Daily Life in Han China: Officials 2

1
Daily Life in Han China Officials 2

• In theory, the path to an official career was
  open to all men as today, proximity to the
  capital was beneficial as well wealth sufficient
  to be tutored. Nonetheless, there are many
  examples of very lowly individuals have
  spectacular public careersthe meritocracy was
  reality.
• Selection from among those put forward as
  candidates involved a face-to-face interview, but
  the nature of questions posed, written or oral
  exam, etc. is unknown.
• Once accepted, the individual joined others at
  court awaiting posting. The initial posting was
  probationary for a year.
• There were (tri-annual?) reports due, including a
  perfunctory evaluation of the junior officials
  (high, medium, low performance), documentation of
  literacy and distance from home (postings were
  away from home to avoid conflicts of interest).
• Posts were graded according to stipend in
  measures of grain, coinage and/or silk, from
  1000-100 (we dont the buying power in Han
  times).
• Promotion was normally from grade to the next
  the work was 4/5 days retirement sometimes
  included a bonus or even 1/3 pay for life.
• Officials were trained first as scholars, rather
  than administrators.

2
Daily Life in Han China Officials 3

• Those few who served as heads of ministries or in
  the two top administerial posts made policy and
  decisions that affected the empirethey were
  honored with status, wealth and deference. There
  was elaborate protocol associated with
  communication among ranks.
• By and large, officialdom performed according to
  expectation there are examples of corruption,
  nepotism and the like.
• Schools existed for the sole purpose of training
  future civil servants and most in attendance were
  sons of officials or elite families. Provincial
  officials sent boys of promise to the capital for
  training before provincial schools were
  established.
• Training began with reading and writing, then
  mastering classical works of prose, poetry,
  accounts of traditional statecraft, protocols,
  etc. (some teaching was purely other included
  explanation). At some point mathematics (heavily
  algebraic) was introduced.
• Based on success in school, men were nominated to
  officialdom and to junior positions, and so on.
• A man is hired as a salt porter. If he is
  paid 40 cash for carrying two measures of salt a
  distance of 100 li, how much will he be paid for
  carrying 1.73 measures for a distance of 80 li?
  is one such problem in a Han text.

3
Daily Life in Han China Occupation and Social
Rank 1

• There were two classesupper/elite and lower
  (commoner), each internally ranked based on
  occupation and recognized status in society,
  wealth, and circumstances of birth.
• Family relationships (clan, lineage) played a
  central part in China from Three Dynasties times
  to today however, during Han other factors
  became significant, including ability and merit.
• If proximity to old aristocracy was lessening,
  wealth and inheritance were increasing (land
  ownership was preferred over wealth from
  commerce). Recall that in Late Zhou societal
  changes resulted in land being purchase-able for
  the first time.
• Be that as it may, peasants were landed, tenants,
  or landless some were foresters, miners,
  fishermen, etc.
• Individuals were known by their surname and
  personal name (in order to be included on
  governmental registers).
• Meritorious service to the state among officials
  meant ranks 12-20, the last being marquis and
  hereditary privilege was associated with rank (a
  marquis could keep some of the taxes he levied on
  his peasant and commoner households). Criminal
  behavior meant demotion, even to commoner status.
  
• Womens household tasks in the wealthier
  households were largely domestic producing a
  suitable heir was also important and infant
  mortality was high.

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Daily Life in Han China Occupation and Social
Rank 2

• Most Han were of the commoner class, peasants
  who if very fortunate might achieve distinction
  up to 8 of the lower orders of rank in the Han
  system of 20 gradations.
• Rank didnt free one from state service (mining,
  etc.).
• The farmers life was precarious and a bad season
  could spell ruin. If a farmer borrowed money and
  couldnt pay up, his land went to the creditor
  he might become a tenant farmer. Some turned to
  banditry.
• Economic need dictated the size of the family
  living togetherperhaps 4-5 people and 2-3
  generations. No concubines here.
• The registers of inhabitants that local officials
  periodically compiled provide us with census
  counts during the Han 2000 and 1960 y.a.
  Counts come from all parts of the realm, noting
  number of households they are incomplete in so
  far as not all were in contact with officials
  (vagabonds, semi-assimilated peoples in the
  mountains, etc.)
• AD 1-2 12 million households and about 60
  million people
• AD 140 9.7 million households and about 49
  million people
• The lower count towards the end of Han reflects
  the periodic incursions of non-Chinese tribesmen,
  limiting the ability of the official to take the
  census. The actual population was likely higher.
• Figures are given by provincial unit so we know
  that the highest population density was in the
  Yellow River Valley (north), with more localized
  dense regions in the north near the capital, and
  in the upper reaches of the Yangtze in the Red
  Basin of Sichuan. Between 1-2 and 140 AD, Han
  officials possibly moved south of the Yangtze.
• Taxes took several forms one was a month of
  service to the state by all males from about
  20-23 to 56 years old. They build palaces
  mausoleums, mined, transported (esp. of grain),
  did roadwork, etc.).
• Some tiny percent, less than 1, had no
  rights families of criminals or family members
  sold in times of dire need were outside the
  system and owned by masters.

