The history of ancient administrative divisions

Administrative divisions refer to the regional organizational system of a country's administration. For the convenience of administrative administration and effective control over various regions, the state usually divides the whole country into a number of administrative regions at different levels within the territory under its jurisdiction in accordance with the physical and geographical conditions, political and economic conditions, ethnic and population distribution, historical traditions, and military needs. The ranks and names of administrative divisions in various countries of the world are different from each other. For example, according to the provisions of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the administrative divisions in China at this stage are mainly implemented under the central government at the provincial and county levels; The United States is primarily a state, county, or city; The Soviet Union was mainly oblasts (ОбласТъ) and districts (PaЙОH); France is mainly a province, district or district; The United Kingdom is mainly Shire and County. Even in a country, the rank and name of administrative divisions in different historical periods are not necessarily the same, and the evolution of administrative divisions in ancient China fully illustrates this point.

China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, with a glorious history of civilization for thousands of years, so the history of administrative divisions is also very long. Since the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, when counties were established in 688 B.C., China's administrative divisions have a history of more than 2,500 years, and have continued to develop for more than 2,000 years. According to the materials currently available to the author, it can be said that China's administrative divisions are the oldest and most well-preserved administrative divisions in the world.

The administrative divisions of ancient China can be roughly divided into the following five periods: the embryonic period (pre-Qin), the county system period (Qin and Han), the state system period (Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui), the road system period (Tang and Song), and the provincial system (Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties).

The first section of the embryonic period

This period lasted from the 21st century BC to the 3rd century BC, that is, from the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, the first state power in the history of our country, to the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang and the establishment of the county system.

The emergence of a state is a prerequisite for the formation of administrative divisions. In primitive society, people produced and lived according to clans and tribes, and there was no need for administrative divisions at all, nor did they have the concept of geographical divisions. With the development of the productive forces and the progress of society, private ownership gradually appeared, classes were created, and the state was formed. In order to maintain its dominant position and effectively control the ruled class, the ruling class needs to implement zoning and hierarchical management, which gives rise to the possibility of forming various administrative divisions. However, it is not necessary to create administrative divisions at the same time as the emergence of states. Some comrades believe that the Xia Dynasty's "local administrative divisions were 'small states' or 'fang states' formed on the basis of primitive commune tribes"; "The administrative division of the Shang Dynasty adopted the form of a feudal system" is incorrect. The Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties did not have a perfect local administrative system, and it was impossible to carry out a comprehensive administrative division of the entire country at that time. After the Spring and Autumn Period, the emergence of counties and counties was the beginning of China's ancient administrative divisions.

1. The legendary state uniform system

Before this century, it was generally believed that there were administrative divisions such as "Twelve Prefectures", "Kyushu" and "Five Fu" in the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. The most typical one is as stated in the "Preface to the Book of Han and Geographical Chronicles": "In the past, the Yellow Emperor ,...... The square system is thousands of miles, and the field is divided into states. …… Yao suffered a flood, Huaishan Xiangling, the world is divided into 12 states, so that Yu governs. The water and soil are flat, and Kyushu is more systematic, and the five services are listed, and the soil is used as tribute. That is to say, the Yellow Emperor had a state system, Yao due to the flood, divided China into 12 states, Yu changed to Kyushu after the flood, and later divided China into five services. In fact, the so-called "Twelve Prefectures", "Kyushu" and "Five Costumes" of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties are just legends.

1. "Twelve states" said

It is the administrative division system of the legendary Yaoshun clan social era, which originated from the "Zhao Ten Youxia Prefecture" in the "Shangshu • Yaodian". Western Han scholar Gu Yong (former?) —4 BC) was the first to interpret "two states out of ten" as "Yao suffered a flood, and the world was divided into twelve states". The Eastern Han Dynasty historian Ban Gu (32-92) wrote the Book of Han. They believe that these "twelve states" were the administrative division system of the Yaoshun era, and that they were before Yu set up "Kyushu". However, Ma Rong (79-166) of the Eastern Han Dynasty believed that the "Twelve Prefectures" were born after Yu ruled the water, and it was formed by the clan leader Shun at that time on the basis of Yu's "Kyushu", and added three prefectures: You, Merge, and Ying. Later hermeneutics mostly talked about it from Ma Rongzhi. Since Gu Jiegang (1893-1980) used conclusive evidence in the 30s of the 20th century to prove that the Shangshu Yaodian was the work of the Han people, the "Twelve Prefectures" is said to be an allusion to the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Emperor's assassination of the History Department, and the names of the twelve states described by Ma are just a mixture of the contradictions between the names of "Yugong", "Erya", and "Gongfang" and "Kyushu". Modern scholars of Qin and Han history and pre-Qin history have denied the view that the "twelve states" are the administrative division system of the Yaoshun era from Gu's theory.

2. "Kyushu" said

It is the administrative division system of the Central Plains in the legendary Yu era, which began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Before the Western Han Dynasty, it was believed that "Kyushu" was divided after Yu ruled the water, but the specific statements contained in each book are different, and there are roughly four theories: (1) "Shangshu • Yu Gong" records that Kyushu is Ji, Yan, Qing, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, Liang, and Yong; (2) "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: There is a Beginning" has Youzhou, no Liangzhou; (3) "Zhou Li • Staff" has Youzhou, Bingzhou, Wuliangzhou, Xuzhou; (4) "Erya Shidi" includes Youzhou, Bingzhou, Yingzhou, Wuliangzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou (see Table 1). For example, the areas north and east of Mount Tai belong to Qingzhou in "Yugong" and Youzhou in "Staff"; Qingzhou in "Staff" corresponds to most of Xuzhou and part of Yuzhou in "Yugong".

These "Kyushu" theories were actually the geographical divisions of the territory known to the Zhou Dynasty by scholars during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, not the administrative divisions of a particular dynasty. However, they have long been mistaken for administrative divisions in history. Before the Western Han Dynasty, it was mistakenly believed that "Yu Gong" was the Kyushu divided after the Yu ruled the water, representing the administrative division system of the Xia Dynasty; The Book of Han and the Geographical Chronicles of the Han Dynasty were the first to mistakenly refer to Kyushu in the Zhou Rites as an administrative division system representing the Zhou Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, when Sun Yan of Wei commented on Erya, he interpreted the far-fetched meaning of Kyushu in Erya Shidi as representing the administrative division system of the Shang Dynasty; Later scholars further extended it and mistakenly referred to "Kyushu" as the administrative division system of the Xia, Shang, and Third dynasties.

3. Kifu said

It was first found in Chinese Zhou. "Zhou Yu" said: "The system of the husband and the king: the state is in the palace, the state is outside the marquis, the Hou Weibin is in the service, the barbarian is to be served, and the Rong Di is deserted." That is to say, the king of Zhou implemented the five-service system of "Dianfu", "Hou Fu", "Guest Fu", "To Serve" and "Desert Fu". "Shangshu • Yu Gong" also said five suits, but "Suifu" was used instead of "Bingfu" in "Zhou Yu"; And it is believed that each service has a certain range, all of which are five hundred miles. "Zhou Li, Xia Guan, and Zhi Fang's Clan" expands the "five costumes" to "nine costumes": "Hou costumes", "dian costumes", "men's costumes", "cai costumes", "guard costumes", "barbarian costumes", "Yi costumes", "town costumes", and "feudal costumes". In "Zhou Li, Xia Guan, Da Sima", the "service" was renamed "Ji", and it was believed that there were Hou, Dian, male, Cai, Wei, Man, Yi, Zhen, and Fan Jiuji. The above descriptions of "Wufu", "Jiufu", and "Jiuji" are all administrative divisions of the pre-Qin era fabricated by later generations, and in fact they are only a reflection of the continuous broadening of people's geographical horizons in the Warring States period or later.

2. The origin of counties and counties

As mentioned above, the Shang and Zhou dynasties practiced a feudal system, that is, "feudal state building", and each lord became independent as a monarch in his own feudal country, and the entire Shang and Zhou dynasties did not care about any administrative divisions. However, in the Spring and Autumn period, the Zhou dynasty declined, and some vassal states gradually became stronger and began to develop a centralized system. They no longer divided the newly opened territories, but were ruled directly by the monarch, and in order to facilitate their rule, they began to sprout administrative divisions such as counties and counties.

1. The emergence of the county

The name of the administrative division unit that appeared in China was the earliest county, which began in the early Spring and Autumn Period, and was originally set up in the border area with a national defense role. According to the existing documents, the first county was established by the western power Qin. "Historical Records • Qin Benji" said: In the tenth year of Wugong (688 BC), "cut down Tai, Jirong, and the early county"; In the eleventh year of Wugong (687 BC), "Chu County Du, Zheng". That is to say, at the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, Qin Wugong first established Bang County (now Tianshui City, Gansu) and Ji County (now Gangu County, Gansu) in the newly opened territory, and in the second year, Du County (now Duling County, Shaanxi) and Zheng County (now Hua County, Shaanxi) were set up. Then, Chu, Jin and other countries also placed counties. "Zuo Biography" contains the seventeenth year of the Mourning Gong (478 BC), Zi Gu said: King Wen of Chu "Shi County Shen and Xi"; "Zuo Biography" records that in the thirty-third year of the reign of Duke Xi (627 BC), the Duke of Jin Xiang rewarded Xu Chen with the county of Xianmao. King Wen of Chu reigned from 689 to 672 BC, and Duke Xiang of Jin reigned from 627 to 621 BC. It can be seen that in the early Spring and Autumn Period, that is, in the 7th century BC, the great powers of Qin, Chu, and Jin had successively established counties on the newly annexed land. (Fig. 2) In the ancient text, county is an ancient hanging character. It was named because these newly expanded territories were far away from the capitals of the vassal states and hung outside the vassals' fiefdoms.

