For the two official positions of county order and zhi county, most people are not quite sure where the difference between them is, after all, they are all at the local county level, the highest official in charge of a county, so most people think that their functions and powers are the same, the grades are the same, but the names are different.
Qing Dynasty Zhi County
But is this really the case? Of course not, there is still a fundamental difference between them.
Magistrate
The county order originated in the Chu state during the Spring and Autumn period. In the thirty-eighth year of King Wu of Chu (704 BC), Xiong Tong, the king of Chu Wu, launched the "Battle of Suqi", and the princely states of the princely states were destroyed by the state of Chu, and then king Wu of Chu set up the administrative division of "county" here in order to control the territory belonging to the power state, and appointed Dafu Doumu as the county yin, letting him take charge of the power. Then, as the State of Chu began a vigorous outward expansion path, and successively annexed some small surrounding countries, the King of Chu still followed the practice of King Wu of Chu, and successively set up "counties" in these places as important border towns, and its governor was called County Yin, which had the right to levy and command heavy troops.
Subsequently, the states of Wei, Zhao, Han, and Qin also followed the practice of the State of Chu and set up "counties" in various frontier areas, but unlike the State of Chu, Qin, Wei, Zhao Han and other states called the county governor "Ling" instead of "Yin", and at the same time, unlike the later county orders, the status of the county order at this time was quite high, he was directly subordinate to the monarch, directly managed by the monarch, and was one of the highest-ranking officials in the local area. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, countries pushed "counties" to the interior, and then set up "counties" in the frontier lands, placing "county guards", of course, at this time, the status of the county guards was slightly lower than that of the county orders. During the Warring States period, as the frontier areas became more and more prosperous, countries began to set up counties under the county, and this was the prototype of the two-level system of counties and counties.
Official system of the Han Dynasty
In 221 BC, the First Emperor successively destroyed the six kingdoms of Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi, unifying the world and establishing the Qin Dynasty. Subsequently, the First Emperor formally established the two-level system of counties and counties, when he divided the country into 36 counties, and the counties were set up under the county, and the counties belonged to the counties at this time, so that the county orders became subordinates of the county sheriff. Then according to the Book of Han. The Table of Hundred Officials and Secretaries of State reads: "The county order and the chief are all Qin officials, who rule their counties. Orders of more than 10,000 households, rank thousand stones to 600 stones. The Qin Decree stipulates that in counties with a population of more than 10,000 households, the county official is called the county order, and the rank of the county is 600 stones; for the county below 10,000 households, the county official is called the county chief, and the rank is 500 stones to 300 stones, so in the Qin Dynasty, the status of the county order is higher than that of the county chief. After Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty on behalf of Qin, the appointment of county-level chiefs at the local level continued the Qin system.
In the Western Jin Dynasty, as the "counties" of the whole country became more and more numerous, the Western Jin Dynasty began to relax the appointment of county orders and county chiefs by Qin Han, and the "Jin Order" stated: "The county has been up, and the prefecture and county have been ruled by five hundred, all of them are orders; dissatisfied with this is long", at this time, ordinary counties as long as there are more than a thousand households, and the prefecture and county administrative offices can set up county orders as long as they meet the population of more than five hundred households, and if they do not meet the above conditions, they still have county chiefs.
In the Period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the increase of the number of countries, the counties set up by various countries began to increase, and with the increase of counties, the population of each county was less and less, so that most of the county chiefs after that were no longer called county chiefs, but called "county orders", of course, there were also county chiefs, but there were very few compared to before.
Sui Dynasty official system
During the Sui Dynasty, most of the county-level governors were also called "county orders", and a few counties still had "county chiefs" (the "Tomb of Jiang Wei" said: "Sui Wen was zen, granted the Right House of the King of Qin the Si Bing, moved the governor Shi Dongge to sacrifice wine, except for the Bozhou Qingping County Order... The illness was spared for a long time, except for the governor of Jinyang County, and began to have another distinction. Book of Sui. The Hundred Officials Chronicle reads: "Fourteen years (of the Kai Emperor) ... Change the ninth county to upper, middle, lower, lower, and fourth grades", the county orders at this time are divided into upper, middle, lower, lower four, etc., with the county orders of Daxing, Chang'an, Henan, and Luoyang as the most respected, and these four county orders are ranked as the five products, higher than the county orders from the six products. At the same time, the sui dynasty divided the rank of counties mainly in the form of "all the counties are ranked by the dramas they manage and the rush to be counted" (Book of Sui. Vol. XXVIII), and the grade of the county order is determined by the rank of the county.
