Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/59

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Chapter II

ADMINISTRATION

The Empire is divided into various administrative units, of which the lowest is the hien. It is difficult to find a satisfactory English equivalent for the term hien. "Prefecture," "canton," and "department have all been suggested, but none is strictly applicable. The hien is about equal to an English county in area, and, on the whole, "county" is perhaps the most intelligible translation. Each province is divided into a number of hien, varying from thirty-four to a hundred and forty, and the hien may be roughly described as a walled city with the region surrounding it, an area of from five hundred to one thousand square miles. Two or more hien are grouped under a fu, or first-class town, so that there are from five to ten fu in a province. The fu has no independent local existence; it is, in fact, nothing more than the chief of the hien that are under it. A still larger administrative area than the fu is the tao, or circuit. Two or more fu, or one fu and several hien (or chou)[1] form a tao.[2] The hien, according to the

  1. ↑ See Appendix, note 6.
  2. ↑ See Appendix, note 7.

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