Notes

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. I follow Thomas Metzger (The Internal Organization of Ch’ing Bureaucracy, 115) in translating can as “impeach.” The romanization of Mingju’s Chinese name would be Mingzhu. Throughout, I refer to Manchus by names romanized from the Manchu wherever possible. The Chinese characters for their names are in the glossary.

2. 2. The term “high Qing” was first used by Frederic Wakeman in “High Qing: 1683–1839.”

3. 3. Spence, Emperor of China and “The Kang-hsi Reign”; Meng Zhaoxin, Kangxi dadi quanjuan and Kangxi pingjuan.

4. 4. One of the first efforts to subdivide the reign was Spence, “The Seven Ages of K’ang-hsi.” Three studies have treated the early era as the last of the conquest age. See Harry Miller, State versus Gentry in the Early Qing Dynasty; H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict”; Oxnam, Ruling from Horseback. For the middle era, see Kessler, Kang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch’ing Rule. For the third era, see Perdue, China Marches West. For the fourth period, see Wu, Passage to Power.

5. 5. Liu Fengyun, Qingdai sanfan yanjiu.

6. 6. Parker, Global Crisis, 115–51. Parker takes the Kangxi emperor’s first southern tour in 1684 as the end of the climate-induced general crisis of the seventeenth century in China (112–25).

7. 7. Atwell, “Some Observations on the ‘Seventeenth Century Crisis’ in China and Japan.”

8. 8. Marks, Tigers, Rice, Silt and Salt.

9. 9. Xiao Yishan, Qingdai tongshi, 1:811–12.

10. 10. Pamela Kyle Crossley provides the most reliable account of changing Manchu self-images in The Translucent Mirror.

11. 11. On this point, see Guy, “Who Were the Manchus?” While recognizing the important distinction between an ethnic group and a political order, I follow twentieth-century convention and use the term “Manchu” to refer to both.

12. 12. Elliott, The Manchu Way, 8.

13. 13. “Bannerman,” referring to a soldier enrolled in one of the armies identified by the color and pattern of their banners, is not an English word but is used here as an exact translation of the Chinese qiren.

14. 14. Crossley, Translucent Mirror, 165.

15. 15. On Dorgon’s use of collaborators, see Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 414–42, 848–93; Dennerline, “The Shun-chih Reign.” Dennerline makes the important point that Dorgon needed to be careful not to create situations in which military commanders and princes could challenge his authority.

16. 16. Mostern, The Yellow River, 193–94.

17. 17. Joseph Needham notes that the shift of the river to a southern mouth was a gradual process, beginning in 1288 and continuing through 1324. See his useful chart “Changes of Course of the Yellow River,” in “Hydraulics,” 242–43.

18. 18. Mingshi, first chapter on river control, juan 83.

19. 19. Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 69.1502. The works on river management that were copied into the Siku quanshu are listed in juan 69. Those that were merely listed in the catalog are found in juan 75.

20. 20. Ray Huang refers to Pan as commissioner, with concurrent rank as vice censor in chief. Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1107–111. See Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 69.1495.

21. 21. Needham, “Hydraulics,” 340–41.

22. 22. Porter, “Ethnic and Status Identity in Qing China,” 85.

23. 23. Liu Jinde, “Sanshi nian lai bachi hanjun yenjiu dongxu,” 39.

24. 24. The high point of Chinese banner influence in Qing government, as measured by the number of provincial governorships they occupied, was not the days when they served as translators but the days when they were dispatched as loyal functionaries.

25. 25. Statistics of Narakino Shimesu, cited in Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 2, 1022–25.

26. 26. For a brief summary of the history of Chinese dynasties’ patronage of scholars and scholarship, see Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, chapter 1.

27. 27. Huang Chin-shing, The Price of Having a Sage-Emperor, 8–9.

28. 28. Harry Miller, State versus Gentry in the Early Qing Dynasty, 123–29.

29. 29. The “journey to the west” of the title may have been a reference to the government in Shanxi and Shaanxi, which had been turned over to Manchus earlier in the Kangxi reign and was, in Wang’s view, particularly ineffective and corrupt.

30. 30. Wang Jingqi , Dushu tang xizheng suibi, 1724.

31. 31. The books were Guo huaye (xiu) xiansheng shugao and Guo huaye xiansheng nianpu.

32. 32. Duindam, introduction to Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires, 18.

33. 33. Wolfgang Franke, “The Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644,” 61.

34. 34. Kangxi qizhuju (hereafter Diary).

35. 35. Diary, 435.

36. 36. The opera was titled Guo Xiu xi tang, which premiered in 2019, and the teledramas were Kangxi wangchao, a forty-six episode television series aired in 2001, and Tianxia changhe, a forty-episode drama aired in 2021–22. It would be possible to assess the accuracy and ideological themes of these products based on the history told below, but this remains outside the scope of the present work.

ONE / JIN FU AND THE RIVER

1. Epigraph: Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming.” For a complete translation of the text of Wang’s “Muzhiming,” see Guy, “A Chinese Bannerman Expert in Waterworks.”

2. 1. See Wang Yinghua, “Kangqian shiqi zhili xiahe diqu de liangci zhenglun.”

3. 2. See Song, “Jin Fu zhihe jianlue”; Hou Renzhi, “Chen Huang zhi he,” 65–68.

4. 3. There are six biographies of Jin Fu in juan 155 of Guochao qixian leizheng. (hereafter GCQXLZ). They include the “Muzhiming” by Wang Shizhen; the State Historical Commission biography, Guoshiguan benzhuan, likely prepared in the eighteenth century; and biographies by Wan Chengcang (jinshi 1712, d. 1747) and Lu Shao (1725–1785). A nineteenth-century account of Jin’s work in the rivers by Li Zutao (1776–1858) and a brief account from a work titled Guoshi xianliang xiao zhuan are also included. Twentieth-century biographies include accounts in ECCP and Qingshi.

5. 4. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 553. See also Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 484.

6. 5. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 155.1a–b.

7. 6. Crosley, “Manchu Education,” 356.

8. 7. All of Jin’s biographies, except the Benzhuan prepared by the State Historiographical Commission in the early eighteenth century, say that Jin was appointed pianxiu in the Hanlin Academy. This would have been quite a stretch for him to be given an instructor position in an academy composed of the highest-ranking recipients of the jinshi degree. The Benzhuan placed him in the Guoshi yuan, which seems more likely. Benzhuan editors, though not contemporaries, would have had Jin’s official curriculum vitae.

9. 8. For Chinese scholarship on Chinese martial bannerman identities—whether they saw themselves as Manchu or Chinese—see Liu Jinde, “Sanshi nian lai bachi hanjun yenjiu zongxu,” 40–41.

