The Art and Craft of Corruption: Gubernatorial Strategies for Avoiding Prosecution

• In Event: Corruption in the Qing Dynasty: Practice, Prosecution, and Perceptions

Abstract

Officials in late imperial China engaged in corruption for a variety of reasons, with some soliciting only such funds as were necessary to fulfill their professional responsibilities and others extorting vast amounts of money and goods for their private enrichment. Regardless of their individual motivations, officials shared a general interest in avoiding the consequences of their actions, which could result in social ostracism, professional setbacks, and criminal penalties. To avoid being dragged into the legal net, officials adopted artful strategies to conceal or camouflage their corrupt acts. Officials tried to engage in corrupt transactions that were discreet enough that they could be overlooked, complex enough that they were not easily comprehensible, and ambiguous enough that their purpose was subject to interpretation. In sum, the “art and craft” of corruption was to create doubt and confusion in the minds of potential prosecutors, sufficient to minimize the likelihood that corrupt acts would be discovered or that discovery would lead to prosecution and conviction. Using archival case records from the Qianlong period, this paper discusses some of the practical strategies that Qing governors and governors-general adopted in an effort to avoid the social, political, and legal consequences of corruption.

Author

• Nancy Park, California State University, East Bay