The offices of Lishui through the dynasties

The offices of Lishui each have their own table in the old gazetteers: the Shunzhi gazetteer has a "table of officials" in juan 1, while the Kangxi gazetteer carries the subject across its distinguished-officials biography and its own table. What this article rests on is the first half of the Shunzhi table — the part that lists establishments dynasty by dynasty. The chronological table of officeholders, which the preface says comes after it, was not obtained in the online transcription of that gazetteer, so this article can examine the establishment of offices but not the men who held them.

What this table is

The table of contents of juan 1 of the Shunzhi gazetteer lists five sections: the annals, the table of administrative changes, the table of officials, the table of school posts, and miscellaneous posts. The table of officials is the third. The preface to the table states two things: how the gazetteer handles the period before the Sui, and how the table itself is built. It says:

溧水分置，始自開皇，故六季以上，無職司可紀，卽隋亦莫考焉。自唐至於國朝，名以代殊，祿秩亦異，佐貳之職，或益或裁，於此詳之，可以觀時變矣。故先列職官而年表次之。 — Shunzhi Lishui County Gazetteer, juan 1, table of officials

The words "divided off and established from the Kaihuang era" agree with the usual account that Lishui was made a county in the eleventh year of Kaihuang under the Sui, and they are this gazetteer's own statement of when Lishui began. The sentence "first the offices are set out, and the chronological table follows" shows the table has two layers: first the establishment of offices by dynasty, then a chronological table of the men who held them. This library holds only the first layer.

The Sui: the gazetteer itself says it cannot be traced

The table gives the Sui as a dynasty heading with no office beneath it, which matches the preface's "even the Sui cannot be traced". This is an explicit blank left by the gazetteer for Sui offices at Lishui, and no later gazetteer may be used to fill it in.

Tang

縣令一人，縣丞一人，主簿一人，縣尉一人。學置長史一人。

Under the Tang Lishui was a county, and the table lists one magistrate, one vice-magistrate, one registrar and one Defender, with one secretary attached to the county school. The four are the standard subordinate structure of a Tang county, and it is worth noting that the table gives the school a line of its own, so that a school post already belonged to the table of officials at that time.

Song

知縣一員，縣丞一員，主簿一員，縣尉一員，添差武尉一員，主學一員。

The Song establishment has two posts more than the Tang: the extra military Defender, and the supervisor of studies. The extra military Defender was an additional military post created in the Song for military need, while the supervisor of studies had charge of the county school. From the Tang's "secretary attached to the school" to the Song's "supervisor of studies", the table records the change in name of the school post as well.

Yuan: two establishments, county and prefecture, side by side

達魯花赤一員，縣尹一員，縣丞一員，主簿一員，縣尉一員，教諭一員；達魯花赤一員，知州一員，同知一員，州判一員，提控案牘一員，都目一員。儒學教授一員，大學訓導一員，小學訓導一員。直學一名蒙古字學。教授一員。

The Yuan entry is the one most needing attention: darughachi appears twice. After the first come the prefect, vice-prefect, registrar, Defender and instructor — the establishment of a county; after the second come the prefect of a department, his deputy, the assistant, the officer of records and the clerk — the establishment of a department. This agrees with the change in Lishui's status under the Yuan, for in the first year of Yuanzhen it was raised to a department, so the table preserves both establishments together; this article reproduces the two occurrences as they stand and does not merge them. The Yuan school entry is also the most elaborate, with a professor, a senior instructor and a junior instructor, and separately a school of Mongolian script with its own head and professor — a trace in the county's and department's school system of the Yuan promotion of Mongolian script.

