ministry of the interior, and similarly the Chinese representatives in the protectorates, that is to say the foreign states which had submitted to Chinese protective overlordship, were loosely united with a sort of foreign ministry in the central government.  When a rising or a local war broke out, that was the affair of the officer of the region concerned.  If the regional troops were insufficient, those of the adjoining regions were drawn upon; if even these were insufficient, a real “state of war” came into being; that is to say, the emperor appointed eight generals-in-chief, mobilized the imperial troops, and intervened.  This imperial army then had authority over the regional and feudal troops, the troops of the protectorates, the guards of the capital, and those of the imperial palace.  At the end of the war the imperial army was demobilized and the generals-in-chief were transferred to other posts.

In all this there gradually developed a division into civil and military administration.  A number of regions would make up a province with a military governor, who was in a sense the representative of the imperial army, and who was supposed to come into activity only in the event of war.

This administration of the Han period lacked the tight organization that would make precise functioning possible.  On the other hand, an extremely important institution had already come into existence in a primitive form.  As central statistical authority, the court secretariat had a special position within the ministries and supervised the administration of the other offices.  Thus there existed alongside the executive a means of independent supervision of it, and the resulting rivalry enabled the emperor or the chancellor to detect and eliminate irregularities.  Later, in the system of the T’ang period (A.D. 618-906), this institution developed into an independent censorship, and the system was given a new form as a “State and Court Secretariat”, in which the whole executive was comprised and unified.  Towards the end of the T’ang period the permanent state of war necessitated the permanent commissioning of the imperial generals-in-chief and of the military governors, and as a result there came into existence a “Privy Council of State”, which gradually took over functions of the executive.  The system of administration in the Han and in the T’ang period is shown in the following table: 

     Han epoch T’ang epoch

  1.  Emperor 1.  Emperor

2.  Three counsellors to the emperor 2.  Three counsellors and three
(with no active functions) assistants (with no active
functions)

3.  Eight supreme generals 3.  Generals and Governors-General
(only appointed in time of war) (only appointed in time of
war; but in practice
continuously in office)