Chapter VII (3)

9. The LÍ FAN YUEN, or Court for the Government of Foreigners, commonly called the Colonial Office, “has the government and direction of the external foreigners, orders their emoluments and honors, appoints their visits to court, and regulates their punishments, in order to display the majesty and goodness of the state.” This is an important branch of the government, and has the superintendence of all the wandering and settled tribes in Mongolia, Cobdo, Ílí, and Koko-nor. All these are called _wai fan_, or ‘external foreigners,’ in distinction from the tributary tribes in Sz’chuen and Formosa, who are termed _nui fan_, or ‘internal foreigners.’ There are also _nui í_ and _wai í_, or ‘internal and external barbarians,’ the former comprising the unsubdued mountaineers of Kweichau, and the latter the inhabitants of all foreign countries who do not choose to range themselves under the renovating influences of the Celestial Empire. The Colonial Office regulates the government of the nomads and restricts their wanderings, lest they trespass on each other’s pasture-grounds. Its officers are all Manchus and Mongols, having over them one president and two vice-presidents, Manchus, and one Mongolian vice-president appointed for life.

Besides the usual secretaries for conducting its general business, there are six departments, whose combined powers include every branch necessary for the management of these clans. The first two have jurisdiction over the numerous tribes and corps of the Inner Mongols, who are under more complete subjection than the others, and part have been placed under the control of officers in Chihlí and Shansí. The appointment of local officers, collecting taxes, allotting land to Chinese settlers, opening roads, paying salaries, arranging the marriages, retinues, visits to courts, and presents made by the princes and the review of the troops, all appertain to these two departments. The third and fourth have a similar, but less effectual control over the princes, lamas, and tribes of Outer Mongolia. At Urga reside two high ministers, organs of communication with Russia, and general overseers of the frontier. The oversight of the lama hierarchy in Mongolia is now completely under the control of this office; and in Tibet their power has been considerably abridged. The fifth department directs the actions, restrains the powers, levies the taxes, and orders the tributary visits of the Mohammedan begs in the Tien shan Nan Lu, who are quiet pretty much as they are paid by presents and flattered by honors. The sixth department regulates the penal discipline of the tributary tribes. The salaries paid the Mongolian princes are distributed according to an economical scale. A _tsin wang_ annually receives $2,600 and twenty-five pieces of silk; a _kiun wang_ receives about $1,666 and fifteen pieces of silk; and so on through the ranks of Beile, Beitse, Duke, etc., the last of whom gets a stipend of only $133 and four pieces of silk. The internal organization of these tribes is probably the same now as it was at first among the Scythians and Huns, and partakes of the features of the feudal and tribal system, modified by the nomadic lives they are obliged to lead. The Chinese government is endeavoring to reduce the influence and retinues of the khans and begs and elevate the people to positions of independent owners and cultivators of the soil.

~THE TU-CHAH YUEN, OR CENSORATE.~

10. The TU-CHAH YUEN, or Censorate, _i.e._, ‘All-examining Court,’ is entrusted with the “care of manners and customs, the investigation of all public offices within and without the capital, the discrimination between the good and bad performance of their business, and between the depravity and uprightness of the officers employed in them; taking the lead of other censors, and uttering each his sentiments and reproofs, in order to cause officers to be diligent in attention to their daily duties, and to render the government of the Empire stable.” The Censorate, when joined with the Board of Punishments and Court of Appeal, forms a high court for the revision of criminal cases and hearing appeals from the provinces; and, in connection with the Six Boards and the Court of Representation and Appeal, makes one of the _Kiu King_, or ‘Nine Courts,’ which deliberate on important affairs of government.

The officers are two censors and four deputy censors, besides whom the governors, lieutenant-governors, and the governors of rivers and inland navigation are _ex-officio_ deputy censors. A class of censors is placed over each of the Six Boards, whose duties are to supervise all their acts, to receive all public documents from the Cabinet, and after classifying them transmit them to the several courts to which they belong, and to make a semi-monthly examination of the papers entered on the archives of each court. All criminal cases in the provinces come under the oversight of the censors at the capital, and the department which superintends the affairs of the metropolis revises its municipal acts, settles the quarrels, and represses the crimes of its inhabitants. These are the duties of the Censorate, than which no part of the Chinese government has attracted more attention. The privilege of reproof given by the law to the office of censor has sometimes been exercised with remarkable candor and plainness, and many cases are recorded in history of these officers suffering for their fidelity, but such instances must be few indeed in proportion to the failures.

