A study of the exercise of judicial powers by Qing local governors = ??????????????

by Chung, Kwok-cheong

The theme of this dissertation is to study how local governor in Qing Dynasty exercised their judicial power. The first two Chapters herein are of

historical studies in which the writer points out that since the first Emperor of

the Ming Dynasty abolished the two subjects of "Understanding of Law" and "Understanding of Accounting" in the Public Examination (Keju f4~), those

local governors coming from Public Examination became short of legal

knowledge and judicial practice and as such, they were unable to exercise

judicial power. As a result, local judicial power went into the hands of the "rank

and file" (XuIi W~) during the Ming Dynasty. Furthermore, due to the

unreasonable oppression on the chances of promotion on the "rank and file",

they became profit (bribe-taking) orientated and that ruined local governmental

administration. Until the beginning of Qing Dynasty, local governors, on one hand, had to get the rank and file under control and on the other hand, had to

recruit professionals to assist in judicial matters. That was how "Master of the

Governor" (Muyou .:;to evolved and became popular in Qing Dynasty

causing the transfer of judicial power for the second time.

As to how "Imperial rank and file" became local "Master of the Governor", the writer agrees to the explanation of Mr. Miao quanji (*~iE6) that when

provincial governors were dispatched from the capital to province on errand,

they would bring along the "rank and file" working in the Six Imperial Departments (JR:l:~7\:g:~) to assist them in handling local administration. This

arrangement was subsequently followed by local governors of lower levels such as governors of Fu (~DJff) or governors of Xian (District Magistrate ~D~,*)

forming a popular trend of "Imperial rank and file" becoming local "Master of the Governor". However, the writer begs to differ from the argument of Mr.

Miao and his followers who backdated this popular trend to Ming Dynasty.

According to the understanding of the writer, this popular trend only began to appear in early Qing Shunzhi (j[[W:ftj) Regime, and the Muyou system was formed and reached its maturity only in Kangxi (m~~) Regime when the book Fuhui quanshu (t@i~~!f) was written.

Chapter three is comparatively more of descriptive approach. The writer will narrate the way local governor adopted in appointing "Master of the Governor"; how did they get on with each other; how did "Master of the

Governor" learn the legal knowledge and judicial practice; and finally how did

they in reality assist the local governors in exercising their judicial power.

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