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1 — One of the original 14 ''zhou'' of the Eastern Han Dynasty . Since then, Ping was split out of You, Qin out of Liang (凉), Liang(梁) and Ning out of Yi, and Guang out of Jiao. Si was never part of any other ''zhou'' until its creation; before then it was overseen by an official called the ''Sili Xiaowei'' (司隷校尉) with capacities similar to a governor of a ''zhou''. Also, Jiaozhou was founded as a ''zhou''-equivalent called ''Jiaozhi'' (交趾), and among the original 14 ''zhou'' was a ''zhou''-equivalent called '' Shuofang '' (朔方) in what is now northern Shaanxi ; it was later merged into Bing. This changed, however, with the invasion of tribes from the north, who disrupted the unity of China and set up a variety of governments. By the time unity was finally reestablished by the Sui Dynasty , the provinces had been divided and redivided so many times by different governments that they were almost the same size as commanderies, rendering either one of the two tiers completely superfluous. As such, the Sui Dynasty merged these two levels together. This new merged level is translated as "prefectures" into English. In Chinese this name was changed between ''zhou'' and ''jun'' (the two merged levels) several times before being finally settled on ''zhou''. The Tang Dynasty set up Circuit s as an additional level of administration on top. Hence:
The Tang Dynasty also created '' Jiedushi '', who were military governors governing frontier areas susceptible to foreign attack. The Jiedushi system was eventually generalized to other parts of the country as well, and in effect merged with the Circuit s; these would become a source of rebellion and Warlordism , eventually resulting in the Five Dynasties And Ten Kingdoms period. The Song Dynasty that emerged out of this crisis abolished '' Jiedushi '', and named its first-level division ''lu'', which is also translated as "circuits":
The Jurchen s invaded China Proper in the 12th Century . In 1142 peace was formalized between the Jurchen Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty , which was forced to cede all of North China to the Jurchens. By the beginning of the 13th Century , the Jurchens had moved their capital to Zhongdu (modern Beijing ) and had adopted Chinese administrative structures. The Song Dynasty also maintained the same structure over the southern half of China that they continued to govern. The Mongol s, who succeeded in subjugating all of China under the Yuan Dynasty in 1279 , introduced the precursors to the modern provinces as a new level at the top:
The area around the capital, corresponding to modern Hebei , Shandong , Shanxi , central Inner Mongolia , Beijing , and Tianjin , was not put into any province. The had not yet been split into Hubei and Hunan ; Gansu and Ningxia were still part of Shaanxi ; Anhui and Jiangsu were together as Nanzhili ; Hebei was Beizhili . (PRC-established Hainan and Chongqing were of course part of their original provinces at this time.) This makes for a total of 15 provinces. In 1644 China fell to the Manchu s, who established rule over China as the Qing Dynasty . The Manchus applied the following system over China Proper :
The Manchus split Shaanxi into Shaanxi and Gansu , Huguang into Hubei and Hunan , and Nanzhili into Jiangsu and Anhui . Hebei was now called Zhili rather than Beizhili. These provinces are now nearly identical to modern ones. Collectively they are called the "eighteen provinces", a concept that endured for several centuries as synonymous to China Proper . This system applied only to China Proper , with the rest of the empire under differently systems. Manchuria , Xinjiang , and Outer Mongolia were ruled by military generals. Inner Mongolia was organized under League s, and Xizang ( Ü-Tsang + western Kham in Tibet ) and Qinghai ( Amdo ) were overseen by commissioners. Near the end of the dynasty, Manchuria was reorganized into 3 more provinces ( Fengtian , Jilin , Heilongjiang ), and Xinjiang and Taiwan were both set up as provinces, bringing the total to 23. ( Taiwan was however ceded to Japan in the Treaty Of Maguan , bringing the total back down to 22.) REPUBLIC OF CHINA The Republic Of China streamlined the system down to three levels: Circuits were soon abolished as being superfluous. The Republic of China set up 4 more