Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 3, 2022

A Historical Examination of the Evolution of Rural Society and State Governance in the Qin and Han Dynasties

(Abstract)

Bu Xianqun

The countryside was the social foundation of the Qin and Han state, and was also an important subject of state governance. Over more than four hundred years, the Qin and Han dynasties made many innovations in rural governance, pioneering feudal China’s “grand unification” model of rural governance by the centralized state. The evolution of society was the fundamental driver of the transformation of state governance, and the transformation of state governance reflected social evolution in the political sphere. Social change occurring from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods on drove the innovation of state governance under the Qin and Han, along with the active exploration of state governance in the countryside. In the course of the evolution of rural society, the state’s control and government of social mobility, the management of social problems brought about by changes in rural social structure, and the control and management of the rise of clan organizations, embodied the distinctive features of social governance in the countryside under the Qin and Han. They provide us with both rich experience and profound lessons.