§ 1 (part 1 of 3). In place of a conclusion, it seemed good to add what Father Nicolas Trigault, the instructor of the Chinese, writes from the commentaries and experience of Father Matteo Ricci concerning their state, laws, and Magistrates; for there are many things which may be of use to Princes. They are found in book 1, chapter 6, of On the Christian Expedition to China.
I shall touch upon no more concerning this subject than I shall judge altogether necessary for the purpose of this Commentary. For if I intended to pursue it according to its dignity, the entire matter could be contained only in very many chapters, or even books. First, therefore, throughout the whole course of time only that government has been approved in this kingdom for administering the state which sustains monarchic majesty in the rule of one man. Among the Chinese even the name of Aristocracy, Democracy, or any other Polycracy whatever is unheard. Formerly, indeed, under one Monarch there were no fewer titles of inferiors than there are among us of Dukes, Marquises, Counts, and the other men of this kind. But for nearly one thousand eight hundred years these titles and the power of particular Lords have been altogether abolished.
Yet although civil tumults and wars have by no means been absent in any period—whether before this system was changed or after it was changed—and although this Empire also was divided into various lesser Kingdoms, as we have heard is now the case in the Japanese Islands, nevertheless it is never read to have been entirely subdued by foreign peoples before the year of our Salvation 1206. At that time some Duke or other from Tartary, a conqueror of Kingdoms, cast himself into this Kingdom with a victorious army.
Some of our countrymen judge, and in my opinion by no slight conjectures, that this Duke was Tamerlane or one of his successors. For the Chinese call him Tiemor and write that, after first subduing Persia and Tartary, he directed his mind toward adding China to his possessions. Whoever he was, I shall call him a Tartar. Having sent in an army, he shortly subjected all China to himself, and his descendants extended the Tyranny received over so great a Kingdom down to the year 1368. At that time, when the strength of the Tartar Empire had already begun to fail and the Chinese no longer endured a foreign government and a Barbarian disposition, they cast off the yoke in various Provinces under different Dukes.
The man who, through affairs splendidly conducted either by courage or by cunning, surpassed the other Dukes was one of the family Ciu, whom the Chinese afterward called Ham Vu—that is, the Distinguished Duke, or rather the Deluge of Arms.
Having enticed to himself the auxiliary forces of certain other vigorous Dukes, he shortly grew in strength from a common soldier to such a degree that he not only drove out the Tartars, their King, and their Dukes, stripped of their rule, but with no less good fortune also overcame the remaining rebels throughout the entire kingdom and alone occupied the Chinese Empire. His descendants too have most prosperously extended it even to this day. Hence they bestowed upon their Monarchy the name Tamin, of Great Splendor, as I said above.
The Chinese Empire descends from a parent to his sons or to royal kinsmen according to our custom. Only two or three of the most ancient Kings, when about to die, entrusted the kingdom not to sons whom they judged unfit to rule but to others, although they possessed no bond of blood with them. It has also happened more than once that a man who ruled too violently was stripped of the fasces by a people impatient of the yoke, and that in his place they substituted the man who excelled in strength, courage, and the favor of the people, and thereafter revered him as lawful King. But this deserves to be placed among the praises of the Chinese: that very many prefer to choose an honorable death rather than swear allegiance to an intruding Prince. Indeed, there is a celebrated saying among the Chinese Philosophers: “A chaste matron knows not two Husbands, nor a faithful client two Lords.”
In this Empire there are no ancient laws, such as the laws of the Twelve Tables and of Caesarean law among us, by which the state is perpetually governed. Rather, the first man of any family who takes the Kingdom establishes new laws according to his judgment. His descendants of the same family are compelled to observe them and are not readily permitted to change them. Therefore the laws observed today by the Chinese are no older than Ham Vu. He either accepted all of them from the ancients or confirmed them, setting before himself this principal goal: by what method he might preserve peace for the kingdom and extend rule for himself and his descendants as long as possible.
Because the boundaries of this Kingdom extend so far and wide, and because of their ignorance of the world beyond the seas, the Chinese judge that their King rules the entire world. Therefore they call him by the splendid name Thichcu, Son of Heaven, and they name him thus today, as they always did formerly. Because they worship Heaven as the supreme divinity, to name him Son of Heaven is the same as to name him Son of God. Yet he is commonly called not by this name but Hoam, that is, Supreme Emperor or Monarch. Other Kings, however, are called Guam by the Chinese, with a far inferior title.