In the late Spring and Autumn period, the vassal states generally set up counties, and developed from remote areas to the interior. According to the "Zuo Biography", in the eleventh year of Xuangong (598 BC), Chu Zi "cut down Chen,...... County Chen"; In the second year of Chu's war against Zheng (Guo), Zheng Bo said to Chu Zi, "Make the change of the king, raze the nine counties" (if Zheng Guo serves the king, it is equivalent to the counties of Chu State); In the fifteenth year of Xuangong (594 BC), the Marquis of Jin rewarded Shibo with Guayanzhi County; In the sixth year of Chenggong (585 BC), "the two counties of Chu were defeated"; In the twenty-sixth year of Xianggong (547 BC), "the Jin people will be with the county, and they will be compared to the uncle"; In the third year of Zhaogong (539 BC), "Jin Zhibei County (dividing one county into two) is not only a state"; In the fifth year of Zhaogong, "Han Fu Qiyi, all of them became counties", "because of its ten families and nine counties, ......, the remaining forty counties"; In the twenty-eighth year of Zhao Gong (514 years ago), Jin swallowed and destroyed the Qi clan and the sheep tongue clan, "dividing the field of the Qi clan into seven counties, and dividing the field of the sheep tongue clan into three counties". At that time, Wu Guo had also set up Zhufang County in present-day Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu. As Gu Yanwu said in "Daily Knowledge: Counties and Counties": "In the Spring and Autumn Period, those who destroy the country of people are determined to be counties." ”

During the Warring States period, counties became the most common local administrative divisions. However, the counties of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were not exactly the same as the later counties: first, they retained the remnants of the feudal system, such as the monarch could give the county to his courtiers, and the county Yin could be hereditary; Second, there is a huge disparity in the size of counties, such as Qin and Chu, which destroyed a country and placed a county, and even after destroying medium-sized countries such as Chen and Cai, they also placed a county in one country, and the small ones such as the county of Qi were roughly one township and one county. Of course, at that time, the most was to place a county in a county.

2. The emergence of the county

The earliest record of the county that we see now is found in Chinese and Jin. Yiwu, the prince of the Jin Kingdom, said to the prince of Qin, "You really have counties." In other words, the Jin State is like the county of the Qin State. This is the ninth year of the reign of Lu Xi Gong (651 BC), which shows that the Qin State already had "counties" in 651 BC, that is, in the early Spring and Autumn period, so some books say that "after the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, countries began to set up counties in the border areas" and "counties began to appear in the Warring States Period", (12) are inaccurate. According to the record of "Zuo Biography", in the second year of Lu Aigong (493 BC), Zhao Jianzi said: "Those who defeat the enemy will be subject to the county by the upper doctor, and the lower doctor will be subject to the county." The above are the only two examples of "county" names seen in the Spring and Autumn Period, indicating that county names were still rare at that time. In the beginning, mainly to meet the needs of military defense, the vassal states began to set up counties in remote areas, which were garrisoned by the king's important ministers.

During the Warring States period, the number of counties increased. According to the "Historical Records of Qin Benji", in the tenth year of King Huiwen (328 BC), "fifteen counties of Weina Shang County"; In the thirteenth year of King Huiwen (312 BC), he "attacked Chu and Hanzhong, took 600 li of land, and placed Hanzhong County". According to the "Historical Records: The Biography of Gan Mao", in the third year of King Wu of Qin (308 BC), Gan Mao said to King Qin: "Yiyang, the big county is also ,...... The name is the county, but in fact, the county is also. In the sixteenth year of King Chu Kaolie (247 BC), Chun Shenjun said to the king of Chu: "Huaibei is on the border, and its matter is urgent, please think that it is convenient." "Historical Records of the Xiongnu" said, "Wei has Hexi, Shangjun", "Qin has Longxi, Beidi, Shangjun", Zhao "placed Yunzhong, Yanmen, Daijun", and Yan "placed Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, Liaodong County". It can be seen that during the Warring States period, counties were generally placed in various countries, and most of them were located in the remote areas of each country.

3. Relationship between counties and counties

Counties and counties both appeared in the early Spring and Autumn Period, but the establishment of counties was later than the establishment of counties, and the status of counties in the Spring and Autumn Period was lower than that of counties, so there was Zhao Jianzi's saying that "the upper doctor is subject to the county, and the lower doctor is subject to the county". This is not because the county is large and the county is small, because the size of the county at that time was very different, and the size of the county in the Spring and Autumn period is still difficult to study in detail. The main reason is that the county is located in a remote and remote place, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and the degree of economic development is lower than that of the county, and it is not as rich as the county.

During the Warring States Period, the Seven Heroes competed for hegemony, beacons were everywhere, the differences between the border areas and the interior, remote areas and rich areas were narrowed, and several powerful countries continued to expand outward, so the border counties increased day by day, and their status continued to improve. The border counties are large, and they are gradually divided into several counties under the county; There are many things in the interior, and the counties are gradually placed under the jurisdiction of the counties, and the two-level administrative division of Chengdu Tong County is gradually terrained. "Fifteen counties in Weinashang County", Chun Shenjun reported to the King of Chu to set up a county in 12 counties in Huaibei, "Yiyang and Daxian are also ,...... The name is called the county, but in fact, the county is also", etc., are all conclusive evidence. It seems that the formation of the county system will not be later than the middle of the Warring States period. In the late Warring States period, the county system was already widely practiced in various countries. However, throughout the Warring States Period, the county system was always a vassal of the feudal system, and it was not until Qin Shi Huang unified China that the county system officially became a unified administrative division of the whole country. (14)

To sum up, the Shang and Zhou dynasties implemented the "sub-feudal system", and there was no system of administrative divisions, and the so-called "Twelve Prefectures", "Kyushu", "Wufu", and "Jiugi" were not administrative divisions at that time, but the ideas of some scholars in the Warring States Period and later. The earliest administrative division in China was the county system, which was born in the Spring and Autumn Period, evolved in the Warring States Period, and was formally established in the Qin Dynasty.

Section 2: The period of the county system

From Qin Shi Huang's unification of China and the formal establishment of the county system as a unified administrative division of the whole country, to the implementation of the state administrative division system in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the county system has experienced more than 400 years in the Qin and Han dynasties.

1. Establishment of the county system

In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang swallowed up the Six Kingdoms and unified China in the 26th year of his reign, establishing the first unified, multi-ethnic, and highly centralized empire in Chinese history. Qin Shi Huang believed that "the Zhou system was weak and was eventually mourned by the princes" (Hanshu Geographical Chronicles), so he adopted the suggestion of Tingwei Li Si to "divide the world into counties and counties instead of establishing a seal of land" (Hanshu Geographical Chronicles), completely abolishing the feudal system, implementing a centralized system, dividing the world into 36 counties in the same year, and implementing the system of administrative divisions of counties and counties throughout the country. This is a symbol of the establishment of the county system in China, and it is also an epoch-making event in the history of administrative divisions in China and the world.

1. Qin County

"Hanshu • Geographical Chronicles" cloud: "Qin Jingshi is the internal history, and the world is divided into 36 counties. "The internal history was the area under the jurisdiction of the capital of Qin, and it was the only one that was not called a county at that time. In the twenty-sixth year of the first emperor, 36 counties were placed, and then there were additions one after another, and finally how many counties were in Qin? Do the 36 counties that were placed in that year include internal history? There are many theories about what came before them, and there are still differences to this day. According to the evidence of Quan Zuwang in the "Doubts of the Geographical Chronicles of the Han Book", which is recognized by many scholars, Qin County is excerpted as follows:

Internal history, leading Gyeonggi counties, not in the 36 counties.

Longxi, Beidi, Shangjun, Hanzhong, Shujun, Bajun, Handan, Julu, Taiyuan, Shangdang, Yanmen, Daijun, Yunzhong, Hedong, Dongjun, Dangjun, Sanchuan, Yingchuan, Nanjun, Qianzhong, Nanyang, Changsha, Chujun, Jiujiang, Surabaya, Xuejun, Donghai, Huiji, Qijun, Langxie, Guangyang, Yuyang, Shanggu, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, Liaodong. The above are the 36 counties placed in the 26th year of the first emperor.

The three counties of Nanhai, Guilin and Xiangjun were set up after the Baiyue of Nanping in the 33rd year of the first emperor (214 years ago).

Nine Plains, the first emperor placed. In the 33rd year of the first emperor, Meng Tian invaded the Xiongnu in the north, recovered more than 40 counties in Hexi (now the area of Hetao), and placed Jiuyuan County, which was not in the 36 counties built in the 26th year of the first emperor. However, there is no strong evidence of the specific time of the county.

