Shang Yang’s Promotion of the County System and the County-Canton Relations: an Analysis Based on Official Titles, Salary Grades and the Size of the Employed Personnel

The establishment of the county (xian 縣) system was the core of the second stage of Shang Yang’s reform. This reform was brought to completion through the institutionalization of office bailiffs with distinct salary grades (諸 官 有 秩 嗇 夫). In investigating counties and cantons (xiang 鄉) we should pay attention to the operational background of “[county] court (ting 廷)—[county level] offices (guan 官).” The salary rank of Qin’s county leaders was relatively high, as it was equivalent to what would later be associated only with “major counties” (da xian 大 縣). The appearance of the titles of [county] “heads” (zhang 長) and [canton] “bailiffs” (sefu 嗇 夫) reflects the evolution of the salary grades of the county and canton officials. Based on the county’s and canton’s scale and on the number of registered households, the scope of personnel in Qin’s Qianling 遷 陵 county was relatively large.