That Ham Vu whom I mentioned is reported to have been remarkable not only for military courage but also for intelligence and practical wisdom. This is demonstrated by the many statutes and laws through which he stabilized the Chinese state. I shall select certain of the more notable among them, always mindful of my proposed brevity. The sequence of their annals establishes that all royal families lost the Empire through the factions of royal kinsmen or of the chief men of the kingdom, because they governed a great part of the reins of the kingdom. He therefore established that henceforth no one of royal blood should touch a public office, whether it were civil or military. To those Dukes by whose aid he had liberated the kingdom from the Tyranny of the Tartars, and to their descendants, he assigned military Prefectures by hereditary right. But lest the royal race, rejected from every public office, should conduct itself too violently, he distinguished the sons of Kings by the title Guam, that is, by the appellation of Petty Kings, and assigned them very ample annual incomes. Yet he placed these not in estates and lands, lest they acquire clients, but in an annual stipend which was paid by the Magistrates from the royal treasury. He also wished all the Magistrates to revere them as Petty Kings, but no one to be subject to them. Thereafter he honored the sons and grandsons of the Petty Kings with various titles in such a manner that these titles gradually diminished, together with the annual income, according as they descended farther from the Royal Stock through the degrees of generations. But when they reached certain generations, no more was furnished to them from the public treasury than was sufficient for maintaining life conveniently without any handicraft or trade. He also provided that girls of royal blood be married according to their dignity and proximity to the Royal Stock, and that they be endowed in the same manner with more or less splendid titles and with an excellent income.
To the allied Dukes and liberators of the kingdom he most liberally imparted annual incomes and most splendid titles of honors; he also granted military Prefectures and other immunities. But they are subject to the Civil Magistrates in almost the same manner as the rest. Among these immunities there is one for their firstborn which is unheard of among our people. Upon an iron tablet in the likeness of a dish are seen engraved those illustrious deeds which the head of the family accomplished under King Ham Vu for the liberation of the kingdom. In consideration of these deeds, he will obtain impunity even a third time for any offense, including one punishable by death, if he offers that tablet to the King. When he has seen it, each time the King grants pardon he orders a certain mark to be engraved upon it, from which it may be understood how many times that tablet has obtained pardon. This must, however, be understood with treason excepted; for those convicted of it, both they themselves and their entire posterity, are immediately and perpetually stripped of every dignity. The royal sons-in-law and fathers-in-law possess honors and incomes of this kind, with the diminution over time of which I have spoken, as do certain others who are found to have deserved well of the Chinese state, region, or condition through some remarkable deed.
For governing the state and the helm of the entire kingdom, only Doctors and Licentiates proclaimed in the examinations are admitted. For this purpose they require the favor neither of the Magistrates nor even of the King himself; for all offices of the state depend upon each man’s proven knowledge, virtue, prudence, and practical wisdom, whether they are now beginning to administer for the first time or have already administered other Magistracies. This is what the laws of Ham Vu prescribe, and for the most part they are observed, except insofar as human wickedness among Heathens who are by no means religious sins daily against rights and laws.
All Magistrates, whether they belong to the philosophical or the military Senate, are called Quonfu in the Chinese language—one might say Governors. But by way of honor rather than of office they are called Lauye or Lausie. This signifies Lord and Parent. The Portuguese call those Magistrates Mandarins, perhaps from “commanding”; by this name Chinese Magistrates are now understood even among Europeans.
Although I said at the beginning that the manner of administering this Kingdom is Monarchic, nevertheless it is easily established from what has been said, and will be established from what is to be said, that no small measure of the Aristocratic is mixed with it. For although everything established by the Magistrates must be confirmed by the King through petitions given to him, he nevertheless decrees nothing in any matter before he is first solicited or prompted by the Magistrates. But if
a private person offers a petition to the King—which few do, because all petitions must first be examined and approved by a particular Magistrate before they are transmitted to the King—if the King presents himself as willing at the first granting, he generally subscribes thus: “Let the tribunal whose concern it is examine this petition and advise me what appears ought to be done.” This must be held altogether beyond doubt, as I have diligently investigated it: the King himself is absolutely not permitted to bestow upon anyone a gift of money, to confer a Magistracy, or to increase one, unless he has been asked by one of the Magistrates. Yet this is not to be understood as though the King by private authority could not bestow gifts upon those who dwell within the boundaries of the Palace. For he does this frequently from ancient custom and, as it were, by a law by which each man is permitted to honor his friends from his domestic expenditure; but this is by no means reckoned among public benefactions. Indeed, these gifts of the King are made not from public but from private income.
