Abstract: This paper examines the pivotal yet largely invisible role of Han-Chinese secretaries known as zhongshu 中書 (7b) in the everyday administration of the Qing empire. It is generally believed that the influence of the Grand Secretaries significantly waned with the development of the palace memorial ( zouzhe 奏折)system in the eighteenth century, which allowed senior officials to bypass the Grand Secretariat and communicate directly with the emperor. A low-ranking secretary at the Grand Secretariat thus was viewed as a sinecure with dim career prospects. Examining zhongshu's responsibilities and activities, I argue that despite their obscurity they were actually the backbone of the Qing central administration, indispensable to the daily operation of the imperial bureaucracy. Moreover, zhongshu were remarkably well connected and informed, which prepared them for higher positions and more important assignments after their Grand Secretariat career. In this sense, the post of zhongshu not only offered aspirating degree-holders promising paths to climb the ladder of success but also trained them to be capable bureaucrats on behalf of the Qing empire.
Xue Zhang (Mon,) studied this question.