Draft:System of Prefectures and Counties

The System of Prefectures and Counties refers to the local administrative system of ancient China under the centralised system of power, which adopted the two levels of power of counties and prefectures (similar to the present-day prefecture and county-level administrative districts). The county system originated in the Zhou Dynasty and was initially a supplement to the feudal system, but was later improved and developed by the Qin and Han Dynasties, replacing the feudal system as the main political system in Chinese history. Although many dynasties after the Qin and Han Dynasties adopted other administrative divisions such as states, prefectures, provinces, and so on, they can be regarded as variants of the county system because their hierarchical structures of centralised local administration were all in the same lineage as the county system. Other Asian countries in the Chinese character culture circle (e.g. Japan, Korea, Vietnam) also learnt the system from China.