<P> The Nakharar system used by the Armenian nobility throughout Medieval Armenia has often been described as feudal, with hereditary houses of nobles owning large estates, each headed by its own tanuter, and with the estates themselves divided amongst the family . For Armenia as a whole, a Sparapet (supreme commander), King, and chief Aspet were each taken from individual noble houses . However, Armenian feudalism differs from the feudalism of most of Europe as the estates were owned by families, not lords, and could not be split or given without the family's permission . Also, if a tanuter died heirless, he was succeeded by a different branch of the family, rather than by a noble who was sworn to him . Cilician Armenia, through contact with crusader states, had a system even closer to western feudalism . The economic and political systems of medieval Europe in which people exchanged loyalty and labor for a lord's protection </P> <P> The Taluqdari or Zamindari system is often referred to as a feudal or feudal - like system . Originally the system was introduced in the pre-colonial period to collect taxes from peasants, and it continued during colonial British rule . After independence Zamindari was abolished in India and East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), but it is still present today in the state of Pakistan . In modern times historians have become very reluctant to classify other societies into European models and today it is rare for Zamindari to be described as feudal by academics; it still done in popular usage, however, but only for pejorative reasons to express disfavour, typically by critics of the system . </P> <P> The People's Republic of China is officially a Marxist--Leninist society and state, based on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics under a people's democratic dictatorship, and attempts have been made by Marxist academics to record China's history in the PRC . Feudalism is the model that modern Chinese Marxists and Tokyo school historians use to identify China's recent past, neologized from the Chinese concept of fengjian (which means to allocate a region or piece of land to an individual, establishing him as the ruler of that region), a term used to designate the multi-state which existed in China under the Zhou dynasty, and was eradicated by the Qin, by which time the state of Qin had conquered all other states and established the first China - wide empire . After King Wu of Zhou defeated the Shang dynasty, he created five hereditary ranks; 公 gōng, 侯 hóu, 伯 bó, 子 zǐ and 男 nán, commonly translated as Duke, Marquis, Earl (or Count), Viscount and Baron . However, unlike their Western European equivalents, the titles often indicated more in the way of perceived nobility rather than amount of land possessed . For example, the Lords of the eventually huge states of Qin and Chu were known as "Earls" and "Viscounts", while the Lord of Song was given the title of "Duke" on the merits of his descent from the previous Shang royal lineage, rather than his level of power . Ancient Chinese texts can sometimes cause confusion as it was also considered to be polite to address rulers as gōng regardless of their actual rank . As the Zhou dynasty's control weakened, the regional magnates caused further title inflation by referring to themselves as Kings; the inflation was such that under the Han dynasty, many local lords were established with the title of "king"; in imperial China, the character is thus more normally rendered as "prince". </P> <P> The Zhou Dynasty can be seen as a true feudal system as it is in many respects very similar to the system used in Medieval Europe . Each lord was given land, and his power was legitimised by nominal allegiance to the central Zhou king; politics thus revolved around these noble households . In fact, the notion of "prime minister" 太宰 in ancient Chinese came from the feudal time meaning the "chief housekeeper" or "butler" of the noble household, in a similar way to the development of such European titles as "constable". Each feudal state was governed independently with taxes, currency and laws set by each individual household, but the nobles were required to pay regular homage to the Zhou Kings as an act of fealty . At the time of war the nobles were required to provide armed service to the King . Approaching the end of the Zhou dynasty, the power of the King dwindled while the power of the nobles had risen . This resulted in what is known as the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods when the nobles fought each other constantly for supremacy . This resulted in the collapse of the noble ranking system, with the feudally organised society of the Springs and Autumns largely replaced by more bureaucratised states with standing armies, who no longer paid any attention to the Zhou . </P>

How did the practice of feudalism vary across europe