Minzhong County, the first emperor placed, I don't know the specific year. But in terms of geographical location, it was built in the 33rd year of the first emperor's reign after the hundred Yue of Nanping.

Among the 36 counties in the Hanshu Geographical Chronicles, Shaochu County, Qianzhong (these two counties are found in the Historical Records), Donghai (found in the Notes on the Water Classic), Guangyang (found in the notes of the Hanshu Geographical Chronicles), and Duonanhai, Jiuyuan, Guilin, and Xiangjun. This left roots for the historical divisions of Qin County. In fact, when the First Emperor unified China, there were no Nanhai, Jiuyuan, Guilin and Xiang counties, which had not yet been included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, the 4 counties missing out of the 36 counties established in the 26th year of the First Emperor in the Book of Han and the Geographical Chronicles should be supplemented with 4 counties including Chu County according to the "Historical Records" and other books.

The above is a total of 42 counties (including internal history). The Historical Atlas of China, edited by Mr. Tan Qixiang, puts the Qin Dynasty in total to 47 counties (15). (Fig. 4)

2. Qin County

The counties under the jurisdiction of each county are as follows: the internal history contains about 40 counties; 8 counties of Yunzhong, Yanmen, Daijun, Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi and Liaodong in the north, and 4 counties of Jiuyuan, Shangjun, Beidi and Longxi in the northwest, each county has an average jurisdiction of 15 and 6 counties, a total of nearly 200 counties; There are nearly 30 counties in the mainland and southern counties, each with 25 counties under its jurisdiction, a total of about 700 counties. Therefore, Yan believes that "the total number of Qin counties should be more than 900 to more than 1,000, and about 1,000 counties." (16)

The division of counties and counties in the Qin Dynasty not only paid attention to the social and economic development and imbalance, but also gave full consideration to the natural conditions, so that the administrative regions coincided with the natural geographical units as much as possible. For example, the Pearl River Delta has Nanhai County, the Taiyuan Basin has Taiyuan County, the Nanyang Basin has Nanyang County, and the Weihe Plain has internal history. The political, economic and cultural center of the Qin period was in the Yellow River Valley, which was economically developed and densely populated, so there were many counties, with a total of 30 counties or more, and several counties were equivalent to a province now; The Huaihe River, the area south of the Qinling Mountains, was a grassy and grassy land with a sparse population, so it was only 11 counties or slightly more, and more than one county is equivalent to a province now. For example, Huiji County is equivalent to present-day Zhejiang Province, Guilin County is equivalent to present-day Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Jiujiang County is equivalent to present-day Jiangxi Province.

Second, the development of the county system

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, in view of the lessons of the Qin Dynasty's isolation and death, Guangjian became a prince. First sealed the "Seven Kingdoms with Different Surnames" (Han, Zhao, Chu, Huainan, Yan, Changsha, and Liang), and then established the "Nine Kingdoms with the Same Surname" (Chu, Jing, Dai, Qi, Zhao, Liang, Huaiyang, Huainan, Yan) in the process of eliminating the Six Kingdoms with Different Surnames (except Changsha), and implemented the system of coexistence of counties and states.

1. Han Junguo

In the early Han dynasty, the kingdom not only ruled the princely states or several counties, but also often combined several counties, which seriously threatened and hindered the central government's ruling power. According to the "Book of Han • Geographical Chronicles", Gaozu added 26 counties outside Qin County (Tan Qixiang's "The First Examination of the Establishment of the Three Counties of the Han Dynasty" is more refined, pointing out that Gaozu actually increased to 19 counties), of which two-thirds of the counties were in the princely kingdoms; And there are many princely kingdoms, "the land of several counties,...... Wu Wangbi has more than 50 cities in four counties", (17) "the big one or five or six counties", (18) Therefore, among the 60 counties in the early Han Dynasty, there are more than 40 counties in the kingdom of nine princes with the same surname and the only remaining Changsha country with different surnames, and only 15 counties under the leadership of the Han Emperor.

Later, Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and Emperor Wu cut the feudal domains many times, so that the kings could not govern their countries, and the officials under them were all granted by the Son of Heaven. During the reign of Emperor Jing, a vassal state received only one county, and the kingdom and the county were at the same level in terms of administrative division. According to the Hanshu Geographical Chronicles, by the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there were 103 counties, of which there were 80 counties and 20 counties, except for Sanfu (three counties along the Gyeonggi region); There are 30 or 50 counties in large counties, more than 10 counties in large countries, and only 3 or 4 counties in small countries. It can be seen that in the late Western Han Dynasty, although the county and the country were at the same level, they were actually large and small counties.

During the reign of Wang Mang, the number of counties increased to 125. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu took into account the situation of continuous wars and the emptiness of the country and the people, in order to reduce official service and rest with the people, he greatly merged the counties and counties. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty • The Chronicles of Emperor Guangwu records that in the sixth year of Jianwu (30 years), "more than 400 counties of the province were merged", which was equivalent to about a quarter of the number of counties at that time; It then accumulated 13 counties and countries, accounting for more than one-tenth of the total number of counties and countries at that time. Later, in accordance with the system of the Western Han Dynasty, there were 105 counties and countries in the fifth year of Emperor Yonghe of Shun (140 years), and it became a relatively stable administrative division until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

2. Han County

The county was unified under the county, the Warring States was already there, and the Qin Dynasty implemented the whole country. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, which was still under the jurisdiction of the county and developed. "Hanshu • Hundred Official Tables" cloud: the county "the county where the princes eat is called the country, and the queen mother, queen, and princess eat is called the yi, and there are barbarians and the Tao." It shows that the county-level administrative divisions of the Western Han Dynasty have the distinction of county, country, yi, and road.

According to the "Hanshu Geographical Chronicle", the Western Han Dynasty had one hundred and three counties in the Yuan Feng period, under the jurisdiction of "counties, provinces, countries, and yi, one thousand five hundred and eighty-seven"; According to Qian Daxin's statistics of the counties under the jurisdiction of the county and the state in the "Twenty-two Historical Examinations", there are 1,578 county-level administrative units in the Western Han Dynasty, including: 1344 counties, 188 Houguo, 30 Dao, and 16 Yi. At the time of Wang Mang, there were 125 counties in the country, and 2,203 counties and towns under the country. In the fifth year of Yonghe in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were 105 counties in the country, and the state had jurisdiction over "one hundred and eighty counties, yi, dao, and hou guo", (19) which was almost one-third less than that at the end of the Western Han Dynasty.

3. The germination of the state

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the division of China into states originated from the ideals of the people during the Warring States period. However, the "Twelve Prefectures", "Kyushu", "Wufu", and "Jiuji" remained in the books written by scholars or rumors, and did not become the administrative divisions of China. The real appearance of the "state" level in China's administrative divisions began with Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty.

1. The state of the Western Han Dynasty

"Hanshu • Emperor Wu Ji" said that in the fifth year of Yuan Feng (106 BC), "the history of the first assassination was placed, and the ministry was thirteen states". Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the names of the 11 prefectures (Ji, Yan, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, You, Liang, Yong, and Qing) in the "Yu Gong" and "Zhi Fang" (see Table 1) to place the Department of Thorn History, in which Liang changed to Yi, Yong changed to say Liang, plus the newly opened border land "South Jiaozhi, North Shuofang" two Thorn History Department, a total of 13 Thorn History Department, also known as 13 states. However, the main text of the Hanshu Geographical Chronicles is very different from the preface: among the 13 prefectures in the main text, there is no Shuofang and Liangzhou, but there is a Sili (Jingshi region), which refers to Jiaozhi as Jiaozhou. Gu Jiegang pointed out that the preface to the Geographical Chronicles of the Han Dynasty is more credible than the text, and that the 13 prefectures were placed in the fifth year of Yuanfeng (106 BC), while the Sili Xiaowei in Beijing was the fourth year of Zhenghe (89 BC), 27 years apart, so the division was not among the 13 states, and the Jiasi should be collectively referred to as the 14 states; "North Shuofang", belonging to 13 states, is exact, the text of Shuofang annexed to the state is the system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, not Emperor Wu; Jiaozhi is called Jiaozhou, which is the time system of Wang Mang and the Eastern Han Dynasty, not the name of the Western Han Dynasty; Moreover, Liangzhou is also omitted from the text of the "Book of Han • Geographical Chronicles". It should be pointed out that at that time, the state assassin history only represented the counties and countries under the supervision of the Han Dynasty, and there was no fixed station, and no first-level administrative division had been formed.

2. The state of the Eastern Han Dynasty

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang was autocratic, trying to realize the ancient system of the so-called "Zhao Ten and Two Prefectures" in the "Yao Dian", and abolished Shuofang and Sili in the first four years of the Yuan Dynasty (4 AD), and the whole country became 12 states; According to the words of "Yaodian" that there is no Jiaozhi and there is "Zhainanjiao", Jiaozhi is changed to Jiaozhou; According to "Yu Gong", there are Yongzhou and no Liangzhou, and Liangzhou is changed to Yongzhou.

Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty restored the old system of the Western Han Dynasty, relocated the subordinate department, and restored Yongzhou to Liangzhou. But soon, in the eleventh year of Jianwu (35 years), he participated in Wang Mang's system to establish the state. Later, the state system of the Eastern Han Dynasty was different from that of the Western Han Dynasty in the following ways: (1) the subordinate department of the school was one of the 13 states in the country; (2) Abolish Shuofang and merge it into the state; (3) Change Jiaozhi to Jiaozhou.

In the first year of Emperor Ling's Zhongping (184), the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and in order to effectively suppress the peasant uprisings in various places, the imperial court changed the history of assassination to the state pastor in the fifth year of Zhongping (189), and ordered the middle of the court to serve as the state pastor, taking charge of the military and political power of a state, and the state gradually became a first-class structure above the county and county. As a result, the administrative divisions of the whole country have evolved from a virtual three-level system to a real three-level system, and from a county system to a prefecture-county system. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao advocated the resumption of the "Kyushu Theory", abolished Youyou, merged the two states, and merged into Jizhou; omit the Sili School Captain Department and Liangzhou, and Yongzhou; Abandon Jiaojiao Prefecture and divide it into Jing and Yi Prefectures. There are only 9 prefectures in the country: Yan, Henan, Qing, Xu, Jing, Yang, Hebei, Yi and Yong.

In short, the administrative divisions of the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and basically implemented the county system. Different from the Qin Dynasty, (1) the Han Dynasty had a situation where counties and states coexisted. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the administrative division system of the two-level system of county-county and the three-level system of state-county-county was implemented. After Emperor Jing quelled the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", he implemented a two-tier system of counties or counties (Table 2) until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Therefore, to be more precise, the administrative division of the Han Dynasty implemented a system of coexistence of counties and states. (2) In the Han Dynasty, the forms of county-level divisional units were diversified, and in addition to counties, there were also yi, dao, and houguo. (3) The "state" appeared in the administrative division units of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu pioneered the administrative supervision area, and added the thirteen thorn history departments above the county and the country, that is, the thirteen states. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the prefecture was transformed from a virtual administrative supervision agency to a first-level administrative region, and a three-level administrative division system of state-county-county began to appear, indicating that China's administrative division had evolved to a new stage.

Section 3 State Period

In the fifth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "state" began to become a first-level administrative region entity. Since then, China's administrative divisions have entered a new era of the state system, and through the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and until the Sui Dynasty, the prefecture has always become the highest administrative division unit in China. The time lasted for about 400 years.

1. The state system from the Three Kingdoms to the Western Jin Dynasty

1. Three-state system

When the Han Dynasty presented the emperor, Cao Cao "coerced the Son of Heaven" and "went down today", and changed the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty to Kyushu. Soon, Emperor Wen of Wei, Cao Pi, changed to twelve states. At that time, Cao Wei occupied the Yellow River Valley, and there were 12 prefectures of Sili, Henan, Yan, Qing, Xu, Yong, Liang, Hebei, And, You, Jing (northern Hanjingzhou), and Yang (northern Hanyangzhou); 101 counties and 731 counties. Sun Wu occupies the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Basin, with 4 prefectures of Jing, Yang, Jiao and Guangzhou, 44 counties and 337 counties; (25) Shu Han occupies the Hanzhong Basin of present-day Sichuan and Shaanxi, and only places Yizhou as a prefecture, with 22 counties and 138 counties. Therefore, there were 17 states in the Three Kingdoms (two states each in Jing and Yang), 167 counties, and 1206 counties.

In fact, the administrative divisions of Wei at that time were not exactly the same as those of Wu and Shu: (1) Wei was divided into counties or kingdoms under the state, and Wu and Shu only had counties under the state; (2) Wei is under the county or kingdom, and the county, the county kingdom, the county principality and the Hou state are placed, and Wu and Shu only have the county and the Hou state under the county. Different from the county-level units of the Han system, there were no Dao and Yi in the Three Kingdoms period, but in the Wei State, county kingdoms and county principalities were set up.

2. Western Jin state system

After Cao Wei destroyed Shu Han, Liangzhou was separated from Yizhou; At the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty, Qinzhou was separated from Yongzhou, Ningzhou was separated from Yizhou, and Pingzhou was separated from Youzhou. In 280, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty leveled Sun Wu and unified the whole country, integrating the south and north Jing, and the south and north Yang into one, with a total of 19 states, 173 counties and 173 counties, and 1232 counties. (28) In the later period of the Western Jin Dynasty, Jiangzhou was divided from Jing and Yangzhou, and Xiangzhou was separated from Jing and Guangzhou, with a total of 21 states.

At this time, it can be said that it has gathered the culmination of the state system, and it is the most perfect stage of the state system. First of all, in terms of state names, the state names mentioned in "Yugong", "Zhifang", "Erya", "Lü's Spring and Autumn", etc., except for the Yingzhou in "Erya", have actual regions; Secondly, from the perspective of the history of the establishment of states, the states set up since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty have been set up except for Shuofang in the Western Han Dynasty; Third, in terms of the actual area set up at that time, it was also far more reasonable than in the past, for example, Liangzhou was divided from the former Yizhou in the southwestern part of present-day Shaanxi and eastern Sichuan, Ningzhou was separated from present-day Yunnan as Ningzhou, from Jing and Yang Prefectures were separated from present-day Fujian and Jiangxi as Jiangzhou, and from Jing and Guangzhou, the eastern and southeastern parts of present-day Hunan and the northeastern part of Guangdong were separated from Xiangzhou.

After the Western Jin Dynasty, the world was in turmoil, and the state system fell into chaos.

Second, the state system of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties

After the Yongjia Rebellion in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Jin family moved south, favored the left of the Jiang, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen, and the social situation has been unstable, as the "Song Book • Prefecture and County Chronicles" said: "The territory is repeatedly divided, or a county is divided into four, five, four and five in the clutch, thousands of changes, and the clever calendar is different." "The north was even more troubled under the rule of the Sixteen Kingdoms, which were divided into many states in the smaller regions under their rule, and the state system was in chaos.

According to the records of the "General Dictionary and Prefecture and County Codex", there were more than 10 states in the south during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and more than 20 states in the Song and Qi dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, and 107 states in the late Liang Dynasty. Compared with the Southern Dynasty Chen and the Three Kingdoms Wu, the number of states in Chen was 16 times that of Wu. After the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the north, there were 15 states in the first year of Emperor Taiwu Zhenjun (440), 38 states in the middle of Emperor Xiaowen, and more than 80 states in the last year of Taihe. By the second year of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (580), there were 211 states in the north. The state is so indiscriminate, the setting of counties and counties can be imagined, according to the "Book of Southern Qi • Prefecture and County Chronicles": there are more than 380 counties in the late Southern Dynasty. It is really "the town of a hundred rooms, the name of the state, the people of the three households, and the empty county".

When the state system was first introduced in the Three Kingdoms, a state generally had 10 counties under its jurisdiction, and each county had 1 or 20 counties. By the late Northern and Southern Dynasties, many prefectures had only one or two counties, and many counties had only two or two or three counties. In some states, there are no counties under their jurisdiction, and only empty eyes remain. There are 45 counties in the Hanzhong region of the Southern Dynasty Qi that are "deserted or without households"; Some two states or two counties are combined to govern one place, which is called "double-headed state and county". The three-tier system of prefectures, counties, and counties has been implemented for about 400 years, and a considerable part of them have existed in name only.

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, a special administrative division system was also implemented, namely Qiaozhou, Qiaoxian, and Qiaoxian. After the Yongjia Rebellion, the people of the Central Plains moved south in large numbers. In order to win the hearts of the people and settle the big clans, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties set up prefectures, counties, and counties of origin in the places where the displaced people moved south according to their original hometowns. As shown in Figure 5, Qiaozhou, Qiaojun, and Qiaoxian were concentrated in the Yangtze River basin at that time, especially near Jiankang (present-day Nanjing) and Jingzhou (present-day Jiangling, Hubei). In the Southern Qi Dynasty, Qingzhou, Jizhou, Northern Yanzhou, Southern Yanzhou, Northern Xuzhou, Southern Xuzhou, Southern Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Southern Yuzhou near the national capital Jiankang were all overseas Chinese states. There are four main ways in which these overseas Chinese states, counties, and counties form a relatively complex leadership relationship with the actual states, counties, and counties. (Table 5) For example, Yangzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty led Shijun 11 and Shixian 93; Commanded Qiaojun 6 and Qiaoxian 13; In the middle of the county, it is also Tongqiao County 3. For example, Xuzhou overseas Chinese are placed in Jingkou (now Dantu County, Jiangsu), which is Qiaozhou; Commander Shijun 6, Shixian 20; It also unified a number of Qiao counties and Qiao counties; There are also those who rule Qiao County in Shi County.

