How many years was the hereditary system in place? When was it abolished?

It was practiced for about 3,000 years, from about 1988 to 1912 B.C. The fall of the Qing government in 1912 marked the formal abolition of the hereditary system.

The Xia Dynasty was the first hereditary dynasty recorded in Chinese history books. Artifacts from the Xia period include a certain number of bronze and jade ritual objects dating from around the late Neolithic and early Bronze Ages.

According to historical records, Yu passed on his throne to his son Qi, changing the primitive tribal system of cedation and creating a hereditary system that has been in place for nearly 4,000 years in China. Therefore, the "family world" in Chinese history began with the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.

The eleven Si tribes of the Xia ethnic group were related to the central royal family of the Xia Hou clan in terms of patriarchal relationships, political feuds, and economic tributes, which roughly constituted the core territorial boundaries of the Xia dynasty.

Extended Information

The Western Zhou practiced a hereditary system of kingship, which was combined with a patriarchal system. The patriarchal system evolved from the patrilineal patriarchal system at the end of primitive society, and was a system of power distribution that was basically characterized by the system of succession of the first-born son.

The king of Zhou was the great patriarch of the world, and his first-born son was the son of the patriarch, the heir to the throne, known as the son of the king; the son of the concubine was the small patriarch, and the king of Zhou appointed him as a vassal, or stayed in the center of the country as a minister or a great minister. The vassal, the minister or the scholar, each for the branch of the big Zong, its first son for the salary successor; concubine son for the small Zong, and then subdivided. The sons of the common people are the minor ones, and then the minor ones are the major ones of their own branches.

And so on to infinity. The King of Zhou was regarded as the first son of Heaven, and was appointed by Heaven to reign over the earth, so he was called the "Son of Heaven". This is the concept of "divine right of kings", and since then this hereditary system of kingship has been gradually perfected.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Hereditary Throne System