Officials and Chinese Justice: Public and Private Wrongdoing in Qing Law

Abstract

This article examines the law of officials during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), focusing on the body of statutes, substatutes, and regulations pertaining to the organization and operations of the imperial Chinese bureaucracy. The general objective of the article is to draw attention to the law of officials and its significance within the Qing legal system. A more specific goal is to examine how official wrongdoing was defined, differentiated, and dealt with in Qing law, highlighting the crucial distinction between the two main categories of official wrongdoing: “public wrongdoing” (gongzui 公罪) and “private wrongdoing” (sizui 私罪). Part I analyzes the legal distinction between public and private wrongdoing; Part II examines the historical antecedents of the public-private distinction, as expressed in the philosophical writings and the codified law of earlier dynasties; and Part III analyzes the substantive and procedural consequences of the public-private distinction on Qing officials.