Chinese Nobility
The Chinese had not had a defined aristocracy since the Han Dynasty. Indeed, during the Ching and Manchu Dynasties the Emperor had thousands of wives and concubines, to prevent any family from presuming to claim consort priveleges. During the T’ang and Sung dynasties, Chinese society was much more hierarchically structured than it was during the Ch’ing. T’ang society is noted for its hereditary aristocratic families, which supplied the court with officials and enforced sumptuary laws for other groups in the society. The social distance between the peasantry and the elite at this time was so great that it is justifiable to refer to a “serf-like” peasantry.
The Chinese had what may be termed dukes, marquises, earls, barons, and baronets. These ranks are respectively named:-Koong (duke), How (marquis), Paak (earl), Tze (baron), and Nan (baronet). Five in number, they represent, according to Morrison's Dictionary, the five elements in nature, namely, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. Nobles of these various grades rank above all other subjects of His Imperial Majesty. None of these titles carried with them any special privileges.
There were nine ranks into which the national Chinese - as distinguished from the imperial Manchu - nobility was divided. The nine degrees of nobility were either transmissible to a certain number of ancestors or descendants (she-si), or hereditary forever (she-si-wang): Kung (duke), Hou (marquis), Pe (earl - together designated as Ch'ao P'in), Tze (viscount), Nan (baron), K'ing-eh'e Tu-yu, K'i-tuyu, Yun-k'i-yu, Ngen-k'i-yu. The translations sometimes given the first five titles are indicated in parentheses.
The five degrees of feudal rank (wu kio) were alleged to have been instituted by the mythical emperors Yao and Shun. Wu Wang, after defeating Chou Hsin, founded a new Dynasty, called the Chou, from the name of the principality over which he had formerly ruled in the modern Province of Shensi. The Emperor rewarded those who had helped him in the struggie with Chou Hsin by grants of territory and titles of honor such as Duke, Marquis, Earl, Count, and Baron. Thus the Empire consisted of a collection of small states, each of which was governed by its own petty ruler, who paid an uncertain fealty to the Central Government. In course of time some of these vassal kingdoms became so powerful that the rulers assumed the title of Kings. The whole period of the Chou Dynasty is taken up with the conflicts between these petty Kingdoms.
Pih-kung E asked Mencius [BOOK V. WAN CHANG. PART II. Chapter II.], saying, "What was the arrangement of dignities and emoluments determined by the house of Chow? Mencius replied, "The particulars of that arrangement cannot be learned, for the princes, disliking them as injurious to themselves, have all made away with the records of thein. Still I have learned the general outline of them. The Emperor constituted one dignity; the Kung one; the How one ; the Pih one; and the Tsze and the Nan each one of equal rank: - altogether making five degrees of dignity. The Sovereign again constituted one dignity ; the Chief Minister one; the Great Officers one; the Scholars Of The First Class one; Those Of The Middle Class one; and Those Of The Lowest Class one: - altogether making six degrees of dignity. ... To the emperor there was allotted a territory of a thousand le square. A Kung and a How had each a hundred le square. A Pih had seventy le, and a Tsze and a Nan had each fifty le."
The five dignities have been rendered 'duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron,' and also 'duke, prince, count, marquis, and baron.' The second arrangement of noble titles may be characterized as somewhat odd, for the reason that a Prince is placed after a Duke, and a Marquis after a Count; and moreover, one of the titles given is not English at all, but French. This is homogeneous versus heterogeneous order, and out of these two most would cling to the former. It is quite possible that Kung and the other four words do not correspond exactly to Duke, Marquis, etc.; but they are more consistent with good sense and orthodoxy - if liberty may be taken with that word - than Duke, Prince, Count, Marquis, and Baron.
But they by no means severally correspond to those dignities. Some said it was better to retain the Chinese designations, which no doubt were originally meant to indicate certain qualities of those bearing them: 'just, correct, without selfishness'; 'taking care of' [in the sense of 'guarding the borders and important places against banditti]; 'possessed of the power to govern'; 'elder and intelligent' [that is 'one capable of presiding over others']; 'to nourish' ['one who genially cherishes the people'].
Chinese names were a weariness to Western ears; but it really was very difficult to avoid them altogether when treating of Chinese peers. The first five ranks may be rendered, and commonly were rendered, by duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron. The sixth rank, which literally translated is that of "light-charioted city-warden," might by parity of reasoning be turned by baronet; but as no successor of the most high but rather hard-up prince, King James, had followed his example and created hereditary knights, squires, or squireens, it was not easy to find fitting equivalents for the last three grades. These, the "mounted city-warden," the "cloud mounted-warden," and the "mounted-warden by grace," are perhaps best expressed, on paper, by their quaint if unpronounceable originals, ch'i lu-yu, yun ch'i-yu, and en ch'i-yu.
When the sovereign received the feudal lords in audience, he availed himself of a jade tablet called "cap". It is described by the commentaries as a sort of cube of jade, each side being four inches in length, an arch-shaped section being cut out on the lower face, in order to indicate "that the emperor's virtue can cover and protect the empire." The feudal lords were supposed to hold their jade insignia of rank in their hands, while the sovereign placed the mao over them ("capped" them) to ascertain whether they were genuine. It is mentioned as early as in the Shu king.
The feudal prince of the first rank (kung) was invested with the jade tablet called huan kuei "pillar tablet" of a prescribed length of nine inches. The traditional representations figure it either as a pointed kuei with two vertical lines inside running parallel with the lateral sides, or with a top consisting of a horizontal line with two adjoining slanting lines. The commentary adds that the feudal lords of the first rank are the great councillors of the emperor and the descendants of the two first sovereigns; the two "pillars" are emblematic of the palace and support it, as the princes support the emperor.
The feudal prince of the second rank (hou) is distinguished by the jade tablet sin kuei, seven inches long. Figure 16 shows the traditional representation of it, with flat top, while again a pointed roof-shaped top appears. But it is noteworthy that in both cases the tablet is unornamented, so that also the K'ien-lung editors had lost confidence in the artificial picture given in the San li t'u and identical with that of Couvreur to be mentioned presently.
The feudal prince of the third rank (po) was honored with a jade tablet seven inches long, called kung kuei "curved tablet."1 The word kung seems to imply also the idea of submission or subordinance. While the tablets of the three first feudal ranks belong to the class of kuei, i.e. oblong, flat, angular jade plaques, those assigned to the fourth and fifth ranks are jade disks or perforated circular plaques (pi), the one intended for the lord of the fourth rank (tse) decorated with a pattern of grain ku (Fig. 18), and the other for the lord of the fifth rank (nan) ornamented with the emblem of rushes p'u.
The main differences of the tablets of rank consisted not only in their length and in their shape, but also in the quality of the material. The Son of Heaven alone was entitled to the privilege of using pure white jade of uniform color, while the princes from the first to the third rank were restricted to the use of jades of mixed colors
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