What's the difference between "county magistrate" and "magistrate"? A word difference, status is a world of difference.

Our country's language is extensive and profound, often with a word difference, a world apart. In our life, there have been many jokes caused by typing a wrong word.

China has a civilization of 5,000 years, and a lot of characters have been produced in the long years. With the passage of time, although some words are still in use today, their meanings are quite different from before. For example, the word "name" now refers to a person's name, while in ancient times it refers to a person's name and character.

As China entered the feudal society at an early age, many titles appeared in the evolution of the bureaucratic system, some of which looked similar, but were different in essence.

In ancient costume film and television dramas, the official position of county magistrate often appears. The county magistrate can be regarded as the "doyen" of China officialdom. It appeared even before the emperor. If we want to trace the appearance of county magistrate, we should start from ancient times.

Because Dayu gained great prestige and power in the process of flood control, he became the leader of the Chinese nation after successfully controlling the flood.

After years of operation, Dayu formed a mature system for managing tribes, so before he died, Dayu passed on the leadership to his son Qi, and China officially entered the feudal dynasty of "the father passed on the son, and the family ruled the world".

The reason why Dayu dared to set a precedent, give up the abdication system and adopt the inheritance system to inherit the throne is because of the system he formulated. People have lived under the constraints of the system for many years and have long been accustomed to the management of the rulers. Therefore, as long as the system continues to be passed down, it is not so important who is the leader.

With the development of history, the ruling system is constantly changing and improving, so as to stabilize the position of the ruling class and manage the country more effectively.

In the Zhou Dynasty, its feudal system developed into a enfeoffment system, that is, the Emperor of Zhou divided the world and appointed members of the royal family and heroes to rule in different regions. The emperor of Zhou bound the vassals who were enfeoffed, and the administrative system of all fiefs was completely in the hands of these vassals.

In the early Zhou Dynasty, this was a very effective management method, because the governors everywhere were very wise and loyal to the Zhou Emperor. However, in the late Zhou Dynasty, due to the "eldest son inheritance system" stipulated by the hereditary system, local governors could not manage the fiefs well, and their loyalty to the Zhou Emperor was not as good as before, so the social order began to become chaotic.

In the Warring States period, the enfeoffment system almost collapsed, and a new administrative system came into being.

The emergence of the official position of county magistrate has a lot to do with the chaotic situation in the Warring States period. Before that, even if there was a war between vassal States, there would be no annexation by other vassal States. During the Warring States period, due to the inability of the Zhou Emperor to restrain the princes, the phenomenon of annexation began to appear among the vassal States.

After the expansion of the territory, the first thing to be solved is the management of the annexed land, and the official position of county magistrate came into being at this time.

Because the place to be managed was plundered by the vassal States through war, the local residents will inevitably have resistance to the invaders. In order to expand the benefits of the war, conquerors usually extort money from the residents in this area to compensate for the losses suffered in the war. In this way, the contradiction between the ruling class and the aborigines is further aggravated.

Therefore, the management of this area has become a very difficult problem. In order to maintain the stability of the conquered areas, conquerors usually arrange local people with more prestige to be managers, and this manager's position is the county magistrate.

At this time, the county magistrate mainly maintained law and order and collected money and grain, and his power was not very great.

After the Qin dynasty unified the six countries, the concept of vassal state ceased to exist, and the whole Central Plains was unified into one country. Qin Shihuang also changed the original administrative system from enfeoffment system to county system. The county became a formal administrative unit, and the county magistrate officially became the father and mother of the county.

Because people still retain the concept of enfeoffment system in their ideology and do not fully accept the county system, county magistrate is still a thankless occupation, even a high-risk occupation. At the time of the uprising, Liu Bang killed the county magistrate of Pei County and turned Pei County into the base of the uprising.

The emperor of the Song Dynasty valued literature over martial arts, so the bureaucracy at that time was extremely huge. In order to arrange jobs for hired officials, the court has drawn up many official positions, and the magistrate of a county is one of them.

Although there is only one word difference between the magistrate and the county magistrate, the administrative functions entrusted to them are completely different.

Although the county magistrate at that time still handled civil litigation, collected taxes and educated the people, with the stability of society, they were also equipped with county magistrates, and the personal safety of county magistrates was no longer as vulnerable as before.

As the highest chief executive at the county level, the county magistrate's local power is not too great. Corruption and fraud also arise from this. For example, when collecting taxes, the county magistrate only needs to adjust the amount slightly, and after paying the amount required by the court, the surplus can be pocketed. If the county magistrate is corrupt and perverts the law, the people of a county will really live in dire straits.

In order to avoid this situation, the court sent a reliable person as the county magistrate to restrict the county magistrate.

The lowest official position of county magistrate in Song Dynasty was Jiupin. The magistrate of a county is generally seven levels, two levels higher than the county magistrate. Moreover, the county magistrate belongs to the central officials and is an official appointed by the court to the local government, which is essentially different from the county magistrate.

Magistrates can not only appoint aides and issue decrees, but also have the power to appoint and remove, reward and punish, and recommend magistrates. In other words, a magistrate of a county can set up his own think tank to make suggestions for himself, issue decrees to local governments, and at the same time recall incompetent magistrates, or commend and recommend outstanding magistrates.

A magistrate of a county can also dispatch soldiers in the county and have certain military command, but the county magistrate can only dispatch the chief executive of the county government. From this point of view, the power of the magistrate is much greater than that of the county magistrate.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the reduction of bureaucracy, the magistrate of a county merged and implemented the part that the magistrate was responsible for, and the magistrate ceased to exist.

The wheel of history keeps turning, promoting the development of civilization. Bureaucracy, as a tool of the ruling class, is constantly changing and updating.

Although there is only one word difference between county magistrate and county magistrate as official names, there is a huge difference. And the wisdom of the ancients has also been reflected here.

Although they are all county-level chief executives, the affairs of a county can also be divided into many parts. County magistrate and county magistrate have their own duties, which are insurmountable, which also shows the skills of ancient kings to control the people.