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| Zhou | |||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 州 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | châu | ||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 주 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | しゅう | ||||||||||||||||
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 | PleaseaddMongolian script to this article, where needed. |
Zhou (Chinese:州;pinyin:zhōu;lit. 'land') werehistorical administrative and political divisions ofChina. Formally established during theHan dynasty,zhou existed continuously for over 2000 yearsuntil the 1912 establishment of theRepublic of China[citation needed].Zhou were also once used inKorea (주,ju),Vietnam (Vietnamese:châu) andJapan (Hepburn:shū).
Zhou is typically rendered by several terms in theEnglish language:
TheTang dynasty also establishedfǔ (府, "prefectures"),zhou of special importance such as capitals and other major cities.[citation needed] By the Ming and Qing,fǔ became predominant divisions within Chinese provinces. In Ming and Qing, the wordfǔ (府) was typically attached to the name of each prefecture's capital city, thus both Chinese and Western maps and geographical works would often call the respective citiesHangzhou-fu,Wenzhou-fu,Wuchang-fu, etc.
After theMeiji Restoration,fu was also used inJapanese for the urbanprefectures of the most important cities; today, it is still used in the Japanese names for theOsaka andKyoto Prefectures.
In thePeople's Republic of China,zhou today exists only in the designation "autonomous prefecture" (Chinese:自治州;pinyin:zìzhìzhōu), administrative areas for China'sdesignated minorities. However,zhou have left a huge mark on Chineseplace names, including the province ofGuizhou and the major cities ofGuangzhou,Fuzhou,Hangzhou,Lanzhou, andSuzhou, among many others. Likewise, although modern Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese provinces are no longer designated byzhou cognates, the older terms survive in various place names, notably the Japanese islands ofHonshu andKyushu, the Korean provinceJeju-do, andLai Châu in Vietnam.
Zhou were first mentioned in ancient Chinese texts, notably theYu Gong orTribute of Yu, section of theBook of Documents. All agreed on the division of China intoninezhou, though they differed on their names and position. Thesezhou were geographical concepts, not administrative entities.[1]
TheHan dynasty was the first to formalize thezhou into actual administrative divisions by establishing13zhou all across China. Because thesezhou were the largest divisions of the China at the time, they are usually translated as "provinces". After the Han dynasty, however, the number ofzhou began to increase. By the time of theSui dynasty, there were over a hundredzhou all across China.
The Sui and Tang dynasties mergedzhou with the next level down, thecommanderies orjùn (郡). The Tang also added another level on top: thecircuit ordào (道). Henceforth,zhou were lowered to second-level status, and the word becomes translated into English as "prefecture".[citation needed] Thereafter,zhou continued to survive as second- or third-level political divisions until theQing dynasty.
TheRepublic of China abolishedzhou altogether, leaving the word only in the names of cities such asGuangzhou and Hangzhou.[citation needed] ThePeople's Republic of China recycled the name, using it to refer to theautonomous prefectures granted to various ethnicities.