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“Ordering the Age”: Terms of Political Discourse in the Imperial Statecraft Compendia (1827–1903)

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“Ordering the Age”: Terms of Political Discourse in the Imperial Statecraft Compendia (1827–1903) “Ordering the Age”: Termsof Political Discourse in the Imperial Statecraft Compendia (1827–1903) Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg Vorgelegt von: Gesa Stupperich Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler Datum: 19.06.2017 Contents Abbreviations and Citation Conventions iii Introduction 1 1 A “manifesto” and its subscribers 15 1.1 Intellectual context ................................... 16 1.1.1 Political crisis .................................. 16 1.1.2 Intellectual history ............................... 19 1.1.3 Statecraft Anthologies ............................. 26 1.2 Wei Yuan and his manifesto ............................... 30 1.2.1 Wei Yuan’s career ................................ 30 1.2.2 Wei Yuan’s thought ............................... 32 1.2.3 Wei Yuan’s “statecraft manifesto” ........................ 34 1.2.4 Format, structure and sources of the HCJSWB . 46 1.3 The manifesto’s subscribers ............................... 52 1.3.1 Reception of the HCJSWB ........................... 53 1.3.2 The sequels to the HCJSWB .......................... 54 Conclusion .......................................... 69 2 Building blocks of efficacy: ren ⼈ and fa 法 70 2.1 Pre-Qing political career ................................. 74 2.2 Functions of ren and fa in Qing statecraft discourse . 79 2.3 Civil governance (lizheng 吏政) ............................. 91 2.4 Taxation ......................................... 115 2.5 Granaries ........................................ 130 2.6 Salt monopoly ...................................... 152 Conclusion .......................................... 163 3 Conditions and goals of efficacy 166 3.1 ming 名 and shi 實 ................................... 168 3.1.1 Pre-Qing political career ............................ 168 3.1.2 Functions in Qing statecraft discourse . 172 i ii CONTENTS 3.1.3 Taxation .................................... 185 3.2 gong 公 and si 私 ................................... 204 3.2.1 Pre-Qing political career ............................ 205 3.2.2 Functions in Qing statecraft discourse . 207 3.2.3 Civil governance (lizheng 吏政) . 209 3.3 li 利 and yi 義 ..................................... 224 3.3.1 Pre-Qing political career ............................ 224 3.3.2 Functions in Qing statecraft discourse . 228 Conclusion .......................................... 244 4 Polarities during Hundred Days and New Policies 248 4.1 ren and fa ....................................... 251 4.2 ming and shi ...................................... 258 4.3 gong and si ....................................... 266 4.4 li and yi ......................................... 280 Conclusion .......................................... 285 Conclusion 286 Appendix 292 Translation of the preface of the HCJSWB (1826) . 292 Translation of the editorial principle of the HCJSWB (1826) . 294 References 313 Abbreviations and Citation Conventions HCJSWB He & Wei (1827): Huangchao jingshi wenbian 皇朝經世⽂編 HCJSWBB/ZHANG Zhang (1851): Huangchao jingshi wenbian bu 皇朝經世⽂編補 HCJSWXJ/RAO Rao (1882): Huangchao jingshiwen xuji HCJSWXB/GE Ge (1896): Huangchao jingshiwen xubian 皇朝經世⽂續編 HCJSWXB/SHENG Sheng (1897): Huangchao jingshiwen xubian 皇朝經世⽂續編 HCJSWSANB/CHEN Chen (1897): Huangchao jingshiwen sanbian 皇朝經世⽂三編 HCJSWXINB/MAI Mai (1898): Huangchao jingshiwen xinbian 皇朝經世⽂新編 HCJSWTB/SHAO Shao (1901): Huangchao jingshiwen tongbian 皇朝經世⽂統編 HCJJWXB/YJS Yijinshi zhuren (1901): Huangchao jingjiwen xinbian 皇朝經濟⽂新編 HCJJWB/QZQZZR Qiu ziqiang zhai zhuren (1901): Huangchao jingji wenbian 皇朝經濟⽂編 HCJSWSIB/HE He (1902): Huangchao jingshiwen sibian 皇朝經世⽂四編 HCJSWXBXJ/GAN Gan (1902): Huangchao jingshiwen xinbian xuji 皇朝經世⽂新編續集 HCJSWBWJ/QSZ Qiushizhai zhuren (1902): Huangchao jingshi wenbian wuji 皇 朝 經 世 ⽂ 編 五 集 HCXAWB/YU Yu (1903): Huangchao xu’ai wenbian 皇朝蓄艾⽂編 WYQJ Wei (2004): Wei Yuan quanji 魏源全集 QSG Zhao (1977): Qingshigao 清史稿 CALIS (2010) Zhongguo gaodeng jiaoyu wenxian baozhang xitong guanli zhongxin (2010): Online meta catalogue of mainland Chinese university library holdings (rbsc.calis.edu.cn) 中國⾼等教育⽂獻保障系統 DBCMAGC National Palace Museum (n.d.): Database of Ch’ing Palace Memorials and Archives of the Grand Council (http://npmhost.npm.gov.tw/ttscgi/ttswebnpm) 清代宮中檔奏摺及軍機處檔摺件 QSL/SZ Official compilation (n.d.): Shizong xian huangdi shilu 世宗憲皇帝實錄 HYDCD Luo (1990): Hanyu da cidian 漢語⼤詞典 SB Green Apple Data Center (2010): Shenbao (1872–1949) digital edition (www.huawenku.cn/html/huawenkuguihua/ruxuanbaokan-20120306856.html) 申報 iii Introduction This dissertation examines the use of four of ubiquitous polarities in the political-administrative discourse of the Qing dynasty