Violence and the 1 Percent: The Fall of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy in Comparison to the Fall of the French Nobility. Issue 3 (4th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tackett, Nicolas
• Is Part Of: American historical review. Volume 124:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 933
• Page End: 937
• Publication Date: 2019-06-04
• Subjects: Tang Dynasty -- China -- France -- aristocracy -- elites; United States -- History -- Periodicals; History -- Periodicals; 973.005
• DOI: 10.1093/ahr/rhz317
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-8762

Abstract

Abstract: This article responds to Jonathan Dewald's "Rethinking the 1 Percent" by examining the case of the "medieval Chinese aristocracy" during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). It proposes that we conceptualize an elite not as a social class with a static relationship to state power and the economic means of production, but rather as a network of families better positioned than any other group in society to overcome new challenges brought about by changing circumstances. From this perspective, one better understands how an elite can survive the demise of institutions that once protected it, the emergence of rival elites tapping into new sources of wealth, and even a revolutionary social movement. The demise of the medieval Chinese aristocracy—as was true of many elites in world history—came as a consequence not of gradual change but rather of catastrophic violence spanning two decades at the turn of the tenth century.