10. 9. See Meyer-Fong, Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou, 35–79.

11. 10. Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1871.

12. 11. Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1870.

13. 12. See Chow, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China.

14. 13. Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1867; Lu Shao, in GCQXLZ 155.26a–b.

15. 14. Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao II, 1540.

16. 15. Hou Renzhi, “Chen Huang zhi he.”

17. 16. Hefang shuyan 579.776, quoted in Hou, “Chen Huang zhi he,” 65–66.

18. 17. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ, 155.1a–b; Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1866–67; Wan Chengcang, in GCQXLZ, 155.25b–26a. credits Jin with attracting 100,000 households back to Anhui. See also ECCP.

19. 18. On huo-pai, see Sun, Ch’ing Administrative Terms, 246. A liang was a standard unit of Chinese currency, equivalent in theory to one ounce of silver.

20. 19. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 155.1b–2a. The memorial on postal savings is printed in Jin Fu, Jin wenxiang gong (fu) zoushu, 999–1020. Hereafter Zoushu.

21. 20. Qingshi, 280.2978–79.

22. 21. Qingshi, 280.2979.

23. 22. Shengzu ren (Kangxi) Huangdi shilu 4.841 (hereafter KXSL).

24. 23. KXSL 64.850.

25. 24. On the ministry of works, see Zhang Deze, Qingdai guojia jiguan kaolue, 122–45, esp. 140–41.

26. 25. Zoushu, 15–17.

27. 26. Zoushu, 20–22.

28. 27. See Jia Guojing, “Qing qianqi di hedu yu huang chuan zhengzhi,” 187.

29. 28. The work was edited by a contemporary, Zhang Aisheng. It was included in the Siku quanshu, appended to Jin Fu’s collected memorials (vol. 549, pp. 746–79 in the Guji reprint). A more legible version, cited below, is in juan 9 of Zhihe fanglüe.

30. 29. Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1107–10. Pan’s Hefang yilan was also written in the form of questions and answers, which may have influenced the way Chen’s work was presented. On Pan, see Vermeer, “P’an Chi-hsun’s Solutions to Yellow River Problems of the Sixteenth Century.”

31. 30. Hefang shuyan, in Zhihe fanglüe 9.801; see also Hou, “Chen Huang zhi he,” 72–74.

32. 31. Hefang shuyan, in Zhihe fanglüe 9.781–82; see also Qing shi 280.2984.

33. 32. Recent research has shown bannermen claiming technical expertise in other spheres of administration, suggesting that trained bannermen may have become a new stratum of officials in the early and mid-Qing. See Kai Jun Chen, Porcelain for the Emperor, particularly chapter 1, ”Bannermen Technocrats in the Early Qing.”

34. 33. Over time, the Qing recognized the value of specialized training in river positions. During the Qianlong era, river directors served relatively long terms, and experience became a criterion for selection. See Wang Yinghua, “Kangqian shiqi,” 84.

35. 34. Zoushu, 29–38.

36. 35. Zoushu, 38–44.

37. 36. Zoushu, 45–48.

38. 37. Zoushu, 49–57.

39. 38. Zoushu, 65–70.

40. 39. For the retained and remitted land taxes, see Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael, 28.

41. 40. The Qing did offer offices for sale in 1673, but the proceeds likely went to support the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, not river work. For the regulations for office sale in 1673, see Lawrence Zhang, Power for a Price, 271–73.

42. 41. Zouzhu, 71–82.

43. 42. Hu Ch’ang-tu, “The Yellow River Administration in the Ch’ing Dynasty.” Hu estimates that in the seventeenth century, there were approximately twenty-nine officials subordinated to the director-general of the Grand Canal (508).

44. 43. Zoushu, 153–70.

45. 44. Zoushu, 99–101, 104–8.

46. 45. This passage does not appear in Jin’s collected memorials. It is quoted in Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong Muzhiming,” 1867; “Guoshi xianliang xiao zhuan,” in GCQXLZ 155.17b–19a; Wan Chengcang, in GCQXLZ 155.26b–27a.

47. 46. Zoushu, 131, 135, 139, 147.

48. 47. Zoushu, 123–30. The court’s objections here have been inferred from quoted passages in Jin’s responses.

49. 48. KXSL 71.908; ECCP, 161. See also Da qing huidian zeli, 910.492–93.

50. 49. KXSL 77.987.

51. 50. Diary, 920; Wang Yinghua, “Kangqian shiqi,” 78. This characterization came in 1682 after Jin had haughtily dismissed a river expert from Henan who had been sent to consult with him.

52. 51. See Hu Ch’angtu, “The Yellow River Administration”; and Zhaolian, Xiaoting zalu, juan 7, particularly p. 214.

53. 52. Li Zutao, “Zhihe shizhuang,” GCQXLZ 155.29a. Li, much of whose work was bibliographic, commented on the disorganized quality of Zoushu. Although the editors of Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao (57.1223) remarked that Jin’s son had done the editorial work, Li saw the selection as haphazard.

54. 53. Hefang shuyan, quoted in Hou Renzhi, “Chen Huang zhihe,” 69–70.

55. 54. Hou Renzhi, “Chen Huang zhihe,” 70.

56. 55. These are the concluding lines of Jin’s first memorial, Zoushu, 28b.

57. 56. Song, “Jin fu zhihe jianlue,” 92–94. In Pan Jixun’s day, his methods of river control were as advanced as any in the world. By Jin’s day, a new science of hydrology, based in Newtonian physics, had developed in Italy and the Netherlands. See Davids, “River Control and the Evolution of Knowledge”; Biswas, History of Hydrology.

58. 57. Mostern, The Yellow River, 183.

59. 58. For 1680, see Zoushu 3.335–8; Diary, 594; and KXSL 91.1137, 91.1155.

60. 59. Diary, 920; see also KXSL 105.66. Isanga, from the Plain Yellow Banner, was a very significant figure at the Kangxi court. He earned a jinshi degree in 1652. During the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, Isanga supervised the construction of boats used to attack Wu Sangui’s forces at Lake Dongting. He also served on the committee that inspected the rivers in 1675 and recommended that a new director—ultimately Jin Fu—be appointed. He served as Manchu minister of finance from 1677 to 1683. He was the head of various ministries until 1688, when he became grand secretary. The emperor particularly valued his comments on criminal sentences involving the death penalty. See Qingshi 251.3815.

61. 60. KXSL 105.66.

62. 61. This point is made clearly in the Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao assessment of Zoushu, 1223.