3. The state system of the Sui Dynasty

In the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the administrative division system at the prefecture, county, and county levels was chaotic to the extreme, and the county level was virtually nonexistent. Faced with this situation, Emperor Wen of Sui decisively "dismissed the counties of the world" in the third year of the emperor's reign (583) and implemented a two-level administrative division system with prefectures leading counties. In the ninth year of the emperor's reign (589), after pacifying Chen in the Southern Dynasty and unifying the whole country, Emperor Wen of Sui implemented the two-level administrative division system of prefectures and counties to the whole country. In this way, the three-level administrative division system of state, county and county, which has been used since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was changed to the two-level administrative division system of state and county, but the state system was still implemented. The Sui Dynasty implemented the state and county system for 24 years, from 583 to 607. Emperor Yang changed the state into a county in the third year of the Great Cause (607), unified the county with the county, and restored the Qin system. At the same time, Emperor Yang followed the example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and set up 15 subordinates and assassins in the county, and the post of superintendent. (35) Many people think that the Sui Dynasty implemented the county system, which is because the administrative division system of the Sui Dynasty recorded in the Book of Sui and the Geographical Chronicles of the Sui Dynasty was the administrative division of the fifth year of the Great Cause (609), when Emperor Yang implemented the county system. In fact, Emperor Yang implemented the county system from 607 to 618, only 11 years. Therefore, the Sui Dynasty mainly implemented the state and county system, which had been implemented for 24 years. From the perspective of the history of administrative divisions in ancient China, the Sui Dynasty was in a transitional stage from the state system to the Taoist system.

According to the Book of Sui • Preface to the Geographical Chronicles, in the last years of the Zhou Dynasty in the Northern Dynasty, there were 210 prefectures, 580 counties, and 1124 counties; After Emperor Wen of Sui pacified the Chen Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, he gained 30 states, 100 counties, and 400 counties of the Southern Dynasty. (36) Thus, at the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, there were 241 prefectures, 680 counties, and 1524 counties. According to the administrative divisions of the five years of the Great Cause, the number of Sui counties was 190 and the number of counties was 1255. It can be seen that compared with the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, when the whole country was first unified, it was much reduced and merged, and the situation of the indiscriminate occupation of prefectures and counties by the Northern and Southern Dynasties no longer existed in the Sui Dynasty.

The fourth section of the road (road) system period

The state system has been practiced in China for about 400 years, and the indiscriminate use of states and counties by the Northern and Southern Dynasties illustrates the decline of the state system. It is true that the Sui Dynasty made efforts to rectify and put an end to the phenomenon of indiscriminate occupation of prefectures and counties, but it was also unable to save the state system. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, after Li Yuan unified China, he once changed the county to the state and restored the state and county system. From the first year of Tianbao (742) to the first year of Qianyuan (758), the prefecture was changed to a county, and the county system was implemented for 16 years. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, like the Sui Dynasty, the two prefectures and counties were used one after another. However, in the late Tang Dynasty, the highest administrative division was not a state or county, but a "dao"; The highest administrative division of the Song Dynasty was "Lu". "Dao" and "Lu" were originally the nature of the Supervision District, which was then transformed into an administrative district. This indicates that China's administrative divisions entered the period of the Dao (Road) system during the Tang and Song dynasties. This period lasted from the beginning of the 7th century to the late 13th century, lasting more than 600 years.

1. The Taoist system of the Tang Dynasty

1. Dao

In the first year of Zhenguan (627), Taizong of Tang Dynasty was a province and a county, and the whole country was divided into 10 provinces mainly according to the situation of mountains and rivers. The 10 provinces are: Guannei, Henan, Hedong, Hebei, Shannan, Longyou, Huainan, Jiangnan, Jiannan and Lingnan. In the twenty-first year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (733), it was changed from 10 to 15, Shannan was divided into two provinces, east and west, Gyeonggi Province was added near Chang'an Province in Kannai Province, Dugi Province was added near Luoyang Province in Henan Province, and Jiangnan Province was divided into Jiangnan East Province, Jiangnan West Province and Qianzhong Province. (Fig. 6) After the Xuanzong relocation, the scope of the Dao gradually became customized.

Tang Dao has jurisdiction over prefectures and prefectures, and prefectures and prefectures are subordinate counties. In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan (639), 10 provincial governorships, 358 prefectures, and 1551 counties; At the end of the Kaiyuan Dynasty (740), there were 15 provincial governorships, 328 prefectures, and 1573 counties. At this time, the territory of the Tang Dynasty had surpassed the heyday of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

2. House

In the administrative divisions of the Tang Dynasty, there were not only the newly opened "Dao" of Tang Taizong, but also the newly opened "Fu" of Tang Xuanzong. The earliest establishment of the government was in the first year of Kaiyuan (713), Xuanzong promoted the capital Yongzhou to Jingzhao Mansion, and promoted the capital Luozhou to Henan Mansion. Later, the number of prefectures set up and relocated increased, and it became an important unit in the administrative division of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty Prefectures can be roughly divided into three categories: (1) Zhujing (including the newly built accompanying capitals) and the places where the emperor was stationed were relocated to the prefectures to show that they were different from Changzhou, such as the annexation of prefectures to Taiyuan Prefecture and Jingzhou to Jiangling Prefecture. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were 10 such prefectures: Jingzhao Mansion (formerly Yongzhou), Xingde Mansion (formerly Huazhou), Fengxiang Mansion (formerly Qizhou), Henan Mansion (formerly Luozhou), Xingtang Mansion (formerly Shaanzhou), Hezhong Mansion (formerly Puzhou), Xingyuan Mansion (formerly Liangzhou), Chengdu Mansion (formerly Yizhou), Taiyuan Mansion, and Jiangling Mansion. (2) Set up a governor's office in an important area of the interior. The metropolitan governor system began with Cao Wei, who was in charge of military affairs and did not involve civil affairs; Jin Shi also served as the assassin of the history; In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the governor was changed to the governor; In the seventh year of Tang Wude (627), he was renamed the governor, and he was also in charge of the military and the people, and the governor's mansion became a level of administrative divisions, such as the Yangzhou Governor's Mansion and the Yizhou Governor's Mansion. In the early years of Jingyun (710), the Tang Dynasty had 24 governors' mansions, which were divided into all states in the country, but the states in Jinai were not subordinate. But it soon fell out with weight. (3) The border land is located in the capital protection house. The name of the capital protection originated from the Western Han Dynasty, and there was a capital protection in the Western Regions at that time. After Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty pacified Gaochang, he set up the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, and then gradually added it, and there were 6 Metropolitan Protectorates when Tang Zhongzong: Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate, Shan Yu Metropolitan Protectorate, Andong Metropolitan Protectorate, Annan Metropolitan Protectorate, and Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate.

3. Temperance makes

Its name originated from the Wei and Jin dynasties, but it was only an official title and had no jurisdiction. In the second year of Jingyun (711), Tang served as the governor of Liangzhou as the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, and this name was determined and included in the official frontier official system. Between the Kaiyuan and Tianbao of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, it has increased to 10 sections: Hexi Jiedu Envoy, Fanyang Jiedu Envoy, Longyou Jiedu Envoy, Jiannan Jiedu Envoy, Anxi Jiedu Envoy, Shuofang Jiedu Envoy, Hedong Jiedu Envoy, Beiting Jiedu Envoy, Pinglu Jiedu Envoy, Lingnan Jiedu Envoy. They are all found in the borderlands. After the Anshi Rebellion, the system of jiedu was abused in the interior, so that this military system, which was originally a border pass, became an actual administrative division unit in the interior, and the largest ones were even more than ten prefectures, and the small ones were also three or four. (39) According to the Old Tang Dynasty Book and Geographical Chronicles, there were 44 envoys in the reign of Emperor Su of the Tang Dynasty (756-761); According to Li Jifu's "Yuanhe County Chronicles", in the Yuanhe period of Xianzong (806-820), there were 47 festivals in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the administrative division unit of the early Tang Dynasty, Dao, at this time (after the Anshi Rebellion) was in vain.

Looking at the administrative division system of the Tang Dynasty, it should be said that this was a period of great change in the history of China's administrative division. Tang Taizong founded the "Dao", Tang Xuanzong introduced the "Fu" into the administrative division, and Tang Ruizong turned the festival into a formal system; The administrative divisions of the Tang Dynasty basically became a three-tier system, mainly provinces-prefectures (prefectures)-counties. In the later period, the Dao-Jiedu envoy-prefecture (state)-county system, because the Dao has been a fictitious, is actually a three-level system. (Table 6)

Second, the Song Dynasty road system

After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Tao actually existed in name only, and although the places under the jurisdiction of the Jiedu were many praised, the administrative divisions of the Taoist system were chaotic, which prepared the conditions for the reform of the road system in the Song Dynasty. In fact, the Song Road is also slightly similar to the Tang Road, which is placed in imitation of the Tang Dynasty's Taoist system; Literally, the road and the way are synonymous in many situations and occasions. Therefore, it is appropriate to classify the administrative divisions of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty as one period.

1. Road

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the force was flat, and the territorial division was difficult to take into account, Taizong attacked the old system of the Tang Dynasty, slightly reformed, and divided the country into 13 provinces: Henan Province, Guanxi Province, Hebei Province, Hedong Province, Huainan Province, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Longyou Road, Shannan East Road, Shannan West Road, Jiannan East Road, Jiannan West Road, Lingnan Road. However, in the fourth year of Chunhua (993), the whole country was merged into 10 provinces of Liangjing (Tokyo and Xijing); Go to Longyou, Shannan East, Shannan West three roads, and Jiannan East and West Road as one; changed Lingnan to Quang Nam Road; Two Zhejiang roads were added. However, it was abolished in the second year, so the road system was officially abolished and replaced with a road system.

