Research On Agricultural Officials In Qin And Han Dynasties

As the basis of social economy,agriculture was the decisive production department in the entire ancient times.Centralism was adopted in Qin and Han Dynasties.To consolidate the ruler ship,the government established a huge feudal bureaucracy to reinforce the intervention with social economy on the one hand,and took political,economic and statutory measures to ensure agricultural development on the other hand.Taking the functions and tasks of agricultural officials as the research objects,the author tries to understand the features and achievements of agricultural administration system in Qin and Han Dynasties.This paper is divided into five parts:Chapter One introduces the political,cultural and economic conditions in Qin and Han Dynasties on the basis of traditional historical materials.The author analyzes the change of agricultural officials' position and expounds its influence on the society in Qin and Han Dynasties.Chapter Two analyzes the agricultural policies in Qin and Han Dynasties based o n predecessors' studies according to unearthed bamboo slips and handed-down documents.In Qin and Han Dynasties,the government attached great importanc e to agriculture,especially to implementation of the policy of physiocracy and restricti on of business.The actual effect of the policy shows that agricultural officials play the very important roles with huge tasks.They investigated the obstacle factors of the ag ricultural development at that time and constantly put forward reform measures to gua rantee a sound environment for agricultural development.Chapter Three introduces that agricultural official system was gradually developed and divided in Qin and Han Dynasties,and formed a rigorous and unified administration system from central government to local government.The system guarantees that the government directly controlled various resources for agricultural production on the one hand;and perfects the physiocratic system on the other hand.Central agricultural officials were responsible for administration and supervision of levying economic taxes to complete turnover of national finance,while local agricultural officials were responsible for agricultural administration,including"advising the peasants to conduct farming and sericulture",publicizing agriculture-based policies,promoting technology spreading and supervising agricultural production,etc.Chapter Four introduces that the laws were established on the basis of maintaining the great unification of absolute monarchy in Qin and Han Dynasties.The rulers administrated and intervened in agricultural production and promoted the development of agricultural production by laws.Although the detailed laws and regulations could assess and punish agricultural officials,they could also grant supervision "power" to agricultural officials amid agricultural production.Chapter Five introduces that China forms characteristic customs and regional cultures with a vast territory in different geographical environments,different ethnic groups and historical traditions,i.e.,"the folklores are different in a hundred li,and the customs are different in a thousand li".Under such conditions,the development situations of agricultural economy in different regions are different due to the development of geopolitical relations in different eras.In Qin and Han Dynasties,the emperor became the only representative of the nation because of national unification.In order to maintain his long-lasting ruler ship,the emperor would consider and deal with various problems of the agricultural development from an overall perspective,which would ease interest conflicts,reduce frictions between regions and further guarantee the balanced development of the nation.In summary,the comprehensive research and analysis of agricultural officials in Qin and Han Dynasties clarify the institutional reform and innovation under national power,which play an important leading role in arousing various factors for economic growth and development.