The framework of the state regime in ancient China included the structure of state power, operation procedures, and division of responsibilities, organization principles and function guidelines of government organizations. Two kinds of regime once existed in ancient China, namely, the aristocracy and monarch regime of slavery and patriarchal system and feudal monarch regime. During the dynasties of Xia (21^st century - 17^th century BC), Shang (17^th to 11^th century BC) and Zhou (11^th century to 256 BC), China was structured in vassal states allies and the system of fiefs. The regime was made of aristocracy and monarch in patriarchal system with the following characteristics:

1.Monarch and senior aristocrats formed a council, which was the entity to perform the supreme power of the state.

2. Monarch and aristocrats served lifetime and could pass on their power to the next generation of their lineage.

3. Monarch had the power to promote or to dismiss aristocrat officials, and the aristocrat can admonish, exile and even execute a monarch if he made mistake. So both sides relied on each other with mutual constraint.

4. One's political status was decided by how close in kinship he was to the imperial family. The state power was integrated with pedigree. During the Spring and Autumn (770-476BC) and the Warring States (475-221BC) periods, the system of prefectures and counties superceded the system of fiefs, so was bureaucracy to the aristocracy heritage. It happened in tandem with the development of productive force and reformation of productive relations. With Qin's unification of China the autocratic monarch regime of feudal centralization was established to the need of historical trend and was hence in existence for two thousand years since then, which featured itself by:

1) The supreme power of the state was all within the control of emperor whose authority was consummate and not subject to disintegration.

2) The throne was lifetime one, and imperial power was not transferable.

3) The son of emperor could inherit the throne after emperor's death, an irrevocable rule.

4) The organization principle of the state power was to make monarch honored and ministers humble.

In China the autocratic monarch regime of feudal society went through two stages in two forms. From the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the autocratic monarch regime was marked by the system of Zaixiang (prime minister). By the time of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911), the system of Zaixiang was abolished and emperor directly executed power of the central government. The autocratic monarch regime without prime minister started to prevail. The imperial authority got more and more esteem while ministers and ordinary people became more and more humble -- the mainstream tendency in the evolution of ancient regime in China.