Chapter 21 Section 2 Classification of county administrative districts and high-level administrative districts

The classification of these two levels of administrative districts is not as important as the county-level administrative districts, especially the high-level administrative districts are generally not classified.However, there is still something to be said about the grading of unified county administrative districts. There is no clear record in history whether Qin County is divided into grades.Han County is divided into big and small counties based on 120,000 households ("Han Shu·Yuan Di Ji").According to this standard, among the 103 counties in the late Western Han Dynasty, 38 counties were large counties, accounting for more than one-third.In addition to the household registration standard, the county where the capital of the Qin and Han Dynasties is located has a high status and is above all counties.And the name is special, it is named after his official title, Qin is called Nei Shi, and Han is called Yin.The capital of the Western Han Dynasty was Jingzhaoyin, and the two counties near Jingzhaoyin were called Zuofengyi and Youfufeng respectively, which were also official names, and together with Jingzhaoyin they were called Sanfu.The capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty was in Henan Yin, and its status was above the counties.

The counties of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties came from the Western Han Dynasty. The county where the capital is located is also called Yin, and its status is also higher than other counties.Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, was located in Yin, Henan.Jiankang (now Nanjing) was the capital of the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, and Danyang County where Jiankang was located was also renamed Danyang Yin.The Northern Dynasties of the Sixteen Kingdoms also called the prefect of the county where the capital was located Yin, and regarded the county as the highest.Chang’an, the capital of the former Qin Dynasty, had Jingzhaoyin; the first capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty was Yudai (now Datong), and it was called Daiyin. Wei Yin, Northern Qi was renamed Qingdu Yin.

Except for the county where the capital is located, other counties also began to be classified at the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.The Northern Qi Dynasty was like a county system, and counties were divided into nine classes, but the standard is not clear.In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, counties were divided into five grades based on household registration, that is, more than 15,000 households, more than 10,000 households, more than 5,000 households, more than 1,000 households, and less than 1,000 households, similar to the five grades of counties.Chen Shi in the Southern Dynasties had another special case. After Danyang Yin, the three counties of Kuaiji, Wujun and Wuxing were also above the other counties.For other prefectures and states, more than 10,000 households or less than 10,000 households are regarded as the second class.

In the late Sui Dynasty, the counties of Tong County were divided into upper, middle and lower classes, but there is no basis for classification.The states in the Tang Dynasty clearly differentiated their ranks.In the early Tang Dynasty, households with more than 30,000 households were regarded as Shangzhou, those with more than 20,000 households were regarded as Zhongzhou, and households with less than 20,000 households were designated as Xiazhou.Similar to counties, with the increase of population, by the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan (AD 730), the standards of Shangzhou and Zhongzhou were raised to more than 40,000 households and 25,000 households respectively.At the same time, geographical location is used as another basis for grading. On top of Shangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiongzhou, Wangzhou, and Jinzhou are set up, that is, the four prefectures of Tong, Hua, Qi, and Pu in Jinji are the four auxiliary states (near Beijing) Zhaofu), Zheng, Shan, Bian, Jiang, Huai, and Wei six states are Liuxiong (near Henan Prefecture), and there are also Shiwang and Shijin.

Of course, there is a special level above Fuxiong Wangshou Shangzhongxia, that is, the state where the capital and the accompanying capital are located.From the Kaiyuan period (AD 713-741), these states were renamed Fu.At first, only Yongzhou and Luozhou were changed to Jingzhaofu and Henanfu; later, Puzhou was changed to Hezhongfu, and Bingzhou was changed to Taiyuanfu.After the Anshi Rebellion, the mansions increased again. Qizhou was changed to Fengxiang Mansion, Liangzhou was changed to Xingyuan Mansion, Yizhou was changed to Chengdu Mansion, and Jingzhou was changed to Jiangling Mansion.This is also an old rule in Chinese history. Special cases became routine, and some became general. It became more and more excessive. In the Song Dynasty, the number of prefectures increased to thirty or forty. In the Ming Dynasty, all prefectures were unified county administrative districts.

