Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/44

26 about 8,000. Theoretically he was appointed on the basis of the examinations. In the performance of his multifarious duties he was surrounded by four classes of subordinates, having charge respectively of matters of general administration, secretarial duties, inspection and revenue, and the maintenance of order. Below them were those harpies, the yamen runners, who brought misery into the lives of all those who were so unfortunate as to fall into their hands.

The chief sources of income in a district were the profits which the magistrate could squeeze out of the taxes and the administration of justice. There were pickings in the way of "inquests (blind eyes), licenses, permits, presents from gentry, transfers of land, posts, storage of official grain, purveyances, etc."

While local government thus headed up in the magistrate, the actual power was very largely in the hands of the people themselves, or, perhaps more correctly, of the local gentry. The police functions of a countryside were under the care of the t'uan-tsung or lien-tsung. The peace and well-being of a village or countryside were largely in the hands of a ti-pao or pao-cheng. This person, who, together with the t'uan-tsung, represented the people, was not an official, but had great importance in local government. He endeavored to prevent cases from reaching the regular officials by attempting to settle "out of court" matters involving trespass, financial disputes, divorces, and other difficulties where mediation could be accepted. In connection with other village heads the ti-pao could exercise many of the minor duties of government which the Chinese system left to local enterprise. It was possible for him to exercise much influence for