Faeces from wealthy commanded higher price due to superior diet as door-to-door ‘night soil’ gatherers sold human waste to farmers
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenYating Yangin BeijingPublished: 6:00pm, 3 Apr 2026In ancient China, a highly lucrative and fiercely competitive profession known as the “dung collector” brought its exponents significant profits.
These people were responsible for gathering human waste, otherwise known as night soil, from residents’ chamber pots.
Due to a lack of modern toilets and flush systems, people stored human waste in chamber pots and were not allowed to dispose of it freely.
Waste from each household was collected by specialised workers known as “dung collectors”.
At fixed times each day, these workers went door-to-door, collecting waste and transporting it to rural areas for sale.
Because China was largely an agricultural society, this waste was highly valued by farmers as fertiliser, allowing dung collectors to earn considerable profits.
Therefore, people would even compete for collection territories.
