质疑“皇权不下县”——基于宏观的长时段的动态历史考证

自秦汉至明清之际的1 800余年，中国历代王朝的“编户齐民”一直在2 000万人至6 000万人之间徘徊，全国的耕地面积基本维持在8亿亩左右，县的数量大体保持在1 500个上下，总体上并没有达到“地方百里、人口万户”的标准建制，因而属于一种“小县制”。同时，县以下还有乡里制度和以什伍编制为基本组织原则的保甲体系，皇权专制集权统治以“县政”为依托，其政治影响可谓无所不在、无事不管。因此，由当代西方学者提出的所谓“国权不下县，县下惟宗族，宗族皆自治，自治靠伦理，伦理造乡绅”纯属于一种毫无历史根据和主观臆断的无稽之谈。

Oppugning "The Emperor's Power is Never Descended bellow the County"——A Long-run Dynamic Historical Examination

During the more than 2,000 years from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the registered population of China was within twenty million to sixty million,with a basic arable area of eight hundred million mu and one thousand and five hundred counties.It was a small county system with some smaller systems of organization.Relying on county administration,political influence of the imperial power reached everywhere of the country.This fact proves that the assumption "The Emperor's Power is Never Descended bellow the County",proposed by western scholars,is totally groundless.