The celebrated Sung, who was appointed commissioner to accompany Lord Macartney, once remonstrated with the Emperor Kiaking upon his attachment to play-actors and strong drink, which degraded him in the eyes of his people and incapacitated him from performing his duties. The Emperor, highly irritated, called him to his presence, and on his confessing to the authorship of the memorial, asked him what punishment he deserved. He answered, “Quartering.” He was told to select some other; “Let me be beheaded;” and on a third command, he chose to be strangled. He was then ordered to retire, and the next day the Emperor appointed him governor in Ílí, thus acknowledging his rectitude, though unable to bear his censure.

History records the reply of another censor in the reign of an Emperor of the Tang dynasty, who, when his Majesty once desired to inspect the archives of the historiographer’s office, in order to learn what had been recorded concerning himself, under the excuse that he must know his faults before he could well correct them, was answered: “It is true your Majesty has committed a number of errors, and it has been the painful duty of our employment to take notice of them; a duty which further obliges us to inform posterity of the conversation which your Majesty has this day, very improperly, held with us.”

The censors usually attend on all state occasions by the side of his Majesty, and are frequently allowed to express their opinions openly, but in a despotic government this is little else than a fiction of state, for the fear of offending the imperial ear, and consequent disgrace, will usually prove stronger than the consciousness of right or the desires of a public fame and martyrdom for the sake of principle. The usual mode of advising is to send in a remonstrance against a proposed act, as when one of the body in 1832 remonstrated against the Emperor paying attention to anonymous accusations; or to suggest a different procedure, as the memorials of Chu Tsun against legalizing opium. The number of these papers inserted in the _Peking Gazette_ for the information of the Empire, in many of which the acts of officers are severely reprehended, shows that the censors are not altogether idle. In 1833 a censor named Sü requested the Emperor to interdict official persons at court from writing private letters concerning public persons and affairs in the provinces. He stated that when candidates left the capital for their provincial stations, private letters were sent by them from their friends to the provincial authorities, “sounding the voice of influence and interest,” by which means justice was perverted. The Emperor ordered the Cabinet to examine the censor and get his facts in proof of these statements, but on inquiry he either would not or could not bring forward any cases, and he himself consequently received a reprimand. “These censors are allowed,” says the Emperor, “to tell me the reports they hear, to inform me concerning courtiers and governors who pervert the laws, and to speak plainly about any defect or impropriety which they may observe in the monarch himself; but they are not permitted to employ their pencils in writing memorials which are filled with vague surmises and mere probabilities or suppositions. This would only fill my mind with doubts and uncertainty, and I would not know what men to employ; were this spirit indulged, the detriment of government would be most serious. Let Sü be subjected to a court of inquiry.”

The suspension or disgrace of censors for their freedom of speech is a common occurrence, and among the forty or fifty persons who have this privilege a few are to be found who do not hesitate to lift up their voice against what they deem to be wrong; and there is reason for supposing that only a small portion of their remonstrances appears in the _Gazette_. With regard to this department of government, it is to be observed that although it may tend only in a partial degree to check oppression and reform abuses, and while a close examination of its real operations and influence and the character of its members may excite more contempt than respect, still the existence of such a body, and the publication of its memorials, can hardly fail to rectify misconduct to some degree, and check maladministration before it results in widespread evil. The Censorate is, however, only one of a number of checks upon the conduct of officers, and perhaps by no means the strongest.[236]

~COURTS OF TRANSMISSION AND JUDICATURE.~

11. The TUNG-CHING SZ’, which may be called a Court of Transmission, consists of a small body of six officers, whose duty is to receive memorials from the provincial authorities and appeals from their judgment by the people and present them to the Cabinet. Attached to this Court is an office for attending at the palace-gate to await the beating of a drum, which, in conformity with an ancient custom, is placed there that applicants may by striking it obtain a hearing. It is also the channel through which the people can directly appeal to his Majesty, and cases occur of individuals, even women and girls, travelling to the capital from remote places to present their petitions for redress before the throne. The feeling of blood revenge prevails among the Chinese, and impels many of these weak and unprotected persons to undergo great hardships to obtain legal redress, when the lives of their parents have been unjustly taken by powerful and rich enemies.

12. The TA-LÍ SZ’, or Court of Judicature and Revision, has the duty of adjusting all the criminal courts in the Empire, and forms the nearest approach to a Supreme Court in the government, though the cases brought before it are mostly criminal. When the crimes involve life, this and the preceding unite with the Censorate to form one court, and if the judges are not unanimous in their decisions they must report their reasons to the Emperor, who will pass judgment upon them. In a despotic government no one can expect that the executive officers of courts will exercise their functions with that caution and equity required in Christian countries, but considerable care has been taken to obtain as great a degree of justice as possible.

