明代宣慰与宣抚司

The Xuanwei and Xuanfu Divisions in the Ming Dynasty

宣慰使司和宣抚使司明代正式成为专门用于治理少数民族的地方一级行政区划。宣慰、宣抚司是隶于兵部的武职机构,负责各自管辖地区的军民之事,有些也隶属于户部,与各府州相同。从其官员品级上来看,宣抚司要稍逊于宣慰司;从其数量设置上,宣慰司的数量要少于宣抚司;从其上下级隶属关系上来看,宣慰、宣抚司在制度与实践中也不是垂直的领导关系。明代宣慰、宣抚司的制度安排,不但不同地区有明显的特征差别,而且与当时的民族政策密切相关。

In the Ming Dynasty,the Xuanwei Division and the Xuanfu Division formally became the local administrative divisions devoted to minority governance.Xuanwei Division and XuanfuDivision were both military officials that belong to the Ministry of War.They took care of the military and civilian affairs in their own jurisdictions.Some of the divisions also belonged to the Financial Institution,just like the prefecture.In terms of the official grade,the Xuanfu Division was lower than the Xuanwei Division;in terms of numbers,the former one was more than the latter;while in terms of the subordinate relations,the two divisions did not have a vertical leadership in regime and practice.The institutional arrangements of the Xuanwei Division and the Xuanfu Division in the Ming Dynasty not only have obvious feature differences in different regions,but also were closely related to the national policies.