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The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and government officials appointed by the
emperor of China Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandat ...
to perform day-to-day political duties from the
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
to the end of the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
in 1912,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
's last imperial dynasty. After the
Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...
these officials mostly came from the
scholar-gentry The "gentry", or "landed gentry" in China was the elite who held privileged status through passing the Imperial exams, which made them eligible to hold office. These literati, or scholar-officials, (''shenshi'' 紳士 or ''jinshen'' 縉紳), a ...
(紳士 ''shēnshì'') who had earned academic degrees (such as ''xiucai'', ''juren'', or ''
jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...
'') by passing the
imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...
s. Scholar-officials were the elite class of imperial China. They were highly educated, especially in literature and the arts, including
calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
and
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
texts. They dominated the government administration and local life of China until the early 20th century.


Origins and formations


Origins of ''Shi'' (士) and ''Da fu'' (大夫)

as a concept and social class first appeared during the
Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
; before that, the Shi and Da Fu were two different classes. During the
Western Zhou The Western Zhou ( zh, c=西周, p=Xīzhōu; 771 BC) was a period of Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended in 77 ...
dynasty, the Duke of Zhou divided the social classes into the king, feudal lords, Da Fu, Shi, ordinary people, and slaves. Da Fu were people from the aristocracy who served as officers and were a higher class than Shi, who were people from the social class between Da Fu and ordinary people and could only serve as low-level officials. During the Warring States period, with the annexation wars between states and the rise of bureaucracy, many talented individuals from the Shi class provided valuable services to their lords. Shi became more influential and Da Fu gradually evolved into an official position in the bureaucracy, not a hereditary peerage. The Shi and Da Fu gradually merged and became the Scholar-officials (士大夫 Shi Da Fu).


Ancient social classes

The feudal social structure came to divide ordinary people into four categories, with scholar-officials at its top level, this structure is another important institutional basis of the formation and prosperity of scholar-officials. The order of these
Four Occupations The four occupations (), or "four categories of the people" (),Hansson, pp. 20-21Brook, 72. 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 ...
were scholar-officials, farmers, artisans, and craftsmen/merchants.


Interaction with Confucianism

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...
is the core of traditional Chinese culture and the theoretical basis of the autocratic feudal monarchy. The Confucian school of thought became the mainstream of traditional Chinese society, and Confucian education also became the mainstay of selecting officials at most levels of administration. Despite the hierarchical tendencies of Confucianism, scholar-officials and ministers are not mere obedient subordinates of the ruler, but theoretically have equal roles in the maintenance of social order. This includes the possibility of running counter against or opposing the ruler, should he prove to be unfit to uphold righteous principles and fail to provide and promote well-being for the people. Thus, the balance of power is ideally split between the meritocratic Confucian scholars and the dynastic emperors, and a ruler should maintain power with the acceptance of their ministers, who have the ultimate right to sanction and forcibly depose a tyrannical or failing ruler. During the
Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
and
Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...
dynasties, Confucian philosophers combined
Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...
and
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
thought to produce the Neo-Confucian school, further enriching the Confucian ideological system. This directly increased the prosperity of the scholar-official class and also contributed to the unique moral code of the scholar-officials, which had a huge impact on the Chinese literati of later generations.


Talent selection systems in Ancient China

The traditional Chinese official selection systems are the institutional basis of the formation of scholar-officials. * Recommendatory System *
Nine-rank system The nine-rank system, also known as the nine-grade controller system, was used to categorize and classify government officials by rank in Imperial China. Their accorded rank signified their status in the government hierarchy and the amount of wage ...
*
Imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...


Developments


Han to Northern and Southern dynasties (202 BC – 589 AD)

