On the Hou-kuo (封國) of the Former Han

The lieh-hou (列侯), which was a kind of feaudal lord under the Han dynasty was enfeoffed to the hsien (縣), and such a hsien was called houkuo. But the number of the households of the hsien disagrees with that of the hsien's households, indicating that the lieh-hou was enfeoffed as lord of part of the hsien. Such was the rule in the Former Han period, but at the end of the period this rule was loosed, and the lieh-hou became to be enfeoffed as lord of the entire hsien as we find in the Biography of K'uang Ch'eng (框衡)who had the whole Lo-an (樂安) hsien as his feof. Unless we take it into consideration that the lieh-hou's feof was not same with the hsien. we cannot grasp the difference of function between the hsiang (相) and the chia-ch'eng (家丞). The hsiang of a lieh-hou was, in fact, ling-ch'ang of an ordinary hsien, the only difference being that he was obliged to send in a certain amount of taxes collected in his hsien to the lieh-hou. It seems that the lieh-hou as a feudal lord had only limited power over his feof, though sometimes he wielded his power unlawfully in extorting the peasants