How about something completely unrelated to my usual topics? Here, have a famous quote from The Simpsons:
My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star!
I just want to reassure everyone that the following idle speculations, which some may consider to touch dangerously close to “historical materialism,” do not mean that I am a communist. People can play with ideas like dialectical materialism without necessarily believing in the stuff.
Anyways, back to the “usual” Three Kingdoms stuff.
I am not a communist.1
Estimating Class Ratios in Later Hàn
What perhaps isn’t fully appreciated in popular imagination is just how small the Imperial government was in terms of number of people. During the final decades of Hàn, the registered population was on the order of fifty million people, governed by an Imperial central bureaucracy on the order of a hundred thousand officials.2 On the level of local government, the Imperial bureaucracy averaged one appointed magistrate per forty thousand people.3 From this alone, anyone able to obtain a position in the central bureaucracy would be on the order of the top ~0.2% of the population. The local elite that served as staff members for the appointed magistrates would increase this figure, so if we make a completely wild guess of say, two thousand people working in local government under one magistrate, that would put these local elites in the top ~4% of the population.
I promise that I did not in any way fudge these “napkin calculations” to get numbers that line up reasonably well with the ~0.1% and ~5% seen in modern day estimates for the two highest level classes of modern societies.4
So the big takeaway here is that the vast majority of the people recorded in the historiography tend to be upper class figures, with only a few exceptions.
Selected Warlord Class Backgrounds
Dǒng Zhuó
The civil war started with the rejection of Dǒng Zhuó’s claim to authority, but though Dǒng Zhuó afterward gained a reputation for his vicious cruelty that led popular imagination to view him as something of a barbarian, his family background actually was quite privileged. His father had held a local government position in the prosperous and central locale of Yǐngchuān,5 while Zhuó himself was recruited to his local government,6 and then to the Imperial bureaucracy as part of a recruitment drive specifically targeting the most elite families of the northwest.7 He was not a barbarian, but at least on the level of his local elite. Of course, for the true elite of the elite, perhaps the local elite from a relatively backwater province did not look that much better than the outright barbarians.
The Yuán clan: Elite of the Elite
In the final decades of Hàn, the most powerful clans included the Yuán of Rǔnán and the Yáng of Hóngnóng. Both clans had been occupying the absolute highest levels of the central government for four generations,8 the top 0.003% of the top 0.2%.9 At the outbreak of civil war, two heirs of the Yuán clan, Yuán Shào and Yuán Shù, served as natural leaders to rally around for those opposed to Dǒng Zhuó.10 Through the early stages of the civil war, Yuán Shào and Yuán Shù were the most powerful of the warlords, and many other figures of the period were considered their junior allies or even subordinates at the beginning.
Liú Cadets: Privileges of Imperial Relation
Though close relatives of the Imperial family were generally forbidden from holding office in the Imperial bureaucracy for fear of the possibility of usurpation, some more distant relatives, too distant to be viable usurpers under normal circumstances,11 could leverage their relation and raise their more immediate family to high positions. Liú Yú was a fifth-generation descendant of an Emperor and his grandfather and father had both held positions in the central bureaucracy before him, Liú Yān was recruited to the Imperial bureaucracy based on his distant relation to the Imperial clan, and Liú Biǎo was already a locally famous elite prior to his recruitment to the Imperial bureaucracy.12
And speaking of Liú cadets…
Liú Bèi was not a peasant
Or at least, not in the same way that most popular imagination imagines a “peasant,” and no, I’m not talking about his distant male-line descent from the Imperial clan of Hàn. Liú Bèi’s more immediate family was not a peasant family.
The popular mythic view of Liú Bèi is as a “man of the people,” born to a humble background but rose up through hard work and grit while never forgetting his roots. Though there is evidence that Liú Bèi was indeed a “man of the people” in the sense that he cared very strongly for the common people, the historiography nevertheless provides evidence that Liú Bèi was, relatively speaking, very privileged for his time.
The lines in the historiography that attracts the most attention in emphasizing a supposed humble background is the mention that his father died when he was young, and so he and his mother supported themselves by weaving mats and shoes.13 On its own, this might sound humble enough, but there happen to be a few key lines both before and after that.
First, we are told that Liú Bèi’s father and grandfather both served in the local government, his grandfather even being recruited into the central Imperial bureaucracy.14 That alone shows that the local Liú family of Zhuó was relatively well off compared to about 95% of the people of the time. If you’re serving the Imperial bureaucracy, you’re not farming in the fields.
Second, we get a few glimpses into the life of Liú Bèi’s more extended family in Zhuó. He is described as playing together with his cousins of his clan near a large tree in the corner of the clan estate, suggesting the extended Liú family of Zhuó was quite well off. As further evidence of this, we are told that a clan member of the same generation as Liú Bèi’s father was so impressed by the young Liú Bèi that he paid to support Bèi on the same level as for his own son, sending both boys to study. We are also told that Liú Bèi at fifteen was receiving study from the famed Lú Zhí and becoming friendly with future warlord Gōngsūn Zàn, and that Liú Bèi as an adult impressed a group of wealthy merchants and convinced them to invest in him.15 Such opportunities would not have been available to “commoners.”
