Tag: qing

Paper on kin networks of local officials in History of the Family

Shengbin Wei, Qin XUE and Cameron Campbell just published a paper on the kin networks of local officials in the History of the Family. Here is the link: https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2026.2659970

Along the way, it introduces a new dataset based on Tongguanlu rosters of serving officials that were compiled and distributed towards the end of the Qing. These rosters were notable because they are one of only a few sources that provide information about the kin of holders of Shengyuan (生員) degrees, as well as holders of purchased degrees. For Shengyuan, the only other systematic rosters of which we are are aware are Shengyuanlu (生員綠) that were compiled at the county or prefecture level. Jiang Qin at Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently published an analysis of Shengyuanlu from one county. Information about the kin of large numbers of degree holders should eventually be available from ongoing efforts to digitize large numbers of genealogies, but these may be several years from completion.

This is a revised version of a manuscript that the authors shared at SocArXiv. Please read and cite this published version instead.

Full citation:

Wei, S., Campbell, C., & Xue, Q. (2026). Kin networks of local officials in 19th and Early 20th century China. The History of the Family, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2026.2659970

Here is the abstract:

We introduce a new source for the study of the kin networks, qualifications, and careers of officials in China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: a dataset constructed from Tongguanlu rosters of officials that include their resumes, degree or other qualifications and rosters of their kin. In contrast with other sources that have been used to study the social origins of holders of high examination degrees including national Jinshi, provincial Juren and exam Gongsheng, Tongguanlu include holders of less prestigious purchased degrees and prefectural Shengyuan exam degrees who accounted for a large share of officials, especially local ones, in the nineteenth century. Information about kin includes not only the names and degrees held by patrilineal father, grandfather, and great-grandfather commonly recorded for national or provincial examination degree holders that have been studied previously, but detailed information about uncles, great-uncles, male cousins, sons, and nephews, and basic information about female kin including mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, daughters. We provide background on the Tongguanlu as a source, describe how we constructed the dataset, summarize its contents, and then present results on the posts, qualifications, and kin networks of local officials. We show that officials who held purchased degrees and low-level Shengyuan examination degrees were less likely than holders of higher degrees to have other kin who held degrees and that officials with regular and expectant appointments were more likely to have kin with degrees than officials with acting appointments.

Paper on age dynamics of Qing officials in 近代史研究

Shuaiqi Gao, Chong Li and Cameron Campbell published a paper on the age dynamics of the careers of 19th century Qing officials 清代文官的年龄动态研究（1830—1911）in one of the leading Chinese history journals, 近代史研究. Here’s the announcement of the issue at the journal’s Wechat account: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/pKT33blHGmKZglydDOgDiw

Full text at CNKI Overseas and CNKI China

Reference:

康文林 (Cameron Campbell), 高帅奇 (Gao Shuaiqi), 李翀 (Li Chong). 2026. 清代文官的年龄动态研究（1830—1911）(Research on the Age Dynamics of Qing Civil Officials, 1830-1911). 近代史研究 (Journal of Modern Chinese History). 2(March): 93-116.

Here is the abstract:

清代文官在功名获取、任命、履职以及离职时的年龄变化，揭示了官僚系统内部的运行状态。通过关联中国历史官员量化数据库——清代缙绅录和同年齿录数据库，获得1830—1911年16913名进士、举人及贡生的382983条官员年龄信息记录。样本数据涵盖从地方教育官员至中央高级官员的所有官员类别。定量分析结果显示，官员首次入仕、履职以及离职时的年龄分布，明显受到其功名及品级的影响，呈现高度的离散性，这也反映出许多中举士子候缺及晋升的时间较长。相较于进士，举人首次候缺的时间更长。清代官僚系统内部的动态变化可能导致官员仕途晋升的困难，官员在职死亡是引发官僚体系人员流动的重要因素之一。官员年龄的动态变化，揭示了太平天国运动后大量新官员开始涌入清政府官僚系统，高龄官员不适度的离职率对年轻官员任命和晋升产生较大影响。

