The enfeoffment system is a social system in which the Zhou royal family divided the land into princes. Under the enfeoffment system, the national land was not entirely owned by the Zhou royal family, but by the vassals who obtained the fief. They have all the resources and interests of the fief, and they can fulfill their obligations only by paying a certain tribute to the Zhou royal family, which is equivalent to the relationship between the medieval European kingdoms and the Holy See, that is, the foundation of the Federation in the modern sense. Zhou Wang is the * * * Lord (this * * Lord is the leader pattern left over from the clan society, and Yu is the last clan * * * Lord). Theoretically, the vassal's land can be reclaimed and redistributed by the Zhou royal family after his death, but it is generally hereditary. During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the disintegration of the Jing Tian system and the development of the hegemony war, the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty declined, and the situation of "ritual and music conquering from the emperor" was replaced by "ritual and music conquering from the princes". Zhou Wang's status as "the master of the world" lost, and the "enfeoffment system" began to be destroyed. After Qin Shihuang unified China, the "enfeoffment system" was abolished, and the Qin Dynasty implemented a single "county system" throughout the country.

The Han dynasty inherited the "county system" of the Qin dynasty. This administrative division management system is different from that of the Qin Dynasty. At the same time, the "county system" and the feudal system were implemented, including the kingdom and the vassal state. These two parallel systems are also called "county system". Although the Han dynasty was a parallel system of counties and countries, it was still dominated by the county system. In the early Han Dynasty, Liu Bang faced the patchwork of the forces of the vassal states and the background of the six countries after the death of Qin. His primary task is: to strive for stability, to eradicate the princes with different surnames, and to reconcile the polarization between the princes with different surnames and the county system by giving their descendants the right to vote. When Liu Bang fought against Xiang Yu, he created seven kings with different surnames. After he proclaimed himself emperor, he enfeoffed nine kings with the same surname, which made the struggle between the central government and enfeoffed countries protracted. In the early Han Dynasty, the feudal system was restored, and the county system was implemented at the same time, which made the counties and countries mixed and contained each other and played a positive role in maintaining centralization and national unity.

In the history of China, from the Three Kingdoms to the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, the administration of national administrative divisions in various periods implemented the "enfeoffment system" to varying degrees, but the enfeoffment system was not the main body; After the political power of each dynasty was stabilized, feudal countries and post-countries actually became one of the administrative division systems, or were formally enfeoffed; Even if there is a warlord regime, in most cases, it is necessary to accept the knighthood of the Central Plains Dynasty. For example, Ma Yin, the king of Chu in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was named "King of Chu" in 927 (Tiancheng two years), although he was founded in 907.

At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, due to the demise of merchants and the victory of the Eastern Expedition, Zhou rulers began to enfeoffment princes. Children with the same surname are blocked, but there are also heroes with different surnames. Through the title, Zhou Tianzi distributed land and residents to vassal states, asking them to establish vassal states in their fiefs. The vassal has the right to manage the residents in the fief and to enfeoffment his fief and residents to his relatives, which is called the vassal doctor. Governors must obey the orders of the Zhou emperor; Tribute should be paid regularly, and you should always be ready to lead your samurai and army and accept the command of the Zhou Emperor. The enfeoffment system formed a hierarchical system headed by Zhou Tianzi, which was the basic structure of Zhou society. Although the county system was mainly implemented after Qin dynasty, the enfeoffment system still existed in a certain range.