~THE HANLIN AND MINOR COURTS.~

13. The HANLIN YUEN, or Imperial Academy, is entrusted “with the duty of drawing up governmental documents, histories, and other works; its chief officers take the lead of the various classes, and excite their exertions to advance in learning in order to prepare them for employments and fit them for attending upon the sovereign.” This body has, it is highly probable, some similarity to the collection of learned men to whom the King of Babylon entrusted the education of promising young men, for although the members of the Hanlin Yuen do not, to any great degree, educate persons, they are constantly referred to as the Chaldeans were by Belshazzar. Sir John Davis likens it to the Sorbonne, inasmuch as it expounds the sacred books of the Chinese. Its chief officers are two presidents or senior members, called _chwang yuen hioh-sz’_, who are usually appointed for life; they attend upon the Emperor, superintend the studies of graduates, and furnish semi-annual lists of persons to be “speakers” at the “classical feasts,” where the literary essays of his Majesty are translated from and into Manchu and read before him.

Subordinate to the two senior members are four grades of officers, five in each grade, together with an unlimited number of senior graduates, each forming a sort of college, whose duties are to prepare all works published under governmental sanction; these persons are subject from time to time to fresh examination, and are liable to lose their degrees or be altogether dismissed from office if found faulty or deficient. Subordinate to the Hanlin Yuen is an office consisting of twenty-two selected members, who in rotation attend on the Emperor and make a record of his words and actions. There is also an additional office for the preparation of national histories.

The situation of a member of the Hanlin is one of considerable honor and literary ease, and scholars look forward to a station in it as one which confers dignity in a government where all officers are appointed according to their literary merit, but much more from its being the body from which the Emperor selects his most responsible officers. A graduate of this rank is most likely to be nominated to a vacant office, though the possession of the title does not of itself warrant a place.[237]

Before proceeding to consider the provincial governments, notices of some of the other departments not connected with the general machinery of the state are here in place. The municipality of Peking has already been mentioned when describing the capital; it is intimately connected with the general government and forms an integral part of the machine. Among the courts not connected with the municipal rule of the metropolis, nor forming one of the great departments of state, is _Tai-chang Sz’_, or ‘Sacrificial Court,’ whose officers “direct the sacrificial observances and distinguish the various instruments and the quality of the sacrifices.” Their duties are of importance in connection with the state religion, and they rank high among the court dignitaries of the Empire, but as members of this, possess no power. The _Tai-puh Sz’_, or Superintendent of H. I. M.’s Stud, is an office for “rearing horses, taking account of their increase, and regulating their training;” large tracts of land beyond the Great Wall are appropriated to this purpose, and the clerks of this office, under the direction of the Board of War, oversee the herdsmen and grooms.

The _Kwangluh Sz’_, or ‘Banqueting House,’ has the charge of “feasting the meritorious and banqueting the deserving;” it is somewhat subordinate to the Board of Rites, and provides whatever is necessary for banquets given to literary graduates, foreign ambassadors, etc. The _Hunglu Sz’_, or ‘Ceremonial Court,’ regulates the forms to be observed at these banquets, which consist in little else than marshalling the guests according to their proper ranks and directing them when to make the _kotow_, called also _san kwei kiu kao_, “three kneelings and nine knockings.” The _Kwoh-tsz’ Kien_, or ‘National College,’ is a different institution from the Hanlin Yuen, and intended for teaching graduates of the lower degrees; the departments of study are the Chinese language, the classics and mathematics, each branch having its appropriate teachers, with some higher officers, both Chinese and Manchu.

The _Kin Tien Kien_, or ‘Imperial Astronomical College,’ as might be expected, is much more astrological than astronomical; its duties are defined to be “to direct the ascertainment of times and the movements of the heavenly bodies, in order to attain conformity with the celestial periods and to regulate the notation of time among men; all things relating to divination and the selection of days are under its charge.” The preparation of the almanac, in which, among other things, lucky and unlucky days are marked for the performance of all the important acts of life, and astrological and chiromantic absurdities inserted for the amusement of fortune-tellers and others, the instruction of a few pupils, and care of the observatory, occupy most of the time of its officers. It is now of no practical use, and as the _Tung-wăn Kwan_ develops into a learned and efficient college, including astronomy and medicine and their kindred branches, these native Boards will gradually pass away.

