A Study On The Social Vertical Mobility In Western Han Dynasty

When the Xizhou Empire was first founded, the ruler created a new ruling system based on the blood, which was usually called family politics. King Wen of Zhou,King Wu of Zhou,Duke of Zhou,King Cheng of Zhou, as well as others, extended the kinship organization mode to the nation, and established the patriarchal clan system and the system of enfeoffment. A multi-layered and strong hierarchy was formed. In this system, there are few social vertical mobility phenomenons. Since late Spring and Autumn Period, dramatic changes took place and the closed hierarchy was violently shaken. In this condition, one could change his position by his efforts. The number of the social vertical mobility phenomenon became more and more.But during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, the way of the social vertical mobility was non-institutionalized, many motilities just took place by chance. Qin Shi Huang unified China and then created a high concentration of centralization of political system, which was also adopted by the following dynasties. Qin dynasty was overthrown soon. The following Western Han Dynasty adopted Qin's system. It was the first dynasty in ancient China that lasted a long time and showed the law of development of the feudal dynasty. Therefore, studying on the social vertical mobility in Western Han Dynasty is useful to understand the social vertical mobility in the whole traditional Chinese society.There were many social vertical mobility phenomenons in the Western Han Dynasty. Some accidentally took place due to the special social background.For example, some commoners became high-ranking officials because of military exploit, and some became nobility by marriage with the royal family. Some slaves went upward and became civilians when the empire promulgated a release decree from time to time. Some of the royal aristocrats failed in political incidents and flew downward; some mobility are caused by the laws and policies, and gradually gained institutional guarantee. For example, farmers could move up to become small landowners, or down to farm workers,refugees or slaves. The social status of big businessmen was unsteady. The big and well-known family flew downward because of the empire's attack. Civilians could become scholars by learning knowledge. Scholars and civilians could become bureaucrats by the bureaucrat-electing system. While bureaucrats could also flow downward when he was unqualified,retired , and committed a crime.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of powerful families and Confucianism, although there were no restrictions in law, the level of the social mobility did lower. Compared to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty had a higher mobility rate. Following are some possible reasons. First of all, the old custom had been ruined, while the new hadn't been established. The Confucianism hadn't dominated the society; Secondly, the small peasant economy was the base of the Western Han Dynasty, so the government took a liberal and protective attitude towards the peasants; thirdly, the early ruling group of the Western Han Dynasty rose up from the civilian population, and didn't pay much attention to the rituals; thirdly, the ranking notion in Confucianism hadn't penetrated; lastly, the old and great family, which hampered the social vertical mobility, hadn't formed yet.The social vertical mobility of the in Western Han period, not only promoted the stability and development of the Western Han society, but also brought far-reaching influence on later dynasties. Emperor Wu of Han exerted harsh blow on the business class, so they all tried to turn to landlords or bureaucrats, resulting in the lack of an independent businessmen class in traditional Chinese society; the recommendatory system created an institutional channel of the ascending social mobility, and became the origin of the imperial examination system.Although the social vertical mobility was widespread in Western Han society, actually the level was not much high. Not only the quantity, but also the span was limited. Under this situation, why did the Western Han Dynasty maintain social stability? In the final chapter, I use the elite theory of Pareto to make a possible explanation.