The foundation of the Five Dynasties and the Ten States was due to the political independence of the local military commissisoners ( 節度使) that challenged the power of the central government. Although the general structure of government and administration was inherited from the Tang Dynasty, an important task of the rulers of the Five Dynasties and the Ten States was to reduce the power of the military commissioners and the military in general - although virtually every imperial founder had been a military commissioner himself. The imperial armies to protect the capital (jinjun 禁軍) were not only garrisoned around the capital but should have a representative unit in each of the local seats of the military commissionaries. The commissionaries were further not allowed to govern from one seat and to control one unit for more that a certain time but were rotated to another military district (fanzhen 藩鎮). The districts were divided in order to reduce the military power base. Another measurer to reduce the power of the military commissioners was that their office was joined with some civil tasks. Their concentration on military tasks was therefore reduced, and these were taken over by officials in the central government. Zhu Wen 朱溫, first emperor of Later Liang 後梁, destroyed the power of the eunuch palaces secretaries (shumishi 樞密使) and made this office the new central observance of military affairs, the shumishi became the military affairs commissioner. Furthermore, the position of the grand counsellors (zaixiang 宰相) was strengthened - the effect was a trend to more civilization within the government, or rather the fact that military officials took over civil tasks within the government. These measures created the base for the civilian character of the following Song Dynasty 宋. The fiscal offices, during Tang occupied by four persons, were now unified in the hands of a state fiscal commissioner (sansishi 三司使). The tax burden the population had to bear was quite heavy, especially in the north were sources were short and the external military pressure high. Except the two taxes in summer and autumn, the "double tax" (liangshui 兩稅), many miscellaneous taxes were drawn from peasants and merchants. During the Later Zhou 後周 period taxes were reduced and more inheritable land was distributed to the peasants. The law codex of the Five Dynasties followed the Tang codex. During Later Zhou some changes were undertaken in the Da Zhou xingtong 大周刑統 codex that built a base for the Song codices of the next historical period.

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