Circuit (political division)

Circuit (道 ; Chinese: dào; Japanese: dō) was a Chinese political division, and is a Japanese one.

China

It originated in China in 627, when Emperor Taizong[?] (唐太宗) subdivided China into ten circuits. Emperor Xuanzong[?] (玄宗) further added 5. It was abolished as the highest administrative divisions when the Qing Empire collapsed in 1911. However, circuits still existed as high-level, though not top-level, divisions of the Republic of China, such as Qionyai Circuit (now Hainan Province). In 1928, all circuits were replaced with committees or just completely abandoned.

Circuits were the highest of the three-tier system (三級制), the next two are prefectures (州) and districts (縣). They are simultaneously inspection areas (監察區 jian1 cha2 qu1).

Japan

The newest and only remaining Japanese circuit is Hokkaido "North Sea Circuit", which has the equivalent status as a prefecture. The seven defunct circuits spread all over the other three islands:

• Toukaido (東海道) "East Sea Circuit": 15 provinces (国)
• Nankaido (南海道) "South Sea Circuit": 6 provinces
• Saikaido (西海道) "West Sea Circuit": 8 provinces
• Hokurokudo (北陸道) "North Mainland Circuit": 7 provinces
• San'indo (山陰道) "Mountain-north Circuit": 8 provinces
• Sanyodo (山陽道) "Mountain-south Circuit": 8 provinces
• Tousando (東山道) "East Mountain Circuit": 13 provinces

(For the mountain south-north reference with in and yo, see Yin Yang)

Korea

Its Korean equivalent is do, which is translated as "province."