The ancient Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Dynasty (approximately 559-330 BC), was the first empire in human history to span across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Centered around Fars in southwestern Iran, its territory extended from Central Asia to Asia Minor, from the upper reaches of the Indus Valley to the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt, and its influence radiated to the islands on the east coast of the Mediterranean, the Eurasian grasslands, the Arabian Peninsula, and other regions. How did the kings of ancient Persia manage such a vast empire, especially with significant historical and cultural differences in different regions within the empire? This is an important question that the academic community has been trying to answer for a long time. In the past two decades, with the interpretation and research of the cuneiform clay tablet archives in the Persian Empire's capital city of Persepolis, as well as new archaeological discoveries, scholars have gained a preliminary understanding of this issue. Simply put, the Achaemenid Empire had a strict "unified" management system. At the ideological level, the kings of the ancient Persian Empire repeatedly proclaimed through numerous palace reliefs and royal inscriptions written in different languages (Akkadian, Elan, Old Persian, etc.) that the Achaemenid Empire had a vast territory, and on this vast land, the king was blessed by gods, he was legitimate and just, and his subjects were peaceful and obedient. In practical management, the Achaemenid dynasty implemented a land state (king) policy, where the king would distribute it to members of the royal family, nobles, officials, temples, and other personnel or institutions for use. The latter enjoyed the output of the land or could lease it, but the king could reclaim their right to use the land at any time. Members of the royal family, temple priests, and other recipients of fiefdoms are required to pay taxes or tribute to the king. The government invests in the construction of necessary infrastructure, including road systems, irrigation systems, warehouses, workshops, and even new towns; In addition, to ensure and expand agricultural production, the government will also invest in purchasing seeds, saplings, and other crops for planting, and exchange the remaining agricultural products with surrounding areas, especially nomadic people, for livestock for use in ceremonies and other important occasions. The ancient Persian Empire implemented a provincial system, dividing the country into 23 to 32 provinces, each of which was managed by a governor, with the governor above the governor; The latter represents the king in managing and inspecting his jurisdiction. A governor may manage several provinces; If necessary, they will also perform their duties in provinces outside their jurisdiction. For example, Karkish was the governor of the Kerman region in southeastern Iran, and he had carried out military missions multiple times outside his jurisdiction, covering areas from Sakatiya and Midi in central Iran to Fars in the southwest, and even as far west as Babylon. The governors maintain close contact with the king, and each governor is also interconnected, competing and supervising each other, forming a tightly woven network. The vast majority of the governors of the Achaemenid dynasty were Persians, but their positions were not hereditary. The ancient Persian Empire had a developed road transportation network, and according to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Achaemenid Empire had an "imperial road". This road starts from Sartis, the capital of the former Kingdom of Lydia, located in Asia Minor, and extends through the Mesopotamian River basin to the former capital of Iran, Susa. Another Greek historian who served in the Persian court, Ctesias, pointed out that this "royal road" extends all the way to the capital of Bactria in Central Asia, Balkh. In fact, the Persian "royal road" is a road network that covers the entire empire, including not only the main roads for carriages to walk on, but also many large and small branch roads. The straight and running roads of the Qin Dynasty were roughly similar to this. The roads of the ancient Persian Empire were planned and measured by specialized personnel according to their level, and then built according to fixed specifications and regularly maintained. If a carriage wants to travel on such a road, the distance between its wheels should also match the width of the road. In addition to roads, there are usually sheds, kitchens, warehouses, workshops, etc. along the way for civil servants traveling between different parts of the empire to rest and provide food supplies. The distance between transfer houses is usually one day's walking distance, and some transfer houses also have stables and transfer horses for transporting emergency personnel. The materials required for transmission are provided by the government and are generally purchased in the surrounding areas. Normally, travelers are only allowed to stay for one night at each transfer house, and they will not be able to obtain meals after the deadline. The road system of the Achaemenid dynasty played an indispensable role in imperial management, undertaking important tasks such as postal transportation, information exchange, personnel mobility, and tax transportation; More importantly, this road system ensures that the Persian king can quickly mobilize troops and generals when encountering enemy situations, which is crucial for maintaining the stability of a vast empire. It can be said that the road system of ancient Persia was the pillar of the Achaemenid Empire, and this system also laid the road foundation for the later Trans Eurasian Silk Road. The ancient Persian Empire had an extremely strict and meticulous administrative management system, which can be seen from its control over business travelers. The management literature of Persepolis shows that these travelers not only include officials, nobles, and envoys, but also guides, craftsmen, soldiers, servants, hired workers, etc. They travel back and forth along imperial roads between the imperial hinterland and various provinces. When traveling, they need to carry a letter of introduction issued and stamped by the king, governor, or the administrator of the Persepolis