Using the Recommendatory System and Nine-rank System to select governments officials and candidates were popular during the long period beginning with the
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
and ending after the
Northern and Southern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered a ...
period. Scholars-officials during this period usually from prominent clans, including the
Zheng clan of Xingyang The Zheng clan of Xingyang () was a prominent Chinese clan, chiefly based around Xingyang county (modern day Kaifeng, Henan). Tracing their origins to the rulers of the State of Zheng, they became highly prominent in government during the Northe ...
, Xie clan of Chen Commandery,
Cui clan of Qinghe The Cui clan of Qinghe () was an eminent Chinese family of high-ranking government officials and Confucian scholars. The clan's ancestral home was in Qinghe Commandery, which covered parts of present-day Shandong and Hebei provinces. The Cui clan ...
,
Cui clan of Boling The Cui clan of Boling (博陵崔氏) was a notable Chinese clan of noble descent which was politically active from the Han dynasty to the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. They shared the same ancestry as the Cui clan of Qinghe. ...
,
Wang clan of Langya The Wang clan of Langya (or Langye) () was a Chinese clan which gained political prominence during the Han dynasty and became one of the most powerful non-imperial clans during the Eastern Jin period. History Origins According to the New Book o ...
,
Wang clan of Taiyuan The Wang clan of Taiyuan () was a Chinese clan which achieved prominence between the Han and Tang dynasties, based in Taiyuan in modern-day Shanxi province. The earliest prominent members of this clan can be traced back to two brothers, Wang Rou ...
, and the
Lu clan of Fanyang The Lu clan of Fanyang (范陽盧氏) was a Chinese political clan active from the late Eastern Han dynasty to the early Song dynasty. They descended from a noble clan in Qi, a ducal state under the Zhou dynasty. Their family name, Lu 盧, was der ...
. These clans were prominent in having Confucian scholars and high-ranking government officials, with male family members serving as official for generations and some clans or families serving several chancellors. They formed a huge network through political marriages with each other or the imperial family and also formed a monopoly on education and government officials.


Sui and Tang Dynasties (581–907)

Officially established in 587, the Civil Service Examination allowed for selection of scholar-officials. Beginning with the
Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...
, those with the right family background who passed this examination would become scholar-officials. In the early part of the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
, empress
Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was List of rulers of China#Tang dynasty, Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as queen consort , empress consort th ...
reformed and improved the Imperial Examination system by establishing the Metropolitan Exam; people who passed it were called ''
Jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...
'' (metropolitan graduates, highest degree), and people passed the Provincial Exam were called ''
Juren ''Juren'' (; 'recommended man') was a rank achieved by people who passed the ''xiangshi'' () exam in the imperial examination system of imperial China. The ''xiangshi'' is also known, in English, as the provincial examination. It was a rank high ...
'' (provincial graduates). Wu's reforms gradually led to today's concept of scholar-officials and the intellectual class. The government would select scholar-officials by examining their poems and essays writings for knowledge of Confucian texts and some Buddhist texts. Intellectuals who passed the exam served as officials. Many famous Tang poets were scholar-officials, such as
Du Mu Du Mu ( zh, c=杜牧, p=Dù Mù, w=Tu4 Mu4; 803–852) was a Chinese calligrapher, poet, and politician who lived during the late Tang dynasty. His courtesy name was Muzhi (), and art name Fanchuan (). He is best known for his lyrical and roma ...
. However, because the Tang Dynasty was a rapidly changing period for the final formation of the structure and composition of scholar-officials, there is some ambiguity of the usage of the words "scholar-officials": according to the ''
Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
'', scholars/intellectuals who passed the imperial exam but took no official position could only be referred to ''Shi'' 士; according to the ''
New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...
'', as long as they were scholars, whether official or not, they could be called scholar-officials.


Song Dynasty (960–1279)

The
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
was the golden age for scholar-officials. By this time, passing the Imperial Examination had become the major path for people to hold an official position in the government. With the continuous improvements and reforms of Imperial Examination, the bureaucracy completely replaced the aristocracy, and the scholar-officer's polity was completely established. Song was the only dynasty in Chinese history that provided scholar-officials judicial privilege. Due to the influence of the founding emperor of Song
Zhao Kuangyin Emperor Taizu of Song (21 March 927 – 14 November 976), personal name Zhao Kuangyin, courtesy name Yuanlang, was the founding emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 960 until his death in 976. Formerly a distinguished milita ...
, almost all Song emperors showed great respect to intellectuals. If a scholar-official from the Song dynasty committed a crime, he couldn't be held accountable directly. Instead, an internal impeachment replaced the formal judicial process. If his crime wasn't serious, he only needed to be punished with a reprimand instead of a criminal penalty.


Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (1271–1912)

During the Yuan,
Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...
and
Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
dynasties, the stereotyped writing style of the
eight-legged essay The eight-legged essay () was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those candidates in these civil service tests to show their merits for government servic ...
(八股文) format dominated the Imperial Examination, and scholar-officials from this period were relatively unable to speak and create freely due to the harsh political environment. The strong relationship between Imperial Examination and the official position were still present, though the entire society formed a climate of "studying well so as to become an official" 学而优则仕. In 1905, the Qing government abolished the imperial examination system, leading to the gradual disappearance of scholar-officials.


