A jùn (郡) was a historical administrative division of China from the

Eastern Zhou The Eastern Zhou (; zh, c=, p=Dōngzhōu, w=Tung1-chou1, t= ; 771–256 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the second half of the Zhou dynasty. It was divided into two periods: the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States. History In 7 ...

(c. 7th century BCE) until the early

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(c. 7th century CE). It is usually translated as a commandery. Countries around China have adopted administrative divisions based on or named after the ''jùn''.

History and development

China

Eastern Zhou

During the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fro ...

from the 8th to 5th centuries BCE, the larger and more powerful of the Zhou's

vassal states A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to t ...

—including Qin, Jin and Wei—began annexing their smaller rivals. These new lands were not part of their original

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

s and were instead organized into counties (''xiàn''). Eventually, jun were developed as

marchland In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which di ...

s between the major realms. Despite having smaller populations and ranking lower on the official hierarchies, the jun were larger and boasted greater military strength than the counties. As each state's territory gradually took shape in the 5th- to 3rd-century BCE Warring States period, the jun at the borders flourished. This gave rise to a two-tier administrative system, with counties subordinate to jun. Each of the states' territories was by now comparatively larger, hence there was no need for the military might of a jun in the inner regions where counties were established. The border jun's military and strategic significance became more important than those of counties.

Qin dynasty

Following the unification of China in 221 BCE under the

Qin Empire The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), th ...

, the Qin government still had to engage in military activity because there were rebels from among the six former states who were unwilling to submit to Qin rule. As a result, the

First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ...

set up 36 jun in the Qin Empire, each subdivided into counties. This established the first two-tier administrative system known to exist in China.

Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period

When the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...

triumphed over Chu in 206 BCE, the Zhou feudal system was initially reinstated, with Emperor Gao recognizing nearly independent kings and granting large territories to his relatives. These two sets of kingdoms were placed under hereditary rulers assisted by a

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

(''xiàng''). Parallel to these, some Qin jun were continued, placed under a governor appointed directly by the central government. By the Eastern Han dynasty, the jun were subordinated to a new division, the province ('' zhōu''). — establishing a three-tier system composed of provinces (zhou), commanderies (jun), and counties (xian). Based upon legendary accounts of the Yellow Emperor's

Nine Provinces The term Nine Provinces or Nine Regions (), is used in ancient Chinese histories to refer to territorial divisions or islands during the Xia and Shang dynasties and has now come to symbolically represent China. "Province" is the word used to ...

which were geographic rather than formal political areas, there were initially 13 ''zhōu'' and roughly 100 jun.

Jin dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties

China was greatly divided during the following five centuries, during the Jin and

Northern and Southern Dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

period. The number of administrative units drastically increased due to intense warfare, fluid political boundaries, forced migrations, widespread population loss, and the loss of central government control in many areas particularly during the

Sixteen Kingdoms The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded by ...

. Although the legacy three-tier system was still in formal effect, rulers of various kingdoms had defined and re-defined provinces until they became increasingly sub-divided, blurring the distinction between provinces (zhou) and commanderies (jun) and reflecting the chaos of China at the time.

Sui and Tang dynasties

China was finally re-united by Emperor Wen of the Sui (581–618) in 589. As there were already over 100 provinces, the province and commandery levels of the administration were merged into one level, typically rendered in English as prefecture, marking the end of the commandery. Some Emperors preferred "jun" to refer to this level of administration, but most used "zhou" and the political function was the same, regardless. By the end of the Tang Dynasty the term jun saw no more use in China (and a new higher tier of administrative unit, the circuit (dao) had been introduced, bringing back a three-tier system).

Taiwan (1920–1945)

During 1920–1945, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, there were divisions called 郡 (

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

: jùn,

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: gun). They are based on the

Districts of Japan In Japan, a is composed of one or more rural municipalities (towns or villages) within a prefecture. Districts have no governing function, and are only used for geographic or statistical purposes such as mailing addresses. Cities are not part o ...

(郡 gun), which in turn were based on ancient Chinese jùn. Their officers were known as 郡守 (

: ''jùnshǒu'',

: gunshu). This was the title of ancient administrators of the Chinese ''jun'' (see below), and had never existed in Japan. By the end of 1945, there were 51 jun/kun in Taiwan.

Administrative hierarchy

In the

Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...

, the chief administrative officers of the areas were known as jun administrators (, , literally "defender of the ''jun''"). In the

, the position of ''junshou'' was renamed grand administrator (, . "Grand Defender"). Both terms are also translated as "governor". A grand administrator drew an annual salary of 2,000 ''dan'' () of grain according to the ''pinzhi'' (, ''pǐnzhì'') system of administrative rank. Many former grand administrators were promoted to the posts of the

Three Ducal Ministers The Three Ducal Ministers (), also translated as the Three Dukes, Three Excellencies, or the Three Lords, was the collective name for the three highest officials in Ancient China and Imperial China. These posts were abolished by Cao Cao in 208 AD ...

Nine Ministers The Nine Ministers or Nine Chamberlains () was the collective name for nine high officials in the imperial government of the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), who each headed one of the Nine Courts and were subordinates to the Three Councillors of ...

later in their careers.

Other uses

In contemporary Chinese language, the word is also used to translate the administrative division

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the begin ...

in English language. The counties of

the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and No ...

and

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

are also translated as ''jùn''.

References

Citations

{{reflist, 30em

Bibliography

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

. ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'' (''Shi Ji''). 01 Administrative divisions of ancient China Former administrative divisions of China History of Imperial China