| Fu | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 府 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | phủ | ||||||||||||||||
| Chữ Hán | 府 | ||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 부 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 府 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 府 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | ふ | ||||||||||||||||
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Fu (Chinese:府;pinyin:fǔⓘ) is a traditional administrative division of Chinese origin used in theEast Asian cultural sphere, translated variously ascommandery,prefecture, urban prefecture, or city. They were first instituted as a regular form of administrative division ofChina'sTang Empire, but were later adopted inVietnam,Japan andKorea. At present, only twofu still remain: theprefectures ofKyoto andOsaka inJapan.
The termfu is currently also used inChinese to translate theprovinces ofThailand, but notthose of mainland China,Taiwan or other countries.
Fu (府) means an office or a command institution. The character appears in the Chinese words for "government" (政府,zhėngfǔ) or "official's residence" (府邸,fǔdǐ), and names of official institutions such as the "Imperial Household Department" (內務府,Nèiwùfǔ) inChina or "Office of the President" (總統府,Zǒngtǒngfǔ) inTaiwan.
The Japanese language uses the Chinese character: (i) as a part of words, such as government (政府,seifu),shogunate (幕府,bakufu),Cabinet Office (内閣府,naikakufu), andlegislature (立法府,rippō-fu), or (ii) as the name of a category of prefectures.
One of the earlier uses offu as part of the name of an administrative division was theProtectorate of the Western Regions (西域都護府,Xīyù Dūhù Fǔ) of theHan Empire in 60 BC.Duhu Fu, usually translated as "protectorate", literally meant "Office of the Commander-Protector".
In 627, the second emperor of theTang dynasty,Emperor Taizong (r. 626−649), reorganized political divisions by setting up 10circuits overseeing the Chinese prefectures, including 43 commanderies (都督府,dūdū fǔ, literally "Office of the Commander-Governor"), which were border prefectures with a more powerful governor.[1]Zhou was the more common name for an inland prefecture.Dudu Fu was shortened toFu and the convention developed that larger prefectures would be namedfu, while smaller prefectures would be calledzhou. One of the earliest cities to be called afu wasJingzhao-fu (京兆府), which including the capital cityChang'an andHenan-fu, which including the secondary capitalLuoyang during theTang dynasty.
By the time of the 14th–centuryMing dynasty, the term had become common across provinces: typically, each prefecture under province was called afu. Fu of Ming andQing dynasty are sometimes translated as "prefectures",Shuntian Prefecture for instance. Sub-prefectures, such as that which administeredMacao's inner harbor fromQianshan, were called "military/civil fu" (t 軍民府,s 军民府,jūnmínfǔ).
After the end of theQing dynasty in 1912, the Republic of China abolishedfu in order to streamline administrative divisions, recategorizing them intocounties or cities. ThePeople's Republic of China inherited these divisions of mainland China in 1949 and did not reinstate thefu. Many formerfu have becomeprefecture-level cities.
As part of theTaika Reform in (645), the capitals of theprovinces of Japan were namedkokufu (国府; "province capitals"). Thefu character is an element still found in several Japanese city names, such asDazaifu (太宰府),Fuchū (府中),Hōfu (防府),Kōfu (甲府),Rifu (利府) and the old name forShizuoka, Sunpu (駿府).
During theMeiji Restoration, the newly formed Meiji government enactedFuhanken Sanchisei in 1868, splitting the country into three varieties of prefecture. One of these werefu, used for urbanprefectures as opposed to rural prefectures (県,ken). The first two urban prefectures (府,fu) were created on 14 June 1868:Kyoto-fu andHakodate-fu. By the end of 1868, 10 fu had been established: Kyoto, Hakodate,Osaka,Nagasaki,Edo (later Tokyo),Kanagawa,Watarai,Nara,Echigo (later Niigata) andKōfu. Due to some prefectures gaining non-urban land or being amalgamated into other territories in 1869, three remained: Kyoto-fu, Osaka-fu and Tokyo-fu.
During theSecond Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government wished to tighten control of the local autonomy of the different areas of Tokyo.[2] TheHome Ministry published a plan to rename Tokyo to a metropolis (都,to), but thespecial wards of Tokyo (35 in 1938) objected to the plan. In 1943 the plan was implemented, and Tokyo-fu and Tokyo-shi were merged to become the currentTokyo Metropolis. This brought the number of fu in Japan to its current number of two: Kyoto-fu and Osaka-fu. There is currently a plan which will turn Osaka to a metropolis, which would leave the amount of urban prefectures to one if successful.
Bu (부, 府) has been used inKorea since theGoryeo dynasty as a suffix designating a city. The city ofKaesong was designated Kaesong-bu in 995. The 1485 code of lawGyeongguk daejeon designates the city ofSeoul as Hanseong-bu (漢城府) and Kaesong as Kaesong-bu. In the 17th century, additional areas were designatedbu, includingGanghwa-bu,Suwon-bu andGwangju-bu.
In 1895 after theDonghak Peasant Revolution and theTreaty of Shimonoseki, a series of wide changes called theGabo Reform were enacted. One of these changes was to split theEight Provinces of Korea into 23bu:Andong,Chuncheon,Chungju,Daegu,Dongnae,Gangneung,Gongju,Haeju,Hamhŭng,Hanseong,Hongju,Incheon,Jeju,Jeonju,Jinju,Kaesŏng,Kanggye,Kapsan,Kyŏngsŏng,Naju,Namwon,P'yŏngyang andŬiju. The districts were named after the capitals of each district, and also included rural areas. A year later in August 1896, these districts were replaced by 13 new provinces, using the previous worddo (도; 道).
After theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and theoccupation of Korea by Japan, many areas were renamed and local government was reorganised. On 1 April 1914, twelvebu were created:Seoul (then Gyeongseong-bu (京城府,Keijō-fu)),Incheon,Gunsan,Mokpo,Daegu,Busan,Masan,Pyongyang,Chinnampo,Sinuiju,Wonsan andChongjin. Between 1930 and 1944, 10 more were added by the Japanese government: Kaesong andHamhung in 1930, followed byDaejeon,Jeonju andGwangju in 1935,Rason (1936),Haeju (1938),Jinju (1939),Kimchaek (1941) andHungnam (1944).
After thePotsdam Declaration in 1945 and Japan's defeat inWorld War II, as well as thedivision of Korea, the term has no longer been in use.
The word was borrowed inSino-Vietnamese asphủ (府), and used as an administrative unit in 15–19th-centuryVietnam.[3][4] Administrative division of new frontier territories into phủ was particularly used as the Vietnamese expanded southwards and inland.[5] The administrative reorganization byMinh Mạng along Chinese models following the death of his father in 1832, fixed the position of the phủ as an intermediary administrative division between the new larger unit of thetỉnh province, and the existing localhuyện sub-prefecture or district, and power was concentrated with provincial governors. The position of local prefects and district heads remained unaffected.[6][7]
The huyen was an administrative unit — a subprefecture — within the province which first came into use in the fifteenth century. See Whitfield, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 118. '6'Each province was divided into several phu or prefectures. Ibid.