Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State

285 Pages·2022·4.325 MB·English

by  Maura Dykstra

Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine
Harvard East Asian Monographs 452
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Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine
The Administrative Revolution of the
Eighteenth-Century Qing State
Maura D. Dykstra
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2022
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© 2022 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination
with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of
Japanese Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to
further scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries.
The Center also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
[TK]
Index by Jac Nelson
Printed on acid-free paper
Last figure below indicates year of this printing
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This book is dedicated to
all of those who
tried to make a difference
only to find themselves making trouble.
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Conventions xv
Prologue: Qing History / Qing Archive xix
Introduction 1
Part I Building the Empire of Routine
1 Early Qing Legal Institutions 29
2 Beyond Fact 57
3 Imperial Routines in the Local Archive 103
Part II After the Unexpected Administrative Revolution
4 Ruling the Empire of Routine 153
5 When the Problem Is the Solution 188
Conclusion 226
Abbreviations 237
Works Cited 239
Index 251
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Figures and Tables
Figures
1. Pan Biaocan’s “Formula for the Documents and
Registers of a Banditry Case” 64
2. Cover (front and back) of an 1874 account book
recording judgments on cases 134
3. Two pages from an 1874 account book recording
judgments on cases 135
4. Four pages from an 1817 account book registering
incoming and outgoing documents from the
Ba County yamen 137
5. The back cover and first two pages of a prisoner
account book from the Ba County yamen 141
6. Draft of a 1771 prisoner register produced by the
Ba County magistrate 143
7. A late nineteenth-century report from the Turfan
prefectural yamen detailing a list of current prisoners 145
8. A concordance plot illustrating instances of the
character for “case” in the Veritable Records 184
Tables
1. Instances of the character for “case” in the
Veritable Records 183
2. Average number of sanctions reported per ten-day
period, 1735–99 196
3. Average number of sanctions processed each month
for “minuscule officials,” 1735–1799 199
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