Chapter 20 Chapter 6 Chiji Looks Closer, Upper, Middle, and Lower——Changes in the ranks of administrative divisions

Counties, as grassroots administrative districts, have been divided into ranks since the Qin and Han Dynasties. "Hanshu Baiguan Gongqing Biao" contains: "A county with more than 10,000 households is an order, and its rank is from a thousand stones to six hundred stones; if it is reduced by ten thousand households, it is long, and its rank is from five hundred stones to three hundred stones."It shows that at that time, counties were divided into two levels based on 10,000 households. The chiefs of large counties were called orders, and the chiefs of small counties were called magistrates. This was first established in the Qin Dynasty and later inherited by the Western Han Dynasty.

"Continued Han Shu Baiguan Zhi" also said: "For each county, town, and road, the big one will set up one person, a thousand stones; For orders, dissatisfaction is for growth.” The system of the Eastern Han Dynasty is slightly different here, with more than 10,000 households still a large county, and those with less than 10,000 households seem to be divided into two classes, or can be divided into sub-counties and small counties. Theoretically speaking, the above grading criteria indicate that the grading of Qin and Han counties is based on the number of household registrations in the county.But there are actually many exceptions.For example, the ranks of counties in frontier areas are relatively high, and hundreds of households can be appointed as county magistrates. This is because of the importance of geographical location; the ranks of counties in economically developed areas are relatively low. The land in Nanyang, Henan Province is fertile and the population In counties with 40,000 to 50,000 households, there are only county magistrates; although there are many households in the seven counties in the south of the Yangtze River, only Linxiang (now Changsha), Nanchang, and Wu (now Suzhou) have magistrates.There are also some special cases, such as enfeoffment to nobles, even though they are small, orders can be issued.During Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yang'an in Runan County was granted to his daughter as Tangmu Township, so the governor of the town ordered that after the death of the princess, the Yang'an Order was relegated to Yang'an Chang.In the Han Dynasty, there were four types of county-level administrative districts: county, road, city, and Hou.

It can be seen that the ranks of counties are not completely divided by the number of household registrations, but are also related to their status, importance, complexity of duties, and the economic level of the region. Hukou flourished in the Han Dynasty. According to the "Book of Han", there were 12,233,062 households in the second year of Emperor Ping's Yuanshi (AD 2). The total number of counties at that time was roughly 1,587, with an average of 7,708 households in each county.It can be seen from this that there were many counties with more than 10,000 households at that time, so 10,000 households can be used as the yardstick for dividing counties.However, after the great chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty and the disputes among the Three Kingdoms, the population was greatly reduced. In addition, the gentry concealed the number of farmers and other reasons. The household registration statistics in the Western Jin Dynasty were only 2,459,840 households, only 1/5 of that in the Western Han Dynasty, and the number of counties was still 1,232. Only about 2000 households.Therefore, the grading standards for counties are greatly reduced, with 300 households, more than 300 households, more than 500 households, more than 1,000 households, more than 1,500 households, and more than 3,000 households divided into six grades.

All dynasties from the Wei and Jin Dynasties followed the Qin and Han systems, where the big ones set up orders, and the small ones set up chiefs.Jin Ling said: "Counties with more than 1,000 households and prefectures and counties with more than 500 households are all orders. If you are dissatisfied with this, you are the leader." It can be seen that although counties and counties are divided into six levels, they can be classified into two levels. Large counties with more than 1,000 households are large counties. Counties with less than 1,000 households are considered small counties. Compared with the Han Dynasty, the standard for subdividing counties has been reduced to 1/10.As for the county and the county, because of its important status, more than 500 households have been treated as big counties, and orders can be issued.

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, the standard of setting orders was further lowered.According to the "Book of Songs·Zhou Zhi", among the thousands of counties in the Liu Song Dynasty, only 78 counties had governors, 160 counties were the country, and had prime ministers, and the remaining thousand counties had county magistrates.In some areas, there are only dozens of households in counties, and orders are also issued.It can be seen that the practice of using magistrates as symbols of large and small counties has gradually come to an end after six or seven hundred years, and another new principle is needed for classification.Therefore, Chen Shi no longer sees the title of county magistrate, but divides counties into two grades. County magistrates with more than 5,000 households have a rank of 1,000 shi, ranking eighth;

The grading of counties in the Northern Dynasties is not very clear, although "Wei Shu·Guan Shi Zhi" contains: "Cao Province was established in the first year of the emperor's first year (396 A.D.)... For foreigners, there are unprepared for the governor, prefect, order, and chief. If you want to, let them go." However, all the records in the historical records are county magistrates, so it can be seen that the county magistrate's conferring has been overused at that time, and it is no longer a symbol of a large county.However, the concept of large and small counties still exists, because the enfeoffment system of the Northern Wei Dynasty still has records of Hou enfeoffing large counties and Zifeng small counties.It's just that the standards for the size of counties are no longer clear. I only know that the ranks of counties at this time are divided into upper, middle and lower.Later, the Northern Qi Dynasty was further subdivided into nine classes, that is, each class was further divided into three classes among the upper, middle and lower classes, but the classification standard was not clearly stated in history.Only the Northern Zhou Dynasty system is relatively clear, and the population is still divided into five grades, that is, households with more than 7,000, more than 4,000, more than 2,000, more than 500, and less than 500.