The revenues from duties and tributes—which without doubt exceed one hundred and fifty millions, as the common people call them, each year—are not brought into the treasury of the Palace, nor is the King permitted to expend them according to his own judgment. Rather, all things, whether silver, the coinage of the nation, or rice, its provision, are amassed throughout the whole Kingdom in public treasuries and granaries. From these are furnished the expenses of the King, his consorts and children, as well as of the Royal Kinsmen, Eunuchs, and the entire Royal household, always with Royal splendor and abundance, yet nothing more or less than is prescribed by the laws. From them are paid the stipends of Magistrates and Soldiers and of the other curial ministers throughout the whole Kingdom. This sum is greater than our people can persuade themselves. From them also are restored public buildings, the Palace of the King and those of the Royal Kinsmen, the walls of Cities, the defenses of citadels, and, finally, every apparatus of war; in so great an extent of the Kingdom there is never a lack of something to erect or restore. And, what appears more incredible, in some years it is customary to happen that not even so immense a sum of revenues equals the expenditure, but it becomes necessary to impose new tributes also.
But let us descend individually to the orders of Magistrates, of which I find that there are two kinds in all. The one consists of those who not only hold Court Magistracies in the Royal City but from it, as from a watchtower, direct the whole Kingdom. The other consists of Provincial Magistrates, who govern individual Provinces or cities. Five or six volumes of suitable size concerning each order are available for sale throughout the whole Kingdom, and in the Royal City of Peking they are reprinted twice in each month, something very easy because of their method of printing. Nothing else is read in these volumes except the names, native country, and rank of those who at that time hold Magistracies throughout the Kingdom. It is altogether necessary that they be reprinted so often; for in so great a multitude there are daily changes. Some die, some are deprived of office, some are demoted to lower offices, and finally the parents of others meet their appointed day. From this last event it comes about that, after immediately resigning any Magistracy whatever, they necessarily return home for three years of mourning, concerning which below in its own place. To fill the places of those who are absent, very many men are always awaiting fortune in the Royal City of Peking. From this great multitude I shall touch only upon those Magistracies which I judge necessary for understanding the books that follow. I shall, moreover, envelop the entire Military Senate in silence, lest I exceed the prescribed limits of my proposed brevity.
I shall speak first about Court Offices, then about Provincial Offices. Six primary tribunals are numbered among the Court Offices. They call the first Li Pu, for Pu among the Chinese is the same as a tribunal. Li Pu is the Tribunal of Magistrates. It rises above the other tribunals because it belongs to it to nominate absolutely all the Magistrates of the Philosophical order throughout the whole Kingdom, who are held to be the more eminent. This first nomination is determined by excellence in writing, judgment concerning which belongs to this tribunal. Beginning from the humbler offices, every one of them gradually ascends through the grades of honors prescribed by the laws, provided that they have given evidence of virtue and justice in the lower offices. If they have acted contrary to these, they are either cast down to humbler Magistracies or deprived altogether. For it is certain that the man who has obtained a literary degree aspires, in a continual ascent even to old age, to all the highest offices; nor is he ever rejected from governing the state except through his own fault. But if it happens that he is altogether rejected through fault, together with the Magistracy he also lays aside the hope of returning to govern the state.
They call the second tribunal Ho Pu, which among us is named the Treasury or Quaestorship. It belongs to this tribunal to exact the royal revenues, pay the stipends, make public expenditures, and conduct other things of this kind.
They call the third Ly Pu; we may call it the Tribunal of Rites. It has charge that public sacrifices, temples and their priests, Royal marriages, literary games, and examinations be conducted duly and in order; it has charge of public feast-days, common congratulations to be exhibited to the King at fixed times and events, titles to be conferred upon those who have deserved well, Physicians, Colleges of Mathematicians, Embassies to be received and dismissed, their rites, gifts, and letters. For the King judges it unworthy of his majesty to write a letter to anyone by himself, whether within or beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom.
They call the fourth tribunal Pim Pu, that is, the Military Tribunal. All military Prefectures are subject to it; for they are both taken away from the slothful and conferred upon the vigorous, and an increase of dignity is given by it according to the greatness of deeds. It also belongs to this tribunal to oversee examinations in military affairs and confer grades.
They call the fifth Cum Pu; we may call it the Tribunal of Public Buildings. Its duty is to draw plans for structures of this kind: namely, the Palaces of the King, the Royal Kinsmen, or the Magistrates. It also sees that ships are constructed which are necessary for public uses or fleets; it likewise makes and repairs bridges and the walls of Cities; and, finally, has charge of every other apparatus.
