The Venality of Provincial office in China and in Comparative Perspective

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Abstract
Advancement in the provincial bureaucracy of nineteenth-century China depended slightly more on the purchase of substantive posts (chüan shihkuana), particularly posts of the highest ranks purchasable, than on any other single factor yet analyzed. This finding is based on a sample of 1,047 officials, drawn from six different directories of provincial officials (T'ung-kuan lub); Shantung, 1778 and 1859; Hupei, 1831; Honan, 1837; Anhwei, 1871; and Hupei, 1879. Among these officials neither seniority nor family background, nor recruitment path nor age at receiving the chin-shih, was quite as decisive as purchase in facilitating ascent in the nine-rank hierarchy.

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