Chinese nobility

Traditional social structure of Ancient China and Imperial China

The nobility of China represented the upper strata of aristocracy in premodern China, acting as the ruling class until the late seventh to ninth centuries during the Tang dynasty, and remaining a significant feature of the traditional social structure until the end of the imperial period. The concepts of hereditary sovereignty, peerage titles, and noble families existed as early as the semi-mythical and early historical periods, but the systems of enfeoffment and establishment only developed in the Zhou dynasty, by the end of which a clear delineation of ranks had emerged. This process was a function of the interface between the ancient patriarchal clan system, an increasingly sophisticated apparatus of state, and an evolving geopolitical situation.

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