Fukuzawa Yukichi was born on January 10, 1835 at the height of the strictly hierarchical society of the Tokugawa shogunate. His father belonged to the bottom two-thirds of society; according to the laws of the society of the time, an inferior samurai would not surpass a superior samurai regardless of his own talents and merits. Therefore, a lower samurai could rise within his class, but would fail to catch up with the higher-ranking samurai. The society was strict as it classified citizens into upper and lower classes, prohibiting intermarriage between people of different ranks. In addition to legal unions, customs and laws prohibited illicit unions of two separate classes such as kyunin and kachi. The fact that positions were assigned based on birthright or marriage implied that people knew their role in society from an early stage in their lives. The lower ranks of society were not afforded rights similar to those of the higher ranks, so they were treated as second-class citizens. For example, the lowest-ranking ashigaru or samurai would prostrate themselves on the ground whenever they encountered a higher samurai. A person's position in the clan determined his freedom. Fukuzawa notes, "While my brother was alive, I could go anywhere at any time only with his approval, but now that I had become the head of the family with certain duties to the lord, I had to obtain a permit to go abroad." . '” The eldest male in each family was the most influential while younger men and women were denied individual rights. Because the system assigned each person a rank, those in power oppressed their subordinates. As a result, each person was accustomed to being extremely submissive to his superiors and unreasonably oppressive towards his subordinates. However, Fukuzawa's parents recognized the right to respect lower-ranking members. As a result, he developed similar traits at an early age as he treated all people the same. Therefore, Fukuzawa dedicates his work to examining the possibilities of changing the hierarchical and group-based society into an egalitarian and individualistic society. He uses his experiences to illustrate the possibility of breaking out of such a world and how others might emulate it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayTransforming SocietySurviving in an autocratic society that ignored the talents and merits of individuals to promote development has proven to be a challenge. At the same time, Fukuzawa believed that he had the power to change his fortunes, so he would not have to rely on the authorities to improve the quality of his life. Fukuzawa acknowledges that poverty taught him crucial aspects especially through the development of do-it-yourself attitude. He held numerous odd jobs that changed his outlook on life before the end of the Tokugawa shogunate following the Meiji Revolution in 1868. Furthermore, he notes that reading books alone is inadequate to provide a person with the life skills needed to succeed in an unequal society. Since his childhood, Fukuzawa believed that it was impossible to thrive if one did not apply the lessons learned from real-life experiences. In fact, he tried and tested different attitudes and beliefs to ascertain their authenticity. He refused to adopt folk, Buddhist, and Shinto superstitions because he perceived them as people's way of justifying mistreatment of others. In essence, he was skeptical and doubtful in most of the experiences he had encountered in his life, which pushed him to test.