~RELATION OF THE EMPEROR WITH HIS OFFICIALS.~

The other local courts of the capital seem to have been subdivided and multiplied to a great degree for the purpose of affording employment to a larger number of persons, especially Manchus and graduates, so that the Emperor can attach them to himself and be surer of their support in case of any insurrection on the part of the people, and also that he may have them more under his control. The number of clerks and minor offices in all the general departments of state is doubtless more numerous than it would be in a European government. In the mutual relations of the great departments of the Chinese government the principles of responsibility and surveillance among the officers are plainly exhibited, while regard has been paid to such a division and apportionment of labor as would secure great efficiency and care, if every member of the machine faithfully did his duty. Two presidents are stationed over each Board to assist and watch each other, while the two presidents oversee the four vice-presidents; the president of one Board is sometimes the vice-president of another; and by means of the Censorate and the General Council every portion is brought under the cognizance of several independent officers, whose mutual jealousy and regard for individual advancement, or a partial desire for the well-being of the state, affords the Emperor some guarantee of fidelity. The seclusion in which he lives makes it difficult for any conspirator to approach his person, but his own fears regarding the management of such an immense Empire compel him to inform himself respecting the actions of ministers, generals, and proconsular governors. The conduct and devotion of hundreds of officers, both civil and military, during the wars with Great Britain and the suppression of rebellions within the last thirty years, afford proof enough that he has attached his subordinates to his service by some other principle than fear. The total number of civilians holding office is estimated at about fourteen thousand persons, but those dependent on the government are many times this amount.

The rulers of China have contrived the system of provincial governments in an admirable manner, considering the character of the people and the materials they had to work with; no better proof of their sagacity in this respect can be required than the general degree of good order which has been maintained for nearly two centuries, and the great progress the people have made in wealth, numbers, and power. By a well-arranged plan of checks and changes in the provincial authorities, the chances of their abusing position and power and combining to overthrow the supreme government have been reduced almost to an impossibility; the influence of mutual responsibility among them does something to prevent outrageous oppression of the people, by leading one to accuse another of high crimes in order to exonerate himself or obtain his place. The sons and relatives of the Emperor being excluded from civil office in the provinces, the high-spirited and talented native Chinese do not feel inclined to cabal against the government because every avenue to emolument and power is filled and closed against them by creatures and connections of the sovereign; nor when in office are they disposed to attempt the overthrow of the reigning family, lest they lose what has cost them many years of toilsome study and the wealth and influence of friends to attain. The examination of these pashaliks is furthermore entitled to notice from the degree of power delegated to their highest officers, and the shrewd manner in which its exercise has been circumscribed and rendered amenable to its imperial source.

~HIGHER PROVINCIAL AUTHORITIES.~

The highest officers in the provinces are a _tsungtuh_, lit. ‘general director,’ or governor-general, and the _futai_ or _fuyuen_, ‘soother’ or governor. The former is often called a viceroy, but that term seems to be quite inapplicable when used to denote an officer within the limits of the state; governor-general, or proconsul, is more analogous to his duties. A translation of these and many other Chinese titles does not convey their exact functions, but in some cases an equivalent is more intelligible than a translation.[238] The _tsungtuh_ has rule over two provinces, or else fills two high offices in one province, while the _futai_ is placed over one province, either independent of or in subordination to a _tsungtuh_, as enumerated in the table on page 61.

An examination of the _Red Book_ for 1852 showed that out of a total of 20,327 names in it, 16,474 were Chinese, 3,295 were Manchus and Mongols, and 558 enrolled Chinese; in the copy for 1844, out of 12,758 names, 10,463 were Chinese, 1,768 Manchus, and 527 enrolled Chinese; these figures include only civilians and the employees in Peking. The Eighteen Provinces have altogether less than two thousand persons in office above the rank of assistant district magistrate, viz.: 8 governor-generals, 15 governors, 19 treasurers, 18 judges, 17 chancellors, 15 commanders of the forces, including 2 admirals and 1,740 prefects and magistrates. All those filling the high grades in this series report themselves to the Emperor twice every month, by sending him a salutatory card upon yellow paper, enclosed in a silken envelope; stating, for instance, that ‘Lin Tseh-sü, governor-general of Liang Kwang, humbly presents his duty to the throne, wishing his Majesty repose.’ The Emperor replies with the vermilion pencil, _Chin ngan_, _i.e._, ‘Ourself is well.’

The duties of the governor-general consist in the collective control of all affairs, civil and military, in the region under his jurisdiction; he occupies, in his sphere, under correction, the same authority that the Emperor does over the whole Empire. The _futai_ has a similar control, but in an inferior degree when there is a _tsungtuh_, in the more special supervision of the administrative part of the civil government, as distinguished from the revenue, gabel, or literary branches.

