Back in the Chunqiu Period of China, roughly 2,502 years ago, Guan Zhong, a prominent statesman and thinker, put forward the idea that four occupational groups formed the foundation of a state: shi (scholars), shang (merchants), gong (craftsmen), and nong (farmers)Farmers who produced grain through cultivation were central to the state’s food security, so they were placed second in this order. In that era, the state prioritized agricultural self-sufficiency; trading grain to other vassal states was seen as detrimental to domestic stability, hence merchants were listed last. This established the sequence of shi, nong, gong, shang.This framework laid the foundation for ancient China’s household registration system.Centuries later, a reformer named Shang Yang standardized a nationwide household registration system and introduced an early form of official identity document. To change your registered occupation, you had to file an official application with local authorities. For example, anyone wishing to engage in commerce could obtain legal merchant status through registration, which granted the right to trade goods in bulk and came with corresponding commercial tax obligations — your household registration category would then be officially recorded as shang (merchant).Of course, these four occupations did not cover all social groups in ancient China. Soldiers, fishermen, Taoist priests, Buddhist monks, foreign missionaries, opera performers, and enslaved people each had separate household registration categories.If you accidentally traveled back to ancient China, life would be very difficult without an official identity document.For most of ancient times, people had to show their identity papers to enter or leave city gates — a rule designed to keep bandits and outlaws without valid registration out of the cities.There is a loophole, though. If you ended up on China’s northern border, you could find a village and claim you were a nomad who wanted to settle down and take up farming instead of herding. This identity could work even if you didn’t speak Chinese, as border authorities often resettled incoming nomadic populations as farming households.You would then receive an official identity document, marked with your physical description, name, age, household registration category: nong (farmer), and the place of registration. With that, you’d be a legal resident and could move freely in and out of cities. If you were lucky, someone might even arrange farm work for you.That said, local landlords might take advantage of your illiteracy to trick you into signing a debt indenture contract, which would reclassify your household status to enslaved.If the household registration system sounds like too much hassle and you want to opt out entirely, there’s one simple solution: become the Emperor of China.Since there is only one emperor, they are not included in the household registration system at all.There is just one small catch with this plan:“The sitting Emperor probably won’t agree.”
