Abstract: The Qing state established its system for categorizing local government administrative units during the reign of Yongzheng. In this categorization, zhilizhou (independent departments) were made up of counties and sanzhou (departments) were at same level as counties. Although there were fewer zhilizhou and sanzhou than there were counties and prefectures, their classification and the appointment of their officials had distinctive features. With the aid of the newly compiled data on the political divisions of the states in the newly revised History of Qing Dynasty, it can be seen that the quefen of zhilizhou are concentrated in the yaoque and the zhongque, while the zuiyaoque and jianque are less. Relatively moderate position in government-level administrative districts. The ratings (chongfanpinan) of zhou and sanzhou generally followed the same quefen categories as prefectures and counties: most significant, significant, medium, and simple. 15.4 percent of zhilizhou didn’t follow the rules of the system, as did 19.4 percent of the sanzhou. Most of the exceptions was related to the assignment of miaojiangque (quota in the ethnic Miao regions), yanheque (quota along the rivers), of bianque (border quota). 82.1 percent of zhilizhou were tidiaoque, that is with appointments made by the Governors-General. This was a higher share than for prefectures. This is related to the classification of administrative units made at the beginning of the Qing, when the Imperial Court specified all of the zhou magistrates as positions to be appointed by the Governors-General. Later, some of the zhilizhou were reclassified so that their magistrates would be appointed by the Board of Personnel, while the majority remained as tidiaoque. Meanwhile, the proportion of tidiaoque of among sanzhou was 45.1 percent. As a result of this structure for quota assignment, the tidiaoque of sanzhou magistrates became the main channels of promotion for most county magistrates. In this article we track the origins, transitions, and promotions of zhou magistrates based on 37,320 records of zhilizhou and sanzhou magistrates extracted from CGED-Q (the Jinshenlu database). We demonstrate that zhou magistrates were largely promoted from among local officials, mostly county magistrates, rather than being sent from the central government. This is very different from the pattern of prefects. Through this analysis we draw attention to the key role of appointment as zhou magistrates in the career advancement of county level magistrates and the whole system of local officials.

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