During the Tang Dynasty there were basically eight social classes. The emperor and his family were usually the most powerful in the Tang Dynasty’s social hierarchy. If, however the emperor had worked his way up to power rather than coming from an eminent family it was possible for the aristocracy to become more powerful in certain instances. The aristocracy was the next in the social hierarchy, followed by the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy was divided into two separate levels of honor the scholars and the functionaries.