从秦朝到晚清，朝廷将人民分为四个阶级:地主、农民、工匠和商人。地主和农民构成了两个主要的阶级，而商人和工匠们则归到两个较小的阶级。从理论上讲，除了帝位，其他身份都不能世袭(hereditary)。当拥有大量土地和半农奴(semi-serfs) 的显赫家族出现时，封建主义(feudalism)就会局部复辟。他们控制着朝廷重要的民事和军事职位，并将任职这些职位的机会对本宗族的成员敞开。自唐代开始，朝廷改革了科举制度(imperial examination system),试图根除这种现象。

　　参考译文:

　　From the Qin Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty,the Chinese government divided Chinese people into four classes:landlord, peasant, craftsman and merchant.Landlords and peasants constituted the two major classes, while merchants and craftsmen were collected into the two minor ones.Theoretically,except for the position of the Emperor, nothing was hereditary.There was a partial restoration of feudalism when eminent families with large amounts of land and huge number of semi-serfs emerged.These families dominated important civilian and military positions of the government,making the positions available to members of their own families and clans.Since the Tang dynasty,the government reformed the imperial examination system as an attempt to root out this phenomenon.

　　1.从理论上讲，除了帝位，其他身份都不能世袭:“从理论上讲”可翻译为theoretically;“帝位”可翻译为the positionof the Emperor;“世袭”可用 hereditary 表达。

　　2.显赫家族:可翻译为eminent family。

　　3.封建主义局部复辟:可用partial restoration offeudalism表达;其中“局部的”可翻译为partial。