Glossary

The words the sources actually use, in one line each. Pinyin and characters given so you can recognise them elsewhere.

皇帝 huángdì emperor

The title created in 221 BCE; the son of heaven, sole legitimate ruler of all under it.

丞相 chéngxiàng chancellor

The head of civil government under the emperor. Cao Cao held it; that was the point.

州 zhōu province

The largest administrative division. Jing Province, the prize of 208, covered the middle Yangtze.

郡 jùn commandery

The division below a province, run by a governor. Four southern commanderies went over to Liu Bei after Red Cliff.

太守 tàishǒu commandery governor

The official in charge of a commandery: tax, justice, and levies.

刺史 cìshǐ regional inspector

Originally an inspector over several commanderies; by the late Han, effectively a provincial warlord's title.

屯田 túntián military agricultural colonies

Soldiers farming state land to feed the army. Cao Cao's system of it is why his north outlasted everyone.

部曲 bùqǔ private retainers

Troops bound to a family rather than to the state. The atom of warlord power.

禪讓 shànràng abdication ritual

The ceremony by which a dynasty 'yields' the throne to the next. Always voluntary on paper, never in fact.

士人 shìrén scholar-gentry

The literate elite whose service made any regime governable. Courts competed for them.