Corruption and its recompense: Bribes, bureaucracy, and the law in late imperial China

The reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736-1796) was one of the most prosperous periods in late imperial China, boasting a flourishing economy, stable government, and high culture. Underlying this prosperity, however, was a weak fiscal system that relied on bribery and other forms of corruption to function. Officials at all levels of the bureaucracy supplemented their meager salaries by soliciting or extorting bribes from their subordinates and from the common people. This dissertation provides insight into the nature and causes of bribery and the legal mechanisms for its control in 18th-century China. Drawing on a wealth of documents from the imperial archives in Beijing, this dissertation compares and contrasts the formal laws regulating bribery with their practical application in the cases of 31 governors-general and governors who were impeached for bribery during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. Despite the seeming rigidity of the bribery laws, the image that emerges from the cases is of a highly personalized and flexibly enforced legal process that was strongly influenced by an interventionist emperor.