Abstract: The rulers of the early Song Dynasty strengthened centralization in the financial field,leading to a sharp decline in local fiscal revenue.However,the difficulties faced by local finance in the Song Dynasty were closely related to the arbitrary occupation and misappropriation of government assets by local officials.Among them,the officials in charge of administration and finance,such as Jiansi,Zhizhou and Zhixian embezzled the most and did the most harm.And those who directly dealt with money,goods and account books,such as the supervisor and Xuli,could also steal and embezzle the official assets.There were also some local officials who made profits through the use of official assets,bribing dignitaries or using inferior goods as superior ones,using their official position for commercial purposes,and embezzling the money and property of the government in disguised form.In order to safeguard the national interests and clarify the local official governance,the Song government also carried out a variety of measures to punish corruption,strengthen legislation and supervision audit,select honest officials,and strengthen official education.However,due to the overall social atmosphere of favoring literati and officials in the Song Dynasty,the illegal officials could not be punished,resulting in the problem becoming increasingly fierce in the late Song Dynasty and difficult to get effective governance.The lessons are worth pondering.

Key words: Song Dynasty, local officials, official assets, encroachment, governance