TWO / IMPERIAL INTERVENTION

1. 1. Chang, “Civil-Military Tensions during the Kangxi Emperor’s First Southern Tour.”

2. 2. See Shang, “Kangxi nanxun yu zhili huanghe.”

3. 3. Diary, 1242; KXSL 117.222.

4. 4. Diary, 1251; see also KXSL 117.1220. Jin acknowledged receipt of the imperial poem in a memorial in Zoushu, 621–30.

5. 5. Diary, 1242. The emperor’s expression of sympathy was not entirely spontaneous. He had been warned about the dissatisfaction of downriver residents by the censor Li Shiqian before the trip began. See “Xiahe zhi zheng daohuosu jianchayushi Li Shiqian danke Jin Fu.”

6. 6. KXSL 117.223, 229.

7. 7. KXSL 118.238.

8. 8. He, “Kangxi qianqi Jin Fu zhihe zhengyi de zhengzhi shi fenxi,” 63.

9. 9. Jia Guojing, “Qing qianqi di hedu yu huang chuan zhengzhi,” 189.

10. 10. On Yu Chenglong, see Liu Fengyun, “Cong hanjun qiren Yu Chenglong kan fengjian guanliao de duo zhong zhengzhi renge.”

11. 11. See Crossley, “The Tong in Two Worlds.”

12. 12. To avoid confusion, I use Yu Qingtian to refer to the elder Yu, and Yu Chenglong when I refer to the younger man. On Yu Qingtian, the elder, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 65–66.

13. 13. Xu Qianxue, “Jishi,” in GCJXLZ 160.32.

14. 14. Zoushu 6.725–50.

15. 15. Li Zutao, GCJXLZ 155.46a.

16. 16. Wang Yinghua, “Kangqian shiqi,” 78.

17. 17. Zoushu, 704–5.

18. 18. Zoushu, 706–13. The secondary levy was projected to cost 193,880; the dredging project was to cost 31,000; and the work on the levees along the canal was estimated to cost 308,500.

19. 19. This extraordinarily confident claim is found in Zoushu, 704.

20. 20. Zoushu, 733–37.

21. 21. Zoushu, 743–45.

22. 22. Li Wenzhi, “Qingdai tuntian yu caoyun.”

23. 23. Qing was a Chinese measure of land equal to 15.13 acres.

24. 24. Baoying xianzhi, 1346.

25. 25. Diary, 1380. The Kangxi comment on the state of finances was addressed to his courtiers. It was not a part of the public record.

26. 26. Zoushu, 723.

27. 27. KXSL 123.304.

28. 28. On Qiao Lai, see Qingshi 483.5237; GCQXLZ 120.8a–19a.

29. 29. KXSL 113.305; Diary, 1399.

30. 30. The memorial was titled “Four Things That Cannot Be Permitted in Guiding the Waters to the Sea” (Baoying xianzhi, 1338–43). Eleven officials from four districts signed the draft memorial. Qiao Lai, who had passed both the jinshi and the boxue hongci examinations and served as a diarist, likely the most prestigious official from Huaiyang in the capital, was chosen as spokesman.

31. 31. Baoying xianzhi, 1343–48. The description was written down in 1698, ten years after the meeting described.

32. 32. Qingshi 269.3929.

33. 33. Diary, 1427.

34. 34. KXSL 124.316. Wang Yinghua (“Kangqian shiqi,” 78) takes this as evidence that Yu didn’t know much about river work.

35. 35. See chapter 5 below for Mingju’s likely role in this decision.

36. 36. KXSL 124.318.

37. 37. Qingshi 266.3909. Tang received a concurrent appointment as tutor to the heir apparent. On Tang Bin’s mentorship of Guo Xiu, see chapter 3 below.

38. 38. KXSL 126.338–39; Diary, 1481.

39. 39. KXSL 126.340. Noting that Tang Bin did not offer any guarantees and seemed to betray a spirit of “try it and see,” He Weiguo (“Kangxi qianqi,” 68) sees the emperor’s intervention here as a use of autocratic authority not supported by evidence.

40. 40. KXSL 127.348–49.

41. 41. Like Jin’s family, the Gaos joined the Qing cause before the conquest and earned a hereditary distinction for their service, although the extant funerary inscription does not identify them as bannermen. Jin Fu recommended Gao for appointment in Jiangsu. Diary, 1303. See also GCQXLZ 167.4a. For Gao’s prosecution of Guo Xiu, see chapter 9 below.

42. 42. KXSL 127.351. On Sun, see Qingshi 280.398.

43. 43. Chang, “Civil-Military Tensions,” 40.

44. 44. KXSL 126.347; Diary, 1509–10.

45. 45. KXSL 127.364.

46. 46. KXSL 128.374–75.

47. 47. KXSL 129.380–81; Diary, 1583–84.

48. 48. KXSL 129.379–80.

49. 49. Diary, 1584.

50. 50. These issues are thoughtfully explored in Wang Yinghua, “Kangqian shiqi,” 84.

THREE / MINGJU

Epigraph: Chen Guiying, “Beijing tushuguan zang chaoben,” 32.

1. 1. For some reflections on the sources of seventeenth-century favorites’ power, see Bérenger, “Pour une enquête européenne.”

2. 2. Fang Chaoying, “Mingju,” in ECCP, 577.

3. 3. Mingju has received scant attention in histories of the Kangxi reign, in part because of the limited biographical materials available. Most published biographies (except one, discussed below) derive from his official biography, which is cited below as it appears in Qingshi liezhuan. This was edited in 1772 by order of the Qianlong emperor, who was anxious to show that Mingju had a limited influence and was guilty of only garden-variety corruption, unlike the evil ministers of the late Ming (see Gaozongchun (Qianlong) Huangdi Shilu 919.327–28). Following imperial instructions, state historians produced a very brief account of Mingju’s life—basically a list of the titles he held—followed by the full text of Guo Xiu’s impeachment and the Kangxi emperor’s response. In the following account, events in Mingju’s life have been confirmed, wherever possible, from other sources. The single exception to this rule is a funerary inscription by Wang Hongxu that had a remarkable provenance. Wang decided not to publish it, and it was buried with Mingju. It was rediscovered during the Cultural Revolution and first published in 1996 as the last two pages of Chen Guiying’s article “Beijing tushuguan zang chaoben.”

4. 4. The nala part of their name implied descent from the same ancestor as the other Jurchen clans. In his biographical note on Yangginu, head of the Yehenala in ECCP (897–98), George Kennedy argues that they were likely not descended from a Manchu but more likely from a Mongol who adopted the Nara clan name.

5. 5. Crossley, A Translucent Mirror, 155.

6. 6. Crossley, A Translucent Mirror, 169.

