The administrative divisions of the past dynasties to be outlined here are limited to the Central Plains Dynasty, excluding the administrative division system of frontier ethnic regimes that coexisted with the Central Plains Dynasty at that time.
It took about 2 100 years from Qin Shihuang's unification of China to 1949. During this period, the system of local administrative divisions in China can be roughly divided into three stages:
The first stage is called the state and county era, which lasted about 800 years after Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The second stage is called the Road Age, which lasted about 700 years, including Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties.
The third stage is called the provincial period, which is about 700 years in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China.
I. Countries
Books in the Warring States period, such as Shangshu, Zhou Li and Lu Chunqiu, all have records about Kyushu. Legend has it that the Yuping flood in Yao time was divided into Kyushu, namely: Jizhou, Yanzhou (Y ǐ N), Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Liangzhou and Yongzhou. When Yu came to power, the world was divided into twelve states, Jizhou was divided into Bingzhou and Youzhou, and Qingzhou was divided into Yingzhou. However, Kyushu is only an ideal geographical division in the minds of pre-Qin geographers, not an actual administrative division.
The actual administrative divisions of the country began in the Western Han Dynasty.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were more than 100 counties and countries in China, which were divided into 13 secretariat departments. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the names of eleven states imagined by predecessors as the names of eleven departments, and the Hetao area and Lingnan area were named Shuofang and Jiaotoe. At that time, people used to call a department a state. The states in the Western Han Dynasty were only monitoring areas, not real administrative areas. The real administrative region is only at the county and county levels, and the county satrap directly contacts the central government without going through the state level.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the state was changed from a supervision area to an administrative area, becoming an administrative area at or above the county level, and it was fixed when it arrived in the Three Kingdoms. This system lasted for about 400 years.
There are twelve countries in Wei, four countries in Wu and only one country in Shu.
In the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the whole country was divided into 19 states, and in the last year it was given to 2 1 states.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the scope of states gradually narrowed, with 50 or 60 states in the north and south. By the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the number of countries had increased to more than 300, and a considerable number of them had existed in name only.
In the early Tang Dynasty, counties were renamed as prefectures, and there were more than 300 prefectures in China, all of which were administrative regions.
The countries in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were basically the same as those in the Tang Dynasty.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the state was changed to the government, so it has the names of "Yanzhou government" and "Yangzhou government".
Second, the county seat
The Qin dynasty was divided into two levels: county and county. Counties are unified by counties, and the world is divided into 36 counties, which increased to 40 counties at the end of Qin Dynasty. A county manages a dozen to twenty or thirty counties.
There were 105 counties in the Han Dynasty. The counties at that time were smaller than the provincial administrative regions now. Today, a province is roughly equivalent to 12 or 13 counties in the Han Dynasty, which is equivalent to today's regions and cities. At that time, the size of counties varied greatly. The backward counties are big and the developed counties are small. Huiji county includes Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places.
Sui dynasty abandoned the county.
In the Tang Dynasty, all counties were administrative districts.
Abandoned county in song dynasty.
Third, the country.
The country is the territory of the Han dynasty princes and is also a first-class administrative region. The area of a country is roughly equivalent to the area of a county, so "county country" is often called collectively. Officials of the state are directly appointed by the imperial court, which is no different from the county in administrative division system. However, unlike counties, national taxes do not belong to the imperial court, but to princes.
Fourth, Tao
In the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, the whole country was divided into ten roads, which were prison areas, equivalent to the states of the Han Dynasty. These ten roads are: Guannei Road, Henan Road, Hedong Road, Hebei Road, Shannan Road, Longyou Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan Road, Jiannan Road and Lingnan Road. During the Kaiyuan period, five of the ten major roads were divided into fifteen. After the Anshi Rebellion, Taoism became a first-class administrative unit above the national level, forming a three-level administrative system of Taoism, prefecture and county.
Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all have their own settings, but they are not first-level local administrative divisions, but provincial institutions. At that time, the status of some Taoists was also more important. For example, Su Songtai Road, which managed Suzhou, Songjiang and Taicang in Qing Dynasty, was also called Shanghai Road because it was based in Shanghai. After the Opium War, due to the concession in Shanghai, all foreign affairs were managed by Shanghai Road.
