Looking at the evolution of administrative divisions in China for more than 2,000 years, we can generally find the following four laws: First, the number is from small to large, the jurisdiction is from large to small, and the hierarchy is from high to low; Second, the highest administrative region is mostly transformed from the prison area and the military region; Third, county-level administrative regions are the most stable; Fourth, the three-tier system is the most commonly used form in the administrative hierarchy of past dynasties.
First, the number from less to more, the jurisdiction from big to small, and the level from high to low.
With the development of history, there is usually a phenomenon in administrative districts with the same name above the county level, that is, the more numbers are drawn, the smaller the jurisdiction is drawn, and to a certain extent, its level will be reduced step by step or even disappear.
After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the world was divided into 36 counties, which became the highest administrative division. By the end of the Qin Dynasty, the number of counties had increased to 48. After the Han Dynasty, due to the large jurisdiction of Qin County, for example, there was a county in Jiangxi at that time, so the jurisdiction of these counties was divided into several counties, such as Lixian County and Luling County. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the number of Han counties (countries) had increased to 103.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the territory was slightly smaller than that of the Western Han Dynasty. Although the scope of some counties and countries is smaller than that of the Western Han Dynasty, on the whole, the scope of counties and countries in the Han Dynasty is not much different. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the state becoming the highest administrative division, the status of the county declined and became the second administrative region.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the number of counties increased by half compared with the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the jurisdiction of counties naturally decreased. During the Western Jin Dynasty, the command scope of the county state was smaller than that of the Three Kingdoms period. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the establishment of a large number of new counties, the jurisdiction of counties showed a downward trend. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the county disappeared from history as a first-class administrative division.
The change of state is the most typical. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when counties became the first-level administrative divisions above the county level, the number was only 13. At that time, the geographical scope of the country was very wide. Due to its small population, this southern state is equivalent to the area of two, three or four provinces today. For example, Yangzhou includes today's Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, as well as southern Jiangsu and Anhui. Jingzhou includes today's Hubei and Hunan provinces and parts of Shaanxi, Henan, Guizhou and Guangdong. Jiaozhou includes today's Guangdong, southern Guangxi and north-central Vietnam, and the smallest state in the north is half as large as today.
During the Three Kingdoms period, except for the two states of Jing and Yang, which were controlled by Wei, they were only a small part of the original state, only symbolic. Before and after the unification of the Jin Dynasty, the number of states gradually increased to 19, and the scope of each state was obviously reduced compared with that of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Especially Liangzhou in the northwest (most of Gansu and Ningxia), Youzhou in the northeast (northern Hebei, western Liaoning and Liaodong Peninsula, northern Korean Peninsula, etc. ), Yizhou in the southwest (most of Sichuan and Yunnan, Guangxi and Shaanxi) and Jiaozhou in Lingnan are divided into two or three states because of their vast territory. At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, Jingzhou and Yangzhou, the most extensive regions, were also divided into two new states, forming a scale of 2 1 state, with little difference in the size of each state.
After the Sixteen States in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the number of states soared from 2 1 to more than 300 due to some complicated reasons, so the jurisdiction of states became only a few hundred miles in Fiona Fang.
In the early years of Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty abolished the county and directly unified the county and the state, so the state was reduced to the county level. In the Song Dynasty, in order to strengthen centralization, the country's territory was even smaller. At that time, nearly one-tenth of the States had only one county. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, some states were reduced to county level. During the Republic of China, the state was changed to a county and ceased to exist.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Taoism merged with Fangzhen, replacing Zhou as the highest administrative division. At that time, the number of roads (square towns) fluctuated between 40 and 50, and the large roads were equivalent to the area of a province today. For example, the geographical scope of Jiangnan West Road is roughly the scope of Jiangxi Province today, from which the name of Jiangxi comes. The path in those days was only equivalent to the area of more than a dozen counties today, which is roughly equivalent to the scope of prefecture-level cities or regions today. In the early Song Dynasty, Taoism was replaced by Taoism, and Taoism became the highest administrative division. In the Yuan Dynasty, Taoism was also used as a monitoring area below the provincial level. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, following the practice of the Yuan Dynasty, Tao was set up between the province and the government, but the scope of Tao has been greatly reduced. In the early years of the Republic of China, after the abandoned government changed the state hall into a county, Dao became a first-level administrative division between provinces and counties. For example, there were 2 1 county in Luling Road at that time. After the 1920s, Tao was officially abolished and has since disappeared.
