Table Of ContentChina Academic Library
Mu Ch’ien
Merits and Demerits
of Political Systems
in Dynastic China
China Academic Library
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’
Mu Ch ien
Merits and Demerits
of Political Systems
in Dynastic China
123
Mu Ch’ien
Beijing,China
Translated by
Siying Zhang
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Preface
I have long wished to write a history of political systems in China. For one thing,
I consider politics to be an important component of a cultural system. This is
particularly true of China, where the cultural spirit emphasizes humanistic values.
Confucian scholars, for example, cherished the ambition of self-cultivation,
maintaining family order, running the state well, and thereby eventually bringing
peace to the whole country. Traditional politics must not be neglected in the study
of Chinese traditional culture. Propaganda for the Revolution of 1911 dismissed
post-QinDynasty (221–206 BC) politicaltraditionsas “autocraticanddark.” Such
disregard of traditional politics has deepened misunderstanding of our traditional
culture. If we want to examine Chinese culture fairly and objectively, we should
examine its traditional politics. This is the first reason that I wanted to write a
history of political systems in China.
Secondly, I believe that any political system must be rooted in a particular
country. Even though some systems can be borrowed from other countries, they
have to be integrated with local traditions before they can play their due role.
Rootless politics or a political system without local complement is never able to
survive. In other words, a political system has to be complemented by human
matters. Around the Revolution of 1911, everyone talked about reform and
everyone talked about revolution. So much emphasis was put on establishing a
(new or good) system as though all human matters would transform automatically
once such a system was in place. People simply wanted to imitate or copy an
existingforeignsystemandwentsofarastodestroyhumanmatterstosuitacopied
system. During the NewCulture Movement(1915–1919), there was a loud chorus
for democracy combinedwithscathingdenunciations of oldtraditions and culture.
But let us ask: Can democratic politics be installed just at the campaigning of a
handfulofpeopledisconnectedfromtheculturaltraditionsofthisnation?Asystem
isfixed,whilehumanmattersareflexible.Afixedsystemcannevercompletelysuit
flexible human matters. Historical experience has shown that no system can be so
soundastohavenoshortcomings;nosystemcanremainunchangedthroughoutthe
times.Allthepastsystemsinhistoryhaveprovedtobechangeable,sohowcanthe
presentexistingsystemsturnouttobeotherwise?Ifwejustemulateotherpeople’s
v
vi Preface
systemswithoutpayingattentiontoourownhumanmatters,wewillhavetofollow
them whenever their human matters change. How stupid to do such a thing! As a
matteroffact,allthesystemsandtraditionsinChinesehistory,providedtheylasted
for a century or two, were, without exception, established to suit contemporary
human matters. They could not have been established solely to serve the selfish
purpose of any one or two persons. How, then, could they be condemned out of
handasautocraticanddark?ThisisthesecondreasonIwantedtowriteahistoryof
political systems in China.
However, due to turmoil in the country, an unsettled private life, and more
importantmattersIwantedtowriteaboutthansuchabook,Ididnotgetaroundto
writing it until March or April 1952, when Mr. Ho Ying-chin (1890–1987) asked
me to give lectures on the merits and demerits of political systems in dynastic
China. The number of lectures was limited to five, with only two hours for each.
ThepressuresoftravelandotherunfavorablecircumstancesmeantIwasnotableto
give detailed presentations of or precise elaborations on all traditional systems in
history. As a result, I selected only five dynasties—Han (206 BC–AD 220), Tang
(AD618–907),Song(960–1279),Ming(1368–1644),andQing(1616–1911)—and
my lectures were only brief accounts. I was injured in an accident after the lecture
series and was unable to fulfill my original intention of making up the parts that
Ihadmissedinmylectures.Nor,duringmyconvalescence,didIhavetheenergyto
improvethelecturenotes.Ihaveonlycorrectedpartsinthetranscribedtextsofthe
original lecture notes that did not correspond to what I meant. It will be most
fortunate if, in thefuture, Ican write anexhaustive history ofthe politicalsystems
inChina.Still,Ifeelsomewhatrelievedtopresentthisbookinitscurrentformand
takethisopportunitytothankMr.Ho,withoutwhosekindinvitationtherewaslittle
possibility of my completing even this small book. The first manuscript was
completedinAugust1952whenIwasrecuperatinginTaizhong.Iwaslaterinvited
towriteacoursebookonthe“studyofpoliticalsystemsindynasticChina.”Pressed
bythedeadline,Ionlymademinorrevisionstothemanuscript,suchasaddingnew
materials to the two-season taxation system of the Tang and the tax system of the
Ming. While the book is a little more substantial than the original lectures,
I sincerely hope readers will correct the many oversights and errors that I fear
still exist.
Hong Kong Mu Ch’ien
August 1955
Contents
1 The Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Government Organization of the Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 The Imperial Family and the Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Organization of the Central Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 Local Governments of the Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.1.4 Relationship Between the Central and Local
Governments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2 Selection of Officials Under the Han . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 The Economic System of the Han Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 The Military System of the Han Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.5 Merits and Demerits of the Han System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 The Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1 Government Organization of the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1.1 Change of the Prime Minister’s Power from Han
to Tang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1.2 Division of Power Among the Three Central
Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.1.3 Administration Hall—The Highest Central
Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1.4 The Executive Ministry and the Six Departments . . . . . . . 34
2.1.5 Local Governments of the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.1.6 Supervisors and Central Commissioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.2 Imperial Examination for Selecting Officials in the Tang
Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2.1 Nine-Rank System in the Wei, Jin, and the Northern
and Southern Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2.2 Selection System of the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
vii
viii Contents
2.3 The Economic System of the Tang Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.3.1 The Tri-Tax System in the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.3.2 Household and Farmhand Registration of the Tang
Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.3.3 Two-Season Taxation System of the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . 46
2.3.4 Comparison Between the Han and the Tang
Economic and Financial Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.4 The Military System of the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.5 Summary of the Tang System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 The Song Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 Government Organization of the Song Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.1 The Central Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.2 Division of the Power of the Prime Minister. . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.3 Imperial Overreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1.4 Supervision and the Dilemma of the Government . . . . . . . 63
3.1.5 Local Governments of the Song Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2 Imperial Examination for Selecting Officials in the Song
Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3 Taxation System of the Song Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.4 Military System and Weak National Defense of the Song
Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4 The Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1 Government Organization of the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1.1 The Central Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1.2 The Imperial Cabinet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1.3 Local Governments of the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.1.4 Provinces Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties . . . . . . . . . 91
4.1.5 Local Executive, Judiciary, and Military Organizations
of the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.1.6 Officials and Clerks in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. . . . . 96
4.2 Imperial Examination for Selecting Officials in the Ming
Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2.1 Jinshi Scholars and the Hanlin Academy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2.2 The Eight-Part Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.3 Taxation System of the Ming Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.4 The Military System of the Ming Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Contents ix
5 The Qing Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.1 Political System as Opposed to Political Means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2 Political Power of the Tribe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.3 The Qing Government Under Tribal Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3.1 The Central Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3.2 Local Governments of the Qing Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3.3 Forbidden Areas in the Qing Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.4 Imperial Examination for Selecting Officials Under Tribal
Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.5 Ruling Strategies of the Qing Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.6 Popular Resistance Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.7 Reform and Revolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Concluding Summary... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 137
Translator’s Notes.. .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 143
Appendix. .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 147
Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 191
