Download or read book The Chʻing Imperial Household Department written by Preston M. Torbert and published by Harvard Univ Asia Center. This book was released on 1977 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length institutional study of the organization and functions of the Imperial Household Department under Ch'ing rule. That department constituted the emperor's 'personal bureaucracy.' In tracing the complex structure of this organization, Preston Torbert has avoided an exhaustive listing of nominal offices and their prescribed duties; instead, he has described the distinctive 'social groups' that made up the departments total personnel-the bondservants, the eunuchs, and the palace maids.