The sixth, which from the exacting of punishments for crimes they call Him Pu, investigates and judges crimes. The public Prisons throughout the entire Kingdom are also subject to this tribunal.
All the business of the entire kingdom depends upon these tribunals. Therefore they possess Magistrates and Notaries subject to them in every Province and City, by whom they are informed of individual matters with great fidelity. Thus they are burdened not a little by so great a mass of business; but the multitude and the order of those Colleges render this burden lighter. For first there is one President of the whole tribunal—
§ 1 (continued, part 2 of 3).
whom they call Ciam Ciu. He has two Assessors, one on the right and the other on the left; these are called Cilam. The dignity of these three is numbered among the highest in the Royal City and throughout the entire kingdom. Beneath them each tribunal is divided into its various offices, over each of which several Colleagues preside. To these are added Notaries, Curials, Apparitors, and many other servants.
Besides these tribunals, there is another which is the greatest in the entire kingdom and Court; they call its members the Colaos. There are generally three or four of them, sometimes six. They have nothing in particular entrusted to them, but watch over the entire state and in every business are the King’s Privy Councillors. They are admitted daily into the Royal Palace. Since the King today is not present for the public determination of the affairs of the kingdom—which formerly he himself determined together with these Colaos—they remain in the Palace throughout the whole day and answer according to their judgment the petitions sent daily to the King in great number. With this answer they return to the King, by whom the answers are approved, annulled, or changed according to his pleasure. The King writes this final answer upon the petitions with his own hand, so that thereafter what he has commanded may be put into execution.
Besides these orders of Magistrates which I have mentioned, and many others which it is not permitted to touch upon because they scarcely differ from those of our people, there are two other orders almost unheard of among us.
The former is called Choli, the latter Zauli. In each order more than sixty are numbered, all selected Philosophers—men of courage and prudence—who have previously proved their fidelity splendidly to the King and kingdom. These two orders are employed out of the ordinary by the King, among both Court and Provincial officials, upon matters of great importance, always with great and Royal power, which wins reverence and authority for them. But before all others their peculiar duty is such as that of the Syndics among us.
It consists in this: that by petitions, whenever they wish, they admonish the King if anywhere in the whole Kingdom an offense is committed against the laws. In this matter not only do they by no means spare Magistrates, even if these are the highest, but they do not dissemble even with the King himself or the royal house. This office would appear to me not to differ much from that of the Lacedaemonian Ephors if these Monitors could do anything more than speak, or rather write, and if they were not compelled to depend upon the decision of the admonished King. Yet they discharge this duty of theirs so exactly that they can be a wonder and example to foreign nations. For at no time do they spare any Magistrates whatever—indeed, not even the King himself, so great is their liberty and integrity. And although it happens not rarely that the King is offended and even rages fiercely against them—for generally they fasten the sting of their petitions where the sense of pain is sharper, censuring the vices of the highest Magistrates and of the King without distinction—they nevertheless never cease admonishing and censuring so long as no suitable remedy is applied to the common evil.
The same is also permitted by the laws to the remaining Magistrates, and not only to the Magistrates but even to any private person among them. Yet the petitions of those whom I mentioned above are valued more highly because they perform this as their special office. Copies of the petitions transmitted to the King and of the Royal answers are printed by many persons. Hence it comes about that the affairs of the Court travel very swiftly through every corner of the kingdom. Nor are there lacking men who then bind these petitions into books; and if anything worthy of the memory of posterity is furnished, they write it in the annals of the kingdom.
A few years ago, when the King who now rules wished to inaugurate as Prince the son second by birth but most beloved by himself and the Queen, to the exclusion of the firstborn and contrary to the laws, so great a number of petitions was written in which the King’s action was censured that the King, incited to fury, either deprived more than one hundred men of their offices or consigned them to humbler ones. Yet, not terrified by this fear, they did not restrain themselves. On a certain day all the Magistrates who were then present, conspiring as one, betook themselves to the Royal Palace. Laying down the insignia of their offices, they sent a man to admonish the King that, if he persisted in this matter against the laws, they would henceforth resign every Magistracy and return home as private persons; the King himself might entrust his kingdom to whomsoever he wished. Upon hearing this, the King abstained from the matter, although unwillingly.
