The most important source for the study of Later Han institutions is the "Treatise on the hundred officials" in the Hou-Han shu or Later Han history. During Former Han, the office of the grand tutor had been filled only at the beginning and end of the dynasty. The Later Han dynasty maintained the system established in 8 BC by which the three highest regularly appointed career officials had the same rank. These were the so-called three excellencies: the grand minister of finance, the marshal of state and the grand minister of works. In AD 35, the founder of Later Han recognized the depopulation of Shuo-fang due to Hsiung-nu pressure, abolished the province, and added its territory to an adjoining unit. Both Han dynasties appointed staffs for the purpose of inspecting the performance of all officials in the commanderies and kingdoms.

This chapter describes and analyzes major structural changes in the economy and society, such as the reorganization of agricultural production, the emergence of new forms of local organization, and the continuing evolution of the composition of the upper class in Han period. In the Later Han period, commerce and industry were not subject to as much political interference as they had been in the first century BC and during Wang Mang's reign. The evidence for the continued flourishing of interregional trade through Later Han is largely circumstantial. Land transportation in north China was probably as good during Later Han as it was in any period before modern times. Scholars approaching Han society from a variety of standpoints have perceived a major change in the organization of rural communities. Social stratification underwent gradual change during the Later Han. The Hou-Han shu describes a few cases of extremely prolonged prominence or of extremely fast social rise.