From the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to grading by the number of households in the county, the grading of the county where the capital is located was clearly placed above all counties.Therefore, the Luoyang magistrate (and the magistrates of Jing Zhaoyin, Zuo Fengyi, and You Fufeng) had a higher status than all other county magistrates.Later, Luoyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Ye, Linzhang, and Cheng'an in the Northern Qi Dynasty (three counties in the same city), Chang'an and Wannian in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (two counties in the same city), and Jiankang in Chen's counties were all above the counties.

In the early Sui Dynasty, the three levels of prefectures and counties were divided into nine levels.Later, the counties were dismissed, and the counties were unified by the prefectures, each of which was still ranked ninth.In the later period of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, the nine-class prefectures and counties were changed into four classes: upper, middle, middle and lower, and lower.Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dismissed prefectures and set up counties, and redefined the classification standards.The four counties of Daxing, Chang'an, Luoyang, and Henan, where the capital and accompanying capital are located, are placed at the top of all counties in the country, and they are called Jing County.The other counties are "ranked according to the leisure dramas and important points under their control."The so-called "leisure drama" refers to the complexity and simplicity of things, and "importance" refers to the characteristics of geographical location.It shows that the grading standard is no longer purely based on the number of household registrations.Although this situation had already been seen in the Han Dynasty, it was not clearly stipulated until the Sui Dynasty.However, it is still unclear how the Sui Dynasty classified according to leisure drama and Chongyao.Another point must be mentioned. Although the county magistrates almost disappeared in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, according to historical records, there was still a rule in the Liang Dynasty that a large county was the magistrate and a small county was the magistrate.Although there was no regulation in the Sui Dynasty, there was still a distinction between county magistrates and chiefs.

Beginning in the Tang Dynasty, the distinction between magistrates and magistrates was officially abolished, and all county magistrates called orders.The grading standard of counties is also clearly stipulated as a combination of status, household registration and geographical conditions, and counties across the country are divided into Chi, Ji, Wang, Jin, Shang, Zhong, and Xia.The county where Kyoto is located is Chi County.The capital of the Tang Dynasty was Xijing, which governed Chang’an and Wannian counties; the accompanying capital was Tokyo, governing Luoyang and Henan counties; the other was Beijing, governing Taiyuan and Jinyang counties. county.The other 82 counties of Jingzhao Prefecture, Henan Prefecture, and Taiyuan Prefecture where the capital and accompanying capital are located are called Ji County, so the place close to the capital is commonly called Kinki.All counties other than Chi and Ji are divided into five grades: Wang, Jin, Upper, Middle, and Lower, based on the number of household registrations, "beautiful and evil capital and land" (that is, the quality of the geographical environment).Based on the twenty-eighth year of Kaiyuan (740 A.D.), there were 78 Wangxian counties, 111 tight counties, 446 upper counties, 296 middle counties, and 554 lower counties.

