Chinese women are more ambitious than Americans

[Nomenclature]

Please explain more and also what is the difference between those aristocrats and nobles from other dynasties.

Do you mean the class of 士 ?

Also I feel Ming dynasty is the most closest to a 'people's dynasty'

Yeah I mean 士族. The later dynasties still have nobles in the sense of imperial families but there're just too few of them and their power was greatly restrained.

I'd say overall Song is the best Chinese dynasty, and as some historians would say, the first 'modern society' in human history. It had a still great high culture inherited from Tang plus a flourishing popular culture.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Please explain more and also what is the difference between those aristocrats and nobles from other dynasties.

Do you mean the class of 士 ?

Also I feel Ming dynasty is the most closest to a 'people's dynasty'

True. Although the earlier Ming Emperors were known for their strict rule (Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di) the later emperors who were less committed to rule helped decentralize the government to a great extent. More power went to the officials and eunuchs (unfortunately) during the reign of Emperors like Jiajing and Wanli and the society as a whole was more liberal compared with earlier Dynasties.

I was also surprised when I first learned about the "Yan guan" in the Ming Dynasty. Those guys appeared to have nothing better to do other than bashing the Emperor (I was truly shocked when I found out that one of them called Ming Xuanzong a "cricket emperor" just because he enjoyed cricket fights as a past time!). Fengqings have a long history in China!