ABSTRACT
Strictly speaking, there was no difference between civil service and politics in the old Chinese monarchy, at least not in the sense of a difference between political and administrative work as in the Western countries. Technically, however, a difference was made by civil service laws, in that there were different degrees of strictness in the application of civil service laws to officials of the third rank or above and to those below that rank. The civil service laws, applied rather flexibly to, and often to the advantage of, high officials, were very rigidly applied to lower officials. With the exception of a few cases resulting from the benevolence of personal influence of high authorities or the benefit of imperial favoritism, its rigidity could easily claim the first place in the government where reason generally overruled law. The network of civil service laws was enforced by the department of civil service which headed the list of the six principal departments.
