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Jobs: Jobs were given to educated people, as well as nobles. People were paid for their work.

Life in the Cities: Only about 10% of the population (1 out of 10 people) lived in the cities. Cities were neatly laid out with main streets and alleyways. Each city was surrounded by a strong wall, made of earth and stone. As cities are today, the ancient Han cities were centers of government, education, and trade. Most marketplaces, throughout the city, had free entertainment. Musicians played bells, drums, and string instruments, and jugglers and acrobats performed.

The Poor: The poor lived in houses packed together. They had very little food, and little to no sanitation. Many of the young males joined street gangs. Gangs wore distinctive clothes and armor, that identified their gang. Teen gangs roamed the cities, terrorizing people.

The Rich: The rich rushed to imitate the imperial palace. They built elaborate homes, decorated with drapery, and cashmere carpets. They furnished family tombs with stone lions. On the lions, and on other sculpture, they added inscriptions mentioning how much each item had cost!

The rich lived in comfortable, large houses with many rooms and fireplaces. Each home was built around a central courtyard. They had elaborately carved furniture that showed Greek and Roman influence, and painted stuccoed walls with floral designs. Other walls were left bare to display paintings or bronze mirrors. Dinner was elaborate. Kids were tutored in science, math, literature, art, religion, and music. Some studied in their homes, and some at the home of their tutor. The rich did not use the public schools. They wore belted robes with long sleeves lined with silk. When it was cold, they wore warm fur coats, made of squirrel and fox skins and leather slippers.

Merchants & Craftsmen: As in Shang times, merchants were hardly recognized as men. Once the canals were built, some merchants and craftsmen became rich. A really successful merchant might ride in a cart with a coachman, buy a title from an emperor, and built a mansion surrounded by pools and gardens. This absolutely infuriated officials and peasants. (The merchants didn’t till the soil. They weren’t nobles. There ought to be a law, to stop them from doing this, and for a while, there was a law, forbidding them from riding in carts and chariots.)

Life in the Country: Country folk were farmers. They lived in one or two story mud houses with tiled or thatched roofs. They had curtains on the windows. Barns and other buildings surrounded the house. Several families lived in one house to allow them to work their fields together. They still did not own their farms, but farms were larger in size, because families had learned to team up. This solved a major problem. Together, they were able to produce more food, some years, than they needed, which allowed them to trade food for other items. They still worked very hard. They went to bed at dark and got up at dawn. They dressed in simple clothes. Both men and women wore shirts and pants made of scratchy cloth, and sandals made of straw. They stuffed their clothes with paper and cloth, to stay warm in the winter. They steamed much of their food over boiling water on stoves. In the south, they ate rice, steamed dumplings, and fish, flavored with garlic and onions. In the north, they ate much the same, only they ate wheat instead of rice.