In the Beiyang period in the early years of the Republic of China, Tao was still between provinces and counties, and its position was also very important.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) road
In the Song Dynasty, roads were initially divided into tax collection and grain transportation areas, and later gradually became administrative divisions and military regions. At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu and Taizong implemented a centralized policy. Each state is directly under the central government, and each state has its own roads. The whole country is divided into fifteen roads, and then it becomes eighteen roads and twenty-three roads. The nature of roads is the division of administrative areas and supervision areas. The roads in the Song Dynasty are similar to those in today's provinces, such as Guangxi Road, Hubei Road and Shaanxi Road, and their names are similar to those in today's provinces.
Sixth, the province
The province was originally the name of the government office. The Western Han Dynasty called the Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City "a province". After Wei and Jin Dynasties, the central government agencies located near the Forbidden City, such as Shangshu, Menxia and Zhongshu, were called provinces, which is the original meaning of provinces. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the predecessor of the province appeared, which was called Taiwan, Taiwan or Taiwan Province. The so-called Taiwan Province Province refers to the central government located in Kyoto. Once there is a major event, some central government officials need to leave the capital to deal with it in other places, thus forming one or more Taiwan Province provinces that travel abroad, so they are named Taiwan Province or Taiwan Province Province.
The provincial system began in the yuan dynasty, and its full name is so-and-so province, or so-and-so province for short. In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhongshu province was the center, and there were also Zhongshu provinces on the road, referred to as provinces for short. Later, the province became the official name of the administrative region, referred to as the province. In the early years of Yuan Dynasty, provinces were not formal and regular local administrative divisions, but temporary organizations sent by the central government. When the provincial government is stationed in a place for a long time, it will inevitably interfere in local government affairs except military affairs, and the provincial government will become the highest administrative division of the place, and the "province" will change from the central government to the local government. After the mid-Yuan Dynasty, the whole country was divided into one province in Zhongshu and ten provinces in Zhongshu.
VII. Government
According to the system of the Tang Dynasty, Dazhou was called Fu. In the Tang Dynasty, some states with special status were renamed as Fu. For example, Yongzhou, where Chang 'an is located, was renamed Jingzhao House, Luozhou, where Luoyang is the east capital, was renamed Henan House, and Binzhou, where Jinyang is the north capital, was renamed Taiyuan House. By the end of the Tang dynasty, it had increased to more than a dozen.
All the important states in the Northern Song Dynasty were promoted to states. By the end of the year, the number of states had exceeded 30.
During the confrontation between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, there were more than 50 counties on both sides.
At the end of Xuan Tong in the Qing Dynasty, the government was abolished, and at the beginning of the Republic of China, the government of the whole country was abolished.
Eight, the army
The army is the administrative region of the Song Dynasty, and an army is equivalent to a country or government, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the railway. For example, Nan 'an House in Song Dynasty was Nan 'an House in Qing Dynasty.
Nine. county
County is a local grass-roots administrative region. Counties in the Qin and Han Dynasties belonged to counties, and later counties belonged to states or counties.
X. specialized agencies
The Kuomintang government abolished Taoism and implemented a two-level system of provinces and counties. Later, administrative inspectors and specialized agencies were set up in various provinces. As provincial agencies, one agency was in charge of more than a dozen counties.
On the common historical place names in ancient books;
Ancient literati like to use ancient names and aliases as place names, and also like to use ancient names as administrative divisions and local officials, so we should pay attention to historical place names when reading ancient books.
1, place names with ancient names:
Nanjing Jinling
Yangzhou Guangling
Shaoxing huiji
2, place names with aliases:
Wenling Quanzhou
Wuxi liangxi
Yun Jian Songjiang
3, the official name with the ancient name:
Magistrates and governors
Taoist observation
Magistrate's order
Song Ouyang Xiu's Preface to the Drunk Pavilion: "Whoever is famous is too defensive." In the Song Dynasty, there was a state without a county. The governor of the state was known, and the full name was Zhizhou Military Affairs. Taishou, that is, county Taishou, is the title of the former county chief executive.