Between the State and Their Superiors: The Anxiety of Low-Ranked Scribes in the Qin and Han Bureaucracies

This paper challenges to some degree the traditional stereotypes surrounding Qin and Han-era official scribes. It explores certain anxieties they encountered in their service to the bureaucratic hierarchy. Han texts have portrayed them as “knife-and brush officials,” “harsh officials,” and “legal clerks,” but are silent on the realities of a scribe’s life under the unified empire. Incorporating newly unearthed administrative documents, the following study examines the processes undertaken by local scribes in preparing annual account-books to be forwarded to the next bureaucratic level. Given the complexities, tight schedule, and material constraints, to prepare such accounts could be a nightmare, even for these professionals. While struggling with endless paperwork and meager salaries, low-ranked scribes faced pressure from two quarters: the state and their superiors. By examining the legal regulations for monitoring related administrative practices as well as corruption cases pertaining to the forwarding of account-books, this paper shows that the low-ranked scribes were placed in a dilemma: to choose between the state’s regulations and the orders of their often locally-dominant superiors.