The Research Of Administration System Of The Capital Of Southern Song Dynasty-Lin’an

The Southern Song Dynasty is at the peak of Chinese feudal society’s civilization development. As to the management of its capital city-Lin’an, the government of the Southern Song Dynasty reflected world-class level at that time. The government developed Lin’an into a cosmopolitan city with millions of population in high prosperity, which was called "the World’s Most Luxurious and Beautiful City " by Marco Polo. It is of great practical significance to make good use of wisdom of the ancients to promote and perfect the urban governance.Since previous research in this area is nearly blank, one of the main features of this paper is to attempt to comprehensively and systematically investigate Lin’an government’s administrative system. Through the analysis of macroscopic system design, administrative operation mechanism, and microscopic administration behaviors, this paper ultimately concludes that the superb management achievement of Lin’an city depends on advanced administrative concepts, rational system design, and especially on the innovative administrative system represented by Xiang Fang.This thesis intends to explore the administration system of the Southern Song Dynasty’s capital city Lin’an from following aspects:the first one is the introduction to the causes of selecting the topic, the investigation of academic history and the research methods. Secondly, it analyses the background, reasons and process of establishing Lin’an as the capital city and the influences to administrative management. Thirdly, it explores the administrative management mechanism of Lin’an from two perspectives:the static system designs(such as the institution settings, the configuration and functions of officials and government offices) and the dynamic administrative processes(such as government councils, official documents and communication system). The fourth part introduces the specific administration of Lin’an which includes the management of social security, fire-protection and social relief facilities. The fifth part analyses the specificity of administration of Lin’an by comparison with other state capitals.