page_title: Government of the Han dynasty
section_title: Commandery administration
hierarchical_section_title: Government of the Han dynasty / Local government / Commandery administration
caption_attribution_description: English: A Chinese celadon pottery bottle, dated to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25&#8211;220 CE)
context_page_description: The Han dynasty of ancient China was the second imperial dynasty of China, following the Qin dynasty. It was divided into the periods of Former Han and Later Han, briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of Wang Mang. The capital of Western Han was Chang'an, and the capital of Eastern Han was Luoyang. The emperor headed the government, promulgating all written laws, serving as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and presiding as the chief executive official. He appointed all government officials who earned a salary of 600 bushels of grain or more with the help of advisors who reviewed each nominee. The empress dowager could either be the emperor's actual or symbolic mother, and was in practice more powerful than the emperor, as she could override his decisions. The emperor's executive powers could also be practiced by any official upon whom he bestowed the Staff of Authority. These powers included the right to execute criminals without the imperial court's permission.
  Near the beginning of the dynasty, semi-autonomous regional kings rivaled the emperor's authority.
context_section_description: There were thirteen commanderies, including the capital region, and ten kingdoms at the beginning of Western Han. Many kingdoms were reduced in size and the empire's territory expanded through conquest. By 2 AD there were eighty-three commanderies and twenty kingdoms containing an aggregate total of approximately 58 million people according to the census. A commandery consisted of a group of counties and was governed by an Administrator (Taishou 太守), also known as Grand Administrator, who was appointed by the central government and earned a 2,000-dan salary-rank. The Administrator was the civil and military leader of the commandery. He was not allowed to govern over his native commandery.
  An Administrator was assisted by one or several Commandants (Duwei 都尉) also known as Chief Commandant, who handled all local military affairs such as raising militias, suppressing bandit groups, and building beacon towers. The Commandants' salary-rank was Equivalent to 2,000-dan. After 30 AD, all Commandants who were not located in distant frontier commanderies were abolished, yet if the commandery was located along borders where raids and armed incursions by hostile nomadic groups were frequent, he was still appointed. A Commandant in an interior commandery could only be appointed temporarily to deal with crises as they arose. Each commandery also had secretaries, a treasurer, and an Official in Charge of Accounts who submitted annual reports to the imperial court on the Administrator's performance.
  Many of the Administrators' duties were seasonal, such as inspections of counties every spring to check on agriculture and maintain roads, bridges, dikes and other public works. In the fall he sent subordinates into the counties to report whether local criminal lawsuits had been conducted fairly. He was responsible for recommending worthy nominees, known as Filial and Incorrupt, to the capital at the end each year during winter; the nominees would then be considered for an appointment to a central or local government office. This followed a system of quotas for each of the commanderies that was first established during Emperor Wu's reign, when two Filial and Incorrupt men from each commandery were sent to the capital. This was changed in 92 AD to one man for every 200,000 households in a commandery. After the Commandants of interior commanderies were abolished, the Administrators assumed their duties, yet they were still not allowed to raise militias, mobilize troops, or send troops outside their commandery without permission from the central government.
caption: An Eastern-Han early celadon ceramic vase with lug handles and decorations of animalistic-faced (taotie) door knockers
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