As the edict was issued, all the powerful gentry and great clans across All Under Heaven began to move.
During the Later Han-or, rather, during any period-social strata always existed.
Differences in power and influence between clans always existed, and different clans rose to prominence in different periods.
During the Later Han, aside from the Zhao City Luo Clan,
when people spoke of the foremost aristocratic houses of the Central Plains, the Five Surnames and Seven Houses, with their three-hundred-year heritage, naturally stood at their head.
These Five Surnames and Seven Houses had twice helped establish imperial rule and reaped far too many benefits, enjoying three hundred years of splendor.
But even among these seven houses, there were differences in strength.
The Jimo Lü Clan and Anyang Han Clan were the strongest, repeatedly holding high offices at the level of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers during the Later Han as well.
From its founding ancestor Zhang Liang onward, the Zhang Clan had inherited the Huang-Lao tradition, so its influence was naturally somewhat weaker in an age dominated by the Confucian School.
However, the Zhang Clan had founded Daoism, placing it in a different race from the other clans.
The Luo Clan of Marquis Ying had still been illustrious under the first two emperors of the Later Han, but after the maternal relatives and eunuchs began taking turns monopolizing court affairs, the clan, unable to stomach the chaos at court, gradually became less prominent.
Yet Luo Chuan's emergence out of nowhere proved that the formidable reputation of the Luo Clan of Marquis Ying endured.
The Lanling Xiao Clan, meanwhile, was a classic case of having gone wrong in its thinking. It had fought major battles against both the clans of maternal relatives and the eunuchs, naturally suffering devastating losses.
Had