Primer on Zheng Society

The society of the Zheng Empire is, at once, both highly hierarchical and very mobile.

On one hand, most of Zheng society - or at least the men within it - have an avenue to the highest levels of society; the idea of noble birth, or of divinely given social castes, is nowhere near as tight here as it is in other cultures. On the other hand, in practice, the educational requirements and social networks required for reaching the top are all in the hands of a group of clans such as the Great Clans, such that few people can ever make it if they are 'born of hovels'.