In fact, in the early years of Taizong of the Song Dynasty, 21 roads have been set up in the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo (979), 19 roads after the third year, 17 roads in the second year of Duangong (989), and 16 roads in the third year of Chunhua (992). It can be seen that in the 15 years before the Chunhua Dynasty, Song Taizong had been implementing the administrative division system of "road" and "road" coexisting. Five years after Chunhua, there are no rules for setting up roads in the country, and the world is set to be 15 roads in the third year of Zhidao (997 years): Jingxi Road, Jingdong Road, Hebei Road, Hedong Road, Shaanxi Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan Road, Liangzhejiang Road, Fujian Road, Jinghu South Road, Jinghu North Road, Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road, Xichuan Road, and Xiaxi Road. In the fourth year of Tianxi (1020), it was increased to 18 roads, and Song Zhenzong divided Sichuan Road and West Xiaxi Road into 4 roads of Yizhou, Zizhou, Lizhou and Kuizhou, and Jiangnan Road into Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road. In the seventh year of Xining (1074), it increased to 23 roads, and Song Shenzong divided Huainan Road into east and west roads, Shaanxi Road into Yongxingjun and Qinfeng roads, Jingxi Road into south and north roads, Hebei Road into east and west roads, and Jingdong Road into east and west roads. (Fig. 7) The Chronicles of the Nine Domains of Yuanfeng, issued in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085), was compiled according to the administrative division system of the 23rd Road, and the Kaifeng Prefecture, where Gyeonggi was located, was not included in the 23rd Road.

In the fourth year of Chongning (1105), Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty placed the national capital Kaifeng Mansion as Gyeonggi Road, which was collectively known as the 24th Road. In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), Huizong of the Song Dynasty and Jin allied and agreed that after the destruction of Liao, Jin would return the 16 states of Yanyun to the Song Dynasty, so the Song Dynasty planned to place Yanshanfu Road and Yunzhongfu Road. However, Jin lost the contract after destroying Liao, so in the late Northern Song Dynasty, it claimed to have 26 roads, but in fact it was still 24 roads.

The Southern Song Dynasty has only half of the country, Shaoxing 12 years (1142) 16 sub-roads: Liangzhejiang East Road, Liangzhejiang West Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, Huainan East Road, Huainan West Road, Jingjing Lake South Road, Jinghu North Road, Jingnan South Road, Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road, Fujian Road, Chengdu Fu Road, Tongchuan Fu Road, Lizhou Road, Kuizhou Road. (Fig. 8) In the first year of Jiading (1208), Song Ningzong changed to 17 roads, dividing Lizhou into two roads: east and west.

2. Prefecture (State)

In the Song Dynasty, the road was the government and the state. Although the province is at the same level as the state, its status is slightly higher than that of the state. At that time, the national capital, the accompanying capital, the place where the emperor was born, lived and traveled, and the important state were all converted into prefectures, and the situation was very similar to that of the Tang Dynasty. According to the records of the Nine Domains of Yuanfeng: in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085), there were 14 prefectures and 240 prefectures in the country.

3. Military and prison

There were also some new units in the administrative divisions of the two Song Dynasty - military and prison. The army began in the Tang Dynasty, and at that time it was called a military town, which belonged to the military system, and was mostly located in the border areas, and only managed the army and did not care about civil affairs. In the Five Dynasties, the army not only managed the soldiers and horses, but also governed the land and civil affairs, but the armies and prisons did not govern the county; In the Song Dynasty, the military evolved into a local administrative division. Jian is a state-run mining and metallurgy, coinage, horse herding, salt production and other professional management institutions, which began to appear in the early five dynasties, but also evolved into a local administrative division unit in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, there were two types of military and prison officials: those who led the county or those who did not lead the county. The military supervisors of Lingxian County are at the same level as the prefecture and the prefecture, and they are all subordinate to the road, but their actual status is lower than that of the prefecture and the prefecture; The military and prison officers of the county are at the same level as the county and are subordinate to the government or prefecture. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, there were four types of districting units above the county level and below the road level: government, prefecture, military, and prison, and county-level divisional units had three categories: county, military, and prison. According to the records of the Nine Domains of Yuanfeng, there were 37 armies, 4 prisons, and 1255 counties in the Northern Song Dynasty.

The administrative division of the Song Dynasty was the highest level of road; The implementation of the three-level system, the most basic is the road-state-county; State-level units include government, state, military, and prison, with the government having the highest status, followed by the state, and the military and prison being lower; The county-level units include county, military, and prison.

Third, the Liaodao system

The Liao, who confronted the Northern Song Dynasty, was a dynasty that ruled northern China. From its founding in 916 A.D. to its destruction by Jin in 1125, it went through 9 emperors and ruled for a total of 210 years. Liao attacked the Tang system, divided the country into 5 roads (also known as 5 roads), each road (road) has a political center called the government, built a Beijing number, and with the Beijing number of the road, collectively called Wujing Road (or Wujing Road): Shangjing Road, Tokyo Road, Zhongjing Road, Nanjing Road, Xijing Road. (Fig. 7) The subordinate units of the road or road and the higher-level units of the county have four categories: government, prefecture, military and city, and the units at the same level of the county include the prefecture, military and city.

Fourth, the golden road system

Jin, who confronted the Southern Song Dynasty, was also a dynasty that ruled northern China. Founded in 1115 AD, destroyed Liao in 1125, destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty in the following year, and died in 1234, a total of 9 emperors, ruling for 120 years. The Jin Cai Song system was divided into 17 roads and 20 roads, which were placed in the second year of the emperor's reign (1142) and the twenty-ninth year of Dading (1189) respectively. No. 20 is Zhongdu Road, Shangjing Road, Xianping Road, Tokyo Road, Beijing Road, Linhuangfu Road, Hebei East Road, Hebei West Road, Damingfu Road, Xijing Road, Nanjing Road, Shandong East Road, Shanxi East Road, Hebei North Road, South Hebei Road, Jingzhaofu Road, Fengxiang Road, Yanyan Road, Qingyuan Road, Lintao Road. In the fifth year of Taihe (1205), Jin Zhangzong and Linhuang Road were located on Beijing Road, which was 19 roads.

The road is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture and the prefecture, and (see Figure 9) the prefecture and the prefecture are under the county. In the fifth year of Taihe, there were 179 prefectures and 683 counties in the territory of Jinguo.

Throughout the period of the road (road) system, the administrative division has the following characteristics: (1) whether in the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, or the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Liao State and the Jin State, the road or road is the highest administrative division unit has never changed; (2) During this period of more than 600 years, three-level administrative divisions have always been implemented, and the most basic units are provinces or roads-prefectures or prefectures-counties; (3) In the previous period (the state system period from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty), the highest administrative division unit, the prefecture, continued to be used during this period, but became the second-level unit of administrative division, subordinate to the province or road; (4) It has also introduced administrative divisions such as the government, the military, and the prison, especially the government, which has been used continuously and has become an important administrative division unit that has been widely used for a long time.

The fifth thrift period

Since the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, a new administrative division system has emerged in China, and the highest level of administrative division unit is the province (referred to as the province), so it is called the province (province) system. The period lasted from the late 13th century to the early 20th century, and went through three dynasties: Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

The origin of the name of the province is very early, and in the Wei and Jin dynasties, it was called Shangshu Province and Zhongshu Province, but they were all central and important offices, and they were not directly governed by the localities. Emperor Wen of Sui in the eighth year of the emperor's reign (588) cut down Chen, and once placed Huainan Province in Shouchun, but it was soon abolished. At the beginning of Jin's reign in the Central Plains, there was a provincial system, and the province of Xingshangshu was established in other places, but it was short-lived. After the rise of the Mongols, the imitation gold implemented the provincial system. On the one hand, Yuan Shizu turned Shangshu Province into Zhongshu Province, and the prime minister was in power; On the other hand, a number of provinces were set up in the local area to serve as the agency of the province in the imperial court in other places. Initially a temporary setting that was only in charge of the military, it evolved into a civil administration, and its prefects evolved from central to local. During this period, after more than 70 years, from the cutting of gold to the destruction of the Song Dynasty, it became the administrative division unit of the Yuan Dynasty after the Ping Song Dynasty.

1. Yuan provincial system

In the third year of Taizong (1231), that is, three years before the destruction of Jin, Mongolia established Zhongshu Province, with the famous politician and geographer Yelu Chucai as the Zhongshu order. After entering the Central Plains, in the first year of Xianzong (1251), he set up Shangshu Province in Yanjing and other places. In the early years of Zhongtong (1260), Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, changed the province of Xingzhongshu, and then increased repeatedly, but until the Yuan Zhen period (1295-1296), the setting of the province and the jurisdiction were still very unfixed, that is, in the 20 years after Kublai Khan's unification of China (1279), the Zhongxing provincial system was not fixed, and it was not until the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century that the Yuan Chengzong period began to be fixed, and the administrative division of the Yuan Dynasty provincial system was gradually formed.