In the Tang Dynasty, the highest officials at the county level were called "county orders", and the rest were very different from the Sui system, and the county orders of the Tang Dynasty were Jingxian Order, Qixian Order, Shangxian Order, Zhongxian Order, Zhongxia County Order, and Xiaxian Order, of which the Jingxian Order was honored, ranking above the Five Pins, and the following County Orders were the second, ranking from the Seven Pins. In the Song Dynasty, the History of the Song Dynasty. The Chronicle of officials reads: "The county order, in the first year of Jianlong, ordered the counties under the heavens, except for Chi and Ki, to be expected, tight, up, middle, and down... If the capital, dynasty, and shogunate officials are zhixian affairs", at this time, because the officials of the Song Dynasty took measures to separate the official title from the actual position, so the "county order" gradually only had a false name and began to be replaced by "Zhi county".
Tang Dynasty official system
In the Yuan Dynasty, the county magistrate was called "County Yin", "Yuan Shi. The Hundred Officials Chronicle reads: "Shangxian, Rank Congliupin, Daru Huachi one member, Yin one member, Cheng one member, book member, Lieutenant one member, and dianshi two members." Zhongxian County, rank is seven products, do not put aside the beggar, Yu Xi is like the system of the upper county. XiaXian county, rank from the seven pins, place officials such as Zhongxian County, the people are simple, then the book and lieutenant", since then the "county order" as the highest official position at the local county level has never been returned, it has completely disappeared in the long river of history.
Zhi County
We also said above that during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Emperor absorbed the frequent changes of the regime of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the precarious situation of the dynasty, and he took measures to separate the official title from the actual position, "History of the Song Dynasty. The Chronicle of Officials says: "Therefore, the three provinces, six Cao, and twenty-four divisions are judged by his officials, although there are official officials, they are not other than the chief officials, and the things are sent, and the ten deaths and two thirds are sent", that is to say, the three provinces, six departments, and twenty-four divisions nominally have formal chiefs, but unless the emperor specifically orders them, they generally do not care about the ministry's ministry, such as the Ceremonial Department, although the Ceremonial Department has the Rebbe Shangshu, but the actual control of the Rebbe is generally not him, but the "Ceremonial Ministry".
In this way, after that, the Song court almost no longer appointed full-time county orders to govern a county, but specially went to the local government to lead a county, which was called "zhi county affairs", referred to as "zhi county". Of course, at this time, most of the beijing officials who went to the local government to lead a county were counties with a wide area or a very important geographical location, and some of the more remote areas still had full-time "county orders". However, in the middle and late Period of the Southern Song Dynasty, no matter which county it was, its highest official began to be called "Zhixian Affairs", which can be seen from the edict of The Twelfth Year of Jiading, Song Ningzong's edict "Two classics as a full replacement, the actual calendar nine examinations, the political voice without transgression, the passing of the staff, the change of officials are specially exempted from being zhixian again, allowing them to be sentenced or officials, in order to know the county resume" There is no county order, but only zhixian county.
Song Dynasty Zhi County
Of course, Zhixian disappeared briefly during the Yuan Dynasty, when the governor of a county was called "County Yin" instead of "Zhixian". The Hundred Officials Chronicle reads: "Shangxian, Rank Congliupin, Daru Huachi one member, Yin one member, Cheng one member, book member, Lieutenant one member, and canonical history two members." After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang imitated the Song system, and "Zhixian" began to be officially used as an official name. The Chronicle of the Officials reads: "Counties. There is one person in Zhi County, one person in the county, one person in the main book, and one person in his genus and canonical history. ”。
At the same time, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once positioned Zhi county as a third class, "Dingxian third class: grain below 100,000 stones is Shangxian, Zhixian is from Liupin; below 60,000 stones is Zhongxian, Zhixian Zhengqipin; below 30,000 stones is Xiaxian, Zhixian is from Qipin" (Ming History. Official Chronicle"), that is, the upper county that pays taxes of less than 100,000 stones is set up from Liupinzhi County; the county that pays taxes below 60,000 stones is Zhongxian County, and the county is set up as Seven Pinzhi County; and the lower county that pays taxes of less than 30,000 stones is set up from Qipinzhi County. Of course, the above provisions were soon abolished, and after that, whether it was a county or a county, except for the county of Jing County, which was the sixth product, the rest of the counties were all positive seven products.
Ming Dynasty Zhi County
Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty also imitated the illumination system, without distinction. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Beiyang government was established, and with the disappearance of the imperial system, the feudal product of Zhixian was also abandoned, and the governor of a county became a "county governor", and the title of Zhixian disappeared since then.