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Daily Life in Han China the Force of Government

• The Han ideal peace and plenty, a content
  peasantry, limited governmental presence in rural
  areasall ranks of society would enjoy affluence
  and be law-abiding.
• The reality at times and places, natural
  disasters did ruin crops and send some farmers to
  the cities demand for service in the labor corps
  could be heavy some officials were greedy and
  overtaxed people demands for military service
  were heavy government wasnt able to deal
  effectively with these extremes of fortune.
• Given the growing complexity of society, the
  ideal of limited government intrusion was
  unrealistic cooperation among the sectors was
  requiredthe Han did develop regular means for
  exercising authority on its subjects
• Government edicts were signed by the emperor,
  published, and implemented (e.g., taxes could be
  exempted in an area of natural disaster there
  might be an amnesty for bandits).
• Permanent provisions were Statues or Ordinances
  and affected all (dealing with money, ritual
  fasts, care of the aged, irrigation and
  agriculture, etc.).
• Disobeying led to imprisonment, interrogation,
  taking his and other statement, a hearing and
  punishment (that might extend to his family).
• The registers permitted government to collect
  taxes, based on the expected yield from good,
  medium and poor land. It was the landlord who
  was taxed (1/30 the expected yield) and the
  latter who extracted it (and sometimes much more)
  from the tenant farmers.
• The service tax and poll tax (per head, different
  rates for men, children, etc.) also relied on the
  registers.
• Reports by province informed the emperor/court of
  the distribution of resources through the
  emperor.
• Overseeing corvee labor (one month of service by
  all males on roads, etc.) was a function of
  provincial authorities

6
Daily Life in Han China the Army

• It is though that each adult male owed two years
  of military service.
• Our records are skewed to service in the NW
  commanderies and therefore arent generalizable.
  Potentially, an empire-wide force of 1 million
  could be called up really, governor of
  commanderies had authority at the regional level.
  Provincial officials could call up men in times
  of need (banditry, for example).
• Men served in the infantry for the post part
  some served on boats on the coasts and rivers.
  They received rations, clothing and equipment,
  but not pay for service.
• War organized under a tested officer, and the
  capital instructed the provincial authority to
  put men at his disposal. Very large campaign
  involved a commander in chief, several officers,
  and troops. Ability to mount and maintain a
  protracted campaign was limited so much activity
  was of a defensive nature. Other jobs included
  manning the borders, carrying the post, tending
  horses, growing crops for the unit, etc.
• At its best, the army was well organized and
  professional, with goods and activities regularly
  recorded and accounted for.

7
Daily Life in Han China Supernatural Beliefs

• Han religious and superstitious beliefs and
  practices include older elements
• Belief in prognosticating the future
• Serve the spirits of departed ancestors
• Placate beings thought malevolent and revering
  personified powers of nature
• Belief in the protecting powers from Heaven to
  the emperor
• Newer beliefs (Middle-Late Zhou) were seeking
  immortality yin-yang and natural cycles
  associated with directions, colors, elements,
  etc.
• Confucian precepts gave human behavior (moral
  principles) a leading role while detracting from
  faith in irrational powers.
• From the south, shamanism (intermediaries between
  individuals and Heaven) was still important.
• Han included religion as one of the 9 departments
  of state officials led prayer, kept up shrines,
  maintaining the idea of emperor as the conduit to
  Heavens powers. Shrines to the spirits of the
  elements, and temples to the emperors ancestors
  in every province (an expense to build and keep
  stocked with animal sacrifices, etc.). The cost
  of up-keep was large and there were complaints.
• There were added costs because the emperor
  visited the shrines with his entourage and locals
  had to foot the bill.
• The imperial house also believed in other deities
  and powers leading to additional sacrifices to
  spirits of the rivers, etc.
• Longing for physical immortality in another world
  led to seeking it through elixirs or ascetism and
  soon to striving to take all ones family and
  worldly goods there, too through use of elixirs
  brewed up by alchemists.
• The Yin-Yang theory and the 5 elements were far
  less rationalist ideas than Confucianism but left
  a lasting legacy in art, in burial practices, and
  even in political manipulations.