Recently also, when the greatest of the Colaos was discharging his office less lawfully, he was accused within two months in nearly one hundred petitions by these Royal Monitors, although they were not ignorant that he was one of the few especially favored by the King. Not long afterward he died, indeed, as report has it, from the magnitude of his grief.
Besides these Magistrates at Court, there are also in the same place not a few Colleges established for various ends; but the noblest of all is that which is called Han Lin Yuen. None except selected Doctors is admitted to it after the examinations described above.
Those who dwell in that Royal College touch absolutely no public duty, yet surpass in dignity those who govern the state. Hence men aspire to that College with great zeal. Their duty is to compose royal writings, arrange the annals of the kingdom, and write laws and statutes. From these men are chosen the Teachers of Kings and Princes.
They apply themselves wholly to their studies and possess within the College itself their own grades of honors, which they attain by writing. From there they are admitted to the gravest dignities, yet not outside the Court. No one is chosen to the most weighty office of Colao unless he comes from this College. They also make great profit from writings composed in favor of friends; of this kind are epitaphs, inscriptions, and similar things, which all eagerly strive to obtain from them and which are held to be most elegant merely for this reason: because they proceed from them.
Finally, they are Presidents and Judges in the examinations of Licentiates and Doctors, by whom they are held as Masters and presented with gifts.
All these Magistrates of the Peking Court, with the exception of the Colaos, are also found at Nanking, but they are altogether inferior because of the King’s absence. They write that the following was the cause of this circumstance. Ham Vu had established the seat of the Kingdom at Nanking. When he died, one of his grandsons, called Yunlo, who in the Northern Provinces guarded the boundaries of the Kingdom against the Tartars who had recently been driven out, with an army and with the dignity of a Petty King—this man, I say, when he perceived that Ham Vu’s firstborn, the heir of the kingdom, possessed little industry and vigor, determined to wrest the Kingdom from him and acquire it for himself. Therefore, when he had easily joined the Northern Provinces to himself, he came to Nanking with an army and partly by force, partly by cunning and largesses, joined the remaining Provinces to himself; and he drove his uncle from Nanking. Having done this, he subjected the entire Kingdom to himself without anyone resisting. Because he possessed greater strength and fidelity in the Northern Provinces, and because it was credible that the Tartars would burst forth from there to recover their tyranny over the Kingdom, he determined to settle in those parts, and indeed
in that City in which the Tartar Kings had dwelt when they ruled the Chinese. He himself named that city Peking, that is, the Northern Court, in imitation of the Southern Court, which is called Nanking. So that the people of Nanking might bear that change more moderately, he left them the same Magistrates and immunities which they had formerly enjoyed.
I come now to public administration in the Provinces. The Cities which have been attributed to the Court Provinces of Peking and Nanking are governed in the same order as the other Cities of the remaining Provinces; yet appeals are directed to each one’s own Court. But the government of the thirteen Provinces depends upon one Magistracy which they call Pucinsu, and upon another which they call Naganzasu. The former judges civil causes, the latter crimes. Their seat is in the Metropolis of the Province, with the greatest apparatus. In each tribunal there are various Colleagues and themselves also chief Magistrates, who are called Tauli. It frequently happens that these men dwell outside the Metropolis, because they preside over several cities and it befits them not to be far distant from the duty entrusted to them.
All the Provinces, as I said above, are distributed into various Regions, which they call Fu. Each Region has its own Governor, whom they call Cifu.
The Regions are again subdivided into Ceu and Hien, as though one were to say more noble and ordinary towns; nor are these smaller than the cities of our people which are not among the largest. Each has its own Prefect: the former they call Ciceu, the latter Cihien; for Ci among the Chinese signifies to govern. These Prefects of all the cities and regions have their own Colleagues and, as it were, Assessors, four in number, who, as Auditors and Judges, assist them in taking cognizance of the causes of their jurisdiction.
But here I judge that an error which has crept into certain writers must be briefly noted and refuted. For because the Governor and his court receive their name from the name of the city in which they reside—for example, in the city Nanciam, the entire Region, its Governor, and court are called by the same name, Nanciam Fu—some have therefore judged that among the Chinese only these are Cities which are called Fu, while the remaining Ceu and Hien are held to be towns or villages. That this is altogether most false is gathered not only from the size and populousness of the places but even from the very manner of public administration. For that very city in which the Prefect of the whole region resides also receives the name Hien and possesses its own Governor, whom they call Cihien, and likewise its own Colleagues and Assessors, after the likeness of the others. The Prefect of the Region himself possesses no more authority in this, his own seat, than in the other places attributed to his jurisdiction. His right consists in the first appeal to him, when causes judged by the Ciceu and Cihien are referred to him as superior in the first appeal. The second appeal—and that only in more serious causes—is referred, according to the nature of the cause, to the highest Magistrates of the Metropolis, the Pucimsu and Naganzasu, and their Colleagues. Indeed, the Metropolises themselves also possess their own Cifu and Cihien, no less than the Regions subordinated to them. Among all the Magistrates, however, there is an incredible symmetry of a well-ordered state.
