1st Edition

State Evolution and Governance in Ancient China

By Xu Yong Copyright 2026
334 Pages
by Routledge

334 Pages
by Routledge

This book employs the analytical framework of "relational superposition" to explain the continuity, breakthroughs, and repetitions of Chinese state evolution. Specifically, it elucidates how, after Qin Shi Huang’s unification of China, the ancient Chinese state and its governance transcended the dominance of kinship relations and shifted to territorial relations. This shift formed a super-large... Read more

1. The Imperial State in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  2. The Emperor and the Patriarch in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  3. The Emperor and His Court in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  4. Legalism and Confucianism in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  5. Feudalism and Local Governance in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  6. Cities and Villages in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  7. The Political and Clan Power in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  8. State Law and Family Kinship in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  9. The Imperial State and Mandarins in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  10. The Imperial State and Literati in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  11. The Imperial State and Peasants in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  12. The Imperial State and Merchants in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics  13. The Imperial State and Military in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics

Biography

Xu Yong, Distinguished Professor of the "Changjiang Scholar" Program in Liberal Arts under the Ministry of Education; Senior Professor at Central China Normal University; specializes in research on Chinese politics and grassroots governance; author of Nationalisation, Peasantry and Rural Integration in China, among other works. Former Convener of the Political Science Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, Member of the Social Sciences Division of the Ministry of Education's Social Science Committee, among other positions.