List of provinces and commanderies of the Han dynasty

Local governments in the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) consisted of three levels of administrative divisions: provinces (cishibu 刺史部, or zhou), commanderies (jun) and counties (xian).

In other periods, the position was replaced by a Governor (mu, 牧, literally "shepherd"), a higher-ranked official.

A special type of county, known as march (dao, 道), was used to administer certain areas with "barbarian" populations, especially on the frontiers of the empire.

The capital region, although similar to a province in size, was not assigned an Inspector, but was instead inspected by the Colonel Director of Retainers (Sili xiaowei, 司隸校尉).

During the Western Han dynasty, the Inspectors were agents of the central government, and did not permanently reside in the provinces.