Origin of Village and the Expansion of the Notion of “Village”——A Study Based on the Situation before Tang Dynasty

According to the recorded history, the character“village” and its specific notion appeared first in late East Han Dynasty. The original form of village had come into being in early Qin Dynasty. Lu, Qiu, Ju etc are the original forms of village. In Southern and Northern Dynasty the notion of village had become enlarged. Village had got its social meaning first, which was the necessary condition for it to enter into national local administration system and to become a basic grass root organization. As statistics show, the concept of village appeared with regional properties, while in Tang dynasty law all communities out of the city were called village and village was regulated as the organizational unit. This caused the meaning of village to change in an essential way and it was a milestone in history.