When China entered the feudal society, the autocratic and centralized regime was established, as demonstrated by the fact that emperor had absolute control over the central regimen and the central government had concentrated power supposedly entitled to regions.Junxianzhi(the system of prefectures and counties) refers to the form of administration with local regions subordinate to the central government.
Since the number of administrative departments at county level exceeded one thousand, it was difficult for the central government to govern each of them. To address this issue, the regime above county level was founded to supervise the operation of governments at county level and was held accountable for the central government. Regarding the division of local power, it was the guiding principle of monarchs of all the dynasties to disintegrate the local power and have it fall into the hands of different regional executives who in turn leveraged on each other. Appointed by the central government, the chief local officials had stipulated tenure of office, and they were not allowed to serve in their hometown -- known as hometown hedging.
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