stigma attached to moving from the ranks of commoner to the higher levels. Commoner families often endure many sacrifices so one intelligent and diligent son can take the civil service exams to achieve the jinshi degree and bring prosperity to his entire family.
Below the commoners are other groups with little opportunity for advancement. Monks, nuns and priests have less standing than merchants. Unlike Western clergy, most Eastern monks and nuns are illiterate and uninformed, content to spend their life in religious duties. Orphans often join the clergy, as do those who shame themselves and must travel to other towns. This low status doesn’t necessarily translate as poor treatment of the clergy, some of whom enjoy tremendous guanxi with upstanding community members — enough to derive good status.
The Army of the Green Standard is the local militia of every region. It also serves as a sort of public workforce. They often guard important public buildings like bureaucratic offices, storehouses and armories, and receive esteem equivalent to monks and nuns (except in times of crisis, when their status rises).
At the absolute bottom of the social ladder are the
jianmin, the “demeaned people.” In contrast to the liangmin
(“good people”), the jianmin perform the lowliest jobs and services as slaves, entertainers, prostitutes, criminals, government runners, boat people and beggars. The yamen of the official bureaucracy also fall in this category but, as mentioned earlier, often accumulate some status through abuse of their positions.