This is not intended to be a criticism of Liú Bèi; if this were some sort of “least privileged” competition, he would actually score quite well among the various warlords. Two generations of service in local government is certainly much more humble than, say, four generations of occupying the highest levels of the central government. But it should still not be confused with “peasantry.” Peasants are not descended from two generations of government officials and then get to rub shoulders with some of the most famous people in the Empire.
For a modern analogy, you would not call a man whose father and grandfather were city mayors and who had a rich uncle send him to Harvard where he rubbed shoulders with future senators and governors as a “working class man” just because he worked as a teenager after his father died. He may sympathize with the working class and understand their plight from his own personal experiences, but he is still not working class.
Gōngsūn and Táo
Liú Bèi’s friend Gōngsūn Zàn is said to have been from a family serving in the Imperial bureaucracy for generations, before Zàn himself was recruited to his local government16 and eventually rose to the level of a major warlord. The father of Liú Bèi’s later patron Táo Qiān also held position as a local magistrate in the Imperial bureaucracy prior to Táo Qiān himself coming to local prominence and recruitment.17
Lǚ Bù: Actually (Relatively) Unprivileged?
There is no extant record of Lǚ Bù’s immediate ancestors. He is recorded as coming to local prominence himself through his martial abilities,18 which attracted the attention of the locally appointed provincial inspector Dīng Yuán, who himself is explicitly recorded as coming from a poor family before attracting local and later central bureaucratic attention for martial talents.19 Lǚ Bù’s career was then catapulted ahead when he betrayed Dīng Yuán to join Dǒng Zhuó, and even more when he later betrayed the unpopular Dǒng Zhuó. Of course, lack of evidence is not necessarily evidence of lacking, but given the total combination of various anecdotes involving uncouth behavior,20 it seems somewhat safe to consider the possibility that, if we were indeed making some sort of “least privileged” competition, Lǚ Bù would probably score very well, better than Liú Bèi. He might even win outright among the warlords selected out in this post.
The Sūn family as Local Elite
The official historiography sponsored by the Wú state records that Sūn Jiān’s family served in the local government for generations and were well-established enough to have a clan burial ground.21 Less reliable accounts that may only be unreliable folklore reports that Sūn Jiān was either a son or grandson of a Sūn Zhōng, who made a living as a melon farmer.22 Though the family was certainly not of national prominence, the Sūn clan probably did hold some local status given the established burial ground, and this status was enough for Sūn Jiān to obtain a minor local office at a young age.23
Based on an anecdote where Sūn Jiān and his father came across some pirates while making a boat journey to Qiántáng, some have speculated that Sūn Jiān’s father may have been a merchant.24 Though there is a popular belief that merchants were considered low status by “Confucian” society, this claim must be qualified as being an ideal pushed by some (not all) philosophers and government officials rather than a necessary reality, and that low social status does not necessarily mean a lack of wealth. In modern times for instance, there exist many lower status “blue-collar” jobs that actually pay more than higher status “white-collar” jobs.
The Cáo family’s Non-standard Fast-tracked Social Climbing
The Cáo of Pèi came to prominence in the time of Cáo Cāo’s grandfather Téng. Téng's father did not serve in any government office and was probably a farmer of some sort, though perhaps a relatively well-off farmer.25 Téng was castrated and became a eunuch in the service of the Imperial palace,26 which would perhaps suggest poverty in popular imagination, but is perhaps worth noting that eunuchs had special access to networking opportunities at the Imperial palace which could serve as a fast-track for advancement. As Téng is recorded as the youngest of the four sons, it may even have been a calculated political move by a clan with money but not status. If so, it worked, for the young Téng managed to become a personal friend of Emperor Shùn, and over a career of thirty years serving four Emperors, he rose to the highest levels available to eunuchs. This led to opportunities for other members of the Cáo clan, who were recruited to various Imperial bureaucracy positions,27 and Téng’s adopted son Sōng was even able to reach the highest levels of the Imperial government, though he held that position for less than a year.28
Cáo Cāo then was very much among the more privileged of his time, albeit his privilege was obtained through rather unorthodox means, which made him more vulnerable than the “properly” established upper class figures. During the civil war, the eunuch connection was indeed a weak point attacked by his political enemies to denounce his social status as illegitimate.29
Patterns
You may notice that there seems to be something of a trend connected to the class backgrounds of the major warlords. Though the highest class warlords like Yuán Shào, Yuán Shù, and Liú Biǎo were indeed very successful, especially at the beginning of the conflict, none of them actually ended up being the last three (four) warlords left standing to claim succession to Hàn. On the other end, the lower class warlords like Lǚ Bù (and others that I didn’t get to, like Zhāng Yān), tended to be destroyed or else absorbed by more powerful counterparts. The Cáo, Liú, and Sūn clans left standing at the end tended to be of a middling tier between the two ends, local elites on the verge of breaking into or just recently broken into the “club” of the central elite, but not quite there.
