Research Into Baofen-a Senior Official In Eight Mongolian Banner Troops And Governed In Shanxi Province

Baofen (1856-1913) was of the pure blue banner, one of the famous Eight Mongolian Banner Troops in Beijing. He was also one of the important provincial figures in the political arena at the end of the Qing Dynasty and a governor in the provincial government. He graduated from the Qing government school. He worked as a high level official in the Ministry of Finance and in the Ministry of personnel for over twenty years. Then he left Beijing and was appointed as a senior commissioner in the Territory of Eastern Chuan in Sichuan Province, in Jiangxi Province, Hubei Province, Hebei Province, Zhejiang Province and Shanxi Province. After that, he was the senior governor and the senior commander in Shanxi Province, Jiangsu Province and Henan Province. He was always a loyal servant of the Qing Government. This thesis will study only the historical records of his career in his post in the Shanxi Province where he was appointed to govern.When He was in Shanxi Province (October1907-December1909), it was the beginning of the period during which the Qing Government was changing its policies and the constitution and was slowly preparing to become a constitutional monarchy.In this period, the people in Shanxi Province endured two continuous years of natural disasters, but peaceably and so people's minds were at rest and the local society was stable. So Baofen smoothly carried out the constitutional monarchy policies of the Qing Government. He held a local election in Shanxi Province and set up a Consultative Bureau and Autonomous research institute for study, a new model Court of Justice and an Office of Prosecutions, a Bureau of Finance and Audit, a Bureau of Statistics, and a Department of Assessment for Government Bureaucrats and set up a local government for the new special administrative territory of Dong Sheng. At the same time He developed the new system of the Qing Government Army and Police with new weapons and equipment. In the sphere of culture and education, he managed to reform the new style schools and the university and set up a new academey of the army and the police, and a college for the local people. In the legal system, he made some suggestions for the new laws of the Qing Government and the best ideas were incorporated in the new law. He also advised the Qing Government to stop transporting prisoners to remote, desolate regions. In this period, the Central Government and the provincial governments faced big financial problems. This also applied in Shanxi Province, and Baofen tried his best to implement these reforms though it was very hard and difficult. In the same period he also finished some important tasks, for example, took part in the Yegu economic case, welcomed the Dalai Lama visiting the temple of Wutai, stopped planting of opium, etc. In important economic matters, he helped Shanxi business men to vigorously develop coal mining companies and to reduce the costs of products, reduce taxes, prepare the construction of the railway of Tongpu, and reduced the tax on salt for sellers, etc.In a word, the period in which Baofen governed Shanxi Province, was a most important era during which the feudalistic society which had prevailed continuously for over two thousand years was changing to modern system society. As a top governor and top commander in the province, Baofen did his best work, and completed the political tasks of developing the local economy, establishing a new system of local government with his officials. They thus guided this important social development phase of the changing regime.So this thesis will analyze all of the situations as above using the historical records.