Abstract: During the making of the provisional constitution at the end of Qing dynasty，many institutions of the
Qing government were undergoing change． The Qing court believed that only through advising and
encouraging officials to learn the new political system could they carry out the principles of the rule of
law． Only if officials took these principles as their guide，then the institutional foundation could be laid
for a new political system． As for official candidates，the Law and Politics School for each province
established departments to implement Western law and political education． However， popularizing
Western law and political knowledge among the large group of incumbent officials was a thorny issue at
that time． The Law and Politics School of Hunan province created the self-study department mode，which
asked the official candidates to undertake self-study through the extramural lectures provided by the Law
and Politics School which gave these candidates an assessment for their performance． This self-study
mode had been modified by the Institute of Constitutionalism Preparation and Investigation and applied to
the incumbent officials，and moreover，the Institute of Constitutionalism Preparation and Investigation
also required the Law and Politics School of each province to adopt this mode． The establishment of self-
study departments in the Law and Politics Schools facilitated the change of intellectual structure and mode
of thinking among Qing officials as well as the adaptation of Western laws to the Qing dynasty．