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ch Theobald">Chinese History - Song Dynasty government and administration ()

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Chinese History - Song Dynasty 宋朝 (960-1279)

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Song Dynasty
government and administration

period before (Five Dynasties)
-- Liao Dynasty
-- Jin Dynasty
-- Xixia Empire
next period (Yuan)
Map and Geography

A Political System Balancing Between Military and Civil Officials

The experience of the late Tang Dynasty that regional military leaders had too much power in their hands to be effectively controlled by the central government, led to a thoroughly new system of parallel installment of civil and military officials (wenguan 文官 and wuguan 武官) that had to control each other. The terms and titles of the Song time are very confusing and not very easy to reconstruct. But basic lines of the governmental system - dating the Han Dynasty - were still in work. All in all, the Song system was more autocratic than the Tang system, laying more power into the hands of the emperor or persons acting on the emperor's behalf, like the strong chancellors.

The Capitals

The first Song emperor established four cities as capitals:
Eastern Capital
(Dongjing 東京)		Bianliang 汴梁, Bianjing 汴京 or Kaifengfu 開封府modern Kaifeng 開封/Henan
Western Capital
(Xijing 西京)		Henanfu 河南府modern Luoyang 洛陽/Henan
Southern Capital
(Nanjing 南京)		Yingtianfu 應天府modern Shangqiu 商邱/Henan
Northern Capital
(Beijing 北京)		Damingfu 大名府modern Daming 大名/Hebei
After 1127, the Song capital was shifted to Lin'anfu 臨安府(modern Hangzhou 杭州/Zhejiang) and the four capitals system was abandoned.

The Central Government

The Grand Councilors or Chancellors (Zaixiang 宰相) were the highest ministers of state. The respective Three Departments (Sansheng 三省) of the Tang time, the Chancellery (Menxiasheng 門下省), the Secretariat (Zhongshusheng 中書省) and the Department of State Affairs (Shangshusheng 尚書省) were not really used in this form until the reform of the 1080s but were more a conglomerate of bureaus and directorates under the administration of the councilors. Work in these bureaus was done by academicians the old Hanlin State Academy (Hanlin Xueshi Yuan 翰林學士院). The power of the councilors was restricted by the independent existence of a threefold state finance commission (sansi 三司) responsible for salt and iron state monopoly, tax and census, and an autonomous bureau of military affairs (shumiyuan 樞密院). But these two bureaus did not exist during the whole time of Song Dynasty, and they were even guided by the chancellors themselves in times when these were in possession of great power. A special item of Chinese governmental system is, during all periods and dynasties, the Censorate (Yushitai 御史臺) that was installed to control the work of all officials on state and local administration level. During the 1080s, the old Six Ministries (Liubu 六部: for personnel, revenue, rites, war, justice and public work) were reinstalled, along with the Nine Courts (Jiusi 九寺) that mainly administered the imperial sacrifices and ritual state affairs, and the directorates (jian 監) that were in charge of state business and education.

Territorial administration

Territorial administration of Song was somewhat different Tang administration in terms and procurement, having the prefecture (zhou 州) as highest unit, with the prefect (cishi 刺史) as head. The smaller unit was the district (xian 縣), headed by a magistrate (ling 令). Several central prefectures and the capital prefectures were called fu 府 instead of zhou, military prefectures at the borders were called jun 軍, industrial prefectures had the name jian 監. To control the prefects, their directives had to be countersigned by a prefectural supervisor (jianzhou 監州), and there were coordinating officials (jiansi 監司) that controlled several prefectures together in a unit called circuit (lu 路), sharing their responsibilities in military affairs, fiscal affairs, judicial affairs and supply affairs, to make it impossible that one man could have a grip on a whole region.
Official recruitment was enforced by a state examination system that made officialdom even accessible for people of non-privileged classes.

Go back to the Song Dynasty introduction page and learn more about Song Dynasty economy, arts, literature, government...

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