"Ways of the World" by Robert W. Strayer Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 & Chapter 6

     Another day learning some new history facts from “Ways of the World” by Robert W. Strayer that I did not really know much about before. I am going to skip over Chapter 3, Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 and go into Chapter 5 “Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa” by Strayer. I was particularly drawn to the the way that society was divided in China in the ancient world and what mainly led to this was through the society of the people/state. According to Strayer, “its rulers required each province to send men of promise to the capital, where they were examined and chosen for official positions on the basis of their performance (pg.193).” However, this then lead to a new system in which people were ranked one above the other according to their status, authority. This system was broken into three social classes; the Landlord class, Peasants, and Merchants. When I think of Landlord class I think of someone who has property and or manages such property. In China this meant families of wealth and fortune that had a lot of properties and land mainly. It was interesting how they avoided taxes; wish I could do that without getting into trouble however this burden the lower class people, they considered “Peasants”. Peasants were the most popular amongst the people of China. Peasants were homeowners of small houses and land however some had enough land to support their families. They were able to live off their lands and also profit from their lands. Peasant had to work double hard and pay taxes because of the Landlords and how they held a much higher class and made it hard on the Peasants. Merchants were the lowest which I really never knew existed I always just thought was Peasants or Slaves. Merchants were somewhat frowned upon as they were considered lazy and would duplicate others work and or sell others stuff to profit. Despite all the negative views on the Merchants some became wealthy and prosperous. I hope to continue to learn knew facts from History I never understood before or really cared to know about. I now have a different view on History and all of its interesting views and facts that come about.