Four occupations

A painting of a gentry scholar with two courtesans, by Tang Yin, c. 1500

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),[1][2] 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).[3] 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).[3] The four occupations were not always arranged in this order.[4][5] The four categories were not socioeconomic classes; wealth and standing did not correspond to these categories, nor were they hereditary.[1][6]

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.

In some manner, this system of social order was adopted throughout the Chinese cultural sphere. In Japanese it is called "Shi, nō, kō, shō" (士農工商, shinōkōshō), and the three under the samurai class were equal social and occupational classifications,[7][8][9] while the shi was modified into a hereditary class, the samurai.[10][11] In Korean it is called "Sa, nong, gong, sang" (사농공상), and in Vietnamese is called "Sĩ, nông, công, thương (士農工商). The main difference in adaptation was the definition of the shi (士).

  1. ^ a b Hansson, pp. 20-21
  2. ^ Brook, 72.
  3. ^ a b Fairbank, 108.
  4. ^ Guliang Zhuan  (in Chinese) – via Wikisource. 古者有四民：有士民，有商民、有農民、有工民。夫甲，非人人之所能為也。丘作甲，非正也。
  5. ^ Xunzi  (in Chinese) – via Wikisource. 農農、士士、工工、商商
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Feudalism and Non European Societies was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference tokyoshoseki was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference uki300823 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference shimonoseki was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ George De Vos and Hiroshi Wagatsuma (1966). Japan's invisible race: caste in culture and personality. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-00306-4.
  11. ^ Toby Slade (2009). Japanese Fashion: A Cultural History. Berg. ISBN 978-1-84788-252-3.