ABSTRACT
The administration in China, like everything else in that country, had undergone very little change since the feudal system was swept away and the central government was established. The district (hsien or yuen) created in the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.) forms the administrative unit, in which officials are stationed to carry on civic, judicial, and fiscal affairs. It is generally as large as an English county, but the city itself, where the governmental body resides, is invariably surrounded by a city wall and is therefore much smaller. It is in the villages, scattered over the cultivated land, that the great majority of the Chinese people lead their quiet, uneventful lives in their homesteads. In point of fact, the villages are, with certain exceptions, very little interfered with by governmental action, although they are nominally under the jurisdiction of the magistrate. To what extent the Chinese villagers can govern themselves and how far the magistrate is privileged to coerce the village community are questions which 46have been dealt with in previous chapters. For present purposes the reader must bear in mind that the administration of a district means that of a city and not more.
