提要工役制度包括國家公共工程的興建制度和勞役徵發制度兩個層面。中國傳統的國家形態是中央集權的「領土國家」，公共工程的營建是維繫國家統一的重要條件，而勞役的徵發與運用是公共工程營建的基礎。工役制度的變遷與傳統國家的土地制度、戶籍制度、賦稅制度以及經濟發展水平和技術發展水平密切相關。傳統國家中的工役制度，是中央集權和官僚體制下的國家與民眾關係、國家與社會關係、國家職能、社會組織手段與技術手段的重要體現。從勞役徵發制度來看，秦漢至三國兩晉南北朝時期，賦役分離，徭役相對繁重，服役方式均為應役者直接從事勞役，國家對民眾的人身控制非常嚴密。隋唐至宋元及明前期，賦役開始相互轉化，徭役不斷向賦稅轉化，雇役制逐漸形成並不斷完善，國家對民眾的直接控制逐漸鬆弛。明中期以後，賦稅逐漸合一，雇役制徹底取代差役制，國家對民眾的直接控制更加鬆弛。從工程營建制度來看，傳統國家的公共工程與歷朝政權的地緣格局和施政中心密切相關，主要包括水利工程、軍事防禦、交通工程和政治與宗教性工程等。從國家權力與職能結構、國家和社會關係來看，與工程相關的機構和職官在帝國政治體系中的地位卻相對較低，反映出中國傳統國家的經濟社會職能相對弱化，政治統治職能居於主導地位。秦漢以來中央集權趨勢不斷強化，而地方政府的權力則趨向式微，公共工程營建能力日益弱化，而非官方的社會力量在地方公共工程營建中的作用日益凸顯。秦漢至明清階段傳統國家工程的公共性也在不斷增加，中國傳統國家職官設置的專業化程度也在緩慢提升。

The public corvee system comprises two levels of national public works: the construction system and the service system. China was traditionally a centralized "territorial state", and a vital condition for the national unification was the construction of public works, which was based upon the levy and employment of forced service, or corvee. The vicissitudes of the public corvee system were intimately related to the national land system, the domiciliary register system, the tax system, and the level of both economical development and technological development. The public corvee system was an important manifestation of such factors in the context of centralization and bureaucracy as the state-populace relation, the state-society relation, state functions, means of social organization and technology. Relating to the service levy system, the fact was that during the period stretching from the Qin and Han dynasties down to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, taxes and services were separated, while the latter was by contrast more burdensome, with the mode of service being direct labor, which indicates a tight personal control over the populace by the state. The span from Sui and Tang dynasties to the former period of Ming dynasty saw a gradual transformation of services to taxes and formation and perfection of the system of service by hire, showing that the direct control exercised by the state over the populace got relaxed. After the Mid-Ming period, taxes and services came to be integrated, and the system of service by hire was adopted universally, the state control over the people becoming more slackened. As to the construction system, the public works undertaken by the traditional state, such as irrigation works, military defense works, traffic works and political and religious works, depended to a large extent upon the geopolitical situation and the administrative center of each dynasty. And in terms of the structure of state powers and functions and of the state-society relationship, the institutions and offices relating to the public works stood relatively low in the imperial political hierarchy, which imparts an impression that in traditional China the state's socio-economical functions were relatively marginal, whereas the political function predominated. Ever since the Qin dynasty, the centralizing trend had been gathering momentum, while the powers of local governments been declining and their function of public construction been being weakened, thus the part played by the non-official social groups in the local construction of public works became increasingly patent. The public nature of engineering works organized by the traditional state after Qin and Han dynasties had been intensifying itself, accompanied by a progress, though slow, in the professionalization of the establishment of state offices in traditional China.