<P> While before the Han dynasty a peer with a place name in his title actually governed that place, it had only been nominally true since . Any male member of the nobility or gentry could be called a gongzi (公子 gōng zǐ) (or wangzi (王子 wáng zǐ) if he is a son of a king, i.e. prince). </P> <P> The well - field system (Chinese: 井田 制度; pinyin: jǐngtián zhìdù) was a Chinese land distribution method existing between the ninth century BC (late Western Zhou Dynasty) to around the end of the Warring States period . Its name comes from Chinese character 井 (jǐng), which means' well' and looks like the #symbol; this character represents the theoretical appearance of land division: a square area of land was divided into nine identically - sized sections; the eight outer sections (私 田; sītián) were privately cultivated by serfs and the center section (公田; gōngtián) was communally cultivated on behalf of the landowning aristocrat . </P> <P> While all fields were aristocrat - owned,, the private fields were managed exclusively by serfs and the produce was entirely the farmers' . It was only produce from the communal fields, worked on by all eight families, that went to the aristocrats, and which, in turn, could go to the king as tribute . </P> <P> As part of a larger feudal fēngjiàn system, the well - field system became strained in the Spring and Autumn period as kinship ties between aristocrats became meaningless . When the system became economically untenable in the Warring States period, it was replaced by a system of private land ownership . It was first suspended in the state of Qin by Shang Yang and other states soon followed suit . </P>

When did bureaucracy replaced feudal system in china