The age dynamics of Qing Dynasty civil officials upon obtaining their academic titles, appointments, assumption of office, and departures yield new insights into the internal workings of the bureaucratic system. By linking the quantitative databases of Chinese historical officials—the Qing Dynasty Official Records and the Records of Age of the Same Year—382,983 records of age information for 16,913 Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), Juren (successful candidates in the provincial imperial examinations), and Gongsheng (tribute students) from 1830 to 1911 were obtained. The sample data covers all categories of officials, from local education officials to high-ranking central government officials. Results show that the age distribution of officials upon their first entry into officialdom, assumption of office, and departure is significantly influenced by their academic titles and ranks, exhibiting high dispersion. This also reflects the long waiting time for many Juren to be promoted. Compared to Jinshi, Juren had a longer initial waiting time. The dynamic changes within the Qing Dynasty bureaucratic system may have led to difficulties in career advancement for officials, and the death of officials in office was a significant factor in personnel turnover within the bureaucratic system. The changes in officials’ ages reveal that after the Taiping Rebellion, a large influx of new officials entered the Qing government’s bureaucratic system, and the low turnover rate of older officials significantly impacted the appointment and promotion of younger officials.

New paper on the organizational demography of Qing officialdom in 社會科學研究

A paper by Cameron Campbell and Shuaiqi GAO on the organizational demography of Qing officialdom has been published in 社會科學研究. You can read it in its entirety in a post at the journal’s official account. You can download the PDF at the entry for the paper at the journal’s website. The English version is available at Soc ArXiv.

The article was one of seven journal articles selected for inclusion in the History (历史) category in April 2024《中国社会科学文摘》(China Social Science Digest). https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/WYe_MogUK_DA2EfPHe2FqA

Abstract

中国历史官员量化数据库——（清）缙绅录（CGED?Q JSL）中文官的纵向关联记录揭示了19世纪清代文官整体的职业动态。定量分析的结果表明，清代官僚系统的总体情况就像一个当代的大型组织，文官离职率在任职的第一年内很高，然后下降，之后趋于稳定。19世纪下半叶，官员的离职率整体下降，但于清末十年中上升。官员离职率下降导致拥有功名的候缺待补官员群体谋求仕途和进一步晋升的机会不断减少。同时，异途官员的人数不断增加，加剧了官场竞争。不同类别、品级官员的职业动态在不同历史时期的变化趋势差异较大，尤其是高品级官员的离职率对清代后期的官场平衡具有深刻影响。清代文官的职业动态一方面揭示了清代文官组织人口学的基本特征，另一方面也为解释清代特定官员群体或特定时期的官员个案研究提供了重要参考。

We study the organizational demography of the Qing civil service from 1830 to 1911. Before the 20th century, the Qing bureaucracy was one of the largest non-military organizations in the world in terms of numbers of regular employees. At any given time, approximately 13,000 officials held formal appointments. We present the basic features of its organizational demography using data on nearly all civil officials with formal appointments from 1830 to 1912. We make use of longitudinally linked records of officials in the China Government Employee Database – Jinshenlu (CGED-Q JSL) to reconstruct rates of exit from service, the career lengths of officials, and the number of years since first appointment for currently serving officials. While previous studies of the Qing have examined turnover in specific types of posts, they have not considered the dynamics of complete careers. We find that exit rates in the first year of service were high and then low and stable afterward. While most officials only served for a short time, currently serving officials were relatively experienced. We also show that rates of exit from service declined for much of the last half of the 19th century, and then increased in the first decade of the 20th century. Declining turnover in the last half of the 19th century would have reduced opportunities for degree holders seeking posts and for officials seeking promotion at a time when the number of holders of purchased degrees competing for posts was increasing. We also compare different categories of officials. The results not only illuminate basic features of the organizational demography of Qing officialdom, but also provide a baseline for interpreting results from case studies of specific groups of officials or specific time periods.

Here is the full reference:

康文林 (Cameron Campbell) and 高帅奇(Gao Shuaiqi). 2024. 清代文官的组织人口学研究, 1830-1911 (The Organizational Demography of the Qing Civil Service, 1830-1911). 社会科学研究 (Social Science Research). 1:157-169.