Ming: the fullest of the dynasties

知縣一員，縣丞一員，主簿三員，典史一員，儒學教諭一員，訓導二員。税課局大使一員，河泊所一員，批騐鹽引所東壩巡檢司，陰陽訓術一員，僧會司僧會一員，道會司道會一員。

The Ming entry has the most posts and the greatest variety of kinds. It may be read in three layers: the county's own subordinates — magistrate, vice-magistrate, three registrars and the gaoler; the school — one instructor and two assistant instructors; and the miscellaneous and specialised offices — the tax office commissioner, the river and lake station, the salt certificate office, the Dongba inspection station, the yin-yang instructor, and the Buddhist and Daoist registries. The tax office, the river and lake station and the salt certificate office dealt with taxation and the salt trade, the Dongba inspection station with arrest and pursuit, the Buddhist and Daoist registries with religion, and the yin-yang instructor with astronomy and divination. After Lishui and Gaochun were divided into separate counties in the Ming, the river and lake station and the salt business were divided with them, and this table is worth reading beside records such as the abolition of the Xujiabu river and lake station in juan 1 of the Kangxi gazetteer.

The present dynasty

知縣一員，縣丞一員，典史一員，儒學教諭一員。

Four posts in the early Qing, a great reduction from the Ming: the registrar, the assistant instructors, the tax office and the river and lake station were all abolished, leaving the magistrate, the vice-magistrate, the gaoler and the school instructor. The Shunzhi gazetteer was compiled in the early Qing, and what it gives is presumably the establishment of that time. This library also has, from the Kangxi gazetteer's distinguished-officials biography, the magistrates and instructors of the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, and these can be read against the numbers in this table.

Offices are recorded, officeholders are not

The table gives establishments and not men. The officeholders this library can add come from the distinguished-officials biography of juan 6 of the Kangxi gazetteer, fifty-five men plus Wu Yu in its supplement, and from the recommendation examination and the examination registers in juan 2. One point of contact should be noted: the gazetteer's own text on Wu Yu in the supplement reproaches earlier compilers with "none of the three former gazetteers recorded him, nor does the table of officials list his name", which is internal evidence that the chronological list of names in that gazetteer's table omits men. The table this article relies on is the Shunzhi gazetteer's, and its chronological list of names is precisely what has not been recovered from the online transcription; the reproach about Wu Yu therefore refers to the Kangxi gazetteer's table, and the two tables must not be conflated.

Source limits and search scope

This article rests on one passage only: the first half of the table of officials in juan 1 of the Shunzhi gazetteer. That gazetteer's online transcription is incomplete — juan 6 stops at the loyalty and integrity biography, juan 7 is images only, and of the table of officials only the establishment layer was transcribed. This article therefore cannot give the name or term of any officeholder in any dynasty; anything about persons must come from the Kangxi gazetteer's distinguished-officials biography, or from a manuscript or printed copy. This library's search covers this transcription and the two transcriptions of the Kangxi gazetteer and nothing further.

Uncertainties

First, the preface's character for "above the six ..." is written as it stands in the transcription; whether it is an error for another word, or means something else, cannot be decided from this library's material, and it is reproduced unchanged.

Second, that Lishui was "divided off and established from the Kaihuang era" is the gazetteer's own statement, and this library has not checked its exact year against other books.

Third, the table does not record the years in which the two Yuan establishments, county and department, began and ended; when the county was raised to a department and when it reverted, the table does not say, and no inference is drawn from it here.

Fourth, when the Ming's three registrars and two assistant instructors were increased or reduced, the table does not say.

Fifth, the salt certificate office and the Dongba inspection station are written together in the table; whether each had its own officer or they shared one, the transcription cannot decide, and the words are reproduced without repunctuating.

Sixth, whether any early Qing office existed outside the four listed, this library has no material to decide.

Seventh, the table gives no officeholder's name or term in any dynasty; to add persons one must turn to the Kangxi gazetteer's distinguished-officials biography and to paper copies, or to the untranscribed chronological table of names.

Eighth, this article rests on one passage of the Shunzhi gazetteer's table of officials, read against two passages of the Kangxi gazetteer, and searches across the other source layers of this library produced nothing that could add to the subject; the Shunzhi transcription is an OCR rendering of a woodblock edition, not checked against the printed text, so citations must be marked as from the transcription.