One of the social systems the book shows detail on is the marriage system. In the book they show how much the fathers of girls affect the process of marriage. The fathers are who choose who their daughters may marry and they must approve of the boy asking for his permission.
There were several different types of jobs back in china. There were some jobs that were more prestigious than others and some that were less. An example of a prestigious job would be a scholar, whereas a non- prestigious job would be a farmer or maid. These jobs depended a lot on how wealthy their family was, because of education. Without a proper education, a person would not be able to get a prestigious job.
Food in china depended on how wealthy they were as well as other things such as where they lived. There were some places that were known to have better quality of food than others. Many of these foods were simple dishes, such as rice and not as exquisite as some are today, like some meats and seafoods.
The seas were not safe in the times of the book. There were pirates that would board the boats and take hostages for ransom. If someone were taken hostage and some one had suspicious items on some one then they would be interrogated to find out what they were hiding. There were certain techniques used for interrogation. One of which is called the Thousand Cuts. This is when a person had a pattern cut into their chest and as a person lied more the cuts would get deeper. It would be very hard to resist the pain and they would eventually give up and confess.
The government was run by an emperor and there were other important jobs around him. These jobs were some of the most important of the jobs that a person could possibly get. These important positions were appointed by the emperor and were not voted into like in today's society.
The army was run by generals and was not as organized as it is today. The army would march looking for fights. They would combat the pirate strongholds in the area and would look for people to join. There were also soldiers that were paid to fight and there were also plain soldiers that volunteered to fight.
Some hobbies of people in China were cricket fighting and kite fighting. Hong participated in cricket fights to earn money. There would be bets made on crickets when they fought. Only certain crickets were able to fight. These crickets were not the average ones that are seen in America. These ones can make noise but don't often, whereas the ones here in America are ones that sing allot. The kites would be made by the combatants and were flown in the sky trying to knock each others out and cut the string holding them up.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the Ming dynasty in China. I enjoyed the book very much and it is a very factual and interesting book. I found it to be more interesting than most informational books and was written very well.
I thought that the most meaningful part of the book was how it stressed that if a person
try to achieve their goals, then they can, as long as they put enough effort into it. This is shown by showing a small village boy, Chen, going to the country capitol to try to make a good life for himself and ending up in an extremely respectable position in the government, the HUI-YÚAN.
It is also shown by Hong going to help Chen achieve his goals and his own. It also shows how people can help with large things, like uprooting a government, by doing small things like delivering letters, which Hong did.
