Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2017

 

The Composition of Records of Oral Testimony (Xugong) in County Yamen in the Late Qing: Centering on the Nanbu County Archives (Abstract)

 

Wu Peilin

 

In the Qing Dynasty, oral testimony (xugong) was the fundamental basis of county officials’ judgments on a case. Such testimony was originally “the king of evidence,” constituting the basis of court decisions (tangyu) and providing important material for review by higher level departments. However, Qing judicial archives show that the original oral testimony on which the defendant’s signature or mark was placed did not appear in the indictment. In the mid to late Qing, court records can more appropriately be called “oral testimony compositions.” Nanbu County Archives indicates that these records were composed by clerks in the case handling room rather than the “torture room.” At the beginning, the room concerned was not recorded on these documents, but they later specified the room and even the clerks’ names. The narrative structure for the period between the 7th year of the Daoguang reign (1827) and the 11th year of the Guangxu reign (1885) is of three types. Other localities tended to have similar arrangements, but at different times and with distinct regional characteristics. Generally speaking, the records of both parties to the case basically correspond, but there are also many instances in which their accounts totally diverge.