Mirror Image of Officialdom in the Late Qing Dynasty: a Study of Du Fengzhi's Diary
by Qiu Jie
About This Novel
In the late Qing Dynasty, Du Fengzhi, a county magistrate in Guangdong for more than ten years, left a diary with millions of words. The main content is about officialdom in Du Fengzhi's eyes and heart. The diary is like a mirror, reflecting the various aspects of officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty, providing many details on the specific operations of state and county government offices and how states and counties managed rural society with the help of the grassroots power structures of the gentry. The diary of the Nanhai magistrate during his tenure reflects the government's management of big cities in the late Qing Dynasty. Records related to hearings reveal the various considerations that state and county magistrates made when hearing cases, allowing modern people to understand why officials often deviated from the royal law in making judgments. There are many facts in the accounts of prefecture and county tax collection that have not been fully paid attention to by tax researchers in the Qing Dynasty. The descriptions of official interactions, gifts, income and expenditure constitute vivid and credible stories about the "no officials and no corruption" in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty.
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Official(1)Scraped 23d ago
The diary is like a mirror, reflecting the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(1)Scraped 23d ago
The diary is like a mirror, reflecting the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty.
