Discussion On The Construction Of Police In Zhejiang Province In Late Qing Dynasty

After the Opium War, especially after the open of Ningbo and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province was strongly shocked of new things brought from Western Meanwhile it met huge changes in its economy, politics, and the whole society. Academic associations, newspaper, new schools, enterprises and factories turn up frequently, and quantities of Chinese students were sent to study abroad, which became the main theme of new political activities in the beginning of 20th century. As a result, the society and custom of Zhejiang met its great opening. Contradictions between the new society and the old one burst out, and it brought out lots of social problems and conflicts. And in the other hand, new policies had brought the social security system new remands and challenges, which however couldn't be afford by the original one. So a whole-new security system was remanded to setup urgently. In the year of 1901, Qing government instructed every province to setup police. Two years later, Zhejiang province got down to construct modern police system.In late 19th century, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Hangzhou were gradually forced to open, and then setup police mechanism, which was the initiate of modern police in Zhejiang province. And the beginning of its formal establishment was in 1903, when Hangzhou Police Station was set up. Then modern police system was constructed from slowly to fast in Zhejiang province. By the outbreak of Revolution of 1911, nearly all the cities in Zhejiang setup police mechanism. And as the standardization, socialization and specialization of police administration, modern police system was preliminarily established in Zhejiang province, which had made direct but also deep influence on the modernization of Zhejiang society. Because of the important academic significance of this study, the article attended to explain the progress and problems of police system construction in Zhejiang in last years of Qing dynasty, including the setup and innovation of police mechanism, the recruitment and quality of policemen, the functions of police, and the raise of police funds, through local history records and newspaper materials of that time. Moreover, it tried to reveal the character of Zhejiang police in Late Qing, analysis its influence on Zhejiang society, and also to research the character of early modernization movement of Zhejiang in last years of Qing dynasty.