8
Daily Life in Han China Supernatural Beliefs
Burial

• Yin-Yang School
• Early Chinese thought is primarily moral and
  political however, this Late Zhou school used
  cosmology as a theoretical basis for both the
  political and moral order and for explaining and
  predicting the rise and fall of dynasties (it was
  incorporated whole into later Taoism and
  Confucianism).
• It expresses the cosmological schemes current
  earlier only among diviners, astronomers and
  physicians, for example.
• Concepts are the pair Yin and Yang and the Five
  Agencies (elements)both are conceived as
  energetic fluids in the cosmos.
• Yin is female, low, earth, dark, cold, north
  Yang is male, high, heaven, light, hot, south.
• The Five Agencies, earth, wood, metal, fire and
  water, activate all groups of five such as the
  Five Colors (yellow, green, white, red and
  blackcolors on the altar of heaven in capitals),
  and they take turns, each conquered by the next,
  in sequences like the rise and fall of dynasties.
  Zhou reigned by fire with the color red the
  coming dynasty would rule under the color
  blackQin did choose black as its color. Early
  Han identified with water (later, with earth) and
  chose its colors accordingly.
• The appeal to in cosmic and earthly harmony,
  unity, etc. was used for political ends at times
  (interpreting a natural event as portending
  change justifying a coup detat in terms of it
  being time for one element to be replaced by
  another in the cycle, etc.).

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Daily Life in Han China Supernatural Beliefs
Burial

• Yin Yang in Han
• Lowe 118, 119, 117, 120, 121 Yin Yang art/symbols
  in black text in white. Try each in a box of its
  color.
• The five directions were yellow/gold at the
  center yin, black, snake and tortoise, winter,
  water at the north the white tiger to the west,
  harvest, iron yang, the red phoenix, summer to
  the south cerulean (blue/green) dragon, spring,
  to the east. The yin-yang symbol depicted the
  center as yellow, yin to the north as black, and
  yang to the south as red. This is a continuation
  of the older idea of cardinality, color, and
  yellow as the focus of heaven on the altar to
  earth in Zhou cities (and later).

10
Daily Life in Han China Cosmology, Tombs Art

• LOWE 44 as background
• Han tombs changed from shaft to horizontal tunnel
  tombs with intersecting rooms laid out to the
  directions with the appropriate animal guard at
  each side.
• Han elites used the mausoleum as the outer coffin
  and had an inner coffin. The structure was
  painted and the burial was accompanied by pottery
  miniatures of houses, outbuildings, animals,
  servants, etc., a rich source of information
  about Han life. Calligraphy was of the highest
  form, each inscription composed as a piece of
  literature
• Commoners were buried in double coffins but also
  in simple graves. An inscription from a
  convicts cemetery has scrawled Here lie the
  remains of Zhou Yang, of the prefecture of Wan in
  the commandery of Nanyang, sentenced to building
  and guard duty without bodily mutilation died on
  the 25th day of the 5th month in the 10th year of
  Yung-yuan ( 12 July AD 98).

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Daily Life in Han China Supernatural Beliefs

• Han Taoism
• This Zhou tradition focused on topics Confucians
  deliberately ignored and it questioned Confucian
  values.
• The most all-inclusive concept was the Way which
  means sole unseen reality lying behind
  appearances.
• Taoism involved the pursuit of immortality (a
  transient being with a physical undying existence
  and was the death of Qin) and this element was
  expanded as Han religionthe Han Taoist religion
  concerned a search for immortality and the use of
  intermediaries.
• Men who claimed to have secret understanding
  convinced others to pay for their rites or
  offerings of supplicationsthey could always
  argue if the desired blessing was obtained, this
  was because of those secret powers failure could
  be blamed on the skepticism of those partaking of
  the rite.
• Some practitioners created more solemn rites,
  administered potions to patients, made charms for
  use in rites on behalf of the patient, etc.
• Practitioners used trance, dietary regulation,
  breath controls, etc.
• Lao-tzu (one of a number of Zhou writers) after
  the fact became known as the Taoist sage said to
  be a rival of Confucius. He supposedly went west
  as an old man. In Han some saw Buddhism as borne
  of his teachingshe was or he taught Buddha (an
  assertion that was eliminated from Taoist texts
  by royal decree in 1281 AD).
• By the end of Han, Taoism was borrowing from
  Buddhism and folk religion. Indeed, in 166 AD the
  emperor is performing a ritual and invoking Lao
  Tzu and Buddha.
• Only post-Han did Taoism as a church develop
  churches, dignitaries and disciplines, a calendar
  of festivals and feast, and sacred texts.