The ranks of the states are not static, but often fluctuate. For example, the ranks of the tightest states have increased a lot, and they are no longer ten tight.Puzhou was first one of the six heroes, then promoted to the fourth assistant, and then promoted to Hezhong Prefecture. The shortage of the six heroes was filled by the neighboring Jiangzhou.Qizhou was first one of the four assistants, and later it was also promoted to Fengxiang Mansion.The upper, middle and lower prefectures also changed with their household registration. During the Tianbao period (742-756 A.D.), there were 109 upper prefectures, 29 middle prefectures, and 189 lower prefectures.Almost all Xiazhou are located in border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. For example, there are more than 70 states in Lingnan Road. Except for Guangzhou, Guizhou, and Annan Duhufu, they are all Xiazhou.

In the Song Dynasty, there were four types of military supervisors in the unified county government, the prefecture and the prefecture.The army in the Tang Dynasty was originally a kind of military organization for guarding the frontier.In the Song Dynasty, the army became a first-level administrative region, which could govern counties and had the same status as Xiazhou.Jian was originally a management organization for mining and smelting minerals. In the Song Dynasty, it also became a kind of political district, or it was equivalent to a county, or it could lead a county, and its status was also the same as that of Xiazhou.

In the Song Dynasty, in addition to the capital and accompanying capital, the states where the emperor was born or held official positions or fiefdoms before he ascended the throne were also promoted to prefectures.However, there are still a few prefectures with particularly high status, which are above all prefectures and not ranked among them.Such as Kaifeng, Yingtian, Henan, and Daming, which are the four capitals in the southeast, northwest, and south.There are so-called secondary prefectures that are slightly lower than the four capitals. For example, the prefectures of Chengdu, Jiangling, Fengxiang, and Xingyuan in the previous dynasty were all secondary prefectures in Song Dynasty.

In addition to the ranks of prefectures and prefectures, there was another set of ranks in Tongxian administrative districts in the Song Dynasty that often made people feel dizzy.That is, "Song History Geography" lists four different signs under each state capital: Jiedu, regiment training, defense, or military.These four states have nominally chief officers Jiedushi, Tuanlianshi, Defenseshi, and Cishi, but in fact these officials are not in office.These false titles only indicate the order in which generals are promoted step by step. The governor of the military state has the lowest rank, and then they are promoted step by step.If someone is appointed as a regimental envoy of a certain state, it does not mean that the person must actually serve in a certain state, but it is just an honor. If he is appointed as the Jiedu envoy of another state, it means that the honor has risen to another level.The highest-status Jiedu state also has the so-called military quota, that is, it is also called a certain army Jiedu.For example, Ezhou, Hubei is called Wuchang Army Jiedu.Most of the military numbers or military numbers were inherited from the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and some were newly created in the Song Dynasty.Later generations did not understand the difference between the army as the military supervisor of Fuzhou and the army of Jiedu Prefecture, and often made some jokes, so that even historians sometimes made mistakes.

Like counties in the Yuan Dynasty, prefectures began to be classified in the third year of Zhiyuan (AD 1266). The prefectures in the north of the Yangtze River were designated as Shangzhou with more than 15,000 households, Zhongzhou with more than 6,000 households, and Xiazhou with less than 6,000 households.After the death of the Southern Song Dynasty, the three states in the south of the Yangtze River were established, with more than 50,000 households, more than 30,000 households and less than 30,000 households.In the Yuan Dynasty, Hukou was not only regarded as the separate grading standard at the prefecture and county levels, but also as the basis for the unified grading at the prefecture and county levels.In other words, when the number of households in a county equals the number of households in a state, it will be upgraded to a state.For example, if the household registration in a certain county has reached 30,000 households, it can be upgraded to Xiazhou.Therefore, in the 20th year of Guangzhiyuan (1283 A.D.), 44 counties were promoted to states (but no matter how many counties governed by Lu and Fu, they would not be promoted to states).

