A Private Secretary from Golden Gate: Lin Shumei in Jinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan and Xiamen

Abstract

The exponential growth of the population from the founding decades of the Qing Dynasty to the early nineteenth century placed tremendous stress on the local bureaucracies, which increasingly depended on county clerks and runners and the nondegree-holding literati to reduce costs within the Qing Empire. This article investigates the life of Lin Shumei 林樹梅 (1808–1851), a private secretary, or muyou 幕友, from Jinmen who had served in semiofficial capacities in Taiwan and Xiamen, highlighting the kind of opportunities that were available to him in the imperial bureaucracy. By plotting the career trajectory of Lin Shumei, the article shows that the defence, governance and settlement of the frontier regions of the Qing Empire depended more on the expertise of ‘men on the spot’ such as Lin than on policies devised in the imperial and provincial capitals.