This paper makes use of the decrees in Old Rites of Han and Xuanquan Slips to reconstruct the striking hostel expenditure spent in the final years of the Former Han dynasty and the fundamental cause of its high cost.The hostel system is always indispensable for huge ancient states such as the Han Empire.Its users and organizers make use of the structural gaps in the relevant regulations to exploit public offices for their private gains,while the supervision and decrees from the central govement can do little to stop the corruption.As a result of that,the expenditure of the hostel system kept growing and caused great loss of the imperial wealth,which finally brought the doom for both the dynasty and its hostel system.In the period of imperial China,this type of corruption frequently reoccurred down to the end of the Qing dynasty.It reflects the tension between local officials and the central court,which forms one important element in ancient Chinese history.