The Evolution of the Administrative Divisions of the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty The change from counties to prefectures and counties
Those who are familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms should know that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court implemented it"Province - County - Province"**Administrative division, but I am afraid that few people have studied the origin of this administrative division. Actually,"Provinces and counties"It's the Qin Dynasty"The county system"of the two levels of administrative divisions, and"Province"It was produced when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reformed the supervision system, but it existed in a virtual form and did not officially become an administrative division until the time of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
area"The two-level administrative divisions originated in the Qin Dynasty"The county system"。
The two administrative divisions of counties and provinces actually existed in the Spring and Autumn Period. The county system originated in the Qin Mugong period, and the provincial system originated in the Chu Wu Dynasty, and was implemented in the Qin State at the beginning of the Warring States Period"Shang martingale change", the two systems are combined into one. However, at that time, the provincial system was greater than the county system"Thousands of miles and hundreds of counties, four counties are townships", so the local administrative system before Qin Shi Huang was actually"Provincial and county system"。
Until the twenty-sixth year of Qin Shi Huang (221), Qin unified the world, completely abolished the feudal system, implemented ** centralized rule, and divided the world into 36 districts, with counties and counties"The county system"It really took shape on a national scale. In the early years of the Qin Dynasty, there were thirty-seven first-level administrative areas directly under the imperial palace, namely"Inner history place", that is, thirty-six counties, the number of counties reached about 1,000, and China was officially established"The county system"。Later, Qin Shi Huang equated the Baiyue in the south with the Xiongnu in the north, and successively established Nanhai County, Guilin County, Xiang County, Jiuyuan County and Minzhong County.
However, the Qin dynasty lasted only ten years before it fell. When Liu Bang established the Western Han Dynasty, he learned the lesson of the demise of the previous dynasty and changed his career in consideration of the approval of the people"Counties and counties are combined", abbreviation"The county system", that is, the county system was implemented in the areas under the jurisdiction of the ** imperial court (mainly the former Qin Empire), and the rest of the regions (mainly the former six states) retained the feudal system. The county system was practiced in the areas under the jurisdiction of the ** imperial court (mainly the former Qin Empire), while the sub-feudal system was retained in other regions (mainly the former Six Kingdoms).
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the contradictions between the ** court and the local princes and kings became increasingly prominent. In order to completely solve this contradiction, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted Fu Shuo's suggestion and began to implement it"Push Grace Order"。So-called"Pei En Ling", that is, the inheritance system of the eldest son was changed to the inheritance system of the princes and princes, and originally only the eldest son had the right to inherit the fief, but according to"Pei En Ling", the eldest son can only inherit the title of the princes and kings, and the sons of the princes and kings jointly inherit the fief. In"Payne Order"Below, only the eldest son has the right to inherit the title of the prince, while the son of the princely king inherits the fief jointly. In addition, except for the fiefs inherited by the eldest son, who enjoyed autonomy, the rest of the inherited fiefs were under the jurisdiction of the county.
Therefore, the feudal kingdom of the princes and kings is shrinking day by day, and it no longer poses a threat to the court, but the power of the emperor has begun to expand. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, ** had jurisdiction over 103 counties and 1 587 counties.
As mentioned above, the Han Dynasty"County"、"County"The administrative divisions of the Qin Dynasty are mainly followed"The county system", just"The county system"It was implemented earlier, so that it was fully implemented"The county system"The process is somewhat complicated"Pei Ling"After that"County"、"County"The number has increased dramatically. Just due to"County system"It was implemented earlier, so that it could be fully implemented"County system"The process is somewhat complicated"Payne Order"After that"County"with"area"The number has increased dramatically.
During this period, districts were equivalent to modern provinces, but with less power; The county was the equivalent of a modern-day city, but with less power. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the appointment and dismissal power of districts and counties was in the hands of the ** imperial court, but the district chief executive was responsible for assessing the county chief executive.
County"It was not an administrative department, but was established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty when he reformed the supervision system.
In addition to pushing"County system"Qin Shi Huang also established a series of supervision systems to strengthen the management of local **. At the ** level, it is ordered by Shangshu"Deputy Prime Minister"Responsible for the supervision of the highest level, in addition to the Zhongshu Ling and Changshi to assist the imperial history in handling daily affairs.
In addition to the day-to-day work, the ** Imperial History of the Imperial Court also instructed the Inspector of the Imperial History of the Imperial Court to inspect the various regions, while the Imperial History of the Inner Court received the report of the Imperial History of the Imperial Governor and issued indictments by department. There are fifteen Imperial Governors under the ** Imperial History, who are temporary inspectors who are responsible for inspecting various regions, similar to the modern inspection team. Each region has a governor, also known as a district governor, who is primarily responsible for supervising district judges and others, similar to the secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection.