Economic Region, which is a confidential letter. After arriving at the inn, the traveling personnel first need to hand over the introduction letter they carry with them to the clerk of the inn for inspection. After verification, the inn will provide meals and forage for the travelers and their livestock according to the standards specified in the letter. Afterwards, the scribe also needs to draft a receipt, which is usually written in cuneiform on a tongue shaped clay board, containing information such as the name of the meal provider, the identity of the travel personnel, the starting and destination of the task to be performed, the number and composition of the team, the amount of food received by each person, and the date. On the left side of the mud board, the meal supplier usually stamps their own seal, while the recipient of the rations stamps their seal on the back of the mud board, and this set of accounting procedures is considered completed. The seal affixed to the clay board, either as a drum seal or as a seal, is an indispensable tool in the imperial management system. Afterwards, the scribes will archive the written and stamped receipts, which will be regularly returned to Persepolis for auditing; After the audit is completed, the amount of grain recorded on the receipt will be uniformly calculated monthly or annually with those from other institutions, and will be recorded by clerks in different categories and archived on another type of clay board. It is worth noting that the management of ancestral homes in the ancient Persian Empire bears striking similarities to the management of ancestral homes shown in later Han Dynasty bamboo slips. Most of the clerks working in the Secretariat spoke Old Iranian, but they had to read introduction letters written in Aramaic and write receipts in Elam, so most of the clerks in the ancient Persian Empire knew at least two or three languages. Comparing Aramaic language documents from Elephant Island in Upper Egypt and northern Afghanistan, as well as management documents in the Elamite language from Persepolis and Gukandahar in southern Afghanistan, it can be found that there is a high degree of consistency in both grammar and vocabulary, indicating that the ancient Persian Empire likely used nationally unified textbooks when cultivating scribes. The high degree of unity mentioned above is also reflected in other aspects of the management of the Achaemenid Empire. The management literature of Persepolis shows that the food supply, including the king and the inner palace, is uniformly distributed by the administrative management of Persepolis, and then distributed layer by layer by the king and queen's own palace management. The Persian king also used transmission houses and other facilities along the road during his travels. Although he did not need to provide a secret letter, he and his court attendants also had to collect their meals according to regulations, which were recorded by the clerks of the transmission houses. The Governor General's Office, the provinces, and the lower level institutions within the provinces all follow this management style of the palace. Officials at all levels will collect grain from the government's warehouses and provide it to the responsible personnel of various departments. From the perspective of material and cultural relics, the centralized and unified management system of the ancient Persian Empire is also reflected in the distribution of archaeological sites. In the administrative area under the jurisdiction of Persepolis, there are some larger administrative centers that serve as large material distribution centers. These centers are usually surrounded by a series of satellite towns belonging to them, each with a certain specialized function. In line with the imperial management system, this distribution characteristic of several small towns surrounding a large administrative center was replicated and transplanted to various parts of the country with the implementation of the imperial management system and the flow of people within the country, forming the so-called "institutional landscape". Meanwhile, with this replication and transplantation, regions that had not yet had experience in national management, such as Central Asia and the Indus Valley, quickly acquired knowledge and technology related to national management. For example, the Kharoshthi script originating from Gandhara in Central Asia was written based on the most commonly used Aramaic letters in the management of the ancient Persian Empire; The unit of value of the earliest arc-shaped strip coins circulating in Gandhara also adopted the Persian Achaemenid currency system. For regions that had previously had experience in national or imperial management, such as Asia Minor, Egypt, and Babylon, Persian kings made every effort to utilize existing organizational structures and human resources, especially temples, to manage and control these areas. Regarding religion, the ancient Persian kings generally adopted a laissez faire attitude, and various regions still believed in their own deities. However, due to the frequent dispatch of personnel from different regions by the Achaemenid central government to participate in infrastructure construction or border defense in other parts of the empire, the flow of people within the empire was frequent. Those who were far away from their hometowns also built their own temples or religious organizations in foreign lands. For example, the Jewish people stationed on the border of Elephant Island in Upper Egypt built the temple of Yahweh next to the local Egyptian temple, and literature shows that Afghanistan also built temples for the supreme god Bair in the two river basins. Overall, the ancient Persian Empire adopted a centralized management model, and the king delegated power layer by layer through a series of bureaucratic institutions. During this process, the management methods of the court and imperial center were replicated and transplanted to various provinces and their subordinate units. The well connected road and postal system ensured the rapid dissemination and exchange of information, and enabled the king to keep every corner of the empire within his vision. Objectively, it maintained the stable development of the Persian Empire and promoted its orderly and efficient operation. (Lai Xin She)