Zǎixiàng jiā rén qī pǐn guān.

Lit A servant in a prime minister's family [is as powerful as a] county magistrate.

Note [Note: qī pǐn guān referred to the lowest level magistrate in the county government in the traditional imperial bureaucracy, often colloquially referred to as qī pīn zhíma guān, “a county magistrate as small as a sesame seed.”]

Topics COUNTY GOVERNMENT HIERARCHY MAGISTRATES POWER qī pǐn guān traditional_China