Chapter 46 Section 6. Place Names of Guards in Administrative Districts of Ming Dynasty

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, some old names were used at first, but later the local divisions in the Yuan Dynasty were greatly adjusted, and the name of the province was changed to Chengxuan Zhengshisi.The area directly under the capital Beijing is called Jingshi, also known as Beizhili.The area under the jurisdiction of Nanjing is also called Nanzhili. The former is roughly equivalent to the scope of present-day Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province, while the latter is equivalent to the scope of present-day Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai. Outside the two capitals, it is divided into Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Henan and other 13 commissioned and declared political envoys.However, this name is too long, and it is customary to call it the two capitals and thirteen provinces together. Among them, Shaanxi roughly includes the three provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia; Huguang includes the two provinces of Hunan and Hubei; Shanxi includes some parts of present-day Inner Mongolia.The boundaries between Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces are also somewhat different from today, and the scope of other provinces can be said to be roughly the same as today.In addition, the northeastern part of the present-day north belongs to the Nuergandu Division, and the southwestern Qinghai and Tibet belong to the Duogan and Wusi Tibetan Dusi.Most of today's Inner Mongolia is within the scope of activities of Tatars and Oirats. They sometimes surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and sometimes harassed them.Today’s Xinjiang is still the territory of the Queen Chagatai in the Yuan Dynasty. His descendants continued to split and fight, and their power declined day by day. In 1370 AD, Bieshabali Kingdom was established. Later, it was invaded by Oala, and the ruling center was changed from Bieshabali (now Jimusa Er), that is, in the Tang Dynasty, Jinmancheng moved westward to Yilibali (now Yining City).Yining used to be called Yili, and Yili is also the old translated name of Yili.At that time, Li also referred to all the areas under its jurisdiction.

The previous paragraph mentioned "Du Si", which is the abbreviation of Du Commanding and Envoy Division. It was originally a military institution in the Ming Dynasty. At the office, the commander and envoy in Beijing is called the left-behind guard commander and envoy.The location of the commanding division of the capital is mostly the same as that of the political and envoy division (i.e. the province) of the government.In addition, some provinces also have "Xingdu Commanders and Envoys" as assistants.Below the capital, there are guards and offices under the jurisdiction.Yongle Zhongding has 21 national capitals, 2 left-behind divisions, 493 internal and external guards, and 359 thousand households. The capitals, guards, and offices are originally military institutions and have nothing to do with political regions.However, in some border areas or ethnic minority areas, where the lack of administrative institutions or institutions has been destroyed and does not exist, the military region often manages the civil affairs. In this way, the military region also manages the land and the people, and has the actual control of the geographical scope and population, which is not part of the territory. state and county.Therefore, it was transformed into an institution with the nature of a political region, so some names such as the capital and guards were also recorded in "History of the Ming Dynasty Geographical Chronicles".For example, Shenyang Zhongwei (now Shenyang), Tielingwei (now Tieling), Ningyuanwei (now Xingcheng), Guangning Zhonghousuo (now Suizhong) and Fushunsuo (now Fushun) in the territory of Liaoning (now Shandong) , Ningxia Zhongwei (now Zhongwei) and Lingwusuo (now Lingwu) in Ningxia (now Shaanxi), Xiningwei (now Xining City) and Guidesuo (now Guide) in Qinghai today.Dusi, Wei, and Suo are generally named with the name of the political district or place where they are located, as in the above examples.

The difference between the administrative districts of the Ming Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty was that in addition to the abolition of the road level, Fuguo County at the state level was also abolished, but Fuguo County at the prefecture level was still retained.Fuguo County is also called Yiguo County, and the word "Yi" or "Fuguo" is often marked under the name of such a county in chronicles.In the Ming Dynasty, some Fuguo counties were canceled, which not only simplified the administrative area, but also saved expenses.For example, Hezhou, Chuzhou, Guangdezhou near Nanjing, and Xuzhou a little further away are all Zhili prefectures at the same level as the prefecture, and none of them are attached to Guo County. Haizhou, Pizhou, etc. have also withdrawn their affiliated counties such as Hailing, Jinghai, Qushan, Xiapi, etc.In the Yuan Dynasty, the levels of administrative districts were more easily confused, and in the Ming Dynasty, administrative districts and military districts were often entangled, so they were more complicated.