The departments of the civil government are five, viz.: administrative, literary, gabel, commissariat, and excise; the first being also divided into the territorial and financial and the judicial branches. At the head of the first branch is the _pu-ching sz’_ (_i.e._, regulating-government commissioner), who is usually called the treasurer; the _ngan-chah sz’_, or ‘criminal judge,’ presides over the second. These two officers often unite their deliberations in the direction of any territorial or financial business, or the trial of important cases. The literary department is placed under the direction of an officer selected from among the members of the Hanlin Academy, called a _hioh-ching_, director of learning, or literary chancellor; there are seventeen of them altogether. The gabel and commissariat are usually supervised by certain intermediate officers called _tao_, or _taotai_, sometimes termed intendants of circuit, who have other functions in addition. The excise, or commercial department, is under _kientuh_, or superintendents, but the details of these three branches vary considerably in different provinces. The officers of the excise, either in the interior or on the coast, are made amenable to their superiors in the province, but their functions are exercised in an irregular manner; for the collection of the revenue is a difficult affair, and mostly entrusted to the local magistrates.

The military government of a province includes both the land and sea forces. It is under a _títuh_, or commander-in-chief, of which rank there are in all sixteen, twelve of them commanding one arm alone, and four controlling both land and sea forces. In five provinces the _futai_ is commander-in-chief, and in Kansuh there are two. Above the _títuh_, in point of rank but not of power, are placed garrisons of Manchu Bannermen under a _tsiang-kiun_, or general, whose office is conferred, and his actions directly controlled, by the captains-general in Peking; he has jurisdiction, usually, only in the city itself, the principal object of the appointment, apparently, being to check any treasonable designs of the civil authorities.

The duties and relations of these various grades with one another require some further explanation, however, to be understood. The three officers, _tsungtuh_, _futai_, and _tsiangkiun_ (if there be one), form a supreme council, and unite in deliberating upon a measure, calling in the subordinate officer to whose department it particularly belongs, and to whom its execution is to be committed, the whole forming a deliberative board, though the responsibility of the act rests with the two highest officers. By this means the various members of the provincial government become better acquainted with each other’s character and plans, though their intercourse is much restricted by precedence and rivalry. In the provincial courts civilians always take precedence of military officers; the governor-general and Banner commander, governor and major-general, the literary chancellor and collector of customs, rank with each other; then follow the treasurer, the judge, and other civilians. The authority of the governor-general extends to life and death, to the temporary appointment to all vacant offices in the province, to ordering the troops to any part of it, issuing such laws and taking such measures as are necessary for the security and peace of the region committed to his care, or any other steps he sees necessary. The _futai_ also has the power of life and death, and attends to appeals of criminal cases; he oversees, moreover, the conduct of the lower civilians.

Next in rank to the _pu-ching sz’_ and _ngan-chah sz’_, who always reside in the provincial capital, are the intendants of circuit, who are located in the circuits consisting of two or three prefectures united for this purpose. They are deputies of the two highest functionaries, and their delegated power often includes military as well as civil authority, the chief object of their appointment being to relieve and assist those high functionaries in the discharge of their extensive duties. Some of the intendants are appointed to supervise the proceedings of the prefects and district magistrates; others are stationed at important posts to protect them, and those connected with foreign trade at the open ports have no territorial jurisdiction.

~SUBORDINATE PROVINCIAL AUTHORITIES.~

Subordinate to the governors, through the intendants of circuits, are the prefects or head magistrates of departments, called _chífu_, _chíchau_, and _ting tungchí_, _i.e._, ‘knowers’ of them, according as they are placed over _fu_, _chau_, or _ting_ departments. It is the duty of these persons to make themselves acquainted with everything that takes place within their jurisdiction, and they are held responsible for the full execution of whatever orders are transmitted to them, all presenting their reports and receiving their orders through the intendants.

The practical efficiency of the Chinese government in promoting the welfare of the people and preserving the peace depends chiefly upon these officers. The people themselves are prone to quarrel and oppress each other; beggars, robbers, tramps, and shysters stir up disorders in various ways, and need wise and vigorous hands to repress and punish them; while all classes avoid and resist the tax-gatherer as much as is safe. The proverb, “A _chífu_ can exterminate a family, a _chíhien_ can confiscate a patrimony,” indicates the popular fear of their power.

