The Yuan Provincial System

After the Yuan was founded, Kublai Khan, helped by Han scholars and following the practice of earlier Central Plains dynasties, gradually established an autocratic, centralized system. At the center, the Secretariat handled national administration, with six ministries (Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice and Works) under it; the Bureau of Military Affairs directed military affairs and the deployment of armies; the Censorate oversaw supervision; and the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs governed Buddhist matters and the military and civil affairs of Tibet. Locally, the Yuan created the provincial system. As the empire was vast, to strengthen control the Yuan called today's Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and parts of Inner Mongolia the "inner region" (Fuli), ruled directly by the Secretariat; Tibet came under the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs; and the rest was divided into ten Branch Secretariats, called "provinces" for short, including Lingbei, Liaoyang, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Jiangzhe, Jiangxi and Huguang. A Branch Secretariat was originally an outpost of the Secretariat but gradually became the permanent highest local administrative body, with officials appointed by the center and charge of local military and civil affairs; its powers were great, but major matters had to be referred to the center. Below the province were circuits, prefectures, subprefectures and counties. Provincial boundaries were often drawn deliberately across natural barriers so that no province could hold out behind natural defenses. The system strengthened central control over the localities, consolidated national unity and promoted the development of frontier regions.