7. 7. As early as the Ming Wanli reign, Ming sources recorded enmity between Nurhaci and the Yehenala. See Yan Chongnian, “Mingzhu lun,” 3. On Gintaisi, see ECCP, 269–70.

8. 8. Possibly to curry favor with Mingju, Xu Qianxue wrote an essay on the Yehenala titled “Yehe beili jiacheng.” See Meng Zhaoxin, “Bachu Mingzhu yu zhengqu jiangnan shidafu,” 28.

9. 9. On the Imperial Equipage Department, see Spence, Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-his Emperor, 27–30. Mingju’s service in the department preceded Cao Yin’s by a decade.

10. 10. The title neiwufu zongguan referred to a number of positions. The most likely seems to have been the commandant of the imperial guards at the Southern Hunting Park (nan yuan). See Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 25–26.

11. 11. Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 44; Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 347.

12. 12. Qingshi lie zhuan 8.13a; KXSL 24.328.

13. 13. KXSL 27.381–82.

14. 14. Ranks were numbered 1 to 8, and there was an upper and lower division within each rank. Rank 1A was the highest, rank 8B the lowest.

15. 15. See Qingdai yeshi daguan, 3.21.

16. 16. KXSL 32.420; Qingshi lie zhuan, 8.13a. Both Jonathan Spence (“The Kang-hsi Reign,” 135) and H. L. Miller (“Factional Conflict,” 103) take Mingju’s appointment to the Censorate as a sign of the emperor’s commitment to put his own men in the bureaucratic order.

17. 17. KXSL 35.473.

18. 18. Diary, 114; Yan Chongnian, “Mingzhu lun,” 8; Shang Shu, 72.

19. 19. Qingshi 270.3931.

20. 20. KXSL 38.509.

21. 21. KXSL 43.569. The diary, which did not yet record political deliberations, notes that in addition to accepting Wu’s resignation, the emperor discussed several lines from Confucius and received tribute from the Khalka Mongols on this date. See Diary, 109–10.

22. 22. Chen Guiying, “Beijing tushuguan zang chaoben ‘Mingju muzhiming’ kaoshu,” 31. Hereafter, I cite the funerary inscription as Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” and cite Chen’s useful analysis as Chen Guiying, “Kaoshu,” to distinguish the primary and secondary sources.

23. 23. Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” 31.

24. 24. Spence, “The Kang-hsi Reign,” 138.

25. 25. Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power, 27; H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict,” 108–9. See also Meng Zhaoxin, Xiaozhuang huang hou, 394.

26. 26. For an interesting reflection on the Kangxi emperor, his grandmother, and the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, see Qiao Zhizhong and Kong Yonghong, “Kangxi yu Xiaozhuang taihuang taihou zhengzhi guanxi de jiegou,” 53–59.

27. 27. Liu Fengyun, Qingdai Sanfan Yenjiu, 164.

28. 28. KXSL 99.1246. See also Spence, “The Kang-hsi Reign,” 138.

29. 29. See H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict,” 109. The life dates of all those who supported the decision on Wu Sangui cannot be established. Both Mingju and Misgan were in their late thirties. Tuhai, the only named opponent of the decision, was much older.

30. 30. KXSL 45.594–95, 592–93, 597.

31. 31. Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” 31.

32. 32. Qingshi 269.3925. Misgan’s grandson Fuheng (d. 1770) was a dominant figure in the court of the Kangxi emperor’s grandson, the Qianlong emperor.

33. 33. Chen Guiyin, “Muzhiming,” 31.

34. 34. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 466–67.

35. 35. Diary, 343, 346, 435.

36. 36. On Chen Menglei, see ECCP, 93–94.

37. 37. Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” 31; Diary, 905; Zhao Huilin, “Nala Mingju liugei houren yichan,” 7.

38. 38. Diary, 539. Wang Rizao received the appointment and after two years was promoted to governor of Henan (Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao 3:1786–87). He is better known today as a poet and calligrapher.

39. 39. Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao 3:1365, 1548.

40. 40. See ECCP, 634.

41. 41. On Wu Xingzuo, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 266–69; and ECCP, 377. In a later posting in Guangdong, Wu proved to be quite corrupt. See John Wills, “Maritime China from Wang Chih to Shih Lang: Themes in Peripheral History,” 232.

42. 42. Yu Qingtian was the older Yu Chenglong; see chapter 2.

43. 43. According to Guo Xiu’s accusation, Yu Guozhu was a member of Mingju’s faction, responsible for setting prices when offices were sold. See chapter 5.

44. 44. H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict,” 105. On Songgotu’s appointment to the secretariat, see KXSL 33.27a; Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 36.

45. 45. Yan Chongnian, “Mingju lun,” 6; See also H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict,” 104–6.

46. 46. Qingshi 370.3932.

47. 47. Qingdai yeshi daguan 3.20; Qingshi, 3930.

48. 48. KXSL 83.1059; Wei Xuemi, Wei Minguo gong nianpu, 46b–47a.

49. 49. Diary, 420–35.

50. 50. See ECCP, 663–65; Qingshi, 3930–31.

51. 51. See Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, 17–23; Harry Miller, State versus Gentry in the Early Qing Dynasty, 107–32.

52. 52. Meng Zhaoxin, “Bachu Mingju yu zhengchu jiangnan shidafu,” 28–31. In this important article, Meng emphasizes the close connections between Mingju and the scholars recruited to serve in the Kangxi court in the late 1670s and 1680s.

53. 53. ECCP, 310–12. See also Lynn Ann Struve, “The Hsu Brothers and Semiofficial Patronage of Scholars in the K’ang-hsi Period.”

54. 54. Xu Qianxue, “Nala jun muzhiming”; Meng Zhaoxin, “Bachu Mingju,” 28.

55. 55. On the selection of tutors, see chapter 8.

56. 56. Meng Zhaoxin, “Bachu Mingju,” 28–31.

57. 57. See Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” 32; Chen Guiying, “Kaoshu,” 28.

58. 58. Chen Guiying, “Muzhiming,” 31.

59. 59. Qingdai yeshi daguan 3.21. For other anecdotes about Mingju from the yeshi tradition, see 3.20–25.

FOUR / GUO XIU AND THE QING CENSORATE

Epigraph: Guo Xiu, “Impeachment of a River Official,” in Guo Huaye (Xiu) xianzheng shugao, 80.

1. 1. Frederic Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 430–34.

2. 2. Zhang Wenyan, “Guo Xiu shi zenma jin ru jimo Guo shi jiapu de.” The author identifies herself as a reporter for Al Jazeera network in China.

