傳世史書及近人研究謂西漢郡政府組織中，朝廷所任命之官員，即所謂長吏，為數甚少。普通郡府之員額，僅有郡太守、郡都尉及太守丞、都尉丞四員朝廷命官。《張家山漢墓竹簡》〈二年律令‧秩律〉所載，朝廷任命之郡長吏尚有郡發弩令、司空令、輕車令，「秩各八百石，有丞者三百石。‧卒長五百石。」 又有「郡候、騎千人……秩各六百石，有丞者二百石。」尚有郡司馬、騎司馬、塞尉、城尉等。是漢初朝廷任命之郡長吏，其官職與員額較之傳統所知者，多出甚多；〈秩律〉所多出之郡長吏，全是武吏。推測為戰國至秦時之建置，戰國時武力爭霸，各郡皆置郡兵，各有軍吏若干。及秦統一，為鎮壓天下，且祚短，未遑改作。漢承秦制，〈秩律〉所載郡府之軍官，蓋戰國秦制之遺跡。及文、景、武承平，漸裁省郡兵及軍官，以後演變形成〈百官表〉及〈續志〉所述之郡府官制。 戰國、秦及漢初之地方政府，郡府偏重軍事，治民行政事務之重心，在縣不在郡。

There were two kinds of officers in the Han government: senior officers, who were nominated by the Emperor, and subordinate officers who were nominated by chief officers; for example, the chief officer of a province nominated his subordinate officers for the provincial government. According to the traditional historical documents, there were normally only four senior officers in a provincial government. In 2001, documents written on bamboo strips that had been unearthed in Zhangjiashan 張家山 were published. In these documents, considered to be governmental documents dating from the beginning of the Han dynasty, we find that there were more than a dozen senior officers in a provincial government. These newly-identified senior officers were all military officers. The bureaucratic systems of provincial government revealed in the Zhangjiashan documents are the vestiges of the governmental systems of the Warring States period and the Qin dynasty. During the Warring States, the Qin and the early Han, the main duties of provincial governments were military. The provincial bureaucratic system changed gradually during the Han dynasty, and by the latter part of the Western Han dynasty, provincial governments functioned mainly as civil administrations. The positions of military officers in the provincial government were abolished as the bureaucratic system changed, and it is the result of these changes that is recorded the traditional historical documents.