During the Qing Dynasty, the state and county officials played an extremely important role in local governance, but in some specific situations, such as resignation or vacancies due to events, the handling of government affairs was often affected. In order to solve this problem, the Qing Dynasty inherited and developed the Ming Dynasty's "Acting Affairs" system, which made temporary appointments the norm and another important part of the state and county official system. In the Qing Dynasty, the process of appointing officials at the state and county levels generally consisted of two steps: selecting vacancies and reporting to the ministry for verification. In the early days, the Eight Banners and Princes would appoint officials in bulk to ensure rule over the newly occupied areas.
In the Kangxi period, the governor and the secretary became the main body of the appointment power, and the governor had greater power in the appointment. In addition, the Governor is required to report to the Governor before he can be appointed. During the Kangxi period, there were also some governors who abused their power of appointment. In ancient times, Guizhou Daoyu Shi Gaoping proposed to hand over the responsibility of delegated affairs to the prefect. After discussion with the department, it was stipulated that the prefect and the governor had the same powers, and even though the prefect did not have the power to directly delegate, it had the right to make recommendations based on the recommendations of the delegated personnel. During the Yongzheng period, the two divisions and the governor grasped the power of delegation, and there was a situation of provincial appointment.
According to the "Cases of the Great Qing Dynasty", the punishment case of improper delegation points out: "The official who has always supervised the feudal division and other commissions has signed the seal, and each one relies on his own selfish intentions", which shows that during the Yongzheng Dynasty, the main body holding the delegation power was the governor and the feudal department, but the specific authority of the two in the delegation was different. In addition, in the Yongzheng period, there was also a system of provincial appointment. In the second year of Yongzheng, in view of the lack of time for the election of county members in distant provinces, Emperor Yongzheng "will select electors, those who are still far away, select the order to go to the provinces, wait for the vacancy, and appoint the agency", and send the people who will be sent to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangzhou to be appointed for trial. During the Qianlong period, the delegation power of the state and county was also in the hands of the governor, and the state and county were short of personnel and "still listened to the governor's discretion".
In addition, during the Qianlong period, the appointment of state and county officials after vacancies had different regulations due to the urgency and delay of vacancies. During this period, the appointment was divided into two levels, the prefect and the Taoist had the right to temporarily seal and receive the officials, but they had to report to the governor, and the real power to appoint the officials was held by the governor. Subsequently, the Qianlong Dynasty restricted the delegation power of prefects and Taoists. Compared with the previous period, the power to appoint prefects and Taoists has been restricted, and the prefects of different cities can only act as acting members, and the charge d'affaires have no authority to dispose of affairs such as warehouses and grain, and can only be replaced after the arrival of the superintendents. This essentially abolished the power of delegation of prefects and governors, and left the power of state and county delegation to the governor.
During the Jiaqing period, the appointment of prefectures and counties was distinguished by the distinction between rotating committees and discretionary committees. The fifth year of Jiaqing stipulates that "after the probationary personnel arrive in the province, the governor and other governors have not been appointed, and the examination questions are really missing, and the governor's political envoys will be demoted to one level." "The governor and the political envoy were punished for failing to appoint probationary personnel, which shows that the governor and political envoy have the responsibility of delegating. The feudal department and the provincial government still cannot directly appoint the state and county officials, "if the provincial government does not supervise the governor and the governor without permission, and the commission is carried out without authorization, it shall be dealt with according to the routine of the unauthorized commission." Therefore, the power of delegation remained in the hands of the governor. During the Qing Dynasty, the right to select and appoint local ** was recognized.
In addition to the discretionary appointment of prefectures and counties** by the governor, a system of rotational appointments was implemented in local provinces during the Jiaqing period. After Daoguang, the local provinces further improved the rules and regulations on rotation, clearly stipulating the rules for appointment, including the identity, rotation order, quota, and shift of the appointed personnel, so as to standardize the appointment behavior. However, in the process of appointment, there were problems such as selecting people instead of vacancies, and frequently changing the place of office, which deteriorated the political ecology of the Qing Dynasty. In order to restrain the power of appointment of governors and ensure the development of local government affairs, the Qing court gave governors the power of appointment and set up certain restraint mechanisms.
Although there were many calls to stop the abuse of the power of appointment during the Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Yongzheng periods, there was a relative lack of relevant provisions to restrict the power of appointment of governors. After Qianlong, the Qing court strengthened its supervision over the appointment of governors through the reporting mechanism. Since then, all dynasties have required the governor to report the appointment to the ministry for review after the appointment, and the governor is the main body of the report, and the ministry has the responsibility to receive and review. The reporting mechanism is an important part of the selection and appointment system of the state and county, and it is also an important part of the appointment of the governor and the county. First of all, the Qing Dynasty had different regulations on the time of reporting after the appointment of the governor. During the Qianlong period, it was stipulated that the actual shortage of prefectures and counties needed to report the reasons for the transfer and the number of appointments on a quarterly basis.