as represented in the Imperial Statecraft Compendium (Huangchao jing- shi wenbian 皇朝經世⽂編, hereafter HCJSWB), printed in 1827, and its sequels. The compendia appeared between 1827 and 1903 and include writings on theoretical and practical aspects of government and administration from all reigns of the Qing dynasty. The polarities that this dissertation focuses on, ren-fa, ming-shi, gong-si and li-yi, have been a part of the political-administrative discourse since at least the Warring States period (475–221 BC) and still play a role in the political discourse of the People’s Republic of China. The authors of the writings included in the statecraft compendia employed thepo- larities to structure their arguments by addressing aspects of administrative problems that are in tension and must be brought into balance. The polarities served to formulate questions such as the following. What is the optimal balance between local discretion and central regulation within the bureaucracy, and how can it be established? How to ensure that officials fulfill their duties? Can civil servants be moti- vated with the prospect of private benefit while still ensuring that they decide in the public interest in their day-to-day administration? How to extract enough revenue to maintain the functional capacities of the state without burdening the people excessively? These questions are questions that have no uni- versally valid answers, but must be answered in the context of concrete circumstances. The statecraft authors employ the dynamic frame of reference that the polarities present toformulate their context-dependent answers to expedient problems, rather than formulating general principles of government. They use the polarities and the idioms and loci classici which they figure in asacommon point of departure with their audience. The polarities and idioms are used rhetorically in William D. Grampp’s sense, who writes that to “interpret the ideas of the past according to the problems of the present is not history – it is rhetoric or argumentation.”1 The polarities and the concerns they are used to express are part of a “language of efficacy”. This language of efficacy is concerned with external effi- cacy in terms of the state achieving its goals and the bureaucracy performing its primary tasks of taxa- tion, adjudication, border defense and infrastructural maintenance, and with internal efficacy in per- forming internal tasks such as the making and communicating of laws, recruitment, managing and con- trolling of the members of the bureaucracy. The goal of this dissertation is to learn more about thepo- litical language of a period in intellectual history that is comparatively under-researched as compared to the ones that precede and follow it but has exerted a formative influence on later periods, and to show how shared concerns about internal aspects of the Chinese bureaucracy manifested in shared vocabu- 1Grampp (1965), p. 100. 1 2 INTRODUCTION lary. Most importantly, this dissertations aims to show shifts in usage by proceeding from what didnot change (the terms of the language) to what did change (the meaning or usage of the terms). The terms representing the four polarities and a number of prominent idioms in which they appeared retained their popularity in political discourse as China ushered into the twentieth century. The meaning of the terms and the ideas expressed with the terms and idioms continued to change with their appropriation to new contexts, filled with new terms adapted from abroad, as it had done in previous periods. The Qing statecraft compendia were a series of voluminous administrative anthologies published between 1827 and 1903. The series started with the HCJSWB published in 1827 by the financial com- missioner of Jiangsu, He Changling 賀⾧嶺 (1785–1848), and chiefly compiled by his private secretary Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794–1857). The compendia were compiled as anthologies, that is, they collect writings that had originally appeared in other contexts, such as official and local gazetteers, individual scholar- officials’ collected works, administrative handbooks, and later increasingly the periodical press. Most of the editors had close ties to reform-oriented high provincial officials (governors-general, governors, financial commissioners) and their views were representative the moderate views of the reform-minded officialdom. Genres present in the compendia include memorials and other official communication, essays and treatises, examination essays, letters and paratexts. The HCJSWB includes writings from the Shunzhi (1638–1661) until the early Daoguang reign (1820–1850). Five sequels appeared before 1898 and included writings from the Daoguang reign until their time of publication, as well as a few writings from earlier reigns. The sequels that appeared after 1898 concentrate mostly on writings
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