Study On The Cun System Of Tang Dynasty

It focuses on the Xiang System and Li System in the current study on the grass-root political institution in the history sphere. From a perspective of "keeping order", the dissertation explored the Cun System that was given fewer concerns by history researchers. It was composed of four parts, and the framework is following:The first part is preface. As the name of a kind of community, Cun appeared formally in the mid-later Dong Han dynasty. Lu, Ju, and Qiu are the three major sources from which Cun originated. Since Wei Jin period, society was in disorder. Xiang System was nearing to be disfunctional, and the character "cun" was used more widely to name a community. The scope of location of Cun expanded. Given the related documents, people paid many attentions to it by putting Cun as a key point from Dong Han dynasty to Ming Qing dynasty.The second part studies the Cun System in Tang dynasty. As one level of administrative organization, Cun was recognized in HuLing in the seventh year of Wude. Cun system was promulgated for the whole country, but the actual practice was different in different place. Cun showed greater stability than Li that was made of one hundred households because the organization of the former is set in terms of regional community. It became more developed in Kaiyuan period. In author's view, Cun System was the complete rearrangement of the disordered primary community situation since WeiJin period. RuTangQiuFaXunLiXingJi confirmed that the enforcement of Cun System in Tang dynasty was much better.In the third part, Cun officals were studied. According to the law of Tang dynasty, Cun Zheng was chosen among common adult male, and there was not fixed number in Cun for different sizes. Cun Zheng was the primary assistant of Li Zheng, and his major work was to deal with law breaking, but actually his business also included to push farmers to pay taxes, etc. The identity of Cun Zheng took some changes in the late Tang dynasty. The duties of Cun Zheng appeared to be more comprehensive. It became formalization for Cun Zheng to push farmer to pay taxes in WuDai period.The fourth part studies the conversion of XiangLi System into XiangCun System. XiangLi System was carried out strictly in the early Tang dynasty. The position of XiangZheng was disestablished in the fifteenth year of Zhenguan. Furthermore, since the second year of Jingyun, LiZheng was not seen as important as before. So the practice ofXiangLi System was relaxed. However, the role of Cun was stressed in which Xue and She were established. XiangZheng reappeared in the mid-late Tang dynasty, but the meaning of Xiang and Li changed, and their regional character got more and more obvious. With the lifting up of the importance of Cun System, XiangLi System started to convert into XiangCun System. Cun System of Tang dynasty enjoyed deep and lasting influence, and to some extent affected the primary administrative systems of the neighboring countries.