Abstract
On the basis of research I conducted in my book The Creation of Local Government: A New Study of the Commandery System from the Warring States Period to the Start of the Han Dynasty, this essay further analyzes several aspects of the commandery and county system in Qin and Chu. This essay describes how the structure of Qin commanderies underwent major changes, and how in the Warring States period, commanderies developed from military districts into a form of local government, with power concentrated in the hands of the Commandery Governor. After the unification of China, power in the Qin commanderies was divided between the three offices of the Commandery Governor, Commandant, and Inspector, which represented a shift toward the division of power within local government administration. Beyond the differing needs of a state oriented toward conquest versus a state oriented toward rule in times of peace, this essay suggests that Qin may have drawn lessons from the institutional structures of the six eastern states, such that this shift toward the separation of powers was influenced by the division of power and checks and balances within the Chu commandery system. Although the Qin and Chu commandery systems thus both appear to be characterized by the division of power, the political and social structures of these two states were vastly different. While Chu was deeply influenced by the aristocratic political and social structure of the Western Zhou, the state of Qin developed an autocratic political system. Thus comparative historical study cannot limit itself to superficial similarities, but must instead examine in depth the structural differences that may lie behind a similarity of form.
Keywords
commandery and county system, separation of power in local government, centralization of power, the state of Qin, the state of Chu, comparative history
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