English: Social classes often further differentiate people of the same groups, and several of these communities in Southwest China have traditionally been hierarchical or classed. Beginning in the fourteenth century, the Tusi (native chieftain) system by which the central imperial government bestowed official authority to chieftains or headmen reinforced the power of these local leaders, who in turn frequently exploited those under their control. Later during the eighteenth century, one of the primary reasons for the Qing court's opposition to the system was that "the Miao peoples have regrettably suffered the cruelty of the Tusi, and without the proprietary shared between the officials and the people, they have been slaves for generation."