3. 3. Zhu Yafei, Ming-Qing Shandong shijia jiazu yu jiazu wenhua, 2.

4. 4. Jimo xian zhi, 640–41. See also “Shandong huang shi zhi chuang.” The Huang family was prominent in Jimo from the late Ming through the nineteenth century. Like the Guos, they combined resistance to the conquest with service to the Qing.

5. 5. Guo Huaye (Xiu) xiansheng nianpu, 2–3. Hereafter Nianpu.

6. 6. Wakeman (The Great Enterprise, 1000) refers to the defense of Wei County. Guo Shangyou declined an offer to serve the Qing, but his collaborator Zhou Lianggong accepted office with the new dynasty.

7. 7. Zhang Wenyan, “Guo Xiu shi zenma jin ru jimo Guo shi jiapu de.”

8. 8. Agnew, The Kongs of Qufu, 65–67; Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 432–33. Zhu Yafei Ming-Qing Shandong shijia jiazu yu jiazu wenhua, 9, proposes that Shandong elite weren’t “burdened by foolish loyalties.”

9. 9. See the survey of early Qing Confucian ideas in Peterson, “Arguments over Learning.”

10. 10. Zhu Yafei, Ming-Qing Shandong shijia jiazu yu jiazu wenhua, 5.

11. 11. On Sun, see ECCP, 671–72; Peterson, “Arguments over Learning,” 472–74.

12. 12. On policy questions, see Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations, 431–50.

13. 13. Wei Yijie, “Keju yi,” translated in Struve, “Ruling from a Sedan Chair,” 12.

14. 14. For a discussion of how the emphasis on the latest exegetical fashion could distort the examination, see, among many others, Qiu Jun, “Quan xuan zhi fa”.

15. 15. Wei Litung, Wei zhenan xiansheng nianpu, 34b–35a. Wei’s nianpu was compiled by his son. Given Guo Xiu’s low rank, it is possible that this comment was entered in the nianpu after Guo had made a name for himself with impeachments. As Wei Yijie did not live to see Guo’s impeachments, the entry would have been posthumous.

16. 16. Nianpu, 508–9.

17. 17. Nianpu, 509.

18. 18. See Wujiang xian zhi, juan 3.

19. 19. Nianpu, 509–11.

20. 20. All gazetteers used similar categories to discuss local history, though the amount of space devoted to each category is a mark of its importance in local affairs. The 1733 edition of Wujiang xian zhi devoted five large juan, nearly two hundred printed pages, to the evolution of tax obligations. See Wujiang xian zhi, 311–504.

21. 21. Preface to Wujiang xian zhi, quoted in Nianpu, 512.

22. 22. Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 236–37.

23. 23. Wujiang xian zhi (1733), 499.

24. 24. Wujiang xian zhi (1733), 675; Nianpu, 510.

25. 25. Qingshi 262.3883. Zhaolian (Xiaoting zalu, 177) regarded Yang as one of the two most successful Green Standard army generals in the early Qing.

26. 26. Wujiang xian zhi, 689–90; Nianpu, 510–19.

27. 27. Qingshi 266.3907–10. See also Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 240–44.

28. 28. On Tang’s appointment, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 241–42. On the new Qing post-rebellion attitude toward the southeast, see chapter 3.

29. 29. Wujang xian zhi, 690.

30. 30. Xiaoting zalu 4.95–96.

31. 31. Chen Kangqi, “Jiwen,” in GCQXLZ 160.36a–b. This episode was the basis for a Peking opera titled Guo Xiu Washes the Hall (Guo Xiu xi tang), performed in Beijing in 2018. See “Xin pian jingju ‘Guo Xiu xi tang’ xian shou quantong wemhua xiandai liliang.”

32. 32. On outstanding recommendations in the Qing, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 92–95.

33. 33. Tang Bin, Qian’an xiansheng shugao, 961.

34. 34. The fourth rank was the highest rank one could purchase (see Lawrence Zhang, Power for a Price, 39, 267–70) and may have represented a threshold between junior and senior civil service rank.

35. 35. Regulations for participation in the little-known examination are found in Da qing huidian shili 1029.328–29.

36. 36. Tang Bin, Qian’an xiansheng shugao, 961.

37. 37. The Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors personally interviewed candidates at this stage of advancement. Kangxi seemed content here to rely on his counselors’ impressions.

38. 38. One genre of statecraft memorials by governors of Shaanxi argued that if irrigation works were built in the northwest, the area could be made more prosperous. See Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 214–15.

39. 39. Guo’s ranking in this and the jinshi examinations suggested that in a national competitive pool, he was not the strongest candidate.

40. 40. See Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, 28n64. A search under yushi in the China Academic database turns up no articles on the Qing. Aside from the accusations of Guo Xiu, the most active censors in during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were Wei Xiangshu (1617–1687), Guo Xiu’s examiner Wei Yijie (1616–1686), Xie Jishi (689–1756) during the Yongzheng reign, and the censorial opponents of Heshen (1750–1799) in the Qianlong reign. On Qing censors, see Struve, “Ruling from a Sedan Chair”; Nivison, “Ho-shen and His Accusers.”

41. 41. There have been several accounts of these events, including Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, 152–234; Dardess, Blood and History in China.

42. 42. Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, 21.

43. 43. Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, 20–23.

44. 44. Jones, The Great Qing Code, 40.

45. 45. Da Qing huidian shili, 11.5a–b; Metzger, The Internal Organization of Ch’ing Bureaucracy, 115.

46. 46. Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, 296.

FIVE / IMPEACHMENTS

1. 1. See Diary, 1627–30. There is a full translation of this Guy, “Heard on the Wind,” 12–23.

2. 2. Dong’s memorial is not extant. It is described in Yang Chun, “Tang Bin Zhuan” (GCQXLC 48.31b), as having ten points.

3. 3. Tang Bin had never gotten along with Mingju. As a result of his attempt to suppress Dong’s memorial, he was hounded from office and died. Qingshi 266.3908–9.

4. 4. KXSL 231.41

5. 5. See Chen Song, “‘Short Scrolls’ and ‘Slanderous Reports,’” 156.

6. 6. Min Lu (“Guo Xiu danke Jin Fu an zhong an”) points out the importance of the hearsay edict to Guo Xiu’s subsequent impeachments.

7. 7. “Tecan hechen,” in Guo Xiu, Guo Huaye (Xiu) xiansheng shugao, 79.

8. 8. “Tecan hechen,” 80.

9. 9. “Tecan hechen,” 80–81.

10. 10. “Tecan hechen,” 81.

11. 11. KXSL 132.424.

12. 12. KXSL 133.438; Diary, 1718.

