The governmental structure inherited from the Han 漢 empire was mainained by most regimes as a facade behind which a succession of militaristic rulers governed with personal aides and relatives whose status was gradually regularized into a stable new structure, largely “neo-feudal” in character (“neo-feudal” because relatives were enfeoffed as “kings” or rather “princes” wang 王 and “marquis” hou 侯). Every regime in the era of division had distinctive characteristics in its governmental structure, especially among the Non-Chinese Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties that developed their original tribal organizations through several phases toward some semblance of the Han-Jin tradition. Many ad hoc administrative structures and official titles proliferated. The central government of the Western Jin and the northern regimes used the old capitals of Luoyang 洛陽 and Chang’an 長安 (modern Xi’an) as their seat of government, while the Southern Dynasties made use of the Wu-Sun capital Jiankang 建康 (modern Nanjing). While during the Cao-Wei Dynasty, princes (wang 王) were required to take up residence in their fiefdoms or territorial bases, the Jin Dynasty allowed princes to hold important posts in the central government. The highest titles were inherited from the Han, like the triumvirate of the Three Dukes (sangong 三公: Counselor-in-chief chengxiang 丞相, Defender-in-chief taiwei 太尉, and Grand Preceptor taishi 太師 or taizai 太宰) that was later expanded to Eight Dukes (bagong 八公), including the Grand Preceptor, Grand Mentor (taifu 太傅), the Grand Guardian (taibao 太保), the Minister of Works (sikong 司空), Minister of Education (situ 司徒), and the commander-in-chief (dasima 大司馬) and the general-in-chief (dajiangjun 大將軍). Their staff was arranged in different sections (cao 曹). Regular court officials, arranged in courts (fu 府or si 寺) helped to organize the imperial household affairs as chamberlains (qing 卿). The major institution of the Han central government, the Imperial Secretariat (shangshusheng 尚書省), was ousted to a more routinely administrative role that controled the six ministries (headed by a minister shangshu 尚書 and a vice-minister puye 僕射). Instead, the executive policy-formulating powers belonged to the Secretariat (zhongshusheng 中書省), it was the channel through which all memorials and documents flowed to the emperor and it was the agency that proposed and drafted all imperial rescipts, decrees (zhao 詔) and edicts (ling 令). Polticy consultants were gathered in an institution called Chancellery (menxiasheng 門下省) whose main function was to advise and to remonstrate. The surveying agency of the officialdom was the Censorate (yushitai 衘史臺), headed by the censor-in-chief (yushi dafu 衘史大夫). The territory of the empire was divided into regions (zhou 州, governed by a Regional Governor zhoumu 州牧 or Regional Inspector cishi 刺史), commanderies (jun 郡, administered by a governor taishou 太守), and districts (xian 縣, governed by a magistrate ling 令). Most Regional Governors were entitles as military area commanders (dudu 都督 or zongguan 總管). Alongside with commanderies and districts existed a lot of princedoms (wangguo 王國) and marquisates (houguo 侯國). During the Cao-Wei-Dynasty, state-run military agro-colonies (tuntian 屯田) had the size of commanderies and were independently administered by special officials (diannongli 典農吏). The Cao-Wei Dynasty established a kind of rank classification (jiupin 九品) for officials. The access to offices was still open to free decision of superiors, although formally a Confucian education process had to be implemented by the state academy (taixue 太學). The military was built up from a Capital Army that was garrisoned in and around the capital, the armies of the princedoms and imperial clansmen, and private armies (buqu 部曲) of the magnate landowners were scattered throughout the empire and often represented a challenge for the central government in cases of rebellion. The more civil-oriented goverments of the Southern Dynasties often in vain tried to reduce the force level of the national army and that of the feudal princes, because there was a greater need to maintain a large army for the northern Dynasties because of the permanent danger of raids from neighboring states.

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