Magistrate's Office

Pingyao, Shanxi

Being called to court was a perilous business in ancient China; complainants, accused, and even witnesses, were beaten to encourage them to confess; indeed, a confession, however brutally coerced, was required in order to render the verdict.

The magistrate was the local representative of State authority, an appointed civil servant who had come up through the examination system. To avoid corruption, a magistrate was never posted to his home district. The magistrate's compound (yamen) housed the apparatus of local government, including criminal and civil courts, a prison, administrative offices, facilities for receiving and storing the grain tax, and the official's private residence.