Study On The Zongjia In The Qing Dynasty

There is a number of local professional services in Qing Dynasty including social systems called Bao-jia system,Huang-jia system,Zong-jia system,Xiang-yue system.Zong-jia system in Qing Dynasty was set widely in local prefectures,counties and countries,which is not regular service,but minor service like handymen of temporary dispatch and auxiliaries of petty official in Yamun.Different from regular service,Zong-jia system was often set according to current affairs,which leads to flexible setting and adjustment,based on which,minor affairs of Yamun can be accomplished conveniently.Therefore it was generally set in local prefectures and counties in Qing dynasty.Besides,Qing dynasty is vast in territory and large in population.Customs and geographical patterns differ in diverse prefectures and counties,which leads to different administrative conditions.Therefore,Zong-jia system was usually set locally in order to manage specific affairs by local officials in different prefectures and counties,which can show different features of functions in Zong-jia system of different prefectures and counties.There are also different local regulations for personnel in Zong-jia system,most of whom are common people of proper behavior with local family and property.Zong-Jia service is minor and miscellaneous service with lower social position.In Kangxi Dynasty,even students were served as Zong-jia corvees,which was forbidden in Qianlong Dynasty when scholars with fame and fortune were ashame of serving as Zong-jia corvees.Zong-jia system in Qing Dynasty was set all around the country with different functions locally and regionally.Therefore,setting patterns and functions are diverse in Qing Dynasty.Zong-jia system can be set based on countries' scales or distances,in which there are relatively more corvees.There are one to three persons in this pattern.There is also pattern set according to post house or village.There is only one person in a post house or village.There are five persons in the pattern according to cities,which was with relatively more people.Zong-jia was also set in urban and rural areas with only one person.There was also Zong-jia set in frontier areas such as Yunan,Guangxi,Qinghai,Mongolia and so on.Zong-jia was also set due to fishing industry and land reclamation or in patrol boat in the sea and the area just outside the city gate and so on.Settings are flexible and locally suitable,which are advantageous to complicated and diversed local administration in Qing Dynasty with vast territory.Functions of Zong-jia system vary due to different regional characteristics.Besides basic security patrol,there are also fire fighting,disaster relief,poverty relief,corpse burial,guarding canal,embankment,pond and weir,homicide case reporting,arresting thieves and escapees,auditing people of Mongolia,accepting pledged undertakings,auditing gambling and residence,guarding water grid and bridge grid,checking and arresting deserters,purchasing horse grass and so on,involving all aspects of local administration.Different Zong-jia functions showed in different regions.As Zong-jia system has been carried out in local prefectures and counties in Qing Dynasty,it has shown malady in local administration including being greed for money and improper profit in a variety of manners,mandatorily financial contribution and donation in a great deal.Expenses of Zong-jia service in some prefectures and counties can lead corvees to family ruin.Common people were being suffering and fear Zong-jia service extremely.Faced with malady of Zong-jia system,Governor of Qing Dynasty and local administors of insight have reformed it based on the original system,abolished it directly,or replaced it by Bao-jia system in order to get rid of the malady and pacify common people.Besides,they have made law and regulations to severely punish negligence of duty and law-breaking.