We can try to generalize this pattern later.
My communist friends can testify to this.
See the Hòu Hàn shū (HHS) treatises on geographic administration and bureaucracy with attached commentary. Note that the recorded figures are of the registered population maintained for tax and conscription purposes. The actual population may have been higher due to tax dodgers, deserters, and others seeking to remain outside Imperial control.
Rafe de Crespigny, “Local Worthies.”
For example, those of Leonard Beeghley The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States, but there are many such sources that have estimates around these numbers.
HHS 72: 卓別傳曰:「卓父君雅為潁川輪氏尉,生卓及弟旻,故卓字仲穎,旻字叔穎。」 SGZ 6: 英雄記曰:卓父君雅,由微官為潁川綸氏尉。
SGZ 6: 吳書曰:郡召卓為吏,使監領盜賊。胡嘗出鈔,多虜民人,涼州刺史成就辟卓為從事,使領兵騎討捕,大破之,斬獲千計。并州刺史段熲薦卓公府,司徒袁隗辟為掾。
SGZ 6 and HHS 72: 漢桓帝末,以六郡良家子為羽林郎。
See HHS 45 for the Yuán, HHS 54 for the Yáng.
From a rough napkin scribble estimation of Three Excellencies against a total bureaucracy size of about a hundred thousand. Though since the bureaucracy probably tended to be larger than a hundred thousand, it would probably be even less than 0.003%.
For Yuán Shào see HHS 74 and SGZ 6, for Yuán Shù see HHS 75 and SGZ 6.
Though of course, in more chaotic times, such distant relatives could still use their family relation in Imperial claims. See the Emperor Guāng-Wǔ, Liú Xiù, in HHS 1, and the rival claims of his distant cousins Liú Xuán and Liú Pénzǐ in HHS 11, or Liú Bèi in SGZ 32.
For Liú Yú see HHS 73 and SGZ 8, Liú Yān see HHS 76 and SGZ 31, Liú Biǎo see HHS 74 and SGZ 6.
SGZ 32: 先主少孤,與母販履織席為業。
SGZ 32: 先主祖雄,父弘,世仕州郡。雄舉孝廉,官至東郡范令。
SGZ 32: 年十五,母使行學,與同宗劉德然、遼西公孫瓚俱事故九江太守同郡盧植。德然父元起常資給先主,與德然等。元起妻曰:「各自一家,何能常爾邪!」起曰:「吾宗中有此兒,非常人也。」而瓚深與先主相友。瓚年長,先主以兄事之。先主不甚樂讀書,喜狗馬、音樂、美衣服。身長七尺五寸,垂手下膝,顧自見其耳。少語言,善下人,喜怒不形於色。好交結豪俠,年少爭附之。中山大商張世平、蘇雙等貲累千金,販馬周旋於涿郡,見而異之,乃多與之金財。先主由是得用合徒眾。
HHS 73: 公孫瓚字伯珪,遼西令支人也。家世二千石。 For Gōngsūn Zàn see HHS 73 and SGZ 8.
SGZ 8: 吳書曰:謙父,故餘姚長。 For Táo Qiān see HHS 73 and SGZ 8.
For Lǚ Bù see SGZ 7 and HHS 75
SGZ 7: 英雄記曰:原子建陽。本出自寒家,為人麤略,有武勇,善騎射。
Several examples can be found in SGZ 7 and HHS 75.
SGZ 46: 吳書曰:堅世仕吳,家於富春,葬於城東。
See Sòng shū 27, Yǔlín, and Yōumíng lù for the various versions of the anecdotes.
SGZ 46: 少為縣吏。
Rafe de Crespigny, Generals of the South.
See SGZ 1 and its annotations for the family background of the Cáo. An anecdote of Cáo Téng’s father Jié tells of a time when a neighbor lost a pig, thought he saw it among the Jié’s pigs and asked for it, and Jié gave it without complaint. When the original pig returned on its own, the neighbor returned the pig and apologized, and Jié only laughed and accepted it. Based on this anecdote, one might speculate that Jié was well-off enough to not have to worry about disputing a pig.
Information on Téng and his adopted son Cáo Sōng are also available in the biographies of eunuchs in HHS 78.
See the biographies of the Cáo and Xiàhóu in SGZ 9.
See HHS 8.
See for example Yuán Shào’s denunciation of Cáo Cāo, preserved in HHS 74 and annotations to SGZ 6. Included are denunciations of Cáo Téng as a eunuch, and claims that Sōng was an opportunistic beggar that had pleaded to be adopted to take advantage of the Cáo clan’s rising status from Téng’s eunuch status.
This is a fascinating dive into the class backgrounds of these folks. As far as I can tell, the Chinese historical method regarding this time analyzes mostly prominent generals and politicians of the age. This gives us plenty of material to analyze the incredibly colorful characters of the age; however, I have a great interest in social/cultural/economic history that I have a difficult time digging up for the 3K. Thanks for the post!