Province of SiZhou/SiLi（Introduction to Three Kingdoms Geographical Names 1）
Important Places of Three Kingdoms
Sizhou/Sili（司州/司隶） was the the capital city and its environs of the Eastern Han Empire and was the most unique Province.
The administrative chief of Sizhou is called the Colonel of Sili, with a status equivalent to that of the governors of various provinces, but there are still many differences in power and responsibilities between them.
The duty of the Colonel of Sili is to supervise the various officials in the capital and its environs and have a directly subordinate army,about 1200 soldiers, so Colonel of Sili is often involved in power struggles in the empire, Becoming the object of being recruited. The Sili Colonel can also impeach senior officials, but who has no military or political power .
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were seven commanderies and 106 counties under the jurisdiction of Sizhou. The capital of Sizhou was Luoyang County, which was also the capital of the Eastern Han Empire.
The jurisdiction of Sizhou is equivalent to the present-day southern part of Hebei province, northern part of He’nan province , southern part of Shanxi province, and the Weihe渭河 Plain in Shaanxi.
The seven commanderies under the jurisdiction of Sizhou are: Hedong河东 , He’nei河内 , He’nan河南, Hongnong弘农, JingZhao京兆, Pengyi冯翊, and Fufeng扶风.
Among them,He’nan Commandery is where the capital of Eastern Han ,Luoyang located,its governor Called “He Nan Yin河南尹”,whose level is 1 rank higher than other commanderial governors.
HeDong Commandery: In Chinese, “He”河 means river and “Dong”东 means east. Because the Yellow River flows from north to south in what is now southwestern Shanxi Province, the area east of the Yellow River was called “hedong”, and Hedong County has been in existence since the Qin Dynasty（221-207BC）. HeDong Commandery seems to have produced many famous generals, Wei Qing卫青 and Huo QuBing霍去病 of the Western Han Dynasty（202BC-8AD）, Guan Yu and Xu Huang of the Three Kingdoms, all of whom came from HeDong Commandery. At the late Han period, HeDong Commandery also centered around many exciting stories between Cao Cao and Yuans, which we have mentioned in the story of Chapter 40. Du Ji杜畿, the best Commaderial governor of Three Kingdoms , was precisely the governor of HeDong Commandery.
He’nei Commandery was to the east of HeDong Commandery, and the two counties were bounded by the Taihang Mountains太行山. The Sima family, which unified the Three Kingdoms, came from Wen County in He’nei Commandery.
HeNan,HeDong,HeNei,were called “3He”（三河），The core areas of the three ancient Chinese dynasties of Xia，Shang，Zhou are all located in this area.
HongNong Commandery was established during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han , and the location of its seat was the famous HanGu Pass. Because Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, was located to the west of the HanGu Pass, HongNong Commanderywas established to extend the influence of the Hangu Pass, which in effect served as a barrier to the Western Han's capital city and was responsible for protecting against threats from the east.
Chang’an,the Western capital of Eastern Han,and the capital of Western Han dynasty,located in JingZhaoYin京兆尹.
JingZhaoYin,Left PingYi,Right FuFeng,were called “三辅” area , after the establishment of the state of Wei, its name was changed to Jingzhao,PingYi,FuFeng Commanderies.