<P> Despite this disdain for the merchants, by the mid Ming dynasty (1368--1644), many families who produced scholar - officials had members who were merchants or had a merchant as a descendant of some kind . Even more significant was the fact that scholar - officials who had familial ties with merchants from the past or in the present became unabashed about these ties and made it publicly known in the writing of their official family histories . During the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, scholar - officials could derive enough of their own revenues to fund vital public works . </P> <P> By the late Ming Dynasty, they often needed to solicit funds from powerful merchants to build new roads, schools, bridges, pagodas, or engage in essential industries, such as book - making, which aided the gentry class in education for the imperial examinations . Merchants began to imitate the highly cultivated nature and manners of scholar - officials in order to appear more cultured and gain higher prestige and acceptance by the scholarly elite . They even purchased printed books that served as guides to proper conduct and behavior and which promoted merchant morality and business ethics . </P> <P> There were many social groups that were excluded from the four broad categories in the social hierarchy . These included soldiers and guards, religious clergy and diviners, eunuchs and concubines, entertainers and courtiers, domestic servants and slaves, prostitutes, and low class laborers other than farmers and artisans . The emperor--embodying a heavenly mandate to judicial and executive authority--was on a social and legal tier above the gentry and the exam - drafted scholar - officials . Although his royal family and noble extended family were also highly respected, they did not command the same level of authority . </P> <P> There were motives behind the aristocratic officials and later scholar - officials' classifying of certain groups in the hierarchy and leaving others out . The scholar - officials placed farmers as the second most prestigious group because the aristocratic officials and scholar - officials were landholders themselves, much like farmers (the ones who weren't tenant farmers or serfs). Both farmers and artisans were placed on a higher tier than merchants because the two former groups produced crops and manufactured goods, essential things needed by the whole of society . The merchants were seen as merely talented at business and trading, and were often seen as greedy and even parasitic to the needs of all other groups . </P>

Where does the emperor rank in ancient china's social hierarchy