The subdivisional parts of departments, called _ting_, _chau_, and _hien_, have each their separate officers, who report to the _chífu_ and _chíchau_ above them; these are called _tungchí_, _chíchau_, and _chíhien_, and may all be denominated district magistrates. The parts of districts called _sz’_ are placed under the control of _siunkien_, circuit-restrainers, or hundreders, who form the last in the regular series of descending rank--the last of the “commissioned officers,” as they might not improperly be called. The prefects sometimes have deputies directly under them, as the governor has his intendants, when their jurisdiction is very large or important, who are called _kiunmin fu_ and _tungchí_, _i.e._, ‘joint-knowers.’ The deputies of district magistrates are termed _chautung_ and _chaupwan_ for the _chíchau_, and _hienching_ and _chufu_ for the _chíhien_; the last also have others called _tso-tang_ and _yu-tang_, _i.e._, left-tenants and right-tenants.

Besides these assistants there are others, both in the departments and districts, having the oversight of the police, collection of the taxes and management of the revenue, care of water-ways, and many other subdivisions of legislative duties, which it is unnecessary to particularize. They are appointed whenever and wherever the territory is so large and the duties so onerous that one man cannot attend to all, or it is not safe to entrust him with them. They have nearly as much power as their superiors in the department entrusted to them, but none of them have judicial or legislative functions, and the routine of their offices affords them less scope for oppression. Nor is it worth while to notice the great number of clerks, registrars, and secretaries found in connection with the various ranks of dignitaries here mentioned, or the multitude of petty subordinates found in the provinces and placed over particular places or duties as necessity may require. Their number is very large, and the responsibility of their proceedings devolves upon the higher officers who receive their reports and direct their actions.

The common people suffer more from these “rats under the altar,” as a Chinese proverb calls them, than from their superiors, because, unlike them, they are usually natives of the place and better acquainted with the condition of the inhabitants, and are not so often removed. The fear of getting into their clutches restrains from evil doings perhaps more than all punishments, though the people soon complain of high-handed acts in a way not to be disregarded. One saying, “Underlings see money as a fly sees blood,” indicates their penchant, as another, “Cash drops into an underling’s paw as a sheep falls into a tiger’s jaw,” does the popular notion how to please them. Each intendant, prefect, and district magistrate has special secretaries in his office for filing papers, writing and transmitting despatches, investigating cases, recording evidence, keeping accounts, and performing other functions. All above the _chíhien_ are allowed to keep private secretaries, called _sz’ ye_, who are usually personal friends, and accompany the officers wherever they go for the purpose of advising them and preparing their official documents. The _ngan-chah sz’_ have jailers under their control, as have also the more important prefects.

~LITERARY, GABEL, AND REVENUE DEPARTMENTS.~

The appointment of officers being theoretically founded on literary merit, those to whom is committed the supervision of students and conferment of degrees would naturally be of a high grade. The _hioh-ching_, or literary chancellor, of the province, therefore ranks next to the governor, more, however, because he is specially appointed by his Majesty and oversees this branch of the government, than from the power committed to his hands. Under him are head-teachers of different degrees of authority, residing in the chief towns of departments and districts, the whole forming a similar series of functionaries to what exists in the civil department. These subordinates have merely a greater or less degree of supervision over the studies of students, and the colleges established for the promotion of learning in the chief towns of departments. The business of conferring the lower degrees appertains exclusively to the chancellor, who makes an annual circuit through the province for that purpose, and holds examinations in the chief town of each department, to which all students residing within its limits can come.

The gabel, or salt department, is under the control of a special officer, called a “commissioner for the transport of salt,” and forming in the five maritime provinces one of the _san sz’_, or three commissioners, of which the _pu-ching sz’_ and _ngan-chah sz’_ are the other two. There are, above these commissioners, eight directors of the salt monopoly, stationed at the dépôts in Chihlí and Shantung, who, however, also fill other offices, and have rather a nominal responsibility over the lower commissioners. The number and rank of the officers connected with the salt monopoly show its importance, and is proof of how large a revenue is derived from an article which will bear such an expensive establishment. At present its administration costs about as much as its receipts.

The commissariat and revenue department is unusually large in China compared with other countries, for the plan of collecting any part of the revenue in kind necessarily requires numerous vehicles for transporting and buildings for storing it, which still further multiplies the number of clerks and hands employed. The transportation of grain along the Yangtsz’ River is under the control of a _tsungtuh_, who also oversees the disposal and directs the collectors of it in eight of the provinces adjacent to this river. The office of _liang-chu tao_, or commissioner to collect grain, is found in twelve provinces, the _pu-ching sz’_ attending to this duty in six; the supervision of the subordinate agents of this department in the several districts is in the hands of the prefects and district magistrates. That feature of the Chinese system which makes officers mutually responsible, seems to lead the superior powers to confer such various duties upon one functionary, in order that he may thus have a general knowledge of what is going on about and under him, and report what he deems amiss. It is not, indeed, likely that such was the original arrangement, for the Chinese government has come to its present composition by slow degrees; but such is, so far as can be seen, the effect of it, and it serves in no little degree to accomplish the designs of the rulers to bind the main and lesser wheels of the huge machine to themselves and to one another.

