<P> Gentries in Ming dynasty belong to the caste of commoners . There were two kinds of gentries . Those who passed the entry - level exam of the imperial exam were called Shengyuan (生 員). All Shengyuan receive a fixed amount of allowance from the imperial court . The average amount of allowance ranges from 18 tael to 12 tael . The rest of gentries mainly earned their living by teaching in private schools as mentors . </P> <P> Farmers during Ming dynasty had two groups . Self sustained farmer accounted for 10% of all farmers while employee farmers of wealthy land lords made up as much as 90% . Employed farmers had more burdens and gained less harvest than self sustained farmers . </P> <P> Craftsmen were severely exploited by the government . They had to provide free services upon the demand of the imperial court without any reward . The two groups of Craftsmen are: Official craftsmen who directly worked for the court and Common craftsmen who provide paid services for others . </P> <P> In Ming dynasty, Royal house was a large and special social stratum . The royal house of Ming include any descendants of Emperor Taizu of Ming and his nephew Prince Jingjiang Zhu Shouqian . Emperor Taizu had 26 sons and 19 of them had offsprings . With the line of Prince Jingjiang, the royal house consists of 20 different cadet branches . Members of the royal house were not allowed to have an ordinary life by laboring . All the expenditures of the royal house were paid by the money taken from the annual tax revenue collected from commoners . Additional perks such as legal privileges and luxury items were given as gifts by the imperial court . In the middle of 17th century, the population of the royal house was so large that their living expenditures had taken up to 225.79% of the annual tax revenue causing a virtual bankruptcy of the government . </P>

What were the most important tensions within the chinese cultural and social systems