Because all administration of the state in the Provinces must be reported to the Royal City of Peking, in every Province, besides these Magistrates, there are two others superior to those mentioned, sent from the Royal City. One of them establishes his seat in the Province and is called Tutam. The other is sent every year from the Royal City and is named Cia Yuen. The authority of the former, because it is great over all the Magistrates and subjects, because he presides over military affairs, and because he touches the primary offices of the state, appears able to be compared with our Viceroys. The dignity of the latter is, as it were, that of Commissioner and Visitor. Yet because, by the King’s command, he reviews the causes of the entire Province, visits the Cities and Citadels, investigates all the Magistrates, even punishes certain men who are not among the greatest and reduces them to order, and advises the King concerning the manner in which each man discharges his office; and because he alone among all Magistrates in the Provinces executes capital punishments, all therefore rightly revere and fear him.
Besides these Magistrates, there are also many others who exercise various duties in cities and even in villages and towns. Besides these, many Prefects and Dukes of soldiers stand watch throughout the whole Kingdom, but especially everywhere in maritime and neighboring places, before walls, gates, bridges, and citadels, as though all things were ablaze with war, although the deepest peace exists everywhere. For they also possess their own levies, inspections of soldiers, and exercises conducted almost daily.
Absolutely all the Magistrates of the entire Kingdom are reduced to nine orders, whether one looks to the Philosophical or to the Military Senate. According to the arrangement of these orders, a stipend either of money or of rice is paid each month to each from the public treasury. In truth it is small amid so great a majesty of Magistrates; for the stipend of no one, even if he is of the highest order, grows to one thousand gold pieces in any year. In this stipend all who are reckoned in the same order are plainly equal, whether they are Philosophical or Military; for in military affairs the highest order receives a stipend equal to that of the highest literary order. I wish this to be understood of the income established by the laws for each order; for that which is acquired beyond the ordinary by gains is far greater than that which is paid as stipend. I say nothing of the other things which each man’s own industry, cupidity, fortune, and largesse produce for him in accordance with his dignity, for by these means they commonly attain great wealth.
All Magistrates also, whether Philosophical or Military, the lowest equally with the highest, are distinguished by the same cap. It is made of black gauze and has on either side two forms like wings, approximately above the ears, of oval shape. These adhere to the cap in such a way that they nevertheless fall off easily. They say that in this manner they are compelled to walk modestly and uprightly and are prevented from bending the head even slightly; for if they do so, they violate the majesty of Magistrates. The clothing is also the same for all; so are the boots, which possess a peculiar shape and material, being made of elegant black leather. An insignia of all Magistrates is also a certain belt encircling the body itself and approximately four fingers wide; it is adorned with remarkable workmanship, partly with circular figures, partly with squares. Upon the breast and the back they also sew two square pieces of cloth elegantly woven with embroidered work. But in these squares or belts there is great variety, and according to the variety, majesty.
For from these an expert immediately understands from which—
§ 1 (continued, part 3 of 3).
Senate they belong, whether Philosophical or Military, and what dignity each holds in it. For upon those cloths are seen figures of quadrupeds, birds, and even flowers fashioned in tapestry work. Those Senatorial belts indicate majesty by the dignity of their material: some are made from a turned wooden stock, others from horn, some from unicorn horn or from Calamba, a particularly fragrant wood, and some from silver or gold. But the noblest of all are made from a certain translucent stone to which we have given the name Jasper, although it is certainly not Jasper and is perhaps more similar to Sapphire-like marble. They themselves call it Yuce. It is imported by Saracen merchants from the west, from the Kingdom of Cascar, and is held in especially high value by the Chinese. But there will be some place below for speaking about it.
Magistrates are also distinguished among the Chinese by umbrellas spread out to ward off the Sun, beneath which they customarily go forth in public. Some possess blue ones, others yellow; for some two are carried in procession, for others three, while others are permitted to use only one. They are also distinguished by the apparatus with which they go forth in public. For all the lowest ride on horseback; the greatest are borne upon the shoulders of bearers in a carrying-chair. But majesty is also found in the number of bearers: some are permitted to use only four, while others may employ eight.