13. 13. KXSL 133.438; Diary, 1718.

14. 14. Diary, 1718. The comment to the censors and the question to Guo were not included in KXSL.

15. 15. The earliest text of Guo’s impeachment of Mingju, “Tecan dachen” (in Guo Huaye (Xiu) xiansheng shugao, 83–91), was likely printed in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. In the latter part of the century, the text was copied into Mingju’s official biography, Qingshi liezhuan. Shortly thereafter, Zhaolian copied it into Xiaoting zalu 3.63–65. In the twentieth century Xiao Yishan reprinted the earliest version in Qingdai tongshi, 1:795–96. There were two differences between the early and the late texts (see notes 24 and 29 below).

16. 16. “Tecan dachen,” 83; Shang shu, 39–40.

17. 17. “Tecan dachen,” 85. Chen Zizhi, from Zhejiang, received his jinshi in 1678. After passing through the Hanlin Academy, he was appointed censor for the Shaanxi circuit. Qingshi 283.4003–4.

18. 18. Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao 2:2002, 2004; KXSL, 128.372.

19. 19. Qingshi, 283.4003.

20. 20. Diary, 1690–91.

21. 21. KXSL 128.423.

22. 22. Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 55–56.

23. 23. Liu Fengyun, “Kangxi chao di dufu yu difang qianliang kuikong.”

24. 24. There is a textual variant here. Copies produced in the late eighteenth century read, “The emperor didn’t understand” (shang yi buzei). The seventeenth century version has buxi, “was not pleased.”

25. 25. “Tecan dachen,” 85–86.

26. 26. Qingshi lie zhuan 8.16b–19a; Qingshi 270.3933. Both are attached to Mingju’s biography.

27. 27. Qingshi lie zhuan 8.19–20.

28. 28. Qingshi lie zhuan 8.18b–20; Qingshi 270.3932–33.

29. 29. The names of these Manchu officials were rendered into Chinese differently in the early and later printings of Guo’s memorial. This likely had to do with changing Qing protocols for representing Manchu names in Chinese. In the glossary I have provided the characters used in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Chinese renderings of these Manchu names.

30. 30. H. Lyman Miller, “Factional Conflict.”

31. 31. “Tecan dachen,” 87.

32. 32. “Tecan dachen,” 87.

33. 33. “Tecan dachen,” 87–88. On educational intendants, see Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 498; Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, 146–47; Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, 52.

34. 34. “Tecan dachen,” 88.

35. 35. Diary, 1037.

36. 36. Diary, 1396. Mingju’s statement was not reproduced in Veritable Records.

37. 37. Diary, 1370–72.

38. 38. “Tecan dachen,” 88–89.

39. 39. “Tecan dachen,” 90.

40. 40. Li Shiqian was a censor in the early Kangxi period. See “Xiahe zhi zheng daohuosu jianchayushi Li Shiqian danke Jin Fu.” The collection of his censorial memorials, Guochao Li Shiyu zoushu, is held and has been digitized by Columbia University. It does not contain any documents about Foron or his time in the censorate but does contain a memorial written before the emperor’s first southern tour warning him of the suffering in the seven downriver counties.

41. 41. Meng, “Bachu Mingju yu zhengchu jiangnan shidafu,” 28–29. See also Diary, 1125, 1220, 1606, 1605.

42. 42. “Tecan dachen,” 89–90.

43. 43. Xiao Yishan, Qingdai tongshi I, 796.

44. 44. Ray Huang, 1587: A Year of No Significance.

45. 45. Qingshi, 3941.

46. 46. Nianpu, 523.

47. 47. Nianpu, 524.

48. 48. Nianpu, 525.

49. 49. Nianpu, 527.

50. 50. Nianpu, 528.

51. 51. Dong Hanchen, the astronomer whose memorial triggered the emperor’s edict on loosely sourced impeachments, did use many classical references to cushion his accusations. See Guy, “Heard on the Winds.”

SIX / DECISIONS

1. 1. KXSL 133.441.

2. 2. “Li Yun,” line 31, in Li Chi.

3. 3. KXSL 133.441.

4. 4. KXSL 133.441. On passing the buck, see Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 844.

5. 5. KXSL 82.1052–53. There is no evidence that Kangxi had help in crafting the edict condemning Mingju. The parallels between the two edicts are broad but not exact.

6. 6. KXSL 133.441.

7. 7. KXSL 133.441; Qingshi 250.3808; ECCP, 600.

8. 8. KXSL 133.441–42.

9. 9. For a somewhat more detailed treatment of Cai, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 331–34; Bao Hengxin, “Kangxi shizhi sixiang tanyi,” 88.

10. 10. For the commission of Foron, see KXSL 131.413, 423–24. The emperor’s interaction with the Foron committee is described below.

11. 11. KXSL 133.442.

12. 12. Qingshi 252.3820–22. Li Zhifang was not formally cashiered but allowed to retire.

13. 13. Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 25.

14. 14. Karkun was Manchu minister of works, reputed to be in league with Mingju and Jin Fu.

15. 15. KXSL 133.442. The purge of Mingju and his followers obviously affected the central government. There may also have been a purge of territorial officials tied to Mingju. Elsewhere, I have suggested that when four or more governors were dismissed within a single year, the year should be counted as unusual (see my Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 124). Four governors were cashiered between the twelfth month of 1687 and the first month of 1688 (Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 1552–53.)

16. 16. KXSL 133.445.

17. 17. KXSL 131.413.

18. 18. Supervising secretaries (jishizhong) were technically censors who served the emperor directly, reviewing documents to see if they were in proper form. See Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China, 133.

19. 19. KXSL 131.413.

20. 20. KXSL 132.423–24.

21. 21. See KXSL, juan 132; Qingshi liezhuan 52.17b.

22. 22. GCQXLZ 155.10. Jin Fu’s accusations of factionalism had a basis. Lu Zuxiu was a student of Mu Tianyan, and Sun Zaifeng was related by marriage to Mu Tianyan. Sun Zaifeng and Guo Xiu were jinshi classmates.

23. 23. Qingshi 280.3984.

24. 24. There is no mention of the conversation between Dong and the emperor in Veritable Records. The account comes completely from the diary.

25. 25. Qingshi 478.5093–94.

26. 26. Diary, 1736.

27. 27. Brunnert and Hagelstrom, Present Day Political Organization of China, 99 and 395.

28. 28. Zhaolian, Xiaoting zalu, 43. See Porter, “Bannermen as Translators.” Dong Ne would have studied Manchu in the Hanlin Academy.

29. 29. Diary, 1737.

30. 30. KXSL 134.449.

31. 31. Qingshi 279.3974–75.

