The Situation Of Official Career And The Joining Of Shiwu For County Magistrates In The Late Qing Dynasty

This paper use Li Chaoqiong as a observe object,who was a county magistrate in Jiangsu province during the late Qing dynasty,and investigate how the county magistrates respond to the continuously emerging new situations and new things.More importantly,this paper will focus on the consideration and motivation of the response above,or called the origin of response.The main body of the paper consists of four parts.In the first part,it portrays the experience of Li Chaoqiong before he came to Suzhou as a alternate officer.Here,the family background,school experience,life in the east of Liaoning province are all included.Because of these experiences,Li Chaoqiong valued his official positions deeply.In the second part,the experiences of alternate officer and the county magistrate of Liyang county will be mentioned.In this part,Li Chaoqiong got his official position easily with the help of social relationship and enough money.Later,Li Chaoqiong did a good job when he was the county magistrate of Liyang county,and was appreciated by senior officials,so three years later,he was transferred to Yuanhe county,which was the foremost county of Jiangsu province.The third part consists of the periods of Yuanhe county and Yanghu county.At the beginning,the official career was very smooth,and Li Chaoqiong made many achievements and got several times of praise.And The most important thing was that Li Chaoqiong had a good relationship with the senior officials in Jiangsu province.But in 1893,Li Chaoqiong was Seriously ill,and he had to transfer to Yanghu county,and there he could have a relax.Then Li Chaoqiong lost all resources of relationships above,because he was not enjoyed by the new senior officials.And Li Chaoqiong had to stay in Yanghu county.Later Li did many efforts to change the situation,for instance,visiting Zhang Zhidong for help,and applying for promotion with money.But they were not successful.The fourth part begin in 1896 and end in 1898,and in1898,Li Chaoqiong was transferred to Jiangyin county.In this part,because of the bad career situation and the energy of new things what Li Chaoqiong had already saw,Li began to take part in the activities(shiwu)actively,which were popular at that time,such as opening of newspapers,reform of traditional schools,children's education,communication with foreigners,and so on.In these activities,Li Chaoqiong was praised for many times.And for Li Chaoqiong,the image of accepting new things was established little by little.So,county magistrates during the late Qing dynasty represented by Li Chaoqiong,had Low status,and were not prominent,but during the late Qing dynasty,they had a good understanding of continuously emerging new situations and new things,and in the fact,they took part in the activities(shiwu)actively.And more importantly,for Li Chaoqiong,accepting new things are not reasonable naturally,not necessary naturally,and it had its origin,and it was the consideration of official career.Briefly,accepting new things,or taking part in shiwu,was just a way to promotion for Li Chaoqiong.