There are also very many other ornaments of dignity and insignia of Magistrates: standards, chains, censers, and a numerous escort, by whose shouts the crowd is driven from the streets. So great is the reverence for them that no one appears even in the most crowded streets, but all withdraw at these cries; and this is practiced to a greater or lesser degree according to the dignity of the Magistrates.
Before I close this chapter on the administration of the Chinese state, I shall appear to perform a useful task if I recount individually certain matters in which the Chinese differ from Europeans. First, the following may appear remarkable. Although this Kingdom abounds in the extent of its borders, the multitude of its people, the abundance of provisions, and every material from which ships and all other instruments of war are fashioned—by means of which resources they might easily add at least the neighboring kingdoms to themselves—nevertheless neither the King nor the subjects labor for this, nor does it come into their mind. Content with their own possessions, they do not even covet those of others. In this matter they appear to me to differ as widely as possible from the European nations, which we often see driven from their own kingdoms while aspiring to those of others, which devour everything through an insatiable lust for ruling and do not know how to preserve the things received from their ancestors, as the Chinese have been able to do for many thousands of years.
Hence I myself judge to be very like a fiction that which not a few of our Writers recount concerning the Chinese: that at the beginning of their Empire they subjected to themselves not only the neighboring Kingdoms but even advanced as far as India. For although I have most diligently unrolled the annals of the Chinese from four thousand years ago down to the present time, I find not even a trace of so great a matter, nor do I ever hear them boasting of this extent of empire. Indeed, when I have often inquired about this very matter from certain learned men, they all agree that it never happened and could not have happened.
This error of the writers—to preserve their authority—could have crept in from the fact that certain traces of the Chinese nation are found in foreign places, to which it is credible that they sailed by their own will, not by the authority of the King, as may be seen today in the Philippine Islands.
Another matter also most worthy of notice is that the entire Kingdom, as I said above, is administered by its Philosophers, and that both unmixed and mixed command are found in them. All the soldiers and Commanders venerate these men with great humility of spirit and a singular rite, and are subject to them. It happens not rarely that soldiers are beaten by them no differently than boys among us are beaten by a Schoolmaster. These Philosophers also govern all matters which pertain to war, in which they take part and over which they preside; and their counsels and judgments possess more authority with the King than those of the other Prefects of military affairs, only a few of whom it is customary to admit, and then rarely, to deliberations about war. Hence it comes about that no one among those who nourish lofty spirits applies his mind to military affairs, and that he aspires rather to the lowest dignities of the Philosophical Senate than to the greatest Magistracies in military affairs. For they see that the Philosophers precede by a long interval in profit, in men’s estimation, and in reverence. But what will appear more remarkable to foreigners in this matter is that those Philosophers undoubtedly bear away the palm from those who profess military affairs by their own institution in nobility of spirit, fidelity toward the King and state, and contempt of dangers and death in the cause of the fatherland. This perhaps takes its origin from the fact that the human spirit is ennobled by literary studies, or because from the very beginnings of this kingdom the gentler letters have always been valued more highly than the military profession among a nation by no means desirous of extending its empire.
No less remarkable is the symmetry among superior and inferior Magistrates, whether between Provincial and Court Magistrates or between the latter and the King himself. They profess this not only by their exact zeal in obeying but also by external observance. For they never omit the visits introduced by custom at fixed times or the duties of presenting gifts. Inferiors also scarcely speak to superiors, whether before the tribunal or elsewhere, except with bent knee, and address them with honorific words. Subjects of the cities render the same service to Prefects and Governors, although it is established that, before attaining the rank of literary office and entering Magistracies, they were born from the lowest plebs.
No one holds any dignity beyond three years unless he is confirmed anew by the King; but he is generally raised to a greater one, though not in the same place. This is done lest anyone readily contract friendships and be turned away from the rigor of justice, or gain the affections of some Province too greatly—especially if he has held the highest dignities—and, relying upon its favor, attempt revolution, something they recount to have happened in preceding centuries. The principal heads of the Provinces, Regions, and Cities whom I named above—the Pucinsu, Naganzasu, Cifu, Ciceu, Cihien, and similar Magistrates—must also, every third year, all present themselves together in the Royal City of Peking and render to the King the customary duties of clientship. At that very time an inquiry is made concerning the Magistrates dispersed throughout the Kingdom among the Provinces, whether they are those compelled to be present or the others; and this is conducted with the utmost rigor. From this examination it is then determined who are to be retained in the state, who removed, who raised, who cast down, and who even punished, without any regard paid to persons. I too have observed that not even the King himself dares to change anything among those matters which have been established in this public investigation by the appointed Judges. Those who are punished, moreover, are neither the lowest nor few. Indeed, in the year of our Salvation 1607, in which
an investigation of this kind occurred, we read that four thousand Magistrates were condemned. For the series of them is collected into one volume which, when printed, is published throughout the whole Kingdom.
