By the end of the Han era, wealthy families had come to own huge numbers of once independent small farms. Some of these are depicted on the walls of Han tombs, with their manor house, barns and stables, fruit and vegetable gardens, industrial workshops and outhouses making beer and wine. The spread of these private manors begin to mark the rise of a landed aristocracy who will become powerful over the next few centuries and dominate the heartland of China until their demise at the end of the Tang dynasty.