1. Provinces

During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Yuan Dynasty (1321-1322), the country was divided into 12 first-class administrative regions: 1 Zhongshu Province and 11 Xingzhongshu Provinces. Zhongshu Province is a central agency of Zhongshu Province, also known as the capital province and hinterland, including present-day Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and parts of Henan and Inner Mongolia. The eleven provinces are Lingbei, Liaoyang, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, and Zhengdong. Among them, the province of Zhengdong is the state of Goryeo, and the person in charge of the province is concurrently the king of Goryeo, which is different in nature from the inland province, so some people think that there are only 10 provinces in the province. (Fig. 10)

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, many provinces were divided, such as Zhongshu Province was divided into Shandong Province, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces were separated from Fujian Province; Some provinces are too large and are divided into provinces, such as Fujian Province, which has built-in Jianning, Tingzhou, and Quanzhou provinces. It can be seen that the provincial system at the end of the Yuan Dynasty has also begun to be chaotic.

2. Units below the provincial level

The administrative divisions below the province of the Yuan Dynasty were slightly the same as those of the Song Dynasty, and the provinces were under the jurisdiction of roads, roads, prefectures, prefectures, and prefectures. But there are also roads, prefectures, and states that do not govern counties; It is not subordinate to the prefecture or state of the road, but directly subordinate to the province. The prefectures and prefectures directly subordinate to the province are called Zhili Prefecture and Zhili Prefecture; The prefectures and prefectures that are subordinate to the road are called sanfu and sanzhou. As can be seen from Figure 11, there were quite a few Zhili Prefectures and Zhili Prefectures at the same level as Lu at that time. In addition, the "army" administrative division of the Yuan and Song Dynasty had a military and pacification division, a few of which were built in the areas of border ethnic minorities. Some armies are directly subordinate to the provinces, and some are under the jurisdiction of the return route; The pacification division is directly subordinate to the road. In the Yuan Dynasty, there were 185 provinces in Zhongshu and 11 provinces in Xingzhongshu, 185 in the road, 33 in the prefecture, 559 in the prefecture, 4 in the army, 15 in the pacification division, and 1127 in the county.

Although the administrative divisions below the provinces of the Yuan Dynasty were slightly the same as those of the Song Dynasty, it can be seen from Table 8 that the administrative divisions of the Yuan Dynasty were different from those of the Song Dynasty in principle: (1) The highest level of administrative divisions was the province (or province for short), not the road. The highest level of administrative division in the Song Dynasty, the road, was reduced to the second level of administrative division in the Yuan Dynasty; (2) In the Song Dynasty, the prefectures and prefectures were under the jurisdiction of the road, and in the Yuan Dynasty, a considerable number of prefectures and prefectures became Zhili Prefecture and Zhili Prefecture, which were parallel to the road; (3) The Song Dynasty was a three-level administrative division system, while the Yuan Dynasty had three and four levels, and the four-level division system of provinces-roads-prefectures or prefecture-counties was the mainstay.

Second, the Ming provincial system

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang set the capital of Jinling (now Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province), basically retained the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty, only in the first year of Hongwu (1368) abolished the Yuan Zhongshu Province, and the jurisdiction was divided into Henan Province and Shandong Province; At the same time, the province of Zhongshu in the south of the Yangtze River was changed to Zhongshu Province to show where the national capital is located. However, the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty has been chaotic at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and it is difficult to maintain state power without comprehensive reform and rectification, so in the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), Zhu Yuanzhang reformed the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty, announcing that the largest administrative division is the political envoy department, and the administrative power of the province is still the same as the political envoy, so it is customary to call it a province. In the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), Ming Taizu in order to strengthen the imperial power, dismissed Zhongshu Province, and the six departments were directly under the emperor, and the areas under the jurisdiction of the original Zhongshu Province were also under the jurisdiction of the six departments, named Zhili. Therefore, Yingtianfu (located in present-day Nanjing City), where the national capital was located at that time, that is, the area equivalent to the two provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai, was renamed Zhili, also known as Jingshi. Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to Shuntianfu (located in present-day Beijing) during the Yongle period, and then changed the name of the two cities of present-day Beijing, Tianjin and most of Hebei Province to Zhili (i.e., Jingshi), and the original Zhili was renamed Nanzhili, also known as Nanjing. Since the third year of Xuande (1428), the country was divided into two capitals and 13 political envoys. The two capitals are Jingshi (i.e., North Zhili) and Nanjing (i.e., South Zhili); The 13 political envoys are referred to as the 13 divisions, commonly known as the 13 provinces, which are Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Fujian. Because it is customary to call a Zhili District a province, there are 15 provinces.

The political envoy (province) is under the jurisdiction of the government, the government is under the state, and the state is under the county. There are two kinds of states: the Zhili Prefecture of the Zhili Political Envoy Division; Subordinate to the prefecture of Sanzhou. As can be seen from Table 9, the administrative divisions below the Ming Dynasty had the following reforms: (1) the road that was the highest administrative division in the Song Dynasty was still the main second-level administrative division unit in the Yuan Dynasty, but it was completely abolished in the Ming Dynasty; (2) The government founded in the Tang Dynasty became an administrative division unit higher than the state level for the first time in the Ming Dynasty, and the government of the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to the road of the Yuan Dynasty; (3) As in the Yuan Dynasty, the three- and four-level administrative division system was implemented, and the four-level division system of provinces (political envoys) - prefectures - counties was the mainstay. According to statistics, in the Ming Dynasty, there were "one hundred and forty prefectures, one hundred and ninety-three prefectures, and one hundred and thirty-eight counties" under 15 provinces; (47) There are also "nineteen prefectures, forty-seven prefectures, and six counties".

Third, the provincial system

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, in order to facilitate the rule of the homeland of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Shizu still followed the Ming system of 15 political envoys, but changed the north to the Zhili, and the south to the south to the south of the Yangtze River, that is, the status of Nanjing as the national capital was abolished. At the beginning of the Kangxi Dynasty, the political envoy was changed to a province, because it was believed that the national division was divided into 15 provinces, and its system was too large, so it was divided into two provinces of Hunan and Hubei, two provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui in the south of the Yangtze River, and two provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu in Shaanxi, with a total of 18 provinces in the country.

In the frontiers, the Qing Dynasty implemented administrative divisions different from those in the interior, and the central government set up jurisdictions and appointed important ministers, such as Fengtian (Shengjing), Jilin, and Heilongjiang in the northeast, Uriya Sutai in Outer Mongolia, and Ili in Xinjiang, and the administrative ministers' districts in Tibet and Xining, as well as the Inner Mongolia Union Banner under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Imperial Yuan, together with the 18 provinces in the interior, the country has a total of 26 administrative regions. In the 10th year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1884), Xinjiang Province was established, in the 13th year (1887) Taiwan Province was established, and in the 33rd year (1907), the three general districts of Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang were changed to provinces, and the 18 provinces in the interior were 23 provinces in total. Because in the 21st year of Guangxu (1895), the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki to sell the country for glory, and Taiwan Province was ceded to Japan, so it is known as 22 provinces in history. (Fig. 13) The 22 provinces of the Qing Dynasty laid the foundation for the division of political regions into modern provinces in China.

In the Qing Dynasty, the administrative divisions at all levels below the provincial level basically followed the Ming system: the province was under the jurisdiction of the prefecture and the prefecture of Zhili, and the prefecture and county were under the prefecture. The differences are as follows: (1) The addition of administrative divisions - halls. This is the Qing Dynasty set up in the newly developed area of the division unit,

There are the division of the Zhili Hall and the scattered hall, the Zhili Hall is parallel to the government and the Zhili Prefecture, directly subordinate to the province, and the vast majority do not receive the county; The Santing Department is subordinate to the prefecture, parallel to the Sanzhou and county, and has become the most basic administrative division unit. (2) In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, whether it was Zhili Prefecture or Sanzhou, they generally led counties. (Tables 8 and 9) In the Qing Dynasty, the prefectures under the jurisdiction of the province were led by the county, while the prefecture under the jurisdiction of the prefecture did not receive the county. (Table 10) (3) The administrative division system of the Yuan and Ming dynasties was composed of a mixture of three-level and four-level systems, and the four-level system of province-government-prefecture-county was the basic system. In the Qing Dynasty, it was a three-level administrative division system, and it was dominated by provinces-prefecture-counties and provinces-prefectures-counties. (Figure 14 and Table 10) (4) in remote districts and provinces, except in some agricultural areas

In addition to the prefectures, prefectures, and counties, in Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and in the northeast of Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang, the establishment of league and banner administrative divisions. The league is equivalent to the prefecture of the interior, and the flag is equivalent to the county of the interior. In Tibet, camps were set up.

In the Qing Dynasty, the status of the Zhili Office was lower than that of the prefecture, but higher than that of the Zhili Prefecture, so the title of the administrative division units below the provincial level in the Qing Dynasty was generally called the prefecture, the department, the prefecture, and the county. According to the "Qing Historical Manuscript • Geographical Chronicles", it is recorded that since the reign of Emperor Dezong of the Qing Dynasty, there are 22 provinces, and there are more than 1,700 prefectures, departments, prefectures and counties.

