Baiyi’s Harm To Judicial Activity And Official Regulation In Qing Dynasty

As the name implies,"Baiyi" refers to unpaid labor.There was a situation that people contribute their labor to the government activities without any payment in the Qing Dynasty.Due to the particularity related to power,this kind of people was specifically designated as "Baiyi." In the Qing Dynasty,the scope of "Baiyi" in many texts is not the same.In the broad sense,Baiyi is generally opposed to the official runners,and refers to the group of illicit runners.Hundreds and thousands of Baiyi worked for the local government in the Qing Dynasty.On the one hand,they were exempt from paying heavy taxes and profited from their work.On the other hand,they were subject to injustice brought about by their lower legal status.Baiyi was part of yamen runners,and in judicial activities,they shared common behaviors and harmful consequences with other runners.The arresting and summoning activities were caused by official tickets.During this process,the runners jointly ask people for the corrupt rules expenses admitted by the government,and continuously expanded the scope and number of expenses,with the varieties of means.In terms of death and injury inspections,both official post-mortem examiners and illicit trainees had to acquire relevant skills by studying Xiyuanlu,and they also endangered the justice due to poor inspection capabilities.In addition to the commonalities,Baiyi also had its own characteristics in judicial activities.Because they did not belong to the administrative system,Baiyi was often taken to join the work by yamen runner who was in the tickets,thus there is no limit to the number of Baiyi in the case;they did not have any salary income,so they would completely equate work with profit,and acquiring profit by sheltering stolen goods,helping criminals escape,sharing stolen profits with criminals,and even tempting to break the law;they were not afraid to be judged,so they dared to be robbers.Due to the large quantities,the scope and degree of Baiyi’s harm to judicial activities were much greater than those of official runners;moreover,Baiyi was often monopolized and manipulated by certain groups,thereby overriding local officials.From central to local,the Qing governments had long recognized the harms of Baiyi for a long time,and taken measures to eliminate Baiyi,standardize the judicial activities of government servants,and allow people to report the illegals.But these measures did not produce a long-term effective effects.By the middle and late Qing dynasties,the number of Baiyi was still huge,and the phenomenon of private takingBaiyi into judicial activities and cover-up extortion were still prevalent,and the proportion of people reporting was still very low.The reasons are as follows.First,the short-term of government officials affects the implementation of regulatory measures;second,the temptation of Baiyi’s great interests made it difficult to implement the eliminating measure;furthermore,the government’s objective needs and dependence on Baiyi made the eliminating measures impossible.In addition,the official’s indulgence and cover-up of Baiyi made the prosecution measures ineffective.Without the final method for correcting and punishing Baiyi,the measures to standardize the judicial activities of the yamen runners were virtually useless.The modern police system,introduced in the late Qing Dynasty,was a useful attempt to solve the disadvantages of Baiyi.The introduction of the modern police system made local justice activities running better than the previous,by increasing the conditions to entry for police officers,regulating the police’s behavior,expanding the quorum of police officers,giving them considerable treatment,and conducting high-level education and training.