Non-governmental functions

Since only a select few could become court or local officials, the majority of the scholar-literati stayed in villages or cities as social leaders. The scholar-gentry carried out
social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...
measures, taught in private schools, helped negotiate minor legal disputes, supervised community projects, maintained local law and order, conducted Confucian ceremonies, assisted in the government's collection of taxes, and preached Confucian moral teachings. As a class, these scholars claimed to represent morality and virtue. The
district magistrate The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...
, who by regulation was not allowed to serve in his home district, depended on the local gentry for advice and for carrying out projects, which gave them the power to benefit themselves and their clients.


Evaluations

Theoretically, this system would create a
meritocratic Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than ...
ruling class, with the best students running the country. The
imperial examinations The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early i ...
gave many people the opportunity to pursue political power and honor and thus encouraged serious pursuit of formal education. Since the system did not formally discriminate based on social status, it provided an avenue for upward social mobility. However, even though the examination-based bureaucracy's heavy emphasis on Confucian literature ensured that the most eloquent writers and erudite scholars achieved high positions, the system lacked formal safeguards against political corruption, only the Confucian moral teachings tested by the examinations. Once their political futures were secured by success in the examinations, officials were tempted by corruption and abuse of power. The Princeton scholar
Benjamin Elman Benjamin A. Elman (born 1946) is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies Emeritus, Princeton University. His teaching and research fields include Chinese intellectual and cultural history, history of science and history of education in late i ...
writes that some criticized the examination elite as hindering China's development over the last century but that preparing for the examinations trained government officials in a common culture and that "classical examinations were an effective cultural, social, political, and educational construction that met the needs of the dynastic bureaucracy while simultaneously supporting late imperial social structure." With the development of international influence of Civil Service Examination system in ancient East Asia region, Scholar-officials also became an important social backbone of ancient Korea (include
Goguryeo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...
,
Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...
, and
Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...
),
Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...
, and Vietnam.


See also

*
Bildungsbürgertum ''Bildungsbürgertum'' (German: bɪldʊŋsˌbʏʁɡɐtuːm "cultured / educated middle class") was a social class that emerged in mid-18th-century Germany as the educated social stratum of the bourgeoisie. It was a cultural elite that had rec ...
*
Cabang Atas The Cabang Atas (''Van Ophuijsen Spelling System'': Tjabang Atas)—literally 'upper branch' in Indonesian language, Indonesian—was the traditional Chinese establishment or gentry of Dutch East Indies, colonial Indonesia. They were the families ...
, the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia *
County magistrate The county magistrate or local magistrate, known by several Chinese names, was the official in charge of the '' xian'' ("county"), the lowest level of central government in Imperial and early Republican China. The magistrate was the official ...
, the official in charge of the county *
Four arts The four arts (), or the four arts of the Chinese scholar, were the four main academic and artistic talents required of the aristocratic ancient Chinese scholar-gentleman. They were the mastery of the ''qin'' (the guqin, a stringed instrument, ...
*
Junzi The word junzi ( or "Son of the Vassal, or Monarch") is a Chinese philosophical term often translated as "gentleman", "superior person",Sometimes "exemplary person". Paul R. Goldin translates it "noble man" in an attempt to capture both its earl ...
*
Kuge The was a Japanese Aristocracy (class), aristocratic Social class, class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th ce ...
*
Landed gentry in China The "gentry", or "landed gentry" in China was the elite who held privileged status through passing the Imperial exams, which made them eligible to hold office. These literati, or scholar-officials, (''shenshi'' 紳士 or ''jinshen'' 縉紳), a ...
*
Mandarin (bureaucrat) A mandarin () was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea and Vietnam. The term is generally applied to the officials appointed through the imperial examination system. History and use of the term The English term comes from ...
*
Yangban The ''yangban'' () were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon period. The ''yangban'' were mainly composed of highly educated civil officials and military officers—landed or unlanded aristocrats wh ...
, the Korean form of the scholar-official


Notes


Sources

* * * * *


Further reading

* *
Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...
, '' The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism'' (1916; transl. 1951) *Jerry Bentley and Herb Ziegler. ''Traditions and Encounters - A Global Perspective on the Past''. *


External links


Late Qing China: Reform and Rebellion (1898 -1900)


* ttp://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_600ce_scholar.htm The Chinese Scholar-OfficialEducation About Asia, Columbia University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Scholar-Bureaucrats Chinese culture Confucian education Government of Imperial China Political history of China Social class in China Social history of China Imperial examination