Chapter 59 Fourth Class and Smelly Nine

In China's thousands of years of history, although there have been distinctions between Chinese and barbarians, the opposition between the gentry and the Han, and the distinction between the local and the poor, it is rare to set the two in sharp opposition and establish it as a national policy.In the Yuan Dynasty, people were divided into four classes, which can be regarded as a special case.In order to reduce the resistance of the people of all ethnic groups and maintain the privileges of the Mongolian nobles, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty adopted a policy of ethnic oppression at the beginning of the founding of the country.In war, they used the method of divide and conquer, using the conquered peoples against the unconquered peoples.The first conquerors are higher in status than the later ones.In this way, a national hierarchy is gradually formed.The law of the Yuan Dynasty divided people into four classes: first class Mongols, second class Semu people, third class Han Chinese, and fourth class Southerners.The four types of people can be divided into two categories.Mongols and Semu belong to the same category, and Han Chinese and Southerners belong to the same category.

The official positions of central and local officials are beyond the right of Han and Nan people. Even if the emperor wanted to give such official positions to Han and Nan people, the Mongolian nobles would not allow it.This decree was established to safeguard the special interests of the Mongolian nobles.The Mongols regarded themselves as conquerors and thought they were superior to others, so of course they refused to obey the conquered Han and Nan people.In government agencies, Mongols hold the principal posts, while Han and Nan people can only serve as deputy posts.For example, local officials used Mongols as daruhuachi, Han people as general managers, and Hui people as co-intellects, forming a rule.The co-presbyterians and the general manager restrain each other and must obey the command of Dalu Huachi.There is also a difference in the imperial examinations. Jinshi is divided into left and right lists, and Mongolians are ranked on the right. Therefore, Mongolians and Semu people on the right list are counted as candidates, while Han people and Southerners listed on the left list are one level lower. .Mongols who were born in the imperial examination were formally appointed as sixth-rank officials, while Semu, Han, and Nan people were descended one level.Therefore, Confucian scholars and literati in Yuan Dynasty complained the most.Chen Gaoyou wrote in a poem: "The guests come from the north, young and beautiful. Embroidered clothes and white jade belts, horses with golden saddles. Holding whips and bowing to the right, the spirit is light and hilly. Since Yunjin Zhangzhou, grandfathers are all Zhu; if you don't know words, two Ten is a high-ranking official. The people of the city consult together, and there are many people watching along the road. How can a poor alley, buried his head in the scriptures, go to shoot policy every year, and look at the old man like a Confucian crown." From this, we can see how unfair the intellectuals were at that time.

Intellectuals have no way to get promoted, they are full of talents but have no place to use them, and ordinary people can't even guarantee their lives.The legal status, political treatment and financial burden of the fourth class are all different.It is natural to kill and pay for life, but the Mongols killed the Han people without paying for their lives, they were only exiled to the frontier.If the Han people hurt the Mongols, they will be murdered.Genghis Khan once promulgated a decree that the Mongols who killed a Muslim were fined forty taels of gold, and those who killed a Han were only compensated with a property approximately equivalent to a donkey.When the Mongols beat the Han people, the Han people could only appeal to the judicial department and could not fight back.When the Mongols got drunk and beat the Han people to death, as long as they paid for the burial of the dead, it would be fine.Han and southerners were not allowed to hunt collectively, hold religious activities, or hide weapons such as knives, guns, and arrows.There are so many differences between people.

In addition to the fourth class, there is also the saying of the tenth class, that is, one official, two officials, three monks, four professions, five doctors, six workers, seven thieves, eight prostitutes, nine scholars and ten beggars.Intellectuals are ranked second to last, only a little better than beggars, even worse than robbers and prostitutes, and this is where the term "stinky old nine" comes from.In the eyes of the Mongolian nobles, Han and Nan people are just captives, regardless of whether they are educated or not, and keeping him alive as a coolie is considered preferential treatment, and there is no need to treat him as a human being at all.The Mongolian aristocrats were backward in culture, they only paid attention to monks, Taoists and medical workers, and they didn't know how to make use of the strengths of scholars. It would be very lenient if they didn't kill them.