The customs and excise are under the management of different grades of officers according to the importance of their posts. The transit duties levied at the excise stations placed in every town are collected by officers acting under the local authorities, and have nothing to do with the collection of maritime duties. This tax, called _li-kin_, or ‘a cash a catty,’ has lately been greatly increased, and the natural result has been to destroy the trade it preyed on, or divert it to other channels. The foreign merchants and officers have, too, protested against its imposition, seeing that their trade was checked.

Recapitulating in tabular form, we may say that outside of the Cabinet, Council, Boards, and Courts at the capital, the government (in the Eighteen Provinces) is in the hands of:

8 Governors-General (6 governing two provinces each).
15 Governors.
19 Commissioners of Finance (2 for Kiangsu).
18 Commissioners of Justice.
4 Directors of the Salt Gabel.
9 Collectors (independent of these).
13 Commissioners of Grain, or Commissaries.
64 Intendants of Circuit.
182 Prefects.
68 Prefects of Inferior Departments.
18 Independent Subprefects.
180 Dependent Subprefects.
139 Deputy Subprefects.
141 District Magistrates of the Fifth Class.
1,232 District Magistrates of the Seventh Class.

~MILITARY AND NAVAL DEPARTMENTS.~

The military section of the provincial governments is under the control of a _títuh_, or major-general, who resides at a central post, and, in conjunction with the governor-general and governor, directs the movements of the forces, while these last have also an independent control over a certain body of troops belonging to them officially. The various grades of officers in the native army, and the portion of troops under each of them, stationed in the garrisons and forts in different parts of the provinces, are all arranged in a methodical manner, which will bear examination and comparison with the army of any country in the world. The native force in each province is distinct from the Manchu troops, and is divided somewhat according to the Roman plan of legion, cohort, maniple, and century, over each of which are officers, from colonel down to sergeant. Nothing is wanting to the Chinese army to make it fully adequate to the defence of the country but discipline and confidence in itself; for lack of practice and systematic drilling have made it an army of paper warriors against a resolute enemy. Nevertheless, the recent campaigns against the rebels in the extreme western colonies indicate the fact that its regeneration is already of some weight. On the other hand, it has no doubt been for the good of the Chinese people and government--the advance of the first in wealth, numbers, and security, and the consolidation and efficiency of the latter--that they have cultivated letters rather than arms, peace more than war.

All the general officers in the army have fixed places of residence, at which the larger portion of their respective brigades remain, while detachments are stationed at various points within their command. The governor, major-general, and Banner commandant have commands independent of each other, but the _títuh_, or major-general, exercises the principal military sway. The naval officers have the same names as those in the army, and the two are interchanged and promoted from one service to the other. Admirals and vice-admirals usually reside on shore, and despatch their subordinates in squadrons or single vessels wherever occasion requires. This system must, ere long, give place to a better division of the two arms with the building of steam vessels and management of arsenals, when junks are superseded.

The system of mutually checking the provincial officers is also exhibited in their location. For example, in the city of Canton the governor-general is stationed in the New city near the collector of customs, while the lieutenant-governor and Manchu general are so located in the Old city that should circumstances require they can act against the two first. The governor has the general command of all the provincial troops, estimated to be one hundred thousand men, but the particular command of only five thousand, and they are stationed fifty miles off, at Shauking fu. The _tsiang kiun_ has five thousand men under him in the Old city, which, in an extreme case, would make him master of the capital, while his own allegiance is secured by the antipathy between the Manchus and Chinese preventing him from combining with the latter. Again, the governor-general has the power of condemning certain criminals to death, but the _wang-ming_, or death-warrant, is lodged with the _futai_, and the order for execution must be countersigned by him; his despatches to court must be also countersigned by his coadjutor. The general absence of resistance to the imperial sway on the part of these high officers during the two centuries of Manchu rule, when compared with the multiplied intrigues and rebellions of the pashas in the Turkish Empire, proves how well the system is concocted.

