There is an old Chinese saying: "The current manager is better than the county official." "China has a vast land and abundant resources, providing rich resources for the people living here. Even during the period of Emperor Qianlong, ** was rich in all kinds of resources, and there was everything.
Although the vast land brings abundant food, the size of the place also presents management challenges. After Qin Shi Huang completed the unification, he began to pay attention to the issue of local management, in order to achieve the first centralization, he unified weights and measures, and implemented the county system.
In the Qin Dynasty, the magistrate with more than 10,000 households was called the county magistrate, and the magistrate with less than 10,000 households was called the county magistrate. It wasn't until the Song Dynasty that Zhixian really appeared. What is the difference between a county and a prefectural order?
How do their job responsibilities differ?
Qingtian Master Bao Zheng and Hai Rui are both famous in ancient times. During the Song Dynasty, Bao Zheng served as a county magistrate in Tianchang County, cracked several major cases, and was remembered by history.
During the Ming Dynasty, Hai Rui also served as a magistrate and handled several sensational cases. So, who is bigger in the official position of the two of them? To answer this question, we need to understand the administrative system of ancient China.
After the Qin Dynasty, China implemented a county system, and the administrators of the counties were called county orders. Although the county system was not created by Qin Shi Huang, it had already appeared in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Therefore, from this point of view, Bao Zheng's official position is the same as Hai Rui's official position, both are county orders. However, the times in which they lived were different from the counties in which they served as county magistrates, Bao Zheng served as county magistrates in Tianchang County, while Hai Rui served as county magistrates in Xingguo County.
Although the county system founded by Xiong Tong, the king of Chuwu, was not perfect at first, it was not until the early Warring States period that the post of county commander began to be added with the changes in the social situation and the development of the system.
However, it was Qin Shi Huang who really made the county system widely implemented. In order to keep power firmly in his hands, he established the county system, dividing the imperial city into thirty-six county towns, and naming the cities in the county towns as county seats.
The ** of these 36 county towns were all sent by the emperor himself, and the chief of the county ** was selected locally from the county **. The main purpose of Qin Shi Huang to adopt this method is to achieve the unification of centralization and adaptation to local conditions, and only by sending people he trusts to the local area can he truly realize the communication and distribution of information.
At the same time, after these people sent from ** arrive in the local area, they must fully consider the actual situation of the local area and select people who are convinced by the local people to serve as county commanders.
In order to strengthen his control over the locality, Qin Shi Huang sent the ministers of ** to the county seat to serve as **. However, the scope of a county town is too vast, and it seems too hasty for the locals to choose their own county heads, township heads, and pavilion heads.
This leads to excessive local autonomy, which can lead to corruption and uncontrollable incidents. During the Qin Dynasty, two positions were set up, the county magistrate and the county magistrate, of which the rank and jurisdiction of the county magistrate exceeded that of the county magistrate.
Prefectural order (still) Although the prefectural magistrate and the prefectural magistrate have different positions, they also have different treatments, with the prefectural ordinance ranging from 600 to 1,000 koku, while the prefectural magistrate is paid between 300 and 500 koku.
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it inherited the official system of the Qin Dynasty and made adjustments. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the population was small and there were no counties with more than 10,000 homes, so in the process of reform, the official document abolished the title of county magistrate and only retained the county order.
Since then, prefectural ordinances have been widely used.
Before the Tang Dynasty, the county magistrate was the highest local administrator, but in the late Tang Dynasty, there were frequent changes of local power, and the jurisdiction of the local ** was ambiguous, resulting in frequent turnover and vacancies in the post of county magistrate.
After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, **sent ** people to manage the place, this person is called Zhixian, and the full name is Zhixian County. After stabilizing the situation, in order to grasp the local power, the ** regime no longer appoints fixed county orders, but often sends *** to the local **, the full name of this kind of county is called the right to know a certain county affairs.
In the early Song Dynasty, the county order and the magistrate could exist at the same time, and sometimes even one person would use both titles. However, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the county governor completely replaced the status of the county order.
*Prefer to dispatch a prefectural magistrate to administer the local government rather than a prefectural order elected by the local government. As time passed, the number of prefectures increased, and the number of prefectures became fewer and fewer. Some people who were originally called county orders no longer call themselves county orders, and they want to add the word "knowledge" in front of them, which can not only increase face, but also facilitate promotion.
As a result, the prefectural ordinance gradually disappeared. This kind of system has effectively strengthened the centralization of power and maintained the unity of the government and the localities. However, as more and more ** are sent to the localities, they are no longer willing to stay for a long time, and they all hope to return to the center of power and return to the capital to be officials.
History tells us that although there is only one word difference between the county magistrate and the county order, there are obvious differences in terms of salary, position, jurisdiction and way of serving. The magistrates of the Song Dynasty were the "pro-people officials" who were distributed, and they were no longer as uncontrolled as the previous dynasty.
