A quantitative analysis of the localized administrative importance rating system and the selection of officials in Qing China

ABSTRACT

Administrative districts during the Qing dynasty were rated according to the “Chong Fan Pi Nan” system, imposed on each province, prefecture, sub-prefecture, department and county. The classification distinguished between the need for appointment to “most important” posts (zuiyaoque), “important” posts (yaoque), “medium” posts (zhongque), and “simple” posts (jianque). In accordance with the importance rating system, the Qing court subsequently determined the sequence of officials necessary in each administrative unit as the appointments by the Emperor (qingzhique), the appointments by the Governor-General (tidiaoque), and the appointments by the Board of the Personnel (buxuanque), with the Emperor, Governors-General, and the Board of Personnel having the authority to select officials. In tracing and quantifying the “Chong Fan Pi Nan” system as well as the division into “most important” posts, “important” posts, “medium” posts, and “simple” posts, we can see how the Qing government used geographical information to target the deployment of limited bureaucratic resources based on locally-specific difficulties in governance. In addition, according to the statistics, it appears that “Chong Fan Pi Nan” as a proxy indicator reflects the spatial differences in terms of the disposition of local transportation, administrative affairs, tax collection, and local security. We can also observe that the Qing state intentionally promoted the weighting of frontier provinces to attract officials with better administrative abilities. This article examines how the administrative importance rating system influenced the origin, selection, and promotion of Qing officials by tracking the data of millions of officials in the newly established quantitative database of the Jingshenlu (Records of the Gentry). This study will provide a longue-term perspective for understanding the contemporary Chinese government’s official selection system.

KEYWORDS:

• Qing
• administrative importance rating
• bureaucratic resources
• quantitative analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Glossary

buxuan que 部选缺

cang dashi 仓大使

cheqian 掣签

Chong Fan Pi Nan 冲繁疲难

dufu 督抚

dali siqing 大理寺卿

diaoque 调缺

dianshi 典史

dutong 督统

da xueshi 大学士

fanque 繁缺

Feng Guifen 冯桂芬

Fengsu 《风俗》

fudutong 副都统

Gu Yanwu 顾炎武

gaili 改隶

huangquan bu xia xian 皇权不下县

Huangyu quanlan tu 《皇舆全览图》

huode zhidu shi 活的制度史

Lianghu diqu 两湖地区

Libu 吏部

lishi tongpan 理事通判

Liu Xiang 刘向

Jiaobinlu kangyi 《校邠庐抗议》

lishi tongzhi 理事同知

jiaoyu 教谕

Jianque 简缺

Jin Hong 金鉷

jingguan 京官

Jingcha yideng 京察一等

Junjichu 军机处

Jinshenlu 《缙绅录》

Miaojiangque 苗疆缺

qianliang 钱粮

Qianlong di 乾隆帝

qingzhique 请旨缺

rendi xiangyi 人地相宜

shangshu 尚书

shangxia butong 上下不通

shilang 侍郎

tianzi jiaoxia 天子脚下

tidiaoque 题调缺

tique 题缺

waiguan 外官

weiren zeque 为人择缺

xiancheng 县丞

xiantian buzu, houtian youyu 先天不足, 后天有余

xingbu you shilang 刑部右侍郎

xingming 刑名

xundao 训导

xunfu 巡抚

xunjian 巡检

yanzhangque 烟瘴缺

yaoque 要缺

Yufen 《域分》

yuanwailang 员外郎

yuan’e zhuyi 原额主义

yanyunshi 盐运使

Yongzheng di 雍正帝

zongbing 总兵

zongdu 总督

zuiyaoque 最要缺

zuo’er 佐贰

zhifu 知府

Zhiguanlu 《职官录》

Zhiguan que’e biao 《职官缺额表》

zhiguan zhi guan 治官之官

zhimin zhi guan 治民之官

zhixian 知县

zhizhou 知州

zhongque 中缺

zhubu 主簿

Zhu Gan 朱赣

zhushi 主事

Zou Yilin 邹逸麟

Notes

¹ At the beginning of the 21st century, some scholars were proposing to “bring back political history.” See Yang Nianqun, “Wei shenme yao chongti ‘zhengzhi shi’ yanjiu,” 10–13. Of course, political history’s decline does not reflect a decline in the number of political history studies, but rather a relative decline in its influence on the field of history.

² Li Guoqi et al., Qingdai jiceng difangguan renshi, 1975.

