Post 39 What price a profession?
During the thirteenth century, the Yuan dynasty under the rule of the Mongolians divided the occupation of the people into ten different rankings as follows:
1. Government officers
2. Officials (Government employees who could not be promoted to the rank of officers)
3. Monks (Buddhist monks)
4. Dao (Taoist)
5. Medical doctors
6. Senior Technicians
7. Craftsmen
8. Prostitutes
9. Scholars (Intellectuals)
10. Beggars
It was an irony that the intelligentsia who were well-educated, cultured, and highly respected by the traditional Chinese society would be graded to be inferior to prostitutes and only slightly better than beggars during the Mongolian rule.
As scholars are ranked at the ninth placing out of ten, people will call scholars whom they do not like the ‘stinking number 9’.
30 March 2010
1. Government officers
2. Officials (Government employees who could not be promoted to the rank of officers)
3. Monks (Buddhist monks)
4. Dao (Taoist)
5. Medical doctors
6. Senior Technicians
7. Craftsmen
8. Prostitutes
9. Scholars (Intellectuals)
10. Beggars
It was an irony that the intelligentsia who were well-educated, cultured, and highly respected by the traditional Chinese society would be graded to be inferior to prostitutes and only slightly better than beggars during the Mongolian rule.
As scholars are ranked at the ninth placing out of ten, people will call scholars whom they do not like the ‘stinking number 9’.
30 March 2010
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