Abstract: As a process of interactive behavior,governance is prominently manifested as an interaction between monarchs and scholar-officials in the national governance of ancient China.Either as early as the clan society,headed by Shun and Yu,or under the rule of King Wu (before 1,043 BC),or in the Pre-Qin period (before 221 BC),co-governance is characterized in the initial positive interaction between the rulers and the sorceresses and sorcerers,and later the scholar-officials.However,after the establishment of the unified system,the center of governance is obviously biased towards the monarchs in the interaction between the monarchs and scholar-officials.The practice of "taking the officials as the teachers" no longer exists because the monarchical power is not restricted,which leads to scholar-officials' lower social status and the abuse of monarchical power.During the more than two thousand years of unified politics,the scholar-officials are constantly nervous under the monarchs,and few can have good endings except some who put forward political proposals,although their political ambition is always to serve the monarchical power.When the ancient empire encounters the western powers,the scholar-officials shift their political goal for the first time,from defending the political power of the monarch to saving the nation.This not only reflects the changing process of Chinese society,but also shows the transformation process of ancient Chinese scholar-officials.

Key words: ancient China, national governance, interaction between monarchs and scholar-official, scholar-official transformation