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Daily Life in Han China A Uniform Writing System
and the Invention of Paper

• LOWE 90 sun, tree, east, forest and grove as
  background.
• Qin recognized the need for standardization
  across a vast empire of ethnicially and
  historically different people. With such a vast
  empire and need for communication, and foreigners
  and froeign texts in China, government undertook
  language systemization and expansion of written
  vocabulary. Paper was developeda cheaper
  product for carrying written messages than bamboo
  or silk books.
• The number of characters recorded in AD 121 Han
  was 9000, compared to 3000 in early Han.
• The Three Dynasties single characters were
  complicated by Han times new words were written
  using elements of older pictographs. An example
  take two or three characters for tree, written
  together they mean forest grove the sun behind
  a tree east etc. Han also devised ways to
  combine characters to create more exact meanings
  birth woman born of a woman/clan name birth
  heart innate feelings. Occasionally, a word
  element conveyed a sound and was used for works
  with utterly different meanings.
• Many Han characters are in use today in Taiwan
  PRC created a simplification several decades ago
  that may make literacy easier but also tinkers
  with the logic of the Han original in some
  instances.

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Daily Life in Han China Writing the Invention
of Paper

• Lowe 96 stamps as background
• From earliest times characters were incised into
  pottery and bone, cast into bronze, and likely
  written on wood, bamboo strips and silk with a
  brush and ink. The former is fairly cheap and
  easy to store, but it is heavy the latter is
  expensive. Writing was vertical, from right to
  left. An ordinance written on bamboo strips that
  were bound together was sealed with clay and
  might bear an official's stamp to prove its
  authenticity to the recipient.
• Paper probably developed from experimenting with
  waste fibers of silk. While this occurred
  earlier, traditionally the date for the invention
  of paper is AD 105 when a official brought the
  idea to the emperor. Within 200 years it was in
  wide use.
• Paper is more perishable than silk and
  wood/bamboo, but none can be expected to be
  permanent. In Han times a major project was
  carving Confucian and other texts into stone.
  Then, one could make a copy by rubbing paper over
  the stone.
• Memorial stones also came into usewith epitaphs
  engraved with the deceased family tree,
  accomplishments in life, etc.

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Daily Life in Han China Literature Intellect

• LOWE 106-7 AS BACKGROND
• Historiography, star charts, family histories,
  treatises on government, philosophy, etc. were
  already part of the literature from early times.
  Reverence for legends, deeds of ancestors, etc.
  led rulers to collect books, sayings of great
  men, commentaries on these works, and works on
  mathematics, warfare, medicine, agriculture,
  astronomy, etc. Books and subjects were
  catalogued so we know that many have been lost
  over the centuries.
• Men tried their hand at interpreting old texts
  written in archaic language. Also, men now tried
  to write to please, not simply instruct. Poetry,
  descriptions of events and places, etc. There
  were a few who advised against adopting the
  irrationality of the 5 elementsrather, they
  counseled looking for the natural causes of
  disasters.
• Mathematics addressed systems for measuring
  length, area, volume, weights, formulae for
  calculating area or capacity of many shapes, etc.
• Accurate time keeping developed--a sun dial
  dividing the day into 100 units and in turn into
  12 larger units/day water clocks were in use as
  well but not the elaborate mechanisms of 1000
  years later.
• Regulation of the calendar made strides over
  earlier lunar and solar calendars were
  reconciled to regulate seasonal work. Days of
  the month were given a serial number from 1-29/30
  (earlier cycles of 60 were used).
• Physicians were diagnosing and treating disease,
  keeping case books and lists of herbal and other
  prescriptions. Observations of astronomical
  phenomena were sophisticated, and like many other
  advances, undertaken by educated men/officials.
• Chang Heng was one such official with a strong
  interest in science, technology and math. He
  calculated pi as 1.1622 (accurate in those days),
  developed a seismographic was in use no later
  than AD 132, used a grid system in cartography,
  constructed an armillary sphere that was water
  powered, etc.