³ Wang Zhiming, Qingdai zhiguan renshi yanjiu, 2016.

⁴ Wei Xiumei, “Cong liangde guancha tantao Qingji buzhengshi,” 505–533; “Cong liangde guancha tantao Qingji anchashi,” 475–495; “Cong liangde guancha tantao Qingji dufu,” 259–292; and “Cong liangde guancha tantao Qingji xuezheng,” 93–119.

⁵ Ren Yuxue, “Qingdai jinshenlu lianghua shujuku,” 61–77; and Chen Bijia et al., “Zhongguo lishi guanyuan lianghua shujuku,” June 2019.

⁶ Chen Bijia, Cameron Campbell, Yuxue Ren, and James Lee, “Big Data for the Study of Qing Officialdom,” 431–460. The website of Jinshenlu database is https://dataspace.ust.hk/bib/E9GKRS (HKUST); http://dhiqh.ruc.edu.cn/DownloadFile/DLFile (RUC).

⁷ Fairbank, and Liu, Jianqiao Zhongguo wanqingshi (1800–1911) shang, 20–22.

⁸ Hu Heng, “Qingdai zuoza de xin dongxiang,” 146–188.

⁹ Jin Shenghe, and Shi Daogang, “Zhongguo gu dili,” 310–323.

¹⁰ For a related important study, see William Skinner, “Chengshi yu difang tixi cengji,” 327–417; Liu Zhengyun, “Chong fan pi nan,” 175–204; Liu Zhengyun, “‘Qingshi gao dili zhi,” 509–672; Masui, Yasuki, “Kiyoshiro 18-shō ni okeru “Pekin Shutoken” no chihō gyōsei kanri-jō no tokushitsu (ue), 14–36; Masui, Yasuki, “Kiyoshiro 18-shō ni okeru “Pekin Shutoken” no chihō gyōsei kanri-jō no tokushitsu (shita), 128–163; Zhang Zhenguo, “Lun Qingdai chong fan pi nan,” 37–44; and “Qingdai dao ting zhou xian,” 382–400.

¹¹ Liu Fengyun, Quanli yunxing de guiji, 5–11.

¹² Qinggaozong shilu, vol. 7, 292–293.

¹³ Ibid., vol. 9, 322.

¹⁴ Ibid., vol. 449, 849.

¹⁵ Xue Gang, “Lun Qingdai jingcha yideng,” 71–74.

¹⁶ “Shandong xunfu Huiling zou” (Oct. 22, 1790), Gongzhong zhupi zouzhe, file no. 04–01-12-0227-067.

¹⁷ Fu Zongmao, “Qingdai wenguan quefen,” 151–175; and Zheng Zhenguo, “Qingdai haijiangque,” 93–103.

¹⁸ Tao Zhengjing, “Lizhi yindi zhiyi sanshi shu,” 632–633.

¹⁹ This section is based on the calculations from the database of the Jinyinlu. The assistance of Dr. Bijia Chen is greatly appreciated.

²⁰ Qinggaozong shilu, vol. 113, 510.

²¹ He Chunyao, and Sun Zhenting, “Difang guanyuan de jinsheng luoji,” 13–24.

²² Iwai Shigeki, Zhongguo jindai caizhengshi yanjiu, 262–280.

²³ He Ping, “Lun Qingdai ding’e hua fushui,” 64–71.

²⁴ Qinggaozong shilu, vol. 143, 1056.

²⁵ Liu Wei, “‘Ting buxuan’ yu Qingmo zhouxian guan,” 80–89.

²⁶ Gu Yanwu, Rizhilu jishi (shang), 185.

²⁷ Feng Guifen, Jiaofenlu kangyi, 11.

²⁸ Daqing gaozong chun Huangdi shilu, vol. 1357, 192.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UCASS School Major Special Project (0201190383820454).

Notes on contributors

Heng HU

HU Heng is Associate Professor at the Institute of Qing History, Renmin University of China. His main research fields include Qing history, historical geography, and digital humanities. He has published Huangquan buxia xian: Qingdai xianxia zhengqu yu jiceng shehui zhili (Imperial Power Did Not Extend Below the County Level: County Government and Grassroots Social Governance in the Qing Era, Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 2015), and Bianyuan didai de xingzheng zhili: Qingdai tingzhi zai yanjiu (Administrative Governance in the Marginal Zones: The Qing Sub-Prefecture System Re-examined, Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2022).