RULING IN CHINA

Chinese Sources for Ruling

Instructions for an Imperial Procession in Peking, 1759

The flowery awning comes out from the Meridian Gate and [the officials] kneel as it passes. At the sixth double hour [09.00-11.00] the President of the Court of Sacrifices proceeds to the Gate of Heavenly Purity to present a request for the imperial passage to the Southern suburb [ie. location of Altar of Heaven] in order to maintain a night of abstinence.

The emperor wears a dragon robe and rides in the ritual carriage in which he is borne out [of the Gate]. On arrival beneath the steps of the Gate of Supreme Harmony, he descends from the carriage and the escorts bring forward the Jade Carriage. One of the Palace officials in charge of the escorts kneels to request [the emperor] to mount the carriage. Two attendants of escorts and four chaperons set forth the stairway at the centre of the carriage front - the stairway comprises five steps - and the emperor mounts the carriage. The bearers, thirty-six men, lift the carriage.

When the carriage has set off, the two escorts charged with clearing the way lead the officials and officers flanking the carriage towards the Meridian Gate. The bell and drum are sounded. The herald orchestra takes the lead, but does not play. The carriage comes out of the Meridian gate and all the [assembled] officials kneels as it passes. Ahead, the ten Grand Ministers and the two Ministers of the Rear Watch as well as various officials of the Household Guards and the Royal Defenders, Standard Bearers and Police ride from the Gate of the Pure Yang to the gate of the Altar.

To the left and right of the imperial way they roads and alleys are all draped with cloth screens. From the Commander General down to the Regimental Commander in the Royal Defenders and their Lieutenants, all from the Regional Commanders and their Lieutenants, all stand sentry according to a roster outside the screens. They clear the roadway and turn back passers-by. They should not cause commotion.

From the right the Carriage leaves the Palace and is born to the Southern suburbs where it enters the Altar [complex] via the West Gate and halts outside the Zhaoheng Gate to the West of the Sacred Way [ie. without crossing it]. A palace official in charge of the escorts kneels to request that the Emperor descend from the carriage. The attendants of escorts and chaperons set out the stairway in front of the carriage just as in the previous performance.

From Comprehensive Ritual of the Great Qing commissioned in 1736 and completed in 1759, translated by Oliver Moore.

Letter from a Chinese Official to the Emperor,  1712

Li Xu reverently memorializes:
My servant brought back by secret palace memorial on 2/15. After I opened it, I read Your Majesty's vermilion endorsement…Public opinion in the South holds that the governor-general never sold any zhu ren degrees [qualifications for provincial officials], but because the governor was too suspicious and hated the governor general, he went to far as to impeach him. Now both of them have been discharged. Although the governor is an honest official, he often failed to make clearcut decisions. Therefore too many people were arrested when he handled disputes. The governor-general never took any money. He is also very able and quick-witted. All of the people love him in their hearts, and the localities [under his jurisdiction] have all benefited [from his good administration]. This is the nature of the public comment on this issue. I therefore report to Your Majesty according to your secret instructions…
The vermillion endorsement written by the emperor reads:
Continue your secret inquiries; and report your findings swiftly.

From the memorial by Qi Sule (died 1729) who held office as Director General of the Grand Canal, in the Imperial Commands as corrected in vermillion (Zhupi yuzhi) printed in 1732, held by Cambridge University Library and translated by Oliver Moore.

The Emperor Goes on Tour, about 1700

On tours I learned about the common people's grievances by talking with them, or by accepting their petitions. In northern China I asked peasants about their officials, looked at their houses, and discussed their crops. In the South I heard pleas from a woman whose husband had been wrongfully enslaved, from a travelling trader complaining of high customs dues, from a monk whose temple was falling down, and from a man who was robbed on his way to town of 200 taels of someone else's money that he had promised to invest - a complex predicament, and I had him given 40 taels in partial compensation. But if someone was attacked in an anonymous message then I refused to take action, for we should always confront a witness directly; and if someone exaggerated too stupidly, then too I would not listen. A man swam toward by boat in Hangzhour with a petition tied around his neck, shouting out that he had a certain enemy who was the number-one man in the world for committing evil acts - and I simply had my retainers ask him, 'Who then is number two?'

From Spence, JD Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K'ang-shi, Jonathan Cape, 1974, p9 (with permission of Peters, Fraser, Dunlop).

Status Symbols, 1587

Prohibitions on the Use of Utensils: in the twenty-sixth year of the Hongwu reign [1393] it was decreed that Dukes, Marquises and officials of the First and Second Ranks might have wine pots and wine cups of gold, and for the rest use silver. Officials of the Third to Fifth Ranks might have posts of silver and wine cups of gold, while those of the Sixth to Ninth Ranks might have pots and cups of silver, for the rest making use of porcelain or lacquer. Items of woodwork should not make use of cinnabar, gilt or painted gold decoration, or of carvings of dragons or phoenixes. The common people should have pewter wine pots, wine cups of silver, and for the rest use porcelain or lacquerware. Couches, screens and window lattices of variously coloured and decorated lacquer belonging to officials should not be carved with dragon designs or be of vermillion lacquer decorated with gold. Military officials and officers should have bows and arrows of black lacquer or painted gold decoration.

From Ming shi or Ming history, published in the early eighteenth century but based on sixteenth century sources, translated by Craig Clunas and quoted in Clunas, C, Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China, Polity Press, 1991, p149