Wei Commandery ( zh, 魏郡) was a historical

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of China, located in modern southern

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

and northern

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

. The commandery was created during

Emperor Gaozu of Han Emperor Gaozu of Han (2561 June 195 BC), also known by his given name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 202 to 195 BC. He is considered by traditional Chinese historiography to be one o ...

's reign, with its seat at Ye. In late

Western Han The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...

, it administered 18 counties, namely Ye (鄴), Guantao (館陶), Chiqiu (斥丘), Sha (沙), Neihuang (內黃), Qingyuan (清淵), Wei (魏), Fanyang (繁陽), Yuancheng (元城), Liangqi (梁期), Liyang (黎陽), Jipei (即裴), Wushi (武始), Hanhui (邯會), Yin'an (陰安), Ping'en (平恩), Hangou (邯溝) and Wu'an (武安). The population was 909,655, or 212,849 households in 2 AD. By 140 AD, four counties (Jipei, Wushi, Hanhui, Hangou) had been resolved, whereas a new county, Quliang (曲梁), was added. The population was 695,606, or 129,310 households. In late Eastern Han dynasty, Wei Commandery became the center of the Wei Kingdom, fief of

Cao Cao Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

, who expanded the commandery, increasing the total number of counties to 29. New official posts, Colonel of the East (東部都尉) and Colonel of the West (西部都尉) were created to assist in administering the territory. After the establishment of the

Cao Wei Wei () was one of the major Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic states in China during the Three Kingdoms period. The state was established in 220 by Cao Pi based upon the foundations laid by his father Cao Cao during the end of the Han dy ...

dynasty, these areas became new commanderies Yangping (陽平) and Guangping (廣平), respectively. At the unification of

Jin dynasty Jin may refer to: States Jìn 晉 * Jin (Chinese state) (晉國), major state of the Zhou dynasty, existing from the 11th century BC to 376 BC * Jin dynasty (266–420) (晉朝), also known as Liang Jin and Sima Jin * Jin (Later Tang precursor) ...

in 280 AD, the commandery had 8 counties, and a population of 40,700 households. Under the

Eastern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Eastern Wei (), was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei dynasty. One of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Nor ...

which moved the capital to Ye, Wei Commandery was briefly renamed Wei Yin (魏尹), similar to how

Jingzhao Jingzhao ( zh, 京兆) was a historical region centered on the ancient Chinese capital of Chang'an. Han dynasty In early Han dynasty, the governor of the capital Chang'an and its vicinities was known as ''You Neishi'' (), and the region was also ...

was named during the Han dynasty. 13 counties were recorded in the ''

Book of Wei The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'', namely Ye (鄴), Linzhang (臨漳), Fanyang (繁陽), Lieren (列人), Changle (昌樂), Wu'an (武安), Linshui (臨水), Wei (魏), Pingyi (平邑), Yiyang (易陽), Yuancheng (元城), Chizhang (斥章) and Guixiang (貴鄉), with a total population of 438,024, or 122,613 households. The commandery was abolished in early

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. In Sui and Tang dynasties, Wei Commandery became an alternative name of Xiang Prefecture (相州, centered around modern-day

Anyang Anyang ( zh, s=安阳, t=安陽; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan, China. Geographical coordinates are 35° 41'~ 36° 21' north latitude and 113° 38'~ 114° 59' east longitude. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the eas ...

) until 742. Afterwards, the name was applied to Wei Prefecture (魏州) to the north of Xiang.''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', Chapter 39.

References

{{Han dynasty provinces Commanderies of the Han dynasty Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420) Commanderies of the Northern dynasties