In the early Republic of China (1912-1949), the Beijing government promulgated the Provisional Regulations on the Rewarding and Encouraging of Industrial Arts (暂行工艺品奖励章程) for the advancement of industrial arts and the development of industry and commerce. It was revised in light of the practical situation after more than 10 years of implementation. According to the Regulations, the rewards were granted by way of business reward, patent, honorary reward and order of commendation. From 1913 to 1927, 122 patents and 205 commendations were granted. The implementation of this law has played a positive role in promoting technological improvement, industrial advancement and the development of domestic products. However, due to the fact that the national industry was still in the primary stage at that time, and the weak centralization of the government which resulted in low efficiency of the implementation, the actual award-winning handicrafts were still dominated by simple crafts, mostly simple optimization of handmade products or imitation of foreign products, but few independent innovations and advanced mechanical inventions, which made it difficult to complete the task of industrialization in China, reflecting historical limitations.