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111 chapter 4 The Power of the Unexpected Like all Chinese dynasties, the Qing maintained an elaborate image-making apparatus that employed the full range of rhetorical resources at its command —allusion, metaphor, and reference to historical precedent—in making its case, and its products have rightly been read as statements of the dynasty’s political intentions. Ironically, however, it was probably at the very times when the court set aside precedent and procedure that it made the most historically interesting statements. This was particularly true of governors’ appointments. To some degree at all times and especially in moments of crisis, governors were the executive agents of the Qing monarchy, responsible for the preservation of order, provision of relief, maintenance of defense, and even on occasion diplomatic negotiations. During crises, the Qing court needed more power over appointments, more ability to scrutinize accomplishments, and more authority to change mandates and jurisdictions than were allowed under the established procedures of the Board of Civil Appointments. In the matter of appointments, central prerogatives were clear. Provincial governorships were among a very few positions within the Qing bureaucracy—the others, significantly, included governor-general, president of one of the six boards, and members of the palace guard—to which the court reserved the right to make appointments without following routine procedures. When one of these positions became vacant, the Board of Civil Appointments was required to submit a memorial to the emperor asking whether he wished to appoint someone of his own choosing before it prepared a ranked list. If the emperor chose to select his own man, no list was prepared at all. When this occurred, the emperor was said to have made a special appointment. emperors’ power to affect unexpected outcomes through special appointments was central to their ability to set the political agenda of their day. A changed vision of how government could or should function was often behind rapid changes of senior territorial officials; the new man and the new mandate often came together. In individual cases, this was often readily apparent. At least as significant and potentially far more revealing were multiple appointments of governors or the simultaneous or serial removal from office of several governors. Such events often reflected a perception of crisis, either one of military origin or one of confidence in provincial officialdom.1 Particularly interesting in this 112 The Power of the Unexpected regard were moments in the early eighteenth century when the yongzheng and Qianlong emperors used the power of appointments to shape the evolving office of governor to their respective visions of empire. The yongzheng emperor’s personnel policy was the most dramatic. But personnel crises during the Qianlong reign highlight changes in policy during the eighteenth century, providing benchmarks in a reign that is all too often seen as a seamless whole. Governors’ appointments also underscore the systemic crisis the Qing faced after the death of the Qianlong emperor in 1799. how special was “special”? In english, the word “special” has acquired a range of meanings. There are “special friends,” persons to whom one feels tied by unusually strong bonds, and “special elections,” plebiscites held when a previously elected official proves unable to serve, and presumably there is a wide range of usages in between. The character te had a similar range in Chinese, conveying varying measures of personal involvement and institutional irregularity. Most of the documents and actions labeled te in Qing administrative discourse, however, refer to instrumentalities or activities performed on an occasional basis in response to unusual needs. There were “special decrees” (te yu), edicts that were not meant to be taken as precedents for subsequent actions;2 “special indictments” (te can), accusations of corruption or malfeasance not submitted through regular channels; “special budgetary allocations ” (te zhi) to meet emergency needs; and “special commissioners” (te shi), individuals appointed to undertake particular tasks for the court.3 These special actions reflect the particular engagement of the court in a region, problem, or issue, but they also represent an overriding of established precedent. Collectively, they define a realm in which emperors could rule as well as reign. In some instances, it is possible to reconstruct fairly clearly the perceptions that lay behind special actions. In early 1723, the newly enthroned yongzheng emperor spelled out in some detail the reason why he was making a special appointment to the governorship of Shandong. As the emperor related the matter, Xie Celu, the serving governor of Shandong who had been appointed by the...

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