Research Of The Administrative Geography Of Western Hubei Province In Yuan,Ming And Qing Dynasties

Due to the peculiar geographical environment and complex ethnic groups etc.,western Hubei Province area was abandoned by the central government like the borderland although its location is interior.After the founding of the Yuan Dynasty,chieftains were appointed based on the system of Jimo Prefectures and Counties established in Tang and Song Dynasty.Moreover,Yuan Government strengthened the management power of chieftain system by appointing people from the aristocratic families of the barbaric groups.Some superior chieftain institutes were also established in western Hubei Province such as sanmao fu and shibi dong.Different from the western part,only lower level institutes like aboriginal chiefs' offices were established in Rongmei Area in the eastern part.Ming and Qing Dynasties followed this system of Yuan Dynasty and adjusted and regulated its subordinate institutes,which finally became a conventional system.Levels and subordinative relationship within the chieftain system gradually came to be clear and the framework of Xuanfu-An' fu-Chieftain was settled.At the same time,administrative divisions within the chieftain area copied from the inland prefecture-county system.Seats of local government were established and their scopes were stabilized.On the one hand,the chieftains had official political power and stable political positions.Until the end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Qing Dynasty,some of the chieftains have become a powerful local force,which covered a range of several counties,and its expansion threatened the safety of inland counties and prefectures and became a trouble of central government.On the other hand,the enforcement and improvement of chieftain system made it possible for all administrative affairs be included into management by officials appointed by central government.At the same time,the ability to regulate the headman of chieftains by central government gradually improved.Until the beginning of Qing Dynasty,bureaucratization of native officers had become the general trend and mainstream.In the eleventh year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign,the bureaucratization of westernHubei area chieftains were completed and the chieftain administrations were finally taken place by the prefecture-county administrative division.