From the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the administrative divisions of ancient China went through five stages: the embryonic period, the county system, the state system, the road (road) system and the provincial system, which lasted for 2,600 or 700 years.

1. The setting of administrative divisions is not static, it evolves with the development of society. As can be seen from Table 11, the change is absolute and the stability is relative.

2. In administrative divisions, the status of each region is different. Generally speaking, economically developed regions have a higher status than less developed regions. In the Qin Dynasty, the economy of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River was more developed than that of the Qinling Mountains and the south of the Huai River, so it occupied more than 30 counties of the more than 40 Qin counties in the national first-level administrative divisions, while the vast areas south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River were only a quarter of the counties in the country. At the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty, among the 19 prefectures in the national first-level administrative divisions, there were 7 areas south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, accounting for more than one-third, but most of the states were still in the north of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, which was consistent with the situation that the economic center was still in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at that time; At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, there were 21 states in the country, and the areas south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River occupied 9, which was three-sevenths, and the proportion was higher than that at the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty, which was related to the rapid economic development of the south during the Western Jin Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, although the economy of the south developed rapidly, the economic center was still in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, so in the early Tang Dynasty, among the ten first-level administrative divisions in the country, the Qinling Mountains and the south of the Huai River accounted for 4, and the later 15 provinces occupied 6 in the south. This situation underwent a key change in the Song Dynasty, and the 24 first-level administrative divisions of the Northern Song Dynasty occupied 14 roads south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River. For the first time in the history of China's administrative divisions, the number of the highest level of administrative divisions in the Qinling Mountains and the south of the Huai River exceeds that of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. This change has also largely coincided with China's economic development, which in the Song Dynasty has caught up with the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the Qinling Mountains and the areas south of the Huai River. After the Ming Dynasty, among the 13 provinces in the first-level administrative divisions of the country, the Qinling Mountains and the areas south of the Huai River occupied 9, and although the political center was in Beijing (Zhili) at that time, the economic center was in the south. Among the 18 provinces in the first-level administrative division of the interior of the Qing Dynasty, 13 provinces were located south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, accounting for two-thirds, which was closely related to the fact that the economy of the south at that time far exceeded that of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

3. There are changes in the administrative divisions of each period and even in each dynasty, but the most significant changes are in the administrative divisions at the highest level. Qin and Han were counties, Wei and Jin were the states, the Tang was the road, the Song was the road, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were the provinces, in fact, the Yuan was the province, the Ming was the political envoy, and the Qing was the province.

Fourth, after more than 2,000 years, five periods, and more than 10 dynasties, the most basic unit of China's administrative division system, the county, has not changed much. This may indicate that the most basic unit of the administrative division system is the most stable, while the highest level of the unit is the most unstable.

Fifth, the earlier the administrative division units are born, the lower the status tends to be with the development of the times. For example, the county was the earliest administrative division unit in China, which was reduced to the second-level administrative division unit in the Qin and Han dynasties, and then to the third-level administrative division unit after the Han Dynasty. The county was the highest level of administrative division in the Qin and Han dynasties, and was reduced to the second level of administrative division in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties; The prefecture was the highest level of administrative division in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was reduced to the second-level administrative division unit in the Tang and Song dynasties, and to the third-level administrative division unit in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, the Lu was the highest level of administrative division, and in the Yuan Dynasty, it was reduced to the second level of administrative division.

Sixth, the system of administrative divisions is also constantly evolving. As can be seen from Table 11, the Spring and Autumn Period was a first-level system, the Warring States period was a second-level system, the Qin and Han dynasties were basically a two-level system, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were three-level systems, the Sui Dynasty was a two-level system, the Tang and Song dynasties were three-level systems, the Yuan and Ming were mixed systems of three-level and four-level administrative divisions, mainly the four-level system, and the Qing Dynasty was a three-level system. It can be seen that in the early stage of centralization, administrative divisions were dominated by a two-tier system; In the middle and late stages of centralization, administrative divisions were mainly divided into three levels.

The division is a county system, which was born in the Spring and Autumn Period, evolved in the Warring States Period, and was formally established in the Qin Dynasty.

3. The germination of the state

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the division of China into states originated from the ideals of the people during the Warring States period. However, the "Twelve Prefectures", "Kyushu", "Wufu", and "Jiuji" remained in the books written by scholars or rumors, and did not become the administrative divisions of China. The real appearance of the "state" level in China's administrative divisions began with Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty.

1. The state of the Western Han Dynasty

"Hanshu • Emperor Wu Ji" said that in the fifth year of Yuan Feng (106 BC), "the history of the first assassination was placed, and the ministry was thirteen states". Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the names of the 11 prefectures (Ji, Yan, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, You, And, Liang, Yong, and Qing) in the "Yu Gong" and "Zhi Fang" (see Table 1) to place the Department of Thorn History, in which Liang changed to Yi, Yong changed to say Liang, and added the newly opened border land "Jiaozhi in the south, Shuofang in the north" (20) Two Thorn History Departments, a total of 13 Thorn History Departments, also known as 13 states. However, the main text of the Hanshu Geographical Chronicles is very different from the preface: among the 13 prefectures in the main text, there is no Shuofang and Liangzhou, but there is a Sili (Jingshi region), which refers to Jiaozhi as Jiaozhou. Gu Jiegang pointed out that the preface to the Geographical Chronicles of the Han Dynasty is more credible than the text, and that the 13 prefectures were placed in the fifth year of Yuanfeng (106 BC), while the Sili Xiaowei in Beijing was the fourth year of Zhenghe (89 BC), 27 years apart, so the division was not among the 13 states, and the Jiasi should be collectively referred to as the 14 states; "North Shuofang", belonging to 13 states, is exact, the text of Shuofang annexed to the state is the system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, not Emperor Wu; Jiaozhi is called Jiaozhou, which is the time system of Wang Mang and the Eastern Han Dynasty, not the name of the Western Han Dynasty; Moreover, Liangzhou is also omitted from the text of the "Book of Han • Geographical Chronicles". It should be pointed out that at that time, the state assassin history only represented the counties and countries under the supervision of the Han Dynasty, and there was no fixed station, and no first-level administrative division had been formed.

2. The state of the Eastern Han Dynasty

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang was autocratic, trying to realize the ancient system of the so-called "Zhao Ten and Two Prefectures" in the "Yao Dian", and abolished Shuofang and Sili in the first four years of the Yuan Dynasty (4 AD), and the whole country became 12 states; According to the words of "Yaodian" that there is no Jiaozhi and there is "Zhainanjiao", Jiaozhi is changed to Jiaozhou; According to "Yu Gong", there are Yongzhou and no Liangzhou, and Liangzhou is changed to Yongzhou.

Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty restored the old system of the Western Han Dynasty, relocated the subordinate department, and restored Yongzhou to Liangzhou. But soon, in the eleventh year of Jianwu (35 years), he participated in Wang Mang's system to establish the state. Later, the state system of the Eastern Han Dynasty was different from that of the Western Han Dynasty in the following ways: (1) the subordinate department of the school was one of the 13 states in the country; (2) Abolish Shuofang and merge it into the state; (3) Change Jiaozhi to Jiaozhou.

In the first year of Emperor Ling's Zhongping (184), the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and in order to effectively suppress the peasant uprisings in various places, the imperial court changed the history of assassination to the state pastor in the fifth year of Zhongping (189), and ordered the middle of the court to serve as the state pastor, taking charge of the military and political power of a state, and the state gradually became a first-class structure above the county and county. As a result, the administrative divisions of the whole country have evolved from a virtual three-level system to a real three-level system, and from a county system to a prefecture-county system. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao advocated the resumption of the "Kyushu Theory", abolished Youyou, merged the two states, and merged into Jizhou; omit the Sili School Captain Department and Liangzhou, and Yongzhou; Abandon Jiaojiao Prefecture and divide it into Jing and Yi Prefectures. There are only 9 prefectures in the country: Yan, Henan, Qing, Xu, Jing, Yang, Hebei, Yi and Yong.

In short, the administrative divisions of the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and basically implemented the county system. The difference with the Qin Dynasty is that the Han Dynasty had a situation in which counties and states coexisted. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the administrative division system of the two-level system of county-county and the three-level system of state-county-county was implemented. After Emperor Jing quelled the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms", he implemented a two-tier system of counties or counties of national unity, which was roughly the case until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Therefore, to be more precise, the administrative division of the Han Dynasty implemented a system of coexistence of counties and states. In the Han Dynasty, the forms of county-level divisional units were diverse, and in addition to counties, there were also yi, dao, and houguo. In the Han Dynasty, the "state" appeared in the administrative divisions. Emperor Wu pioneered the administrative supervision area, and added the thirteen thorn history departments above the county and the country, that is, the thirteen states. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the prefecture was transformed from a virtual administrative supervision agency to a first-level administrative region, and a three-level administrative division system of state-county-county began to appear, indicating that China's administrative division had evolved to a new stage.