provinces out of , for instance. The creation of the Puppet State of Manchukuo by Japan in the 1930s deprived China of 4 provinces in the northeast ( Fengtian , Jilin , Heilongjiang , Jehol ). After the defeat of Japan in 1945 , Manchuria was reincorporated into China as 9 provinces. Taiwan and the Pescadores was also returned to China and was organized into Taiwan Province . By this time there was a total of 12 municipalities under the Republic of China. After the Republic of China lost Mainland China in 1949 , it was restricted to only Taiwan, the Pescadores, and a few offshore islands of Fujian province. Since then two more municipalities have been set up in Taiwan. In the meantime, the Republic of China has not recognized any of the changes made to the administrative structure of the mainland, and has never officially retracted its claim to mainland China (including Tibet ) and Outer Mongolia . Many maps produced in Taiwan still show the 1949 border along with changes made to Taiwan post-1949. All in all, the Republic of China officially claims a total of 35 provinces, 14 municipalities, 1 special administrative region and 2 regions in all of China . However, these claims are now mostly ignored and the provincial administrations of Taiwan and Fukien provinces have been largely streamlined in favor of lower levels, namely counties and provincial cities. (See Political Divisions Of The Republic Of China ) 1 — The capital of Taiwan Province was moved to Jhongsing Village from Taipei in the 1960s. &2 — Taipei and Kaohsiung were elevated in 1967 and 1979, respectively, after the ROC government had moved to Taiwan in 1949. PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA The Communist Forces initially held parts of Manchuria and northern China at the start of the Chinese Civil War . By late 1949 , they controlled the majority of Mainland China , forcing the Republic Of China to relocate to Taiwan . The People's Republic made the following changes:
The general situation as of 1951 was as follows: Compare with the actual provinces of Mainland China at Political Divisions Of China#Province . Levels:
1950s In 1952 the provinces of Jiangsu , Anhui and Sichuan were restored. Pingyuan and Chahar were split into their surrounding provinces. Nanjing , old capital of the Republic Of China , was deprived of municipality status and annexed by Jiangsu province. In 1953 Changchun and Harbin were elevated to municipality status. In 1954 a massive campaign to cut the number of provincial-level divisions was initiated. Of the 14 Municipalities existing in 1953 , 11 were annexed by nearby provinces, with only Beijing , Shanghai , and Tianjin remaining. The province of Liaoning was formed out of the merger of Liaodong and Liaoxi , while Suiyuan and Ningxia disappeared into Inner Mongolia and Gansu . The Greater Administrative Area level was abolished in 1954 . The process continued in 1955 with Rehe being split among Hebei , Liaoning and Inner Mongolia , and Xikang disappearing into Sichuan . In that same year Xinjiang became the second autonomous region of China, and plans for a third, Tibet Autonomous Region , were initiated. Qamdo territory was put under the planned Tibet Autonomous Region . In 1957 two more autonomous regions were added, Ningxia (split back out of Gansu ) and Guangxi (which was previously a province). In 1958 Tianjin was annexed by Hebei , leaving only two municipalities, Beijing and Shanghai . 1960s and 1970s In 1965 Tibet Autonomous Region was established out of the formerly self-governing Tibet region, plus Qamdo territory. In 1967 Tianjin was split back out as a municipality. 1980s and 1990s Starting in the 1980s , Prefecture-level Cities and County-level Cities began to appear in very large numbers, usually by replacing entire Prefecture s and Counties . Hainan was split out of Guangdong and set up as a province in 1988 . In 1997 Chongqing became the fourth Municipality Of China . In that same year Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule and became the first Special Administrative Region . Macau became the second in 1999 . In the 1990s , there has been a campaign to abolish District Public Office s as a level. By 2004 very few remain. In the meantime, most Prefecture s have become Prefecture-level Cities . Levels:
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