The Systems of Politics, Law, and Selecting Officials in Ancient China

Abstract

With the development of society in ancient China, there came into existence complete systems of politics, law, and selecting officials. Even the source of this system was enormously different from those of Western civilizations. During the process of evolution from a primitive society to a class-based society, a system of patriarchal politics came into being in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties, known as the Three Dynasties (San Dai) which still bore most of the features of tribal rule. After more than 1,000 years in gestation, a political system with a centralized authority was born in the Warring States Period. With the founding of the monarchical feudal states of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, Chinese society began to be ruled by a system of bureaucratic politics which operated on behalf of the absolute monarchy. This type of government endured until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Bureaucratic politics improved gradually through the course of successive dynasties until Western civilization posed a challenge to it during the late Qing Dynasty.