Tao became the highest administrative division in Song Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were not many roads, only twenty when Hui Zong arrived. The jurisdiction of Lu is roughly equivalent to one and a half provinces today. For example, Jiangnan West Road is roughly the same as today's Jiangxi Province. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of roads varied between 16 and 17, and there were two or three more roads in the Northern Song Dynasty than in the South. Because the Southern Song Dynasty lost the area north of the Huaihe River, the area under the road naturally became smaller. In the Yuan Dynasty, the status of Tao was reduced from the highest administrative region to the administrative region directly under the county (state). For example, in the Song Dynasty, Jizhou was changed to Ji 'an Road, and more than a dozen counties such as Jishui Prefecture and Xingan County were under its jurisdiction, and the scope was correspondingly reduced, which was only equivalent to the size of one or two regions today. In the Ming Dynasty, the road was abandoned and turned into a mansion. For example, change Ji' an Road to Ji' an House, administer more than ten counties such as Jishui County, and reduce Jishui House to Jishui County. As a first-class administrative division, this road ended its short course.
In the Yuan Dynasty, provinces were regarded as the highest administrative divisions. Initially, China had one big book province in China and six big book provinces in China. Because the territory of the Yuan Dynasty was extremely vast and the number of provinces was so small, the breadth of the jurisdiction of provinces in the Yuan Dynasty was unprecedented. For example, Jiangxi is a province that governs today's Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces; Sichuan, Shaanxi province, once governed Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia and western Inner Mongolia. Lingbeixing Province governs vast areas of Outer Mongolia, Siberia and the Arctic Ocean. In the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, the scope of provinces changed from one province with six lines of Hanshu to one province with ten lines of Hanshu (the governor of the eastern province was King Koryo, and the Yuan government did not interfere in its internal affairs, so it was different from the ten provinces in the mainland).
However, as far as the vast territory of the Yuan Dynasty is concerned, 1 1 the respective jurisdictions of the provinces are still very large, and they are very inflexible in handling local affairs, especially when the peasant uprising was surging at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty had to separate many provinces from the provinces to maintain local rule. This situation shows that provinces with too large jurisdiction are extremely unfavorable to centralized rule. So the Ming Dynasty began the reform at this point.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Bank of China was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but it was still customarily called the province. The provincial jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty was much smaller than that of the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was divided into fifteen provinces, namely, two cities and thirteen ministries and envoys, within the scope equivalent to nine provinces in the south of the Yuan Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, some provinces with too large a scope were divided into two or three. Other provinces were divided into several parts to form new provinces.
Generally speaking, the areas under the jurisdiction of the provinces in the Ming Dynasty were generally balanced, but there were exceptions, that is, the northern and southern parts of Beijing were larger than the general provinces, especially Nanjing, which included all the Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and the vast areas in northern Zhejiang today, in sharp contrast to the narrowness of Zhejiang Province adjacent to the south.
The system of "Qing, Cheng and Ming" followed the old system of Ming Dynasty in administrative division. Except for Nanjing, Huguang and Shaanxi, the other 12 provinces remain basically unchanged, thus forming the so-called "eighteen provinces in the mainland". The scope of these provinces is not much different from that of the corresponding provinces today. From the reign of Kangxi to Guangxu, the division of eighteen provinces has not changed for more than 200 years. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Xinjiang, Taiwan Province, Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces were successively added, bringing the total number of provinces to 23.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the provincial system of the Qing Dynasty was inherited, and the number remained unchanged. /kloc-after the 1920s, with the abolition of orthodoxy, the province became a first-class administrative division, directly under the jurisdiction of the county. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, nine provinces were established in Northeast China, increasing the number of provinces to 35.
Second, the highest administrative region is mostly transformed from prison areas and military regions.
In the changes of administrative divisions, we can see that the highest administrative divisions in the past dynasties often evolved from non-administrative regions such as prison areas and military regions, and the chief executive of the highest administrative region mostly evolved from outside central officials.
