Song Dynasty Village Administrative Organization And Its Operation

The rural administrative organization is set up in the village for the management of the rural society by the country. It is responsible for managing the administrative affairs and public affairs of the rural society. It must dispose certain administrative staff. Certain administrative staff and function are two basic key elements of the rural administrative organization.There are not clear records on the establishment of the rural administrative organization in ancient documents in Song Dynasty, but some records on the rural divisions and their mode of combination. Only by ascertaining the nature of various kinds of divisions, can we judge whether they are administrative divisions or administrative organization and understand their relations and administrative system of rural society in Song Dynasty. According to two basic key elements to be the rural administrative organization, we can find that li (里) , ts'un (村) and she (社) are not administrative organization. They were regional unit or the name of village hamlet. Though tuan ( 团 ) had certain administrative staff and bore the responsibility of maintaining public order, it didn't deal with the administrative affairs that was arranged by higher administrative organization. Tuan is not a real rural administrative organization because it is not included in the system of the national administrative organization.The Xifeng Reform Movement in Song Dynasty divided the development of the rural administrative organization into two stages. The first stage was before the Xifeng Reform Movement. Hisang(乡 ) or kuan( 管) that were mainly responsible for levying taxes and ch 'i (耆) which was mainly responsible for maintaining public order existed side by side in this stage. The heads of Hisang were li-cheng (里正 ) , hu-chang (户长) and hsiang-shu-shou (乡书手) .They were in charge of levying taxes, working out the documents and encouraging cultivating. In 1055, li-cheng was abolished. Hisang still played the role of administrative organization by hu-chang and hsiang-shu-shou. Executive function of Hisang disappeared completely at the stage of Xifeng Reform Movement. Hisang was changed into regional unit. Kuan was set up in 974 and abolished in 1075. Hu-chang, the head of kuan, was in charge of levying taxes. The system of guan was not popularized in the whole country. Ch 7 started in Later ZhouDynasty. Ch 'i-chang (1H￡) and chuang-ting (ttT) , the heads of ch 7, were mainly in charge of maintaining public order. The second stage was after the Xifeng Reform Movement. Beacause ofpao-chia (^ $) was combined with the system of ch 'ai-ifa (Hi^Viife) ,tu-pao (fPf^) and pao ({^) was changed into the rural administrative organization. Under the system of tu-pao, tu-pao fu-cheng (ifi^IEg'J), pao-chang (U￡ ■& ) and c/z 'e?g-r 'iehjen ( ^cfe A ) were in charge of levying taxes and maintaining public order, etc. Ch 7 still existed, but its position drops gradually. In the development of the rural administrative organization in Song Dynasty, they had certain area under one's jurisdiction which became smaller and smaller. Their function was more and more centralized. Their heads became drafted service step by step.The function of the rural administrative organization was very extensive and contained a lot of respects of the social life in the village in Song Dynasty. The rural administrative organization played an indispensable role in levying taxes, criminal suit and relieving the people in stricken areas. The rural administrative organization was " nerve endings " of the national domination and the intermediary of contacting the country and villager. The administrative focal point of the rural administrative organization was to levy taxes and bear the duty of maintaining public order, but its function that it participated in the social public affairs and enlightened the public by education was weak remarkably. This had left the wide space for the development of the non-governmental organization.The operation of the rural administrative organization was to deal with the official document. It had already formed the complete system of dealing with the official document. As a whole, the operation of the rural administrative organization was relatively simple and more direct. This contributed to promoting its administrative efficiency. But its operation was affected by various kinds of human factors and technological quality of its head.The non-governmental organization in the village consisted of the clan that formed from the blood relationship and economic organization, religious organization and non-governmental arms that were not organized by the blood relationship in Song Dynasty. Their function is the important supplement to that of the rural administrative organization. They demonstrated the inclination to permeate to the rural administrative organization in the course of forming or operation. The rural administrative organization that was representatives of state power permeated to the non-governmental organizationactively, too. It implemented watchful supervision to the non-governmental organization. The non-governmental organization developed forward under the common influence of state power and folk strength in Song Dynasty. They demonstrated the characteristic of being either official or non-governmental.The rural society was not the " vacuum " area of the state power in Song Dynasty. State power permeated through each peasant household directly through the rural administrative organization. The rural non-governmental organization was controlled by rural administrative organization or higher administrative organization. There was not real " autonomy " in the rural society in Song Dynasty. The power of the rural society was not merely grasped by the heads of the rural administrative organization, but demonstrated the characteristic of the pluralism. Non-governmental organization and rural administrative organization influenced each other, permeated each other, and maintained the national control of the rural society together. This had formed dual system on the rural social control in Song Dynasty. This helped keep traditional civil order and promote the development of society. This made the society keep the steady situation and develop forward in Song Dynasty.