The picture changes considerably to the advantage of the Chinese as soon as we consider the provincial administration.  The governor of a province, and each of his district officers or prefects, had a staff often of more than a hundred officials.  These officials were drawn from the province or prefecture and from the personal friends of the administrator, and they were appointed by the governor or the prefect.  The staff was made up of officials responsible for communications with the central or provincial administration (private secretary, controller, finance officer), and a group of officials who carried on the actual local administration.  There were departments for transport, finance, education, justice, medicine (hygiene), economic and military affairs, market control, and presents (which had to be made to the higher officials at the New Year and on other occasions).  In addition to these offices, organized in a quite modern style, there was an office for advising the governor and another for drafting official documents and letters.

The interesting feature of this system is that the provincial administration was de facto independent of the central administration, and that the governor and even his prefects could rule like kings in their regions, appointing and discharging as they chose.  This was a vestige of feudalism, but on the other hand it was a healthy check against excessive centralization.  It is thanks to this system that even the collapse of the central power or the cutting off of a part of the empire did not bring the collapse of the country.  In a remote frontier town like Tunhuang, on the border of Turkestan, the life of the local Chinese went on undisturbed whether communication with the capital was maintained or was broken through invasions by foreigners.  The official sent from the centre would be liable at any time to be transferred elsewhere; and he had to depend on the practical knowledge of his subordinates, the members of the local families of the gentry.  These officials had the local government in their hands, and carried on the administration of places like Tunhuang through a thousand years and more.  The Hsin family, for instance, was living there in 50 B.C. and was still there in A.D. 950; and so were the Yin, Ling-hu, Li, and K’ang families.

All the officials of the various offices or Ministries were appointed under the state examination system, but they had no special professional training; only for the more important subordinate posts were there specialists, such as jurists, physicians, and so on.  A change came towards the end of the T’ang period, when a Department of Commerce and Monopolies was set up; only specialists were appointed to it, and it was placed directly under the emperor.  Except for this, any official could be transferred from any ministry to any other without regard to his experience.

4 Turkestan policy.  End of the Hsiung-nu empire