Chapter 6 Section 5 County and Place Names in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods

During the Spring and Autumn Period, many vassal states began to attack and invade each other. The strong merged with the weak, and the big destroyed the small, so that there were more than 120 states in the literature of the Spring and Autumn Period. By the Warring States Period, only seven remained, known as the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period.In this process, counties and county place names as local administrative divisions appeared and formed. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, powerful vassal states such as Chu, Qin, and Jin first set up counties in the newly developed and merged lands, breaking and replacing the old system of feuding land and eating towns, and strengthening the centralization of monarchy and local governance. kind of progress.The establishment of the county first appeared in the southern state of Chu.According to Professor Xu Shaohua's research, there were 30 counties in the state of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Among them, Quanxian County was established by King Wu of Chu when he destroyed Quanguo, so it was named Quanxian County, and it was the first county established in the Spring and Autumn Period.It wasn't until the late Spring and Autumn period that the vassal states gradually implemented the county system to their respective inlands, that is, the so-called Wang Ji became counties, and established counties in the newly merged remote areas, which were larger in area than counties.But because of its remote location, vast land and few people, its status is lower than that of the county, so Jin Zhao Jianzi said: "Those who defeat the enemy go to the county and go to the county" ("Zuo Zhuan·Aigong Two Years").During the Warring States period, with the development and prosperity of the frontier, several counties were established under the county, forming a two-level administrative district system of county and county.During the Warring States period, all countries basically implemented this administrative system. The Yan State in the north divided its territory into five counties: Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaodong, and Liaoxi, and there were counties under the counties.After Qin unified the six countries, the system of prefectures and counties was finally established throughout the country, and counties were governed by the prefectures.As a result of the establishment of prefectures and counties, a number of place names of counties and administrative districts appeared, which enriched the content of place names.