For **, they are their own eyes, and for the locality, they are the parents of the official, so the county also has the title of "Baili Hou". Normally, the family background of the magistrate is better than that of the county order, and most of the magistrates will be transferred to work in ** or other more affluent places by the imperial court as soon as their term of office expires.
The prefectural orders are elected by the local government, and if they do not have outstanding political performance, they usually have no chance of promotion, and even if they have excellent political performance, they rarely have the opportunity to work in the capital.
They are local know-it-alls themselves, and most will choose to stay in their hometown for the rest of their lives. Therefore, in the early Song Dynasty, the local county commanders did not dare to offend the magistrate, because for them, the magistrate was as important as the Beijing official.
After figuring out the responsibilities and ** of the county magistrate and the prefectural order, let's take a closer look at the government affairs that they are responsible for. During the Qin Dynasty, the power of the county magistrate depended on the authorization of its superiors, and they were in charge of all matters in a city, from major life lawsuits to daily weddings and funerals.
In addition to making decisions for the people, they also have to serve the best, such as disaster relief, opening positions, selecting talents, etc. Take Li Mi's "county persecution, urging ministers to go to the road" written in "Chen Qing Table" as an example, the "county" here refers to the county order.
From the time of Qin Shi Huang to the Han Dynasty, the county commanders had a wide range of powers, and they were able to judge and select talents, so they could sometimes cover the sky with one hand. However, if there is an irresponsible or power-seeking prefectural ordinance, the livelihood of the local people will be affected.
During the Song Dynasty, in order to improve the situation of opening warehouses for disaster relief, the role of the prefect was strengthened. Compared with the county magistrate, the responsibilities of the county magistrate are more extensive, and they are not only responsible for managing local affairs, but also responsible for supervising the county magistrate to prevent it from abusing its power, doing illegal things for personal gain, defrauding superiors, and concealing the truth.
This was largely a reflection on the secession of feudal towns in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, which the Song emperor hated and therefore placed great emphasis on monitoring to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
In the early years of the Song Dynasty, in order to consolidate his power, the emperor implemented a series of measures, one of which was to take part of the local personnel appointment and dismissal powers. In the first month of the fourth year of Kaibao, Song Taizu issued a decree, clearly stipulating that "from now on, the election authorization of the county-level ** will be firmly controlled by the **".
This allows for more effective selection and selection of talents, thus providing a broad political arena for literati to display their talents. At the same time, because the Northern Song Dynasty adhered to the basic national policy of emphasizing literature over military force, the magistrates also had more opportunities to perform.
With the continuous improvement of the imperial examination system, many outstanding students have also been able to become officials. As a result, the overall quality of the local magistrates in the Song Dynasty also improved significantly.
From the Song Dynasty onwards, the status of the county magistrate and the county magistrate gradually merged, and he became the highest magistrate at the county level, responsible for managing household registration, taxes, forced labor, money, food, disaster relief, litigation, prison and other affairs, and needed to be familiar with the imperial court policies and understand the situation at the grassroots level.
However, by the Yuan Dynasty, the power of the magistrate was weakened. It was not until the establishment of the Ming Dynasty that the status of the county magistrate was improved, and he became the emperor's first person, responsible for handling some important cases, and handed over some ordinary civil cases to his subordinates.
In ancient times, the county magistrate and the magistrate were the parent officials of the place, responsible for the affairs of a place, from grain to **, they had to manage. Since the state has cut the staffing and let the people around them withdraw, leaving only one assistant, they have a heavy workload.
In addition, the wages of ** are generally very low, and many counties have to rely on side jobs to make a living, so the corruption situation was very serious in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. Most of the ** system of the Qing Dynasty was copied from the Ming Dynasty, so the situation of Zhixian was similar to that of the Ming Dynasty.
In ancient times, as long as the above was not checked, they could do anything, so the Song Dynasty was very concerned about the integrity of the county. The magistrate not only affects the development of a place, but also affects the safety of the whole country, so some people once said that "the rise and fall of the country is also in this position".
* The evil thoughts bred by the power of the head snake in the middle of the land make the county and the county order despise the people and pursue personal interests, which coincides with the aphorism of "the rise and fall of the country, and it is also in this post", which is worthy of our deep thought and vigilance.
The downfall of many dynasties stems from the improper governance of the county order, the so-called thousand-mile embankment collapsed in the anthill, a county is not well governed, how can we talk about the governance of a county, a city, a province or even a country?
What is the future of such a country? I think you have a deep understanding of the difference between the county magistrate and the county magistrate, and we live in such a society under the rule of law, which provides protection for our rights and interests.
Although today's local authorities are no longer arbitrary and arbitrary, we still need to make good use of the power of reporting and supervision in our hands to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy.