The system of prefectures and counties practiced in the Han Dynasty is obviously, why can we often see states, prefectures, and counties in history books? Moreover, why are the southern states far larger than the northern states? If you don’t understand history, you will really be puzzled by these issues. Today we will carefully talk about how the "zhou" of the Han Dynasty came into being.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up fourteen divisions
When the Han Dynasty was established, it inherited the Qin Dynasty system and implemented the county system . The governor of the county is the prefect, and is in the same position as the Jiuqing of the central government.
In 106 AD, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty divided the country into thirteen states in order to strengthen the central government's control over the localities. Are liangzhou Department, Ministry of Yizhou, Jizhou Department , Ministry Yanzhou, Qingzhou Ministry , You state Department , Ministry of Cochin, Ministry Jingzhou, Yangzhou Ministry , Xuzhou department , are combined with state department , Yuzhou department, Shuofang department , plus a division. The division includes the capital and the seven counties near the capital.
Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty set up a governor in each state, and he was responsible for supervising the counties of the states under his jurisdiction. There was no fixed government office and no administrative power. In the Division of Liability Department, there is a lieutenant of the Department of Liability who is responsible for supervision.
At this moment, the administrative level is only equivalent to a county magistrate,His salary is only 600 shi, which is much lower than the 2,000 shi of the prefect. The purpose of this setting is to prevent the governor from abusing his power and interfering in the daily administrative work of the prefect. During the Western Han Dynasty Emperor Chengdi, the "Cashier" was changed to "Mu", but its functions did not change.
The Thirteen Prefectures of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Emperor Guangwu When the Eastern Han Dynasty was established, according to the old system, the prefecture and animal husbandry were changed to the governor history. At the same time, Emperor Guangwu made some adjustments. He changed "Jiaozhi" to " Jiaozhou ", merged the Shuofang Department into the merged state department, and set up a government office in each state. The governor usually patrols the county, not only can impeach and supervise the officials of the county, but also can directly dismiss it. This is different from the Western Han Dynasty.
Because Emperor Guangwu granted the governor to be promoted and dismissed from officials, the governor of the Eastern Han Dynasty gradually became the de facto head superior of the prefect.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the governor's history was changed to Zhoumu
Han Lingdi During the reign, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out. Minister Liu Yan suggested that the governor history should be changed to Zhoumu. The heavy people were shocked. The Emperor of Han Ling obeyed his suggestion and changed the governor's history to a state animal husbandry. He was above the governor's history and was in charge of the military and political power of a state. Liu Yan was appointed Yizhou Mu by the Emperor Ling, and his son was Liu Zhang, who was later Yizhou Mu.
The debate over whether the governor or the state animal husbandry has existed since the Western Han Dynasty. Those who advocate changing the governor to state animal husbandry believe that the responsibility of governor is to supervise the prefect, but their rank is lower than that of the prefect, and it is unreasonable to use small officials to govern large officials. Therefore, the governor should be changed to state animal husbandry, and people with advanced qualifications should be used as state animal husbandry.
But in fact, it is reasonable to use small officials to govern large officials, and to use officials with less seniority to supervise officials with more seniority. Administrative officials need considerable ability and experience, so seniority is very important.However, supervisory officials do not need much skill, as long as they can be honest and selfless, they can be competent. Those with advanced qualifications are too slick and surely unable to do the job of offending people.
In the Western Han Dynasty, the governor usually changed every year, even if someone wanted to retaliate against him, it was unlikely. It can be seen that the governor system is very reasonable. The reason why it was changed to state animal husbandry was entirely due to the special environment in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Why did the Han dynasty states have huge differences in area?
If you have read the administrative map of the Han Dynasty, you will find that the north, especially the states in North China, are very dense. But in the huge south, there are only four states of Jing, Yang, Jiao, and Yi. Why is this?
Take and Yanzhou in the north as an example. The area of Yanzhou is only about one-seventh of and one-ninth of Yizhou. Wouldn't the Han emperors be afraid of rebellions in these southern states?
The answer to this question is very simple, in fact, because the South Society has not been well developed, and the economic center of gravity is still in the North. For example, if we look at the map of the Three Kingdoms period, we will find that occupying the three states of Jing, Yang, and Jiao Wu is not much worse than that of Wei in area, and even the Shu Han, which only occupies one state of Yizhou. The area is roughly four-fifths of Wei's, but the national power of Shuhan and Wu is far inferior to that of Cao Wei.
In order to demonstrate this statement, I specially sought out the population data of Emperor Shun of Han Dynasty Yonghe five years (140 years), Yanzhou, Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Yangzhou: Yanzhou has a total population of 4.04 million, and Yangzhou has a population of 4.33 million. The population of the state is 5.68 million. In addition, the northern division has a population of 3.07 million, Youzhou has a population of 2.47 million, Jizhou has a population of 5.8 million, and Yuzhou has a population of 5.16 million. Qingzhou has a population of 2.99 million and Xuzhou has a population of 2.79 million.
It can be seen that although the area of the Central Plains is much smaller than the south, the population is far more than that of the south. Although Yanzhou and Qingzhou, the two smallest states in the north, are less than one-ninth of the southern state, their population can reach more than two-thirds of the southern state.
.