32. 32. (Mu Tianyan) benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 150.19b–20a; KXSL 133.440. Likely in response to this memorial, Jin Fu himself memorialized, accusing Mu and others of forming a faction to attack him. KXSL 133.447.

33. 33. Qingshi 280.3984. As early as February, the emperor had complained of Xiong’s unwillingness to speak about the report. KXSL 133.438.

34. 34. Diary, 1738.

35. 35. Diary, 1738. Xiong was eventually reappointed and ended his career as Chinese minister of works. His son, Xiong Xuepeng, enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a territorial official during the Qianlong reign.

36. 36. KXSL 83.1059. The phrase tongyin xiegong appears in both edicts. For discussion of Songgotu’s fall and Mingju’s rise, see chapter 5.

37. 37. Diary, 1743. The passage is not included in KXSL.

38. 38. Chang, “Of Feasts and Feudatories.”

39. 39. Diary, 1743–44.

40. 40. On Chen’s fall, see Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 979–89; on Liu, see 999–1000.

41. 41. KXSL 133.451–52; Diary, 1744.

42. 42. KXSL 133.452.

43. 43. KXSL 133.445. Bao Hengxin (“Kangxi shizhi sixiang tanyi,” 90–91) suggests that Kangxi maintained openness to “words on the winds” throughout his reign, but this edict clearly was meant to limit impeachments.

44. 44. Diary, 1754.

45. 45. Diary, 1746.

46. 46. Diary, 1754.

SEVEN / CORRUPT SCHOLARS

1. 1. See Wu Xiulang, “Nanshufang zhi jianzhi ji qi qianqi zhi fazhan”; Harry Miller, State versus Gentry in the Early Qing Dynasty, 121–22. In “The Kang-hsi Reign” (165–68), Jonathan Spence emphasizes the political role of the Southern Study.

2. 2. Diary, 331; KXSL 69.891.

3. 3. Diary, 332.

4. 4. ECCP, 64. Zhang Ying and his son, Zhang Tingyu (1672–1755), were advisers to three Qing emperors.

5. 5. Diary, 337.

6. 6. Diary, 337; KXSL 70.896. The KXSL account omits the phrase “since both men were educated.”

7. 7. Zhu Jinfu, “Lun Kangxi shiqi de nanshufang,” 27–37.

8. 8. Zhu Jinfu, “Lun Kangxi shiqi de nanshufang,” 31; On the Da Zhuang hexagram, see Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 345–49.

9. 9. KXSL 94.1185–87.

10. 10. Zhu Jinfu, “Lun Kangxi shiqi de nanshufang,” 31.

11. 11. Zhu Jinfu, “Lun Kangxi shiqi de nanshufang,” 37; Spence, Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-hsi Emperor, 222.

12. 12. It existed until the end of the dynasty.

13. 13. For stories from the yeshi tradition, see Qingdai yeshi daguan, 83–85.

14. 14. Zhaolian, Xiaoting zalu, 254.

15. 15. A surviving copy of Xizheng suibi is reprinted in Xu xiu siku quanshu 1177:257–96.

16. 16. Wang Jingqi’s father, Wang Bin, passed the boxue hongci examinations in 1679 and held posts in the capital until 1706. Wang Jingqi earned the juren degree in 1724 but never earned a jinshi. See ECCP, 812–13.

17. 17. Wang Jingqi, Dushu tang xizheng suibi, 274.

18. 18. Wang Jingqi, Dushu tang xizheng suibi, 275. On the Zhang Qian case, see chapter 5.

19. 19. See KXSL 132.423, for the emperor’s rejection of Saileng’e’s report and his exile.

20. 20. Qingshi 272.3941.

21. 21. Dushu tang xizheng suibi, 276.

22. 22. Record of a Journey to Songting (Songtingxingji) was copied into the Siku quanshu and reviewed in Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 58.1294–95. According to the Siku editors, Gao made a major geographical error in naming his account, as the trip did not take him close to Songting Mountain.

23. 23. Record of a Journey with the Emperor to the East (Hucong dongxun rilu).

24. 24. The account of this trip was titled Daily Journal of a Journey with the Emperor to the West (Hucong xixun rilu) and was included in the Siku quanshu. See Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 58.1294.

25. 25. Notes from North of the Border (Saibei waichao).

26. 26. Meng Sen produced a short essay entirely devoted to the Chen family, titled “Haining Chen jia,” On the first Chen degree holder, see p. 512.

27. 27. ECCP, 96.

28. 28. On Chen Zhilin, see Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, 961–66, 1001–5; ECCP, 97.

29. 29. Brook, “Family Continuity and Cultural Hegemony,” 33, 41.

30. 30. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ, 12.27 a–b.

31. 31. Elman, “The Social Roles of Literati in Mid Ch’ing China,” 417. See also Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 136.2824.

32. 32. The most useful biography is Zhang Boxing, “[Wang Hongxu] Muzhiming,” which is reprinted in GCQXLZ and in Zhengyitang xuji 7.1a–9a. Zhang Boxing described himself as a lifelong friend and student of Wang Hongxu. See also ECCP, 826; Qingshi 272.3939–3940; Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 58.16a–24a.

33. 33. “[Wang Hongxu] muzhiming,” Zheng yi tang xu ji, 7b–8a.

34. 34. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 58.16a.

35. 35. “[Wang Hongxu] muzhiming,” 7.4a–b; Qingshi 271.3939.

36. 36. “[Wang Hongxu] muzhiming,” 7.5a–b, quotes the text of this memorial. See also Qingshi 271.3940.

37. 37. The text of Guo’s impeachment, “Tecan jinchen,” is found in Guo Xiu, Guo Huaye (Xiu) xiansheng shugao, 99–107. A punctuated version exists in Xiao Yishan, Qingdai tongshi, 1, 799–801. The two versions are substantially the same, although the Xiao version omits several of the introductory sentences. References hereafter refer to the Shugao text.

38. 38. “Tecan jinchen,” 99–100.

39. 39. “Tecan jinchen,” 100–101.

40. 40. Qingshi, 268.3924. There are no biographies of He Kai.

41. 41. “Tecan jinchen,” 102.

42. 42. Zhang Boxing, “Muzhiming,” 7.2b–3a.

43. 43. Gaozhichun (Qianlong) huangdi shilu 979.73–74.

44. 44. Guang kun, lit., a bare stick or village ruffian.

45. 45. “Tecan jinchen,” 102. There is no biography of Yu, though the Taiwanese author Wang Yuewen (b. 1962) has made him a character in his 2009 novel of the Kangxi court, Da qing xiang guo. See “Da Qing xiang guo, Songgotu, Yu Ziyi.”

