ANCIENT GREEK SOCIAL CLASSES
Ancient Greeks best social classes came from a city called Athens, Athens had an upper class below them was a middle class that was called the Metics the next was the freemen and slaves. This happened from around 600 B.C.E to 300 B.C.E, the athens people were sorted into groups. To be a member of the upper class in Athens you must be a citizen and you can not have a job. An upper class member has to be free of jobs such as trading and have a slave worry about his property and fortune. This class was very small. The middle class in Athens had a large number of non citizens. These mostly included merchants, contractors, manufacturers, managers, tradesman, craftsmen and artists. The lower class was partly made up of freemen who at one stage had also be slaves. Most of these people were not citizens so the best they could ever be was middle class. The slaves of Athens were prisoners of war or victims of slave raids, infants rescued from exposure or criminals. To be freed they must paid a ransom which is basically a bill to be freed, this would usually have be paid by a friend or relative because being a slave it is extremely hard to get paid since no one pays for your services. BELOW IS SOME PICTURES OF ANCIENT GREEK OR ATHENS SOCIAL CLASSES
ANCIENT CHINESE SOCIAL CLASSES
Ancient China had many social classes this ranged from Gentry scholars to Merchants and traders this timeline was from 1046 B.C.E to 156 B.C.E. The Shi or the Gentry scholars are the 'top rank' class they were very smart and respected for there knowledge it was originally the Shi but transformed into the Gentry scholars because of the studies that they performed to be so smart. The Nong or the Peasant farmers were like the 'second rank' class. The Farmers were landholders like the gentry scholars, not only did the farmers produce food to sustain the society but paid land tax.. The farmers were therefore valuable members of the society even though they weren't Shi or Gentry scholars. The Gong or artisans or even craftsmen are like the 'middle rank' or the 'third rank'. They are recognised for there skills to craft useful items. They were sometimes called 'labour' for all their hard work. They were sort of like farmers who produced useful items but most of them did not have land of there own. Therefore they are more respected then the Merchants but not the top class. The Shang or the Merchants and Traders were like the 'bottom rank' or the 'lower class'. There was not a lot of respect for them since they did not produce anything but they transported goods made by others. Some would be really desperate to move up a class and bought land but others bought and education no one wanted to be the Shang.
BELOW ARE SOME PICTURES SHOWING A PYRAMID OF ANCIENT CHINESE SOCIAL CLASSES.
BELOW ARE SOME PICTURES SHOWING A PYRAMID OF ANCIENT CHINESE SOCIAL CLASSES.
COMPARISON
Both the Greek and Chinese had very active running social classes these put people in the order of society from the most well-respected and rich, to the disrespected and poor. The top class for the greek was the upper class this class was mall and involved slaves doing work for them. The top class for China was the Shi they were the smartest the best class, this class could also be called the Gentry scholars. The middle Greek class was the Metics this was like most average people. The average class for China was the Nong or the peasant farmers. The lowest class for Greece was the freedmen or slaves.The lowest class for china was the Shang but in between the lowest class and middle class for China was the Gong which was the craftsmen. You can see the similarities and differences between these two civilisations based on their classes and how each class was the same if it was the same rank. Its shows how they operate from the graphs above showing the pyramids of classes.