impersonatingqingpolice.PDF

impersonating qing police mark mcnicholas Impersonating a Policeman in Qing China he night before he died in October of 1802, Wanyun 萬雲, the ab- Tbot of the Vulture Peak Monastery (Jiufeng an 鷲峯庵) in Jingde 旌德 county, Anhui, told a fellow monk that he had been accosted by three constables ( buyi 捕役 ; literally, “arresting runners”) who accused him of stealing some clothing.1 He protested his innocence, but they threatened to take him before the magistrate and extract a confession unless he paid a fee of six thousand cash.2 A friend advanced four thousand on his behalf, and the constables released Wanyun under the condition that he come up with the rest. He had no means of doing so, and the fellow monk, Shanghua 尙華, tried to console him. Later that night the distraught Wanyun hanged himself. Shanghua informed the authorities, and the three constables were soon arrested — but it turned out that they were not constables at all. The confrontation with Wanyun had been a masquerade. Based on the culprits’ confessions and Shanghua’s deposition, the magistrate’s report reconstructed the events leading to Wanyun’s death as follows: Cheng Kui 程魁 and Cao Bin 曹斌 had formerly served as county constables. Cheng, who was in his sixties, had resigned two I would like to thank two anonymous readers for Asia Major for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article. I am also grateful for comments and suggestions received during presentations at regional and national meetings of the Association for Asian Studies and at the Faculty Workshop, Qing History Research Institute, People’s University, Beijing. In the notes, I indicate document dates using reign-name abbreviations: KX (Kangxi, 1662– 1722), YZ (Yongzheng, 1723– 1735), QL (Qianlong, 1736– 1795), JQ (Jiaqing, 1796– 1820), and DG (Daoguang, 1821– 1850), followed by the reign year