The Ti-pao's Role in Local Government As Seen in Fukien Christian "Cases," 1863-1869

-1THE TI -PAO '3 HOLE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT A3 SEEN IN FUKIEN CHRIdTIAN "CASES," 1863-1869 Alan Richard Sweeten* University of California, Davis Rural control was one of the most vexatious problems that confronted the Ch'ing rulers. Early in the dynasty various organs of local control nere instituted. The li-chia W *? , pao-chia ·? ^ , and hsiang-yüeh ns Ly were key organs particularly important to the county (hsien) magistrate in the collection of taxes and in the maintenance of law and order. Although imperial authorities were generally flexible in accepting and legitimizing locally initiated changes in the control apparatus, deterioration was virtually irreversible by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Imperial control over the countryside, far from pervasive even in the heyday of Manchu rule, was extremely tenuous during the late Ch'ing. The Ch'ing dynasty and polity somehow survived the great rebellions of the mid-nineteenth century. According to Philip A. Kuhn, the process of "militarization" provided the local elite with the opportunity to exercise officially their informal power. In the hands of the local elite the t'uan-lien j«J JSf "began to function as an official subdistrict Lhsien1 administrative organ," fulfilling pao-chia and Il-chia 2 assignments. Thanks to this intrusion and eventual ascendancy in local administration by the local elite the status quo was on the whole preserved. In order to determine whether or not the early Ch'ing local control apparatus was superseded entirely during the tumultuous nineteenth- century decades, the historian needs to focus on the institutional links between the local community and the imperial bureaucracy. After all, what system of state control did exist at the sub-county level? The question cannot be answered merely by examining the administrative codes because such control organs as the li-chia, pao-chia, and hslang-yüeh had long been of little real significance before the disappearance of these terminologies from the statutes or from writings on statecraft. It is necessary to supplement the statutes and the theoretical writings with case studies of the actual local administration and control system. THE TI-PAO: AN INSTRUMENT OF LOCAL CONTROL Only a very broad definition is possible regarding the identity of the local elite (the "informal" or "unofficial" community leaders), whose status was based on such qualifications as age, affluence, academic or official title, authority within a lineage, or personal ability. Even less can be said about the identity, qualifications, and role of the "formal" or 3 official leadership. Different types of formal community headmen filled local positions. For example, there were the headmen of societal units (town, marketplace, or village), headmen in charge of fiscal matters, headmen responsible for "police" affairs, and perhaps others. In areas where the li-chia and pao-chia had atrophied, community headmen undertook the necessary fiscal and "police" duties in place of those local organs. These headmen "were in reality subadministrative governmental agents, serving largely the purpose of rural control." Of great importance among the "formal" community headmen was the ti-pao £C \$z or ti-fang j^Q,~ìj , This functionary appeared in some localities in the late seventeenth century but did not become a -3commonplace rural figure until the mid-eighteenth century. Coincidental with the decay of the li-chia and the alleged assumption of its duties by the pao-chia, the tl-pao acquired local governmental tasks. In 1757 the Ch'len-lung Emperor ordered the Board of Revenue to make recommendations for improvement of the pao-chia system based on suggestions from high provincial authorities.' Mirroring already existing conditions found in some localities, the board proposed the use of ti-fang to handle some pao-chia administrative services which were being performed without imperial sanction. This new arrangement was reaffirmed by the Chiach 'lng Emperor in 1814. In response to a request from Fukien officials for a clear injunction reducing the pao-chia' s duties, the emperor decreed "that the duties of arresting criminals wanted by the government and of urging and collecting money and grain taxes shall no longer be imposed upon [.the pao-chial." It was difficult, nevertheless, to keep tl-pao and pac—chia functions clearly separate. In some localities...