(路, lù) Prefectures (larger: 府, fǔ; smaller: 州, zhōu; military: 軍/军, jūn) Counties The Jurchens invaded China proper in Jin–Song wars of the 12th century. In 1142, peace was formalized between the Jurchen Jin dynasty and the Southern Song dynasty, which was forced to cede all of North China to the Jurchens. By the beginning of the 13th century, the Jurchens had moved their capital to Zhongdu (modern Beijing) and had adopted Chinese administrative structures. The Song dynasty also maintained the same structure over the southern half of China that they continued to govern. Provinces under the Yuan dynasty The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, founded in 1271 and unified all of China proper in 1279, introduced the precursors to the modern provinces as a new primary administrative level: Provinces (行中書省/行中书省, xíngzhōngshūshěng) Circuits (路, lù) Prefectures (larger: 府, fǔ; smaller: 州, zhōu) Counties The area around the capital, corresponding to modern Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, central Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and Tianjin, was called the Central Region (腹裏/腹里) and not put into any province, but was directly controlled by the Central Secretariat (Zhongshu Sheng). The Tibetan Plateau was controlled by the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuanzheng Yuan). Provinces under the Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty continued with this system and had provinces that were almost exactly the same as those in modern China proper. The differences were Huguang had not yet been split into Hubei and Hunan; Gansu and Ningxia were still part of Shaanxi; Anhui and Jiangsu were together as South Zhili; portions of what are today the provinces of Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin were part of the province of North Zhili; and Hainan, Shanghai, and Chongqing were still parts of their original provinces at this time. This makes for a total of 15 provinces. Jiaozhi Province, formerly known as Jiaozhi, Jiaozhou, Lingnan and Rinan, was also re-established in 1407 when the area encompassing northern and central Vietnam was reconquered for the fourth time. However, the province eventually emerged as its own state in 1428 under the Later Lê dynasty of Đại Việt. Provinces and Feudatory Regions under the Qing dynasty The Manchu-led Qing dynasty was the last dynasty of China. The Qing government applied the following system over China proper: Provinces (省, shěng) Circuits (道, dào) Prefectures (府, fǔ), Independent Departments (直隸州/直隶州, zhílìzhōu), and Independent Subprefectures (直隸廳/厅, zhílìtīng) Counties (縣/县, xiàn), Departments (散州, sànzhōu), Subprefectures (散廳/散厅, sàntīng) The Qing split