How did social status of merchants reflect Chinese ideas about society

According to the traditional Confucian view, society is made up of four classes: government officials, farmers, artisans and merchants.

This scheme exalts public officials as shepherds of the flock; it esteems farmers as the economic basis for the whole of society; and it denigrates artisans and merchants as not being socially necessary - indeed it sees merchants in particular as being parasitic on the rest of society, making themselves rich by making others poor.