Understanding Rank in the Heian Court

Lately, I’ve been reading a book about the life of the famous scholar-poet, Sugawara no Michizane, whom I’ve written about in the past here and here, but the book talks in great deal about the ranking system that the nobility of the Nara and Heian Court were organized under Taihō Ritsuryō Codes enacted in 701. Under the Codes, Japan moved away from a clan-based society into a state bureaucracy organized along Chinese Confucian lines, but with many unique innovations of its own (owing to different culture and conditions). This little reference post is an effort to explain how it was organized.

As Borgen explains in his book:

The ritsuryō codes created a system of ranks that largely superseded the ancient titles. From the most noble minister down to the most obscure clerk, a man’s status at court was determined by his rank.

Essentially there were 8 ranks, or kurai (位), with the first rank being extremely elite and the eighth rank being the most menial. Below this was the “initial rank” of soi which Borgen explains “granted few privileges, and men who held it were not always distinguished from menials without rank.”

Again, as Borgen explains, the first three ranks, the truly aristocratic ones, were further subdivided into “junior” and “senior”, and the fourth rank and below was divided even further into “upper” and “lower”. Thus one could be “junior fourth rank lower” or “senior sixth rank upper” among other things. Thus there were thirty ranks in total, and only 8 to 9 people might be third rank or above. In any case, the fifth rank was really the cut-off point between low-ranking clerks and menials, and the aristocrats, with the third rank and above being truly prestigious. In essence, there were three groups:

• Aristocrats
• Minor officials
• Menials

From one rank to the next, the salary, paid in rice bushels, or koku (石),¹ differed greatly. A sixth rank official would earn an annual salary of 22 koku, but a fifth rank earned 255 koku on average, and a third rank minister might earn 6,957 koku according to Borgen. Also, if the government was broke and funds were low, the high-ranking officials were paid first, and whatever remained might get paid out the lower-ranking officials (or not). The state was often broke due to large projects (like building new palaces or the Great Buddha of Nara), sending expeditions to China, or trying to pacify barbarian tribes to the east and north.

Also, if you were born into an aristocratic family like the Fujiwara, you would automatically get a rank at the age of 21, and didn’t have to earn their rank through the Confucian civil-service exams. People who did years of study and passed the exams usually earned a lower-rank than aristocratic sons by default, and advancement of any sort was very long and bureaucratic and rarely ever reached the fifth rank unless you were really, really good. In other words, you could work your whole life and probably not get past the sixth rank.

The notion of rank isn’t just on paper either. In the writings of Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book she frequently comments on people’s rank, and writes an off-handed comment in her diary about men and rank:²

[178] Nothing is more splendid than [high] rank. How different a man is when he’s called Commissioner or Adviser and can be snubbed with impunity, from the same man once he’s become Counsellor, Grand Counsellor or Minister, when he’s held in awe and can throw his weight around!

Though it’s noted later that she does carry on an affair with one charming man of the sixth-rank who’s talent with calligraphy is known in the court, which is ironic given her otherwise disdain of lower-ranking men.

So, that’s a brief look at the aristocracy of the early Japanese court in Nara and then Kyoto. The system gradually broke down as the Fujiwara family, especially the Northern branch, came to dominate all official posts and intermarry with Imperial Family, but it should also be noted that the Taiho Codes were still in effect in Japan until the Meiji restoration in 1868, though they had little force beyond the court in Kyoto. Shogun’s and warlords of various times did integrate into this court, and attain ranking, even centuries after it ceased to be relevant. Only in 1868, was it totally abolished and a new system of peerage, based on the British model, was institutionalized, then abolished after WWII.

¹ The same “koku” used much later in the feudal Tokugawa period to pay samurai, but the Heian era koku was only 40% the volume of the later one.

² Sei’s snobbish attitude is found throughout the book, especially when she encounters “commoners”. It’s infuriating at times to read, but it’s still a fascinating, though really long book. Lady Murasaki had harsh words for Sei’s arrogance as well though.