This situation is a special case of the Yuan Dynasty.Previously, the classification of administrative districts in the past dynasties was the difference within each level, and there was no confusion between different levels.Although the household registration of a county can sometimes exceed that of some states or counties, the county is still a county and cannot be promoted to a county or state.For example, during the three-level system in the North, less than 5,000 households were still prefectures, less than 1,000 households were still counties, and more than 7,000 households were still counties.If there are too many household registrations in a county, you can only analyze and set up a new county or use a county to set up a county (in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was set up as a prefecture), but the county or state must have a county.However, in the Yuan Dynasty, the county was directly promoted to a prefecture without a county, indicating that the level was only increased, and the scope of the administrative area remained unchanged (equivalent to today's entire county being changed to a prefecture-level city). The policy of promoting county to prefecture in Yuan Dynasty raised the level of county on the one hand, but lowered the status of prefecture on the other hand.The states of the Tang and Song Dynasties were all counties, and at least one county had to be owned by them to be a state.Since the Yuan Dynasty, there are many prefectures without counties. In the north, due to the reduction of household registration, provinces and counties have been incorporated into prefectures; in the south, most counties have been upgraded to prefectures.Therefore, a considerable part of the state has since been reduced to a grassroots administrative region, which is listed with the county.Since the economy in the south is far more developed than that in the north, there are many counties with 40,000 to 50,000 households. If the standard is more, it should be promoted to Shangzhou. Therefore, in the third year of Yuanzhen (1297 A.D.), the standard for promotion to the state was adjusted again, with 40,000 to 50,000 households. It is Xiazhou, and 50,000 to 100,000 households are Zhongzhou. As a result, there are still 28 people who were promoted to Zhongzhou and 15 people who were promoted to Xiazhou. In the Yuan Dynasty, the state was between the grass-roots administrative district and the unified county administrative district.Roads and government offices are on the occasion of the unified county administrative district and the high-level administrative district.The roads in the Yuan Dynasty were only divided into two classes: "In the 20th year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1283), those with more than 100,000 households were designated as the top road, and those with less than 100,000 households were the bottom road. To hit the road." It is no longer based solely on economic factors. At the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the roads in the Yuan Dynasty were changed to mansions. In the sixth year of Hongwu, Tianxia mansions were divided into three classes. The mansions with more than 200,000 shi were the mansions, the less than 200,000 shi were the middle mansions, and the less than 100,000 shi were the lower mansions.Originally, the ranks of prefects were also divided into Cong Sanpin, Zheng Sipin, and Cong Sipin according to the third class, but they were all changed to Zheng Sipin later.Like counties, prefectures in the Qing Dynasty were also determined by the four characters Chong, Fan, Tired, and Difficult. In the high-level administrative regions, only the states in the Southern and Northern Dynasties were classified into ranks, and no ranks were assigned in other dynasties.And the grading of states is mainly based on status, and also based on household registration.First, from the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, there are differences between light states and heavy states, but what standard is used as the basis is in Shi Juewen. The status of the state was clearly recorded in the Chen Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties: The first class is Yangzhou, South Xuzhou and East Yangzhou; The second class is the six prefectures of Jing, Jiang, Nanyan, Ying, Xiang, and Yong; The third class is Yu, Yi, Guang, Heng and other prefectures and Qingzhou leads Jizhou, Beiyan, Beixu and other prefectures, and Liangzhou leads South Qinzhou, Si, Nanliang, Jiao, Yue, Guangxi, Huo, Ning and other prefectures. 15 states. The rest of the states are all below the third class.Yangzhou is the first class, because the capital Jiankang is located.South Xuzhou leads Wujun, Wuxing and other counties, and East Yangzhou leads Kuaiji and other counties, both of which are important places in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.The second class is the important town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.The third class is a lower level of frontier defense areas, but most of the states listed in it belonged to the old Liang Dynasty, and most of them had been lost to the Northern Dynasty by the Chen Dynasty. In fact, the grading of prefectures in Chen Dynasty was not the first one. The 23 prefectures in the early years of the Liang Dynasty were listed in order to arrange official positions, but the details are unknown.At the beginning, states in the Northern Dynasties were not divided into tiers, but in the Northern Qi Dynasty, they were divided into nine tiers as in the case of prefectures and counties, and the basis for grading is unclear.During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the prefectures were divided into five classes according to the number of households, that is, more than 30,000 households, more than 20,000 households, more than 10,000 households, more than 5,000 households, and less than 5,000 households.The fifth-class states all have governors, and their tastes are not high or low.Above the states is Yongzhou, whose chief is a shepherd, because it is the capital of Chang'an. At the beginning of the unification of the north in the Sui Dynasty, the three-level system was not abolished, and the two levels of prefectures and counties were divided into nine levels.The classification of high-level administrative districts ends here.After the Tang Dynasty, the high-level administrative districts were not further divided into square towns (roads), roads, and provinces.

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