Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 5, 2023

The Memorial-Response Procedure of the Grand Ministers of State and the Reconstruction of the Qing Political System

(Abstract)

Liu Wenpeng

The Qing Grand Council’s archival Record Book of Deliberations (Yifudang) records the procedure for memorials on major military and political affairs presented to the throne by the Grand Ministers in accordance with the emperor’s instructions. The Grand Ministers were thereby deeply engaged in the highest decision-making process of the Qing court. The establishment of the Grand Council was the outcome of the gradual convergence of two bureaucratic procedures, the memorial-response procedure and that of issuing decrees in accordance with the emperor’s instructions, thus resolving the barriers to central authority posed by clan power. The immediate motive for this reform was less a matter of strengthening imperial autocracy and more one of Yongzheng’s desire, around the eighth year of his reign, to coordinate the military command in the north and west. What lay behind the reform was an institutional adjustment that amplified the center’s authority over Mongolia and Tibet, transforming the tributary system into a direct-rule model. This contributed to the Qing dynasty’s incorporation of peripheral areas, including Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai, under sovereign rule, thus providing political assurance for China’s development into a state of great national unity and multiple ethnic groups.