And what the big emperors in China did,

而在中国各个朝代中
that they left the village communes alone,

如果人们不上缴赋税
as long as they did deliver those taxes

以供朝廷建设灌溉水利工程
from which the imperial power was able to

那么不上缴赋税的村庄
build flood protection and irrigation networks.

就会被排除在外
So the village commune was left alone as a commune itself,

被排除的村庄则只能作为村社存在
and was not transformed into serfs or slaves.

村社中的民众也不能成为农奴或奴隶
China never really had a classical case of feudalism;

中国从来就不是一个典型的封建社会
feudalism the way how we know it from England or France--right?--

中国社会从来就与我们熟知的英法
or Spain, it never existed in China.

或西班牙封建社会形态不同
Therefore it was the Asiatic form.

所以我们称之为亚细亚形态
A centralized imperial bureaucracy,

中央集权官僚主义