The
civil service of the
counties was the bottom of the political
administration in ancient China. In other words, there was no civil service in the district and
township level below counties. However, the fundamental changes in this aspect took place during the last decade of the Qing's regime and thefirst two decades of
the Northern Warlords'rule in the early 20~(th)
century. The district and township civil service grew and took shape gradually as the results of theevolution of
traditional administrationin the local communities below counties and the demands of themodernization of local society. This system can be divided into two categories. One was that of the newly appeared. The other transformed from thetraditional one. The former, as far as function is concerned, can be subdivided into the single-functional, such as educational, police and military, services, and multi-functional. The latter, as far as sources are concerned, can be divided into three subdivisions. The first was the newly-styled one transformed directly from traditional administration. The second was the old administration functioning as the sub-organizations under the new services. The third the old remained unchanged in both nature and function. Subjectively speaking, the civil service can also be grouped into autonomous and centralized. It generally had long-standing organizations. Its civil servants were appointed in legal process. They were occupational servants. It had a financial system based legally on a public fiscal system. It undertook the responsibility for almost all the modern administrative functions for the local communities. Because of these, it can be said to have fundamentally the modern nature, with some traditional elements albeit. The growing of thesystem marked an important aspect of themodernization of thelocal administration in the 20~(th)century China.
More summaries about the District and Township Civil Servicein China during Three Decades in Early 20~(th) Century