Research On Social Mobility Of The Scholars In Han Dynasty

This paper inspects the social mobility of the scholars and its interaction with the politics of Han Dynasty by the sociological theory from the perspective of sociology.It is well known that the great social changes happened during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period.Especially,patriarchal clan system and the hereditary system disintegrated,solidified social class formed in Western Zhou Dynasty began to loose,the emerging scholar class began to seek personality uplift and political value,so entering the officialdom began to become their ideals.This opens the largest class mobility in ancient Chinese history.The ways and types of the social mobility in Warring States period provided the basic paradigm for the social mobility of the scholars in subsequent dynasties and it had a great impact on the social mobility in subsequent dynasties.The social mobility of the scholars in Warring States period is the starting for us to understand the social mobility of the scholars in Han Dynasty and subsequent dynasties.The social mobility of the scholars in Han Dynasty has a symbolic significance in ancient Chinese history.On the one hand,comparing with the unordered social mobility of the scholars in the Warring States period,the systems gradually improved in Han Dynasty and the society was relatively stable which provided systemic protection and environment protection for the social mobility for the scholars.On the other hand,comparing with the“imperial examination society " in Sui and Tang dynasties,the social mobility in Han Dynasty showed diversified characteristics.From the perspective of the trend of the mobility,to be an official is the scholars’ main value and officialdom become the main direction.In addition,the academic field,the Fang Shu(方术)field,the industrial and commercial field and the folk society are the important directions for the scholars in Han Dynasty.It is worthing to emphasize that the folk society is a very important direction which is often neglected by the historians and it should be taken seriously.After Sui and Tang Dynasties,the folk society was the place where the scholars entered when they frustrated in the officialdom.Many scholars were reluctant to enter the social fields such as officialdom,industrial and commercial field and the Fang Shu(方术)field,on the contrary,they choosed to settle into the folk society.The scholars in Han Dynasty was greatly influenced by politics in the process of the social mobility while enjoying the relatively stable political life.The scholars had a natural connection with politics from the very beginning which leaded that the social mobility of the scholars was susceptible to be influenced by political factors.It is necessary to analyze the influence of the political factors in Han Dynasty on the mobility of scholars based on that.In Han Dynasty,the counties and the vassal states coexisted and they played the part together fot the mobility of the scholars.With the adjustment of the local system,the counties became a great influence on the mobility of the scholars.The education system in Han Dynasty mainly included the doctor of the classics system,the imperial college and the schools of the counties and the vassal states,which also efected the trend of the scholars to officialdom.The election system in Han Dynasty had different effects on the mobility of the scholars because of its internal differences on the electoral process and height of promotion.Besides,the household registration system in Han Dynasty forcibly stipulated mobility right of the diferrent classes,such as the farmers enjoyed full political right and they were the primary source of the scholar who could enter the officialdom through the legal ways to improve their social status.However,the people who came from the industrial and commercial family and the Wu family were deprived the right to enter the officialdom although they had disconnected from Shi household registration.The politics in Han Dynasty effected the trend and the scale of the mobility of the scholars,in turn,the mobility of the scholars influenced the development of the politics of Han Dynasty.Centralization of the power was the basic characteristics of of political system in ancient China since Qin and Han Dynasties established the first unified tyrannic and centralized country.As Qi Tao said in《中国传统政治检讨》,the emperor centralized the power of the central government,the central government centralized the administrative power of the local government and the governor of the local government centralized the power in the area under its administration were the basic route of Chinese traditional authoritarian politics.The local government had great capacity to absorb the scholars,and the governor of the local government had the right to absorb the scholars as officials,which partially decomposed the centralization.As soon as the scholars were absobed by the governor of the local government,they formed monarch-subject relationship with the governor,which further broke down the central management rights of the scholars.By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty,a large number of counties were divided and the central government had lost its control over the local areas,which had a great relationship with the mobility of the scholars.Flowing into the local government of the scholars formed the elitist local governance in Han Dynasty.Comparing with the inferior local governance after Sui and Tang Dynasties on account of the outflow of the scholars,the embedded mobility of the scholars played a positive impact to the formation of the local governance.In addition,the scholars formed vertical relationship which means "the pupil and before official"(门生故吏),horizontal relationship which mainly means the same year relation(同岁关系)and social relations such as countrymen and colleagues in the process of the social mobility.The scholars took care of each other in the officialdom by vertical relationship and horizontal relationship which acrossed administrative areas and blood relation,causing that Han Dynasty became a relational political complex.