Accounting for Status: Excavated Texts and Social Identity in Early Imperial China

This dissertation delves into the formation of legal identities among commoners in China’s earliest empires, focusing on the transitional period from the fourth century BCE to the first century CE. It seeks to contextualize the interest of early Chinese philosophers in self and identity within broader social engineering projects initiated by the early states. It examines how the ancient Chinese states constructed and tracked identity through administrative devices, creating a rudimentary version of a “status credit system.” Analyzing recently unearthed documents including birth registries, passports, “wanted” posters, and funerary relocation documents, my work particularly highlights the experiences of underprivileged groups, which recent archaeological discoveries have depicted in unprecedented detail. Examining a diverse array of such groups, including petty officials, slaves, and convict laborers, I seek to complicate the relatively static models of social stratification of this period, paying special attention to how legal punishments and various administrative devices shaped identity, status, and relationship to the state. My dissertation proposes a framework that views status as a form of currency, emphasizing the fluidity of social mobility and the fungibility of merits and debts within the social order.This dissertation is structured in four chapters, each focusing on a certain group or an aspect of identity and status in early imperial China. Chapter 1 traces the formation of legal and administrative identity from the late Warring States period to the Han Dynasty, examining the bureaucratic drive to identify and categorize the population. This process, detailed in various registers and local census documents, involved gathering comprehensive information, and materially transformed individuals, integrating them into the state’s legal and administrative framework. Chapter 2 contextualizes commentaries on the term “jiaren” (lit. “family member”) to consider family relationships in early imperial China and to reflect on the status of domestic servants in Chinese history. Chapter 3 traces the pre-history of hereditary occupations, emphasizing the role of occupations in the shaping of identity and social status. Chapter 4 explores how ranks of honor served as status credits, influencing social hierarchy and defining one’s merit and debt to the state. These chapters provide an in-depth analysis of the various mechanisms and factors influencing social mobility and status change, from legal punishments, occupational roles, and the ranks of honor system.