Reflections | How China’s ‘3 Departments, 6 Ministries’ system worked, and its Ministry of War’s role

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the Department of Defence to revert to its former name, the Department of War, a title last used in the 1940s. He says the move better conveys strength, readiness and victory. Pete Hegseth – formerly the secretary of defence, now the secretary of war – is more hawkish. “We’re going to go on offence, not just on defence. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” he said. “We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.” Not only are the bellicose words deeply unnerving, but they contradict Trump’s presidential campaign promise not to involve the United States in wars. The Pentagon’s website has already switched to war.gov. The decision marks Trump’s 200th executive order since he took office in January and comes amid rising tensions with China following its recent display of advanced military hardware. China before the 20th century also had a ministry of war as one of the Six Ministries, though it might have been better translated as “ministry of military affairs”. At the heart of China’s imperial governance was the “Three Departments, Six Ministries” system. Formally established during the Sui dynasty (589-617), this framework split up major functions under a balanced, efficient structure of power. The Three Departments were the Secretariat, which was the decision-making hub that drafted imperial edicts; the Chancellery, which acted as a critical filter, reviewing and even rejecting drafts if necessary; and the Department of State Affairs, the executive engine of the government, distributing orders and overseeing the Six Ministries. Beneath the Department of State Affairs sat six specialised ministries, each led by a minister who was assisted by a large team of officials and functionaries. Each ministry had its turf and together they formed the backbone of imperial bureaucracy. The Ministry of Personnel was in charge of the civil service, administering the appointments, promotions, evaluations and discipline of civil officials. It also managed noble titles and hereditary privileges. The Ministry of Revenue dealt with land, population registers, taxation and state finances. Its offices were divided by province to supervise local revenues. It also managed mints, state warehouses and granaries. The Ministry of Rites took care of ceremonies, schools, the all-important civil service examinations and diplomacy with foreign envoys, doubling as the empire’s culture, education and foreign affairs department. Then came the Ministry of War, which oversaw the military machine: officers, troops, border defence, weapons and supply lines. The Ministry of Justice kept the legal system in order, drafting laws, reviewing criminal cases and supervising prisons, a role not unlike today’s justice ministry and courts. Finally, the Ministry of Works built and maintained the physical empire, from highways, canals and palaces to weaponry, mining and regulating empire-wide standards of currency and measurement. The genius of the arrangement lay in its balance. Decision-making, review and execution were divided among separate bodies, making abuses of power harder to carry out. At the same time, the ministries’ specialisation allowed for efficiency and expertise: one ministry worried about taxes, another about armies, another about courts. The emperor was, in theory, the apex decision-maker, but the machinery of state was kept running smoothly by this carefully designed system. For centuries until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the Three Departments and Six Ministries system remained largely intact, with some variations during different periods. The Six Ministries can be seen as the forerunners of today’s government ministries that oversee personnel, finance, education, defence, justice and infrastructure. They laid down the institutional logic that still underpins modern governance. As with all human organisations, the vaunted merits of the Three Departments and Six Ministries, and indeed the entire imperial administration – from the emperor to a storeman at a provincial granary – were only as good as the individuals running them. Even the best systems can become dysfunctional. China in its past was certainly no stranger to the periodic failure of governance, leading to the fall of dynasties and the rise of new ones.

Reflections | How China’s ‘3 Departments, 6 Ministries’ system worked, and its Ministry of War’s role

For centuries, the ‘Three Departments, Six Ministries’ system, which included a Ministry of War, was at the heart of China’s governance