What is the difference between a county order and a county?
Having said so many county orders and the origin of the county, let's talk about the difference between them now! Although the county order and the zhi county are the highest officials of the local county-level administrative divisions, both are the heads of a county, and their duties are also in charge of the affairs of a county, but there is an essential difference in their powers and status.
First, the status of county orders is generally higher than that of Zhi County. Although in ancient times, both county orders and Zhi County were county governors, the status of county orders before the Song Dynasty was higher than that of Zhi County. First of all, in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the county was greater than the county, that is to say, the county order was greater than the county guard, and at the same time the county order at that time was directly administered by the monarch, and according to the "Sayings", "The spring and autumn tradition says that the upper doctor is subject to the county, and the lower doctor is also the county", that is to say, only the upper doctor can grant the county, and it can be said that there is no doubt that the county order at this time definitely belongs to the local "feudal official".
In the Qin and Han dynasties, although the county order was no longer directly under the jurisdiction of the monarch, but had a county guard to administer, but no matter how the county order at this time was also a high official from six hundred stones to a thousand stones, it should be known that in the Han Court Wei (later Dali Temple Qing) was also an official with a rank of six hundred stones, and in the Ming Dynasty, Dali Temple Qing was a Zhengsanpin official, far higher than the ZhiXian of Zhengqipin. Therefore, at this time, the status of the county order is obviously higher than that of Zhi County.
Later, in the Sui and Tang dynasties, as there were more and more counties, the status of county orders also declined, and their grades were also reduced from six pins to seven pins down, but compared with the Ming and Qing dynasties that were only ranked seven pins, the status of county orders at this time was still slightly higher than that of Zhi County.
Second, most of the county orders are in charge of the troops, but most of the counties are not in charge. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, most of the county commanders were responsible for the frontier areas, so in order to ensure the safety of the frontier areas, they often had heavy troops. Later, in the Qin and Western Han Dynasties, although the status of the county order declined, it was still in charge of the army, and at this time, once there was a war in the locality, the county order could be directly corrected to suppress or resist. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to strengthen the central government, emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty dismissed the county soldiers, so that the county order lost its military power, and then in the Eastern Han Dynasty, whenever there was a war, he often sent the Beijing division troops to go out on the expedition, or temporarily recruited or requisitioned from the prefectures and counties as needed, and the emperor sent generals to command.
In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the continuous uprisings in various places, in order to suppress the uprisings, the imperial court then delegated the right to recruit troops to local officials, and since then the county order has begun to have the power to control the army. After the founding of the Sui Dynasty, the military power of ZhiXian was taken back, but in the last year of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, due to the chaos of the war, the imperial court delegated the military power to the county order. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the military power of the county order was taken back, and the late Tang Dynasty was decentralized. Therefore, county orders used military power most of the time, except for the eastern Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties, which had no military power, and the rest of the time had military power.
In contrast, "Zhi County", except for the Song Dynasty, Zhi County also served as the military governor or prisoner of the soldiers and horses, that is, he could hold the military power, and the rest in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhi County was not in charge of military power, such as the local military power of the Ming Dynasty, which was responsible for the command and envoy department.
Third, the county order is the highest official of the large county to call, while the county can be called as long as it is the county chief. Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, only the highest official of a large county could be called a county order, for example, Qin Han could only be called a county order if he served as the chief of a county with more than 10,000 households, and for example, in the Western Jin Dynasty, only the chief of a county with a thousand households could be called a county order. In the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as long as the chief of a county was called "Zhi County". Therefore, although the county order and the zhi county are both the chief of a county, the county order can only be called the chief of a large county, and the chief of a small county can only be called the county chief, but the zhi county will not be so distinguished, as long as the chief of a county is called Zhi County.
Fourth, the county order was divided into six levels in the Sui and Tang dynasties, while the Zhi County was only divided into two levels in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Sui and Tang County Orders were divided into six levels, including the Jing County Order, the Qi County Order, the Shangxian Order, the Zhongxian Order, the Zhongxia County Order, and the Xiaxian Order, while the Ming and Qing Dynasties zhixian county was only divided into The Beijing County Order and other county orders.
Qing Dynasty Zhixian trial case
It must be said that there is an essential difference between county orders and zhi counties, and the biggest difference is that the status of county orders is obviously higher than that of zhi county, and at the same time, county orders are mostly in charge of soldiers, while most of the county is not in charge of soldiers.