During the Han dynasty, due to the large number of counties and countries, it was not convenient for the central government to directly manage them. In order to strengthen centralization, since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a supervision area-Zhou has been set up above counties to supervise local officials. Because the state is divided into a first-class region and separated from the county, it constitutes the geographical basis for its evolution into a first-class administrative division. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the state shepherd and secretariat in charge of local administrative and financial affairs, especially after leading the troops, the state changed from a monitoring area to a formal administrative division.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Dao (Fangzhen), as an administrative region, was transformed from two channels: military region and prison region. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the DuDu District was a military prison area with the DuDu as the military chief and commanding several states. As usual, the governor also serves as the secretariat of the state where he is stationed, which makes the governor's district actually become a first-class quasi-administrative division above the state. In the Tang dynasty, this system was inherited, and the viceroy was renamed our ambassador because of the festival. In addition, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, pottery designed for the shape of mountains and rivers gradually became a formal prison area. Tao's chief officer was called an interviewer and later an observer. In this way, by the end of the Tang Dynasty, our governor's power was increasing day by day, and he finally served as an interviewer and observer, making the jurisdiction a first-level administrative division higher than the state-road (town).
In the Yuan Dynasty, the highest local administrative division was the province. The province originated from Shangshu Province in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, the name of the central government office was called "province", and central officials went to local areas to perform state tasks, and the central branch office established in local areas became Shangshu Province or a province. After the matter is handled, it will be cancelled. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, due to internal troubles and foreign invasion, provincial ministers were set up all over the country, imitating the system of provincial ministers in the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Mongolia used this system for reference in its contacts with Kim, and also set up a province of ministers and ministers. Later, with the central organization changed to Zhongshu province, the local Shangshu province was also changed to Zhongshu province, referred to as the province. At first, all provinces were temporary central institutions, but due to the long-term use of troops against the Central Plains in the early Yuan Dynasty, martial law could not be cancelled for a while. By the time the Southern Song Dynasty was pacified, provinces appeared as the largest first-level administrative division in China's history.
In the middle and late Ming dynasty, it was difficult to cope with the situation of external defense or internal repression because of the separation of the three powers: local propaganda, imperial judges and envoys. Therefore, in order to make up for these shortcomings, they often send officials with the title of Minister of the Central Committee to various places to go to the military affairs or the governor's office. This is the origin of the governor and the governor. At the beginning of their establishment, the governor and the governor were temporary, but they were not abolished after their establishment, and the governor or the governor held the highest power at the local level. But at that time, these governors or governors were nominally central officials rather than local officials, and these governors or governors' areas were also quasi-political areas with supervisory nature and informal first-level administrative areas. In the Qing Dynasty, the governor and the governor gradually settled down and became local government officials and local top officials.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the regional system was also reformed from the military region. From the early days of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) to the mid-1950s, there were six administrative regions in China, and all provinces, administrative offices and municipalities were under the jurisdiction of each administrative region. These six regions are North China, Northeast China, East China, South China, Southwest China and Northwest China, which correspond to the strategic management direction of several major field armies of the PLA. Northeast China was liberated earlier, and the management direction of the Four Fields was Central South, so the Four Fields later evolved into the Central South Military Region. The troops of the North China Military Region fought in North China and later became the North China Military Region; Loose leaves managed East China and later became the East China Military Region; The Second Field Army fought in the southwest and later became the Southwest Military Region. Ye Yi administered the northwest region and later became the Northwest Military Region. The heads of major field armies are generally the highest military and political heads in their respective regions. Later, although the regional system was abolished, the ranking order of provinces and cities in the regional data of the National Bureau of Statistics always followed the regional division at that time, first North China, then Northeast China, then East China, South China, Southwest China and Northwest China.
Third, the county administrative region is the most stable.
In the changes of administrative divisions in past dynasties, county-level administrative divisions are the most stable. This can be seen from the changes in the number of county-level administrative regions in past dynasties.
There were about 1 1,000 counties in the Qin Dynasty, and the number of county-level administrative regions increased to 1 1,587 in the late Western Han Dynasty. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu merged more than 400 counties, and the number of counties decreased to about 1 100. By the fifth year of Yonghe in Shun Di in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty (140), the number of county-level administrative districts was 1 180. At the end of the Three Kingdoms, the total number of counties remained at the scale of the middle Eastern Han Dynasty, about 1 190. During the Western Jin Dynasty, the total number of counties increased slightly, and the number of county-level administrative districts at that time was 1232. At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the total number of counties and counties was about 1590, which was almost the same as that in the end of the Western Han Dynasty.
In the fifth year of the Great Cause of Sui Dynasty (609), the number of counties and counties decreased to 1, 255. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, in the early years of Gaozu Wude, many counties were set up for political and military needs. In view of this situation, in the early years of Zhenguan, Taizong merged into provinces, counties and counties. In the 28th year of Xuanzong Kaiyuan (740), there was a county of * * you 1573.
