China's County System

The county is the oldest and most stable administrative unit in Chinese society. Over more than two thousand years, this system has undergone repeated changes, yet it has always formed the foundation of state governance: the country's more than three thousand county-level units (including counties, county-level cities, districts, and banners) cover over seventy percent of the population and the vast majority of the land, and central directives ultimately have real meaning only when they reach this level. China's County System takes time as the warp and issues as the weft, systematically tracing the origins and evolution of this grassroots political structure. The vertical section begins with the state forms of the "Three Dynasties" period, examines the merits and faults of the political model of "enfeoffing states and founding principalities," traces the origins of the commandery-county system amid the conflicts of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, discusses the intrinsic relationship between the commandery-county system and centralization and monarchical autocracy, and explains why the "dual-track system" persisted for so long during the Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties; thereafter, the evolution of the county system from the Sui and Tang to the Ming and Qing, and county system reform under the late Qing autonomy movement, are also analyzed section by section. The horizontal section steps outside the dynastic sequence and concentrates on several recurring old problems: how large government should be, and what historical models exist for "small government" and "big society"; how the balance between central and local power has repeatedly shifted between outer-heavy/inner-light and inner-heavy/outer-light; why the combination of vertical lines and horizontal blocks so often slides into their separation; how county magistrates were selected and appointed or dismissed, what institutional constraints shaped their behavior, and how rank and economic treatment influenced their governing orientation. The author brings years of experience as a grassroots leader and policy researcher to institutional history, asking not about antiquarian details but about "why this system could operate for two thousand years, and why it fails." The book does not pile up materials; its judgments are sharp and its problem consciousness distinct, making it a reference work for understanding the traditions and present dilemmas of grassroots governance in China.