Ma Xin

　　School of History and Culture, Shandong University

　　Abstract

　　Early Chinese villages and cities were born simultaneously from primitive settlements and existed side by side. As a significant part of China’s early social structure, they should be regarded as an important marker of the origin and development of Chinese civilization. The early villages were mainly clustered settlements that were under the rule of cities from the day they came into being. Villages and cities usually formed a single community, and their relations were essentially patriarchal and political. The early villages were mainly patriarchal clan organizations which were overlaid by geo-administrative organizations in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods. The mainstay of basic village organization thus became the household registration of the common people.

　　Keywords: origin of civilization, early villages, cities, settlements