Research On County-administration Of Hunan In He Jian Era(1929-1937)

HeJian was a powerful leader in Hunan province during the period of the republic of China. He ruled Hunan province for nine years through balancing the relationship between Jiang and Kwangsi cliques. In the meantime, HeJian reformed and improved the county-level administration of Hunan province in accordance with the wills of the Nanjing national government, which made the local authority develop further in the direction of modernization. This thesis is divided into four parts to discuss the general situation of the county-level administration when HeJian was in charge of Hunan.The first part mainly provides an overview of the changes of the county administration system in Hunan province. HeJian began to reform the system of county administration as soon as he came to power. He set up the administration office and the departments within the county government. The county was divided into several blocks and the management system as well. Besides, below the county level,grass-roots management authorities were established in the towns and villages. Bureau was an isolated institution, which was not responsible for the county government directly. The county government enhanced its force and developed further in the direction of modernization after the combination of the offices and establishment of the departments. In order to reinforce the administration and to suppress the communist, the administrative supervision commissioner’s office was set up between province and counties. As a subsidiary organ of the county government, the administrative supervision commissioner’s office is responsible for supervision and guidance of the county government. In this way, the two-stage with auxiliary system as the institutional structure of the local administration came into being.The second part is primarily an exposition about the magistrate group in Hunan province. After the establishment of Nanjing National Government, a system of county magistrate was implemented. For the purpose of a long-term control of Hunan, HeJian attached great importance to the county magistrates. He was strict in the county magistrate appointment qualifications and procedures, and paid attention to the assessment and rewards and punishments. The county magistrates were mainly between 36 and 45 years old, and in terms of their background and qualifications, the ones who received the modern education became mainstream, while some ones who had the imperial examination background were of little importance. In respect of their birthplace and tenure, though it was difficult to avoid appointment within the province, the magistrate appointment within the county was basically evaded. The magistrate was of a short term of office, mostly in a year or so. To sum up the several aspects above,it can be seen that the quality of the county magistrate in Hunan was inferior to that in the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but slightly higher than the national average in the same period.The third part mainly discusses the county administration affairs of Hunan province. In terms of civil administration, there were so many activities, such as the reformation of the administrative regionalization, the reorganization of counties, the revocation of Yang Ming county seat, the establishment of Qing township system, the arrangement of local autonomy, and the promotion of local Baojia system; As for education, HeJian reformed the education management system at county level and guaranteed the education funds, which made the elementary education ofHunan comparable to that in the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang; In the respect of the construction, it was reflected in the water conservancy projects, the consolidation of pounds and dikes, promotion of agricultural science and technology and the advocate of cooperative ventures.The fourth part mostly introduces the constructive situation of Hengshan county as a typical experiment area about the county government institutions, civil affairs, security, finance, and education, etc., especially the education which was unique and had reference significance to the later generations.