46. 46. See Yan, “Elite Objects and Private Collections in Eighteenth-Century China.”

47. 47. Shuncheng, written with a different character,承 instead of 城, was an early name for what is today called Xuanwu Men, located in the south central part of Beijing.

48. 48. “Tecan jinchen,” 104.

49. 49. “Tecan Jinchen,” 105.

50. 50. “Tecan Jinchen,” 105–6. Qingyi, “criticism of the pure,” was a long-standing term for court gossip, particularly younger officials pointing out the faults of their seniors.

51. 51. Harry Miller, State versus Gentry in the Early Qing Dynasty, 121.

52. 52. It is striking that by the later eighteenth century, some Chinese intellectuals were far more likely to see themselves exclusively as scholars. Those who worked on the imperial Siku quanshu project in the 1770s were quite content with a purely scholarly role (see Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, chapter 2). Benjamin Elman has explored this transition in From Philosophy to Philology, chapter 3.

EIGHT / SECOND ACTS

1. 1. See Metzger, The Internal Organization of Ch’ing Bureaucracy, 314–17.

2. 2. It was possible to cashier an official with the further stipulation that the man could never again be reappointed, but even then, as Metzger (The Internal Organization of Ch’ing Bureaucracy, 316) notes, reinstatement might be possible. In addition to the mechanisms listed in Metzger, more senior cashiered officials could “greet the emperor’s carriage” when it passed through a location near the official’s home and plead for reinstatement.

3. 3. Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 69.1501. How much of this work was completed during Jin’s lifetime is unclear. The editors of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries describe a four-juan edition titled An Elaboration of Memorials on Managing the River (Zhi he zou xushu). A nine-juan version, titled Strategies for Managing the River (Zhi he fanglüe) was issued during the Yongzheng reign, in 1727. Subsequently this edition was edited by Governor Cui Yingkai and reprinted ca. 1780, and this is the edition reprinted by Guangwen. In his epitaph, Wang Shizhen referred to a twelve-juan edition, but he did not provide any publication data.

4. 4. Literally, the virtue of dogs and horses (qianma zhi rong). This was an established expression for utter devotion; it had no derogative implication.

5. 5. Quoted in Hou, “Chen Huang zhi he,” 80.

6. 6. Retirement from the Qing civil service was relatively rare, and the mechanisms and assumptions involved require further study. See also Guo Xiu’s pleas to retire below.

7. 7. Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1870.

8. 8. KXSL 133.441–43.

9. 9. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 155.15b; KXSL 149.652; Perdue, China Marches West, 155–59.

10. 10. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 155.15b; KXSL, 173.874, 180.924; Perdue, China Marches West, 183–90. Moving grain here was quite a logistical feat, and it barely arrived in time. Credit for this feat was given to Yu Chenglong.

11. 11. Wang Shizhen, “Jin Fu gong muzhiming,” 1870.

12. 12. Zhaolian, Xiaoting zalu, 448.

13. 13. The story of the succession crisis is most vividly told in Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power, chapters 11–15.

14. 14. Qingshi 288.4029; ECCP, 430–31.

15. 15. Zhaolian, Xiaoting zalu, 448.

16. 16. Qingshi 173.3942.

17. 17. See Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 116.2448. The lists of plants and so on are found in juan 115–16.

18. 18. Amy Shumei Huang, “Artful Networking,” esp. 66–80.

19. 19. Qingshi 173.3942.

20. 20. Qingshi 172.3937.

21. 21. Chen Qiyuan, Yongxianjai biji, quoted in Meng Sen, “Haining Chen jia,” 511; see also GCQXLZ 12.41a–b.

22. 22. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 12.37b.

23. 23. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 12.38a; Spence, “The Kang-hsi Reign” 176.

24. 24. Meng Sen, Haining Chen jia, 528.

25. 25. Qingshi 272.3940.

26. 26. Qingshi 272.3940.

27. 27. Qingshi 273.3939; ECCP, 826.

28. 28. Spence, Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-hsi Emperor, 221.

29. 29. Qian Jue had served as magistrate, vice censor-in-chief, and mayor of Beijing before being appointed in Shandong.

30. 30. KXSL 141.566.

31. 31. Nianpu, 529.

32. 32. Nianpu, 530.

33. 33. Nianpu, 530.

34. 34. Nianpu claims that in the original sentence, Guo was not allowed to redeem his punishment. KXSL 141.566 specifically says that the punishment could be redeemed. As serious as the charge of a private letter was, it seems unlikely to have trumped the traditional prohibition of bodily punishment of a degree-holding official. The Nianpu was compiled in 1735, forty-six years after the sentence.

35. 35. Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 190–91.

36. 36. Qingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 1554.

37. 37. Nianpu, 531–32, 540–42.

38. 38. Nianpu, 532. Formally, Guo’s return home was not a result of discipline. Guo was waiting for a new post after his dismissal from the Censorate, and he simply returned home rather than wait for a new assignment.

39. 39. Nianpu, 532, 542.

40. 40. Diary, 1303.

41. 41. Nianpu, 532–35, 542–46.

42. 42. Nianpu, 537–38.

43. 43. The Nianpu describes these episodes twice, first relating the facts, then reprinting Guo’s memorial.

44. 44. For a brief history of the Huguang governor-generalship, see Guy, Qing Governors and Their Provinces, 287–92.

45. 45. Qingshi, 3937; Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 160.35b.

46. 46. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ 160.36a.

47. 47. Benzhuan, in GCQXLZ, 160.37b. Officials who served in the same city, regardless of their positions, were held to be responsible for each other. Nian was a Chinese martial bannerman and the father of Nian Gengyao, who conquered Tibet in the last years of the Kangxi reign and was briefly a dominant presence in the Yongzheng court before being cashiered and exiled.

48. 48. GCQXLZ, 37b–38a. Most Qing officials who resigned on account of illness died shortly after their resignations. Did Guo Xiu’s twelve years after being dismissed suggest that illness was a pretext for retirement, that he recognized he was over his head in Huguang?

CONCLUSION

1. 1. On the difficulty of periodizing corruption in the Qing, see Will, “Officials and Money in Late Imperial China.”

2. 2. See Doyle, Venality.

3. 3. See Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England.

4. 4. Lawrence Zhang, Power for a Price.

5. 5. This approach could be contrasted with the propensity to legislate of his successor, Yongzheng, and the slow elaboration of punishments and fines that occurred during the Qianlong reign.

6. 6. Bao Hengxin, “Kangxi shizhi sixang tanyi,” 86, 88. For a list of major corruption prosecutions during the Kangxi reign, see 87–89.