The book of the last season will be in the next season. "It is stipulated that the governor shall report the appointment of state and county personnel to the ministry on time, and report it once a quarter. If there is any delay, the superintendent and the local ** will be dealt with as usual. The Qianlong Dynasty basically laid the tone for the reporting mechanism, and in order to limit the frequent change of jobs of personnel, the subsequent dynasties stipulated the time limit for appointment reporting, and stipulated that appointments should be specially reported. However, due to the frequent and difficult implementation of special reports, the restrictions have been relaxed, and the unified reporting is carried out once in March, and there has been a phenomenon of repeated changes between the appointment report and the quarterly report. Secondly, the content of the reports of the Qing Dynasty also varied.
In the 42nd year of Qianlong, it was stipulated that the state and county should not change jobs without reason, nor should they be changed frequently, and it was clearly stipulated that the content of the report included the reason for the replacement and the number of people. In addition, it is stipulated that the number of replacement personnel who are actually vacant in the report shall not exceed two-tenths of the total number. In the 49th year, the first place of origin was also taken as an important part of the report, and the superintendent needed to report it on a monthly basis. If the original address of ** is more than 500 miles away from the place of work, it is necessary to explain the situation and report to the ministry for verification. Since then, the dynasties have basically followed the regulations of the Qianlong Dynasty, and at the same time, the dynasties have enriched and improved them. The reporting system of the state and county party committees has been continuously improved by many dynasties.
The contents of the system mainly include information such as the reason for transfer, the number of officers, the total number of officers, the place of origin of the officers, the term of office of the officer, the number of shifts, the date of vacancy, and the background of the officer. The purpose of the report is to ensure that there will be no power vacuum in the local government when there is a shortage of personnel in the state and county, and to avoid the problems caused by the arbitrary transfer and commissioning of the governor, so as to maintain the local political ecology. This reporting mechanism became an important measure for the Qing court to restrain the behavior of the Governor's Commission, and it was a key link in the commission process. After Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, the scale of the state and county bureaus gradually expanded. Qing** understands and controls this group through the reporting mechanism of the state and county party committees.
Through the performance of the governors in various places, the Qing court was able to roughly understand the basic situation of the state and county administrators, lay the foundation for the management of the administrators, and facilitate the formulation of corresponding management regulations. The actual personnel acting, transferring and assisting miscellaneous officials are the main officials of the state and county offices. Although the previous dynasties have repeatedly restricted the policy of appointing the second official to the state and county, the miscellaneous officials still occupy a large proportion of the state and county ** office. In the early Qing Dynasty, there was a lot of confusion in the state and county government offices, and the restrictions on the origin of the state and county officials were not strict, and there were even cases where white people were appointed to serve as state and county officials. Subsequently, the dynasties issued several orders prohibiting the commissioning of the prefecture and county, and stipulated that the members of the prefecture and county should not abuse the commission of miscellaneous personnel to act in the prefecture and county.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the requirements for the appointment of state and county officials were relaxed. Miscellaneous officers may be appointed as state and county officers, but may not be transferred to other vacancies or change positions frequently without cause. If it is necessary to transfer miscellaneous personnel to the actual vacant state and county officer positions, they must be reported to the higher authorities on a quarterly basis. In addition, in addition to the incumbent, there is also a group of alternate candidates in the Qing Dynasty. In the case of ** acting, there are similarities between the alternates and candidates in terms of appointment and salary packages, and they are usually assigned to provincial agencies. Regardless of how it is divided, scholars have different views on the relationship between candidates and candidates.
Both of these types of personnel are candidates for no actual office as opposed to actual state and county officials. In the early Qing Dynasty, there were vacancies in the positions of state and county officials, and there was often a shortage in remote provinces. Therefore, during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, the system of distribution and commissioning was implemented, and people from distant areas were appointed to serve in provincial-level institutions, and then this system was gradually improved, and the scale of distribution personnel gradually expanded. In the early Qing Dynasty, when state and county officials resigned due to illness or their positions were vacant, they would usually be transferred or concurrently served as the actual vacant state and county officials, which had an adverse impact on social governance. As a result, alternates and candidates have become important candidates for state and county officials through the system of distributing commissions to local governors and commissions.