After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, in order to restore the social productive forces and reduce the people's resistance to the imperial court, Huang Lao Taoism was implemented"Do nothing"He advocated governing the country by virtue and governing the country by punishment. Therefore, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, although the post of imperial historian was still established, the Qin Dynasty's inspection envoys who inspected the counties were cancelled and sent by the prime minister"Prime Minister's History"Inspecting counties and counties, that is, abolishing local inspection agencies, and sending inspection teams by the imperial court to conduct regular inspections.
Do nothing"While rapidly recovering the social productive forces, it has also paved the way for the spread of lawlessness in the localities and the breeding of local powers. Although Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty appointed cool officials such as Zhidu, Ning Cheng, and Yizhong to correct local customs, they could only punish them for a while, and they could not suffer from future troubles.
Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to reform the supervision system in order to strengthen the power of the imperial court over the locality. For example, in the fifth year of Yuan Hao (118 BC), he set up a permanent prime minister's department in the Prime Minister's Mansion to supervise the imperial historian. In the fourth year of Zhenghe (89 BC), he set up Lieutenant Xi, who was responsible for inspecting the capital and surrounding areas, investigating and prosecuting **, including the prime minister, the lieutenant, and the imperial historian.
The second is to reform the local supervision institutions, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty abolished Shi Cheng in the fifth year of Yuan Feng (106 BC)."The original history of the thorn and the thirteen county divisions"It was divided into thirteen counties, each of which supervised the history of the assassination, and promulgated the "Six Supervision Law of the County and State" (also known as the "Six Articles of the Assassin History") to strengthen the supervision of the local court by the imperial court.
However, it should be noted that although it has now appeared"State", but here"State"It was not an administrative unit, but existed only as a form of control over districts and counties, nor was the governor such a person, although he was only a permanent member of the districts, states, and counties under his jurisdiction on behalf of the imperial court. Although he is a permanent **, he does not have a permanent residence.
After Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty put down the rebellion"County"Become an administrative unit.
It was established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty"Thirteen counties"Since then, the main task of monitoring the assassins has been surveillance, but its powers have occasionally begun to go beyond the scope of surveillance. For example, during the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, the rebellion of the grandson of Liu Ze and the crown prince of Qi Xiaowang was suppressed by Emperor Jun Buqun of Qingzhou, and by Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xun and Zhang Zhuang of Jizhou and Sun Bao of Yizhou suppressed local thieves.
In the Xinmang period, Wang Mang not only renamed the assassin Shi as the provincial sect leader, but also gave the provincial sect head the right to command the army to deal with the national rebellion. Although"Provinces"It was still the supervision district, but the supervision power of the provincial head was transferred to the vice-governor, which was exercised by the vice-governor, and the governor of the vice-governor began to be transformed into the local administrator.
After Emperor Guangwu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, the thirteen counties were redivided, and the county pastor was changed to the Qianren, whose responsibilities were reduced, but the Qianren had a permanent position and the right to listen to the government, so the county and township ** were very afraid of him. After that, not only did the magistrate's official position increase (rank 2,000 stones), but his power began to expand again.
In the seventh year of Emperor Guanghe of the Han Dynasty (184), the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out. Due to the weakness of the imperial court and its inability to quell the rebellion, local killers began to organize armies to quell the rebellion in the region in order to protect themselves. In the fifth year of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty (188), Liu Yan wrote to the imperial court, believing that the reason why the world could not be stable was that the strength of the Qian people was too weak, so the imperial court changed some of the older Qian people to provincial governors, and the Qian people (chiefs) became the military governors of the province, which were formally higher than the governors, and the provinces officially became administrative regions.
Liu Yan seized the opportunity to serve as the assassin of Yizhou and became a vassal of Yizhou. The governors of other states also took advantage of the opportunity, so the governors of each state began to formally establish their own autonomous regions, and fully controlled the military, political and financial power in their own jurisdictions, and the imperial court could not do anything about it. After the death of Emperor Ling of Han,"The Rebellion of the Ten Servants"broke out, and the binding force of the imperial court on the local ** came to a standstill.
Dong Zhuo then led his army into Luoyang, and the young emperor deposed Liu Kui and renamed Liu Xie as Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, which directly led to the decline of the prestige of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and the complete loss of control of the imperial court over various places. At this time, the provinces actually became independent kingdoms, and even some taishou (county guards) took the opportunity to rise.
At the same time, due to the continuous weakening of the ** imperial court, the original"Thirteen provinces"It had officially begun to become administrative districts, whose rulers, while still nominally appointed and dismissed by the emperor, had in fact escaped the control of the imperial court, while magistrates, magistrates, and magistrates had been greatly strengthened and had gained full power at the district and county levels.
During this period, the state was equivalent to the modern province, but with a wider jurisdiction and a higher degree of autonomy; A county is equivalent to a city, and its jurisdiction is similarly broader; Districts are the equivalent of modern-day counties and counties.