ABSTRACT
The province has formed a fundamental part of China’s governance system for more than seven centuries. Evolving as an integral unit of governance during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), these country-sized entities remain important channels of administration that are often large enough to deal with serious territorial problems. Given China’s large territory, mammoth and diverse population and often rugged terrain, China’s rulers – emperors and invaders, Nationalists and Communists – have relied on provincial governments to project central power from capital to locality. Simultaneously however, provinces have served as bases of power in their own right, becoming during some periods a threat to central authority. This paradox – provinces as both indispensable and threatening to central rulers – has persisted across five different regimes.