~TRAVELLING DEPUTIES AND COMMISSIONERS.~

In order to enable the superior officers to exercise greater vigilance over their inferiors, they have the privilege of sending special messengers, invested with full power, to every part of their jurisdiction. The Emperor himself never visits the provinces judicially, nor has an Emperor been south of the capital during the present century; he therefore constantly sends commissioners or legates, called _kinchai_, to all parts of the Empire, ostensibly entrusted with the management of a particular business, but required also to take a general surveillance of what is going on. The ancient Persians had a similar system of commissioners, who were called the eyes and ears of the prince, and made the circuit of the empire to oversee all that was done. There are many points of resemblance between the structure of these two ancient monarchies, the body of councillors who assisted the prince in his deliberations, the presidents over the provinces, the satraps, etc.; but the Persians had not the elements of perpetuity which the system of common schools and official examinations give to the Chinese government.[239]

Governors in like manner send their deputies and agents, called _weiyuen_, over the province; and even the prefects and intendants despatch their messengers. All these functionaries, during the time of their mission, take rank with the highest officers according to the quality of their employers; but the imperial commissioners, who for one object or another are constantly passing and repassing through the Empire in every direction, exercise great influence in the government, and are powerful agents in the hands of the Emperor for keeping his proconsuls at their duty.

FOOTNOTES:

[217] 2357 and 2255 before Christ.

[218] _Penal Code_, Introduction, p. xxviii.

[219] Vol. XVI., 1810.

[220] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., pp. 24-29.

[221] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., p. 12; _Chinese Chrestomathy_, p. 558.

[222] The attributes ascribed to a _chakrawartti_ in the Buddhist mythology have many points of resemblance to the _hwangtí_, and Hardy’s _Manual of Buddhism_ (p. 126) furnishes an instructive comparison between the two characters, one fanciful and the other real.

[223] The remark of Heeren (_Asiatic Nations_, Vol. I., p. 57), that the names by which the early Persian monarchs, Darius, Xerxes, and others, were called, were really titles or surnames, and not their own personal names, suggests the further comparison whether those renowned names were not like the _kwoh hao_ of the Chinese emperors, whose adoption of the custom was after the extinction of the Persian monarchy. Herodotus (Book VI., 98) seems to have been familiar with these names, not so much as being arbitrary and meaningless terms as epithets whose significations were associated with the kings. The new names given to the last two sons of Josiah, who became kings of Judah by their conquerors (2 Kings, 23: 34, and 24: 17), indicate even an earlier adoption of this custom.

[224] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. X., pp. 87-98. _Indo-Chinese Gleaner_, February, 1821.

[225] Staunton’s _Embassy_, 8vo edition, London, 1797, Vol. III., p. 63.

[226] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XIV., p. 521; _N. C. Br. R. As. Soc. Journal_, No. XI.

[227] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., p. 576.

[228] _Missionary Chronicle_, Vol. XIV., p. 324; Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 69; Heeren, _Asiatic Nations_, Vol. I., p. 246.

[229] M. Ed. Biot furnished a good account to the _Journal Asiatique_ (3d series, Vol. III.) of the legal condition of slaves in China; see also _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XVIII., pp. 347-363, and passim; Archdeacon Gray’s _China_.

[230] _Chinese Chrestomathy_, Chap. XVII., Sec. 4, p. 570.

[231] A still more common designation for officers of every rank in the employ of the Chinese government has not so good a parentage; this is the word _mandarin_, derived from the Portuguese _mandar_, to command, and indiscriminately applied by foreigners to every grade, from a premier to a tide-waiter; it is not needed in English as a general term for officers, and ought to be disused, moreover, from its tendency to convey the impression that they are in some way unlike similar officials in other lands. Compare _Notes and Queries on China and Japan_, Vol. III., p. 12.

[232] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., p. 138. _Chinese Chrestomathy_, p. 573.

[233] _Fraser’s Magazine_, February, 1873. _China Review_, Vol. III., p. 13. _Note on the Condition and Government of the Chinese Empire in 1849._ By T. F. Wade. Hongkong, 1850. Translations of several years of the _Gazette_ have appeared since 1872, reprinted from the columns of the _North China Herald_.

[234] _Essai sur l’Instruction en Chine_, pp. 540-589.

[235] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., pp. 188, 276-287; Vol. V., pp. 165-178; Vol. XX., pp. 250, 300, and 363. _Mémoires concernant les Chinois, par les Missionaires à Pekin_, Tomes VII. and VIII., passim.

[236] Compare an article by E. C. Taintor, in _Notes and Queries on China and Japan_. _Chinese Repository_, Vols. IV., pp. 148, 164, and 177, and XII., pp. 32 and 67.

[237] Dr. W. A. P. Martin, _The Chinese_.

[238] Mayers’ _Manual of Chinese Titles_ furnishes the best compend for learning their duties and names.

[239] Rollin’s _Ancient History_, Chap. IV. _Manners of the Assyrians._ Heeren’s _Asiatic Researches_, Vol. I., Chap. II.