Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/156

136 the Manchus. Below it was the chow and hsien, and under that the divisions of 12,500 families. Each chow or hsien would therefore have from two to three of these districts, each of them responsible for the maintenance of one army, and each family for one soldier. The raising of taxes and contributions, and the oversight of community worship and education fell to the lot of the "Ssu-ma of the Hamlet." He had to see that the children (and the adults in newly conquered regions) learned the Ten Commandments. Each of these small hamlets was to be supplied with the necessary artisans to make it an economic unit — potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, and masons.

The system described above closely resembles that in effect during the Chow Dynasty, and, as in the case of the army, appears to have been derived from that ancient period. If so, we may consider that the sovereign regarded himself as the owner of the soil and allotted it according to the needs of the people, who, in turn, were obliged to render to him, through the efforts of the "Ssu-ma," the twenty-five soldiers levied on them and the required taxes of grain and other produce for their support.

Although this system did not prevail in its completed form, and civil government never came to supersede the military system, those departments which supplied the army and the families of soldiers were thoroughly and efficiently organised. The commissariat and the bureaus for providing supplies were carefully divided among many officers, each responsible for furnishing one thing, grain, salt, oil, cannon, gunpowder, cannon-balls, saltpeter, iron, banners, or flags. The lists of officials