Two Traditional Chinese History Literature review

Two Traditional Chinese History - Literature review Example As the top-most military commander of the army, he used the military to flaunt his power and force his policies across society. The end result was diminished power of the local governments and a strengthened centralized authority. As soon as the dynasty came to power, semi-autonomous kings at the local level threatened the authority of the central government under the emperor (Shu-hui 121). But in response, the emperor and the central authorities substantially weakened the influence of the regional administrators by directing the imperial court to implement reforms. Such actions were in response to serious challenges to the central authority by regionally-instigated movements such as the Rebellion of the Seven States. The emperor was the chief appointing officer; all government employees with at least 600 heaps of grain in pay were appointed by him with the assistance of the advisors, who assessed the qualification of each candidate (Shu-hui 122). The empress dowager served as the emperors real or figurative mother and was practically more influential than the holder of the throne. By virtue of her ability to override the emperor’s decisions, power was technically held by the two at the expense of regional administrations. The emperor could occasionally delegate his executive powers to a member of the central government, especially when some criminals needed to be executed extra-judicially but the emperor was ill-prepared to carry the baggage. According to Shu-hui, Han managed to centralize power for exercising by the top-most members of the bureaucracy, who were charged with executing out advisory opinion, censorial duties, policymaking, and judicial functions in administering the kingdom (152).  Ã‚