The counties of Chi County and Ji County have the nature of garrisons, especially Chi County has a high status, so the number is sometimes a bit flexible.For example, Wenshui County in Hedong Dao was the hometown of Wu Zetian. When the Wu family was in power, it was changed to Wuxing County, and it was also the capital county along with Taiyuan and Jinyang.Wang, Song and other counties are of a busy nature, which means that the geographical location is important and the affairs are complicated.So the quantity is not too much. The upper, middle, and lower classes are demarcated based on household registration.In the Wude period in the early Tang Dynasty (618-626 A.D.), the households with more than 5,000 households were regarded as the upper class, the households with more than 2,000 households as the middle class, and the households with less than 1,000 households as the inferior class.At the time of Kaiyuan and Tianbao, the Tang Dynasty was at its peak and there were many household registrations, so the classification standards were also raised accordingly.In the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan (730 A.D.), more than 6,000 households were designated as Shang County, more than 3,000 households were designated as Zhong County, and less than 2,000 households were designated as Xia County.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the situation changed a little. The number of Chixian County expanded, and the ranks of Cichi and Ciji were added.For example, when the Anshi Rebellion broke out, the government and the public panicked, and a situation of "three rivers and northern captives were in chaos, and the four seas ran south like Yongjia".Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty went south to Chengdu, and the year after his son Suzong came to the throne, he took Chengdu as Nanjing, and the status of Chengdu County was promoted to Second Chi, and the other counties under Chengdu Prefecture were all Ciji.Three years later, Nanjing was dismissed, and Jiangling Prefecture was renamed as the southern capital. Jiangling County was also promoted to Cichi, and other counties in Jiangling Prefecture were also promoted to Ciji. The grading names of counties in the Song Dynasty came from the Tang Dynasty. In the first year of Jianlong (960 A.D.), Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty "made all counties in the world except Chiji, and they are expected to be close to each other".But in fact, it is slightly different from the Tang Dynasty, that is, the household registration is also used to determine the degree of tightness, that is, more than 4,000 households are hopeful, more than 3,000 households are tight, more than 2,000 households are upper, more than 1,000 households are medium, and less than 1,000 households It is middle and lower, and below 500 households is lower. In the Yuan Dynasty, the principle of grading counties changed greatly.At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, only provinces and counties were merged, without ranking.It was not until the third year of Zhiyuan (1266 A.D.) that counties north of the Yangtze River were designated as upper counties with more than 6,000 households, middle counties with more than 2,000 households, and lower counties with less than 2,000 households.Therefore, the titles of Chiji Wangjin of the previous generation were all abolished, and the principle of purely determining the number of household registrations was restored, and only divided into upper, middle and lower classes, returning to the appearance of the early Northern Dynasties.At that time, the vast area south of the Jianghuai River was still under the rule of the Southern Song Dynasty.More than ten years later, the Southern Song Dynasty perished, so the counties south of Jianghuai were divided into upper, middle and lower.However, the grading standard was formulated separately, with more than 30,000 households as upper counties, more than 20,000 households as middle counties, and less than 10,000 households as lower counties.In this way, counties with the same rank in the north and the south have a five-fold difference in household registration, which is evident from the prosperity of the southern economy at that time.Due to the large gap between northern and southern household registration, the classification method in the Yuan Dynasty was obviously not perfect. After the Ming Dynasty, the method of grading by household registration was changed, and the grading was based on the amount of money and grain paid.In the first year of Wu in the early Ming Dynasty (1367 A.D.), Dingxian County was third-class, and the grain below 100,000 shi was Shangxian, the grain below 60,000 shi was Zhongxian, and the grain below 30,000 shi was Xiaxian.In addition, the traditional system is that there are different grades in counties and grades in officials. The magistrates of the upper, middle and lower counties are Cong Liupin, Zheng Qipin and Cong Qipin respectively. Later, they were all changed to Zhengqipin. This is the reason for being a seventh-rank sesame official.As early as the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei established the nine-rank Zhongzheng system, and divided county magistrates into three levels, namely sixth rank, seventh rank and eighth rank.It was not until the Ming Dynasty that they were unified into Zhengqipin, with a gap of thousands of years.Since the division of counties into large and small counties in the Qin and Han Dynasties, there has always been a corresponding relationship between the status of county magistrates and the rank of counties, and it was only at this time that the two were completely decoupled. In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the simple upper, middle and lower thirds, the traditional and simplified examples for the classification of prefectures, prefectures and counties also began to appear. This new classification method ran through the Ming and Qing Dynasties from its emergence to its gradual formation and full adoption. It lasted for five and a half centuries. "Mingshilu" has "complex and simplified examples" of Renshen Articles in October of the 14th year of Hongwu.The so-called "complex" administrative divisions are: prefectures with more than 150,000 shi of land grain, prefectures with more than 70,000 shi, counties with more than 30,000 shi, as well as the residences of the royal mansion and the capital, chief secretary, and inspection department, the station of the cavalry, and post roads. The hub of the city, the key point of the border, the official office of the capital, etc. The administrative divisions of "Shijian" are: prefectures with less than 150,000 shi of land grain, prefectures with less than 70,000 shi, counties with less than 30,000 shi, and remote places.This complex and simplified division is relatively simple.By the end of Jiajing, local officials, especially for county vacancies (vacancy is a position), appeared again with the characters Chong, Fan, Tired, and Difficult. In the Qing Dynasty, the four-character test language of Chong, Fan, Tired, and Difficult was used as the official basis for administrative classification. According to Yongzheng's explanation: frequent traffic means Chong, administrative business is too complicated, taxes and food are overdue, and customs are not good. Pure and criminal incidents are more difficult.The higher the rank of the county, the more words, and vice versa, the fewer words.The counties with all four characters of "Chong, complex, tired and difficult" are called "most important" or "yao". species) is "yao" lack, and two characters (there are six kinds of Chong complex, complex difficulty, complex fatigue, fatigue difficulty, rush difficulty, and rush fatigue) are "yao" lack or "middle" lack.The appointment of magistrates by the Ministry of Officials is completely based on whether the county is four-character, three-character, two-character, one-character or no-character. The development from simple small and large counties to complex ones shows that the central government's management level of county-level administrative districts is getting higher and higher, and the control is getting stricter. The grading standards in the past 2000 have been repeated for several rounds. From the Qin Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the grading was mainly based on household registration.During the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, political and other factors were added to household registration, while Yuan and Ming returned to purely economic factors.The Qing Dynasty was a synthesis of various standards from previous dynasties.

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