- Yamen
:" Not to be confused with
Yemen , the nation in the Middle East."A yámen (zh-stp|s=衙门|t=衙門|p=yámén) is any local
bureaucrat 's, or mandarin's, office and residence of theChinese Empire . The term has been widely used in China for centuries, but appeared in English during theQing Dynasty .Within the yámen, the bureaucrat administered the government business of the town or region. Typical responsibilities of the bureaucrat includes local finance, capital works, judging of civil and criminal cases, and issuing decrees and policies.
Typically, the bureaucrat and his immediate family would live in a residence attached to the yámen. This was especially so during the
Qing dynasty , when imperial law forbade a person from taking government office in his native province.Yámens varied greatly in size depending on the level of government they administered, and the seniority of the bureaucrat's office. However, yámens at a local level typically had similar features: a front gate, a courtyard and a hall (typically serving as a court of law); offices, prison cells and store rooms; and residences for the bureaucrat, his family and his staff.
At the provincial level and above, specialisation among officials occurred to a greater extent. For example, the three chief officials of a province (zh-stpl|s=三大宪|t=三大憲|p=Sàn Dà Xiàn|l=the Three Great Laws) controlled the legislative and executive, the judicial, and the military affairs of the province or region. Their yámen would accordingly be specialised according to the functions of the office.
After 1911
The institution of the yámen fell victim to the
Wuchang Uprising and theXinhai Revolution , after whichwarlords often wound up becoming the ultimate authorities, in spite ofSun Yat-sen 's best efforts to establish aRepublic of China covering all of China. Sun Yat-sen tried to establish a form of self-government, orhome rule , on a regional (or local) basis, but he found that he neededbureaucracy to run a country as big as China. Hence, new bureaucratic offices arose, thus replicating the functions of the Imperial yámens in many ways.The term "Yamen" is still used in colloquial Chinese today, however, to denote government offices. It sometimes carries negative connotations of an arrogant or inefficient bureaucracy, much as the term "mandarin" does in English.
Notable "Yamen"s
* The
Zongli Yamen acted as an office of foreign affairs in the lateQing dynasty .
* The yamen atKowloon Walled City ,Hong Kong is an important historical site.
* ThePresidential Palace (Nanjing) was modified from the "yamen" of the Governor-General of the Two Jiangs.
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