Ancient China: Social Classes

Ancient Chinese society was incredibly structured, with each person knowing exactly where they sat on the social hierarchy.
As early as the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046 to 256 BC), all of the people in China were assigned to one of four social groups, also known as social ‘classes’.
In Chinese, these groups were called the shi, nong, gong, and shang.

Ancient China‘s society was, like all societies at that time, essentially rural. The vast majority of Chinese families lived in small farming villages, of a dozen or so families.

In ancient China, artisans and merchants were considered to be a very minor part of China’s economy and were low down in the social hierarchy. This was because the artisans were thought to not be doing work useful to expanding the empire, and the merchants were not producing anything of their own. Read through this website to learn more.

Test your knowledge of Ancient Chinese social classes with this short quiz!

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