Gentleman - Kyoshin

A name given to those with official status in their hometowns during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912) in China. Those aspiring to become bureaucrats, such as juren (referees), gongsheng (official officials), kansheng (official officials), and shengyin (official officials), were collectively called shijin (official officials). Gyoushin and shijin were also called shinshi (official officials) or shinshi (official officials). Many of the families of powerful landowners devoted themselves to producing people who passed the imperial examinations, producing shinshi (official officials who had the highest degree in the imperial examinations) and shijin, and also engaged in business while expanding their large landholdings. In this way, the families of landowners who produced goyoushin and shijin made up the ruling class at the time. Goyoushin were powerful people in the local areas, and played a role in maintaining social order, and also intensified social contradictions by wielding power as ``local lords and inferior gentry'' (local lords and inferior gentry). Even after the abolition of the imperial examination system in the late Qing Dynasty, the de facto gentry class was maintained and reproduced, and became a target for the revolutionary movement to overthrow.

[Yuji Okuzaki]

"A Study of Chinese Village Landlords" by Yuji Okuzaki (1978, Kumishoin)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の明(みん)・清(しん)時代（1368～1912）における官僚身分をもつ者の郷里での呼称。官僚を目ざす挙人(きょじん)、貢生、監生、生員などは総称して士人(しじん)という。郷紳、士人をあわせて紳衿(しんぎん)、紳士(しんし)ともいう。有力地主の家は科挙合格者を出すことに専念し、進士(しんし)（科挙の最高学位保持者で官僚身分をもつ）、士人を出し、商業活動も行いつつ大土地所有を拡大していくものが多かった。このように郷紳、士人を出す地主の家が当時の支配階級を構成していた。郷紳は地方の実力者であり、社会秩序保持の役割を担い、また「土豪劣紳(どごうれっしん)」として権力を振るって社会矛盾を激化させた。清末、科挙制度の廃止後も、実質的な郷紳階級は維持、再生産され、革命運動の打倒目標となった。

［奥崎裕司］

『奥崎裕司著『中国郷紳地主の研究』（1978・汲古書院）』

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