Notes On Qing Dynasty "Handicraft Regulations and Precedents" ( jiangzuo zeli ), with Special Focus on Regulations on Materials, Working Time, Prices, and Wages

In the process of ordering and evaluating source materials on the history of architecture, scholars of the Chinese Architectural Society (Zhongguo yingzao xueshe, 1929-1943) ¹ have singled out a text group that was later referred to as "handicraft regulations and precedents" (jiangzuo zeli) and defined as "established rules for artisans in all sectors of the building trade." ² The main interest of these researchers was to find information on architectural techniques that might help them to preserve and renovate historical buildings. Later conceptions of handicraft regulations not only encompass the classical building trades such as carpentry, stonemasonry, bricklaying, roofing, and scaffolding, but also other areas of civil engineering, such as river conservancy and canal construction, as well as various types of metalworking, textile, and graphical trades. Therefore, in a broader sense handicraft regulations can be understood as "rules and figures concerning techniques, materials, and funds for construction and the production of utility goods." ³ The potential of this source type as a rich mine of knowledge for a great variety of handicraft sectors has already been pointed out by Wang Shixiang. ⁴ Therefore, it is hardly surprising that in recent years other types of approaches also emerged. The Qinghua University Institute for History of Science and Technology and Ancient Documents (Qinghua daxue Kexue jishu shi ji gu wenxian yanjiusuo) has been active in editing manuscripts of handicraft regulations and in terminological research since 1997. ⁵ Recently, this source type is also being used in a research project on "State and Handicrafts in Peking, 1700-1900" at the Sinological Institute of Tübingen University. ⁶

The concept of jiangzuo zeli is not a traditional one, and opinions on which works to include in this category are not uniform. The most recent list contains a text corpus of 157 editions. ⁷ Among these, one subgroup concerns prices of materials and wages of artisans. It consists of about ten editions with different foci and from different periods, including regulations that were intended to have empire-wide validity, others that concentrate on prices and wages for certain regions or even certain buildings, such as those referring to construction work in the palace Yuanmingyuan, and still others that pertain to individual handicraft sectors, such as river conservancy (hegong). Our objective is to review the genesis of this subgroup and its specialized position, and to outline the main bibliographical qualities of the most relevant works.

Concerning price history, in the current research basic trends in price development have been delineated, but the focus has predominantly been on grain prices (Quan Hansheng, Wilkinson 1980, Chen Jinling, Kishimoto [Nakayama] 1987 and 1997, Marks, Lillian M. Li, Wang Yeh-chien, Marks and Chen). Since zeli cover prices for a wide variety of goods, they offer important complementary information for price history. In respect to wages as well, zeli yield fundamental data that cannot easily be obtained elsewhere, since sources on wages are rare in Chinese economic history (Xu Dixin 1990a, 1990b).

Regulations and precedents in the Qing administrative process

The source type of zeli is a product of the Qing administrative process. By the Qianlong reign all ministries and most agencies at the capital had their own official and legally binding regulations and precedents, which were in most cases periodically revised and re-published. ⁸ Thus we have precedents and regulations for the Palace Personnel (gongzhong), the Court of the Imperial Clan (zongrenfu), the Imperial Household Department (neiwufu), the Six Ministries (liubu: Ministry of Personnel, of Revenue, of Rites, of War, of Justice, and of Public Works), the Grand Secretariat (neige), the Court of Colonial Affairs (lifanyuan), the Censorate (duchayuan), the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (taichangsi), the Court of Imperial Entertainments (guanglusi), and the Directorate of Education...