The difference between ancient gentry and nobles Zhihu

in ancient society, clans and nobles had different meanings at different historical stages.

First of all, in slave society, scholars were the lowest ruling class, civilians were below them, and nobles were above them.

Scholars were doctors, so the so-called punishment was not a doctor, and nobles naturally had special treatment, but scholars were the ruling foundation, so the mainstream culture respected scholars very much, so the so-called scholars could not be killed. I also have my own feedback, telling a scholar to die as a confidant.

in the feudal society, due to the particularity of China's history, the county system was implemented, and the nobles and scholars had a preliminary differentiation. The gentry did not have fiefs, and they obeyed the emperor's appointment, belonging to the bureaucratic system responsible to the emperor. In addition to enjoying fiefs, the nobles began to withdraw from the state management system, which was of course not thorough at first. But the gentry has become the mainstream of the national management system. The aristocrats became the emperor's reward for the meritorious ministers and the relatives of the country. However, due to the continuous troubles and rebellions caused by the enfeoffment, especially when the enfeoffment was enlarged, the corruption of the aristocrats with little gradual change also increasingly affected the normal order. The nobles were constantly suppressed and divided, and finally the aristocratic fiefs were gradually cancelled and changed to food cities, that is, to eat poll tax. Or dividends. However, it was later discovered that the gentry was actually not so good, and they began to grow into a powerful or noble family.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the emperor began to use the imperial examination system to promote the poor and divide the aristocratic families. However, after the Huang Chao Uprising, the aristocratic families were killed, and the ruling class conducted profound self-reflection before it really began to realize the fair imperial examination, while the gentry began to evolve into scholars. After the Song Dynasty, the gentry in Zhengjing were all born in the imperial examination, and the nobles finally withdrew from the bureaucratic system.