In ancient China the highest ranking members of society were educated scholars, followed by farmers, after which artisans (e.g. wood, steel, and pottery craftspeople) and finally merchants which was ranked the lowest because the mercantile tier did not produce any products of value, instead opting to buy and sell goods produced by others
When the craftspeople who built the Great Wall of China died during construction, their bodies were cremated and ground into a powder so that they could be mixed into the mortar of the bricks. The Chinese sometimes refer to the Great Wall of China as the “Wall of Tears” because of this. Over 400,000 people died during the construction process. Rice was added to the mortar which was placed in between each brick as it helped to bind each brick together so tightly that weeds could not grow through, but was also waterproof and resistant to earthquakes due to the flexibility it provided to the mortar