secondly, there was a "small gentry" which was operating mainly in the
provincial cities, directing local affairs and bound by ties of loyalty
to big gentry families. Gentry cliques now extended into the provinces
and it often became possible to identify a clique with a geographical
area, which, however, usually did not indicate particularistic
tendencies.

Individual freedom did not show itself only in greater social mobility.
The restrictions which, for instance, had made the craftsmen and
artisans almost into serfs, were gradually lifted. From the early
sixteenth century on, craftsmen were free and no more subject to forced
labour services for the state. Most craftsmen in this epoch still had
their shops in one lane or street and lived above their shops, as they
had done in the earlier period. But from now on, they began to organize
in guilds of an essentially religious character, as similar guilds in
other parts of Asia at the same time also did. They provided welfare
services for their members, made some attempts towards standardization
of products and prices, imposed taxes upon their members, kept their
streets clean and tried to regulate salaries. Apprentices were initiated
in a kind of semi-religious ceremony, and often meetings took place in
temples. No guild, however, connected people of the same craft living in
different cities. Thus, they did not achieve political power.
Furthermore, each trade had its own guild; in Peking in the nineteenth
century there existed over 420 different guilds. Thus, guilds failed to
achieve political influence even within individual cities.

Probably at the same time, regional associations, the so-called
"_hui-kuan_" originated. Such associations united people from one city
or one area who lived in another city. People of different trades, but
mainly businessmen, came together under elected chiefs and councillors.