During the Song Dynasty, the territory was narrow, sixteen states were occupied by Liao, and the northwest of Longyou became the territory of Xixia people. In Yunnan, Dali was founded independently, and northern Vietnam and Annan were independent, so the size of the county was reduced. In the fourth year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty (1 122), 12 10 Yu County. From Yuan Wenzong to the first year of Shun (1330), the total number of counties was 1 127, which was not much different from that of Song Dynasty. The territory of the Yuan Dynasty was much larger than that of the Song Dynasty. Why are there so few counties? This is because the Yuan Dynasty did not set up counties in the nomadic provinces such as Lingbei and Liaoyang. In mainland provinces, except those merged due to population loss caused by war and some counties, quite a number of prefectures and counties are on an equal footing, that is, scattered prefectures and counties. If you add it up, the number of county-level administrative regions in the mainland of the Yuan Dynasty is 1300.
There were more than 1 100 counties in Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, and there were 1 138 counties in the late Ming Dynasty. In the 25th year of Jiaqing (1820), the county was established 1455. Judging from the number of counties, there were not many in Ming and Qing Dynasties. However, since the subordinate states of the Ming Dynasty and the scattered churches of the Qing Dynasty were all at the same level as counties, if all these are counted, the county-level administrative regions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are roughly similar to today's counties.
Four-tier or three-tier system is the most commonly used form of administrative regional hierarchy in past dynasties.
Judging from the evolution of administrative divisions in past dynasties, for more than two thousand years, the most common system is the three-level system, but sometimes it is the real three-level system and sometimes it is the virtual three-level system.
In the early years of Qin and Western Han Dynasty, the territory was still relatively small, so the county system was adopted at that time, and it was still controlled by the central government. However, since the expansion of the territory by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the two-tier political system has begun to show its limitations. Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up the secretariat department of thirteen states as a monitoring area, which was responsible for monitoring the achievements of local officials in various counties. Therefore, from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a virtual three-level system was implemented at the local level.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhou gradually became a formal administrative division above the county level, forming a real three-level system of counties (countries). Since then, this system has been followed for 400 years in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, after the reform of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, the state and county two-level system was implemented. But this time, the two-tier system only lasted about 140 years, and it withdrew from the historical stage in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. After the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Taoism, which was only a geographical division in the early Tang Dynasty, was taken as the supervision area, and a virtual three-tier system appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Later, because our envoys also served as observation and disposal envoys of all walks of life, the square town where our envoys were located merged with the roads in several states under the jurisdiction of the civil administration, and a real three-level system of roads (square towns)-states (prefectures)-counties was established. This system has gone through five generations and ten countries and has not changed.
After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Fangzhen was abolished, and a short-term state (government, army and prison)-county two-level system appeared throughout the country. However, at that time, there were 367 state-level administrative units. If a two-level system was adopted, it would be impossible for the central government to directly manage them. So it wasn't long before the Song Dynasty established the system of road-state (government, army, prison)-county (army, prison). From the perspective of power distribution, this system is a virtual three-tier system, while from the perspective of administrative division, it is a real three-tier system.
The administrative division of the Yuan Dynasty was a multi-level compound system of province-road-state-county, but in most areas, the real level was generally a three-level system of province-state-county.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the local administrative organizations and divisions under the Thirteen Bureaus of Gyeonggi generally inherited the original sub-provincial organizational system of Dao, Fu, Zhou and County in the Yuan Dynasty, but simplified it, canceled the setting of Dao, and only set up three levels: Fu, Zhou and County. In the Qing Dynasty, the local administrative divisions below the provincial level were divided into two levels: the government (Zhili prefecture and Zhili hall) and the county (scattered prefecture and scattered hall), and the real three-level system was restored.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the local administrative division implemented by the Beijing government was a three-level system of province, road and county. The Nanjing government abolished Taoism, and then established the system of administrative supervision areas between provinces and counties, and the local administrative system became a virtual three-level system of provinces, autonomous regions and counties. This system was later inherited by the people of China and People's Republic of China (PRC).
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), a virtual four-level system of large regions-provinces-autonomous regions-counties was initially implemented at the local level. Later, the large area was cancelled, and the autonomous region was renamed as a region, becoming a virtual three-tier system of provinces, autonomous regions and counties. Since the 1980s, Jiangsu Province and Liaoning Province have cancelled the establishment of cities in a large number of areas, and established prefecture-level cities with formal local governments, thus transforming into a real three-tier system of provinces, prefecture-level cities (regions) and counties (county-level cities).