Fiction asian in nature, sadistic man , different levels of living based on status

I only read a quarter of the book before losing it a decade ago.
Cover was red.
Probably science fiction.
Had to do with an invention I think they called a spinner that could make things sort of like a 3D printer. Like chairs and such.
People lived on different levels based on their status and could come up through to other levels only with permission.
Disturbing rape scene in the beginning of a local peasant woman by her Lord of that level or something.
It was Asian in nature as I recall. Help!

The Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove? The first book is Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom; there was also a prequel series beginning with Son of Heaven.

edited for touchstones

yay! I've been searching for months now. Thanks!

My pleasure!

Looks like you found what you were looking for, but I was amused because your description quite closely matched a fantasy novel by an Australian writer named Glenda Larke. In her book The Last Stormlord, people live in a tiered city on the edge of the desert. The level they live on is determined by status and they can't just roam on levels above their own. At the beginning, there is an apprentice girl in one of the pleasure houses who is starting to attract unwelcome attention from someone of much higher social status -- not a rape scene, but she is very uncomfortable with how she will likely be treated. The only thing that didn't match is the spinner/3-D printer.... but there's a really neat magic element having to do with water painting.....