Those condemned are divided into five classes. The first contains the covetous, who sold justice for gifts and appropriated to themselves anything from public income or the fortunes of private persons. These are excluded from offices and are stripped perpetually of all insignia and immunities of Magistrates. Into the second class are cast those who exacted punishments too cruelly from the accused. These too, stripped of their dignities and of their insignia or privileges, are sent home as private persons. The third class numbers older and infirm men, as well as those too remiss in exacting punishments or performing their office. These, although private persons, are permitted the use of insignia and immunities throughout their entire life. In the fourth class are reckoned those who are precipitous and insufficiently considered in rendering judgments, and those who lacked reason and counsel in the administration of public offices. These are assigned to humbler duties or sent to those places where the administration of the state is judged easier. The final class comprises those who govern themselves, their dependents, and their entire household with too little caution and lead a manner of life unworthy of a Magistrate. These are deprived perpetually both of offices and of immunities.
The same inquiry is also instituted concerning Court Magistrates, but only every fifth year. This system is observed with the Prefects of military affairs at the same time and in the same order, and with no dissimilar severity.
No one in the entire Kingdom holds a Magistracy in the Province in which he was born, unless it is a military Prefecture. This is done so that the former, who administer justice, do not yield to blood and friendship, but so that the latter, incited by love of their fatherland, guard it more bravely. While a Lord holds a Magistracy, none of his sons or domestic servants goes out of the house, lest he procure gifts; rather, every external service is furnished by servants publicly assigned to the Magistrate. When the Magistrate himself goes out of the house, he secures with a seal the doors, whether private doors or public ones in which judgments are exercised, lest a way out be open to any of his household without his knowledge.
They also permit no foreigner to live within the boundaries of the Kingdom who contemplates a return to his fatherland or who is understood to possess any intercourse with foreign kingdoms. Indeed, they permit absolutely no foreigner to enter the interior of the Kingdom. Although I have seen no law by which this is forbidden, I nevertheless perceive that this custom crept in over many centuries through a certain fear or horror of foreign nations. I wish this to be understood not only of those foreigners whom long distances of land or sea have rendered unknown to the Chinese, or of those with whom they exercise hostilities, but even of friends and tributaries of their Kingdom, such as the neighboring Koreans, who generally employ the laws of the Chinese. Until now I have seen no such person in the Kingdom except certain slaves whom some Commander or other had led from there with him after he had resided for several years in that kingdom. Moreover, if a foreigner has secretly penetrated the Chinese Kingdom, they punish him neither with servitude nor death; but they forbid him to return to his fatherland, lest perchance among his own people he attempt revolutions to the destruction of the Chinese Kingdom. Hence they punish with the severest penalties those who have any intercourse with foreigners without the will of the King. And if necessity demands that someone be sent with mandates beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom, there is scarcely anyone who can be induced to go. His entire household laments a man setting out as though he were being dragged to death; but when he returns, the Magistrate rewards him with some office of dignity.
No one bears arms in the cities—not even the soldiers, Commanders, or Prefects of military affairs, nor even the learned—except when they go forth to their levies, exercises, or battles. Some of the nobler Magistrates are nevertheless accompanied by armed men. Nor does anyone possess arms in his own house, except perhaps some rusty dagger which they sometimes use on journeys against brigandage. To such a degree do they dread and flee armed men. Consequently there are no factions or quarrels among them except those settled by the impression of fingernails or the tearing of hair. There is no desire to avenge injuries by blows or death; rather, the man who flees another and abstains from inflicting injury is commended for prudence and fortitude.
When the King has died—lest factions arise—no other son or kinsman of the King except the heir of the Kingdom is permitted to remain in the Royal City. Indeed, once they have been divided among various cities, it is a capital crime for them to set foot outside. Disputes arising among them are settled by one of the noblest among them, by whom they are also governed. But if any business arises between them and another who is not a kinsman of the King, they are subjected, like anyone from the plebs, to the tribunals and punishments of the public Magistrates.