One key difference between ancient China and Japanese society was the development of the samurai class in Japan. Feudal China had four classes: Confucian literati and landlords, peasants, artisans and merchants. The Confucian literati and landlords were at the top of Chinese social structure. Japanese feudal society was also stratified, but had the samurai class in the top of Japanese society since the 12th century. Thus many experts consider pre-modern Japan a "warrior nation" as the ideals, ideologies of the samurai permeated through Japanese culture and society. Such as bushido and the Japanese proverb "Hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi" (, literally "the blossom is the cherry blossom; the [best man is the warrior"). Comparatively the Chinese idiom is "Haonan budang Bing, Hao tie bu dading" (, means "Good iron is not cast into nails; good men are not made into soldiers").