Governmental Systems in China

Imagine you must have someone hold $ for you for one year. Who would you want to hold the money; a family member (relative), a close friend who is wealthy or an excellent student. Why would you make this choice? PeriodGovernmental Hand of Cards Prompt, notes 26465, , , , , 64

Bureaucratic Government Bureaucracy is specialization of functions and a hierarchy of authority. Emperor was the top of the hierarchy. To manage the vast territory effectively, emperors appointed official inspectors, tax collectors, and other administrators to travel through the country to carry out imperial rule.

Nepotistic power is bestowed on the basis of family relationships An example is the early portion of the Zhou Dynasty ( B.C.) Chinese emperors extended their control over the country through the use of a nepotistic government. Zhou emperors put their relatives in charge of the provinces largely to ensure a loyal bureaucracy.

Aristocracy power is vested (given to )in a small privileged class. 771 B.C. the armies of powerful aristocrats invaded the Zhou capital and drove out the rulers. Officially, the Zhou still ruled China, but the ones with real power were the aristocrats who controlled the strongest provinces.

Meritocracy The talented are chosen to rule through a civil-service examination Sui and early Tang rulers used examinations to identify qualified candidates for public office. In the beginning only aristocrats could afford to study for these exams. Later, however, Tang and Song leaders recruited civil servants from other classes. In imperial China the emperor did not appoint just one sector of society to act as government officials. While Chinese emperors had absolute power, in most cases they shared power with wealthy, land owning families, who administered the government in China’s far-reaching provinces. When China adopted the system of meritocracy, land owning aristocrats lost some of their power. By the end of the Song Dynasty nearly half of the civil servants came from non-aristocratic families.

In 1276 the Mongols captured China’s capital city. Kublai Khan then took the title of emperor and ruled China calling his dynasty “Yuan.” This dynasty lasted nearly 100 years. Chinese society was divided into four classes 1) Mongols 2) foreigners from outside China who were friends 3) Northern Chinese 4) Southern Chinese. Civil service exams were stopped, Mongols were given important jobs, trusted foreigners also held government jobs. Chinese scholars held only minor jobs or were teachers. However because of a lack of qualified administrators, in 1315 the Civil Service Exam was restored. Rule By Foreigners

Governmental Hand of Cards On the assigned page of your notebook draw a hand holding 5 playing cards; one card for each form of government. On each card draw one symbol representing each one of the five forms of government. An example of a symbol could be; for scholarship a diploma.