The aristocratic system can also be described as a form of "decentralized" system, as the aristocracy itself possesses military power or troops. If the aristocracy can unite, it can generate a tremendous military deterrent externally. The aristocratic system is essentially a continuation of the feudal system from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, although it is somewhat weaker compared to the feudal states within states.

The civil service system, on the other hand, is a centralized model in terms of military power, with all military authority belonging to the emperor. However, the emperor still needs agents to manage the army, such as the military officials in the Ming and Song dynasties. The difference from the Tang dynasty is that the military positions in the Ming and Song dynasties are mostly not hereditary, and they lack a voice in the court, needing to accept the commands of the civil officials.

The advantage of the civil service system is that small landlords also have the opportunity to enter the ruling class, thus stabilizing society. The aristocratic system, however, excludes the "humble families," exacerbating social contradictions. The Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Huang Chao Rebellion respectively broke the backbone of the Han and Tang dynasties, while in contrast, the scale of popular uprisings during the Song dynasty was relatively small. Speaking of the problems of the Ming dynasty, even during the Qing dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion was suppressed by landlord militias (the Xiang Army), and just two years after the Qing dynasty reformed the imperial examination system, the Xinhai Revolution broke out and overthrew the Qing dynasty. Was this a coincidence?

However, the downside of the civil service system is that it grants the landlord class a voice, and this class is more widespread than the aristocratic nobility, leading to a natural conflict with imperial authority. For example, the average lifespan of Ming dynasty emperors was 41 years, which is far lower than that of previous dynasties, and this is certainly not a coincidence. Among all of history, perhaps the history of the Ming dynasty has been the most thoroughly distorted by the scholar-officials.

The biggest problem with the scholar-officials is their lack of national and ethnic identity, as their class nature determines that they can collaborate with any ruler, such as the Jiangnan scholar-officials and Shanxi merchants during the Ming dynasty, or Qin Hui during the Song dynasty. Betraying the country is a common occurrence for them.

Additionally, the Qing dynasty can also be seen as a combination of the aristocracy (the Eight Banners nobility) and the imperial examination system, with two separate promotion systems for Manchu nobles and Han landlords that mutually restrain each other. However, the Qing dynasty's greatest achievement was solving the financial issues, which are, of course, related to this dual-track system. The Manchu nobility suppressed the Han scholar-officials, allowing them to collect taxes effectively. In contrast, the Ming dynasty consistently faced financial problems because no one could suppress the landlord scholar-officials. Even when the emperor temporarily sent eunuchs to gather wealth through overseas trade (the voyages of Zheng He) or mining (the mining supervision), the scholar-officials would always retaliate and completely overturn these revenue-generating measures from a systemic perspective, such as Liu Daxia directly burning Zheng He's maritime charts.

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