Source: Weng, Qing neifu keshu, 738–51.
The proofreading and printing process for the Code, for example, generally involved the following procedures:
1 After the draft of the updated edition of the Qing Code was compiled by the Commission on Statutes, it was sent to the Wuyingdian for proofreading. Upon receiving the draft, Wuyingdian scribes copied the whole draft into a prototype (yangben) in the style and format in which it would be printed.
2 When the prototype was ready, it was sent back to the commission, where the officials collated it with the original draft to correct mistakes. When finished, the prototype was sent back to the Wuyingdian again.
3 When Wuyingdian officials received the revised prototype, they ordered scribes to rewrite the pages on which mistakes had been found. Then the revised prototype went back to the commission, where the officials examined it again. The revised sample would go back and forth between the Wuyingdian and the commission until officials of both institutions found no more mistakes.
4 When the two sets of officials had agreed upon the final version, craftsmen started to cut woodblocks. When all the woodblocks were completed, craftsmen printed several sample copies and sent them to the commission for proofreading again.
5 Commission officials marked any mistakes in the sample copies, and craftsmen in the Wuyingdian rewrote the pages with mistakes, pasted them on the woodblocks, and recut the erroneous woodblocks accordingly. When the revised woodblocks had been cut, the formal printing process finally started.68
The proofreading process was thus time-consuming, and it usually took years for the Wuyingdian to get the books printed and published. Sometimes when there were major changes in the Code and the Qing officials wanted to promulgate the laws as soon as possible, they had no choice but to use temporary measures to circulate the new laws. For example, many statutes and substatutes were significantly changed in the 1740 revision. After the Qianlong emperor approved the draft of the revised Code, officials in the Board of Punishments felt it urgently necessary to implement the new laws, especially the revised substatutes that reduced the harshness of the original penalties. These officials argued that the revised substatutes should come into force as soon as possible in order to save people’s lives and show the emperor’s benevolence. Zhang Zhao (1691–1745), vice minister of the Board of Punishments, submitted a memorial to the emperor, in which he wrote: “The compilation of statutes and substatutes has been finished, but it will still take a long time for the Code to be printed and published. I ask Your Majesty’s permission to send one draft copy of the Code to our Board so that we can follow the revised laws.”69
The emperor approved the suggestion. About half a year later, he approved a request that reflected the same policy from another official, Wu Yuan’an, who supervised the district courts in Beijing. Wu wrote that it was taking too long for district judges in Beijing to get the printed Code issued by the Wuyingdian and asked that such judges be permitted to send clerks to the Board of Punishments to hand-copy the new substatutes. Although some officials could ask the emperor’s permission to obtain the updated laws through other means, it was difficult for officials and commoners in the Qing empire to get access to the updated laws in a timely fashion. For example, about three years after the promulgation of the 1740 Code, the Jiangsu judicial commissioner finally received a copy. The delay became much longer after the high Qing period, when the efficiency of the Wuyingdian significantly declined because of budget cuts and poor management. In the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, it generally took the Wuyingdian ten or even twenty years to print a multivolume book.70
The print run of the imperially authorized editions of the Code was small. For example, after three years of proofreading and printing the 1740 imperial edition, the Wuyingdian produced 150 copies of the Manchu version of the Code and 350 copies of the Chinese version, which were sent only to offices of high-ranking officials. The chief editor provided a comprehensive list of recipients in a memorial: in the capital, copies were sent to all the main administrative agencies of the imperial court and the central government, including the Court of the Imperial Clan (Zongrenfu), the Imperial Household Department, the Grand Secretariat, the six boards, the Censorate, the Court of Judicial Review, and so on. In provinces, copies were sent to provincial-level civil and military officials, including generals, provincial military commanders (tidu), governors-general, governors, salt controllers (yanzheng), administrative commissioners, judicial commissioners, education commissioners, and so on. The chief editor explained the reason for not sending copies to subprovincial government offices: “There are such a large number of circuits [dao], prefectures, and counties. If they all need copies sent from the capital, we cannot withstand the burden!”71 He suggested that the Wuyingdian send two extra copies to the administrative commissioner in each province and let them arrange for recutting woodblocks based on the Wuyingdian edition and distributing reprinted copies in local governments. Commercial publishers were also allowed to print from these recut woodblocks. The only evidence for such reprinting, however, is the Guizhou governor-general’s memorial in 1743, in which he briefly mentioned that he had finished reprinting the Code based on the Wuyingdian edition.72 Such reprinted editions are not in evidence, so it seems that such reprintings were not prevalent.
The imperial editions of the Code symbolized imperial judicial authority. The cover page of imperial editions was printed in vermillion ink with a unique decoration that no other editions were allowed to use: the title of the Code was printed in a square frame surrounded by flying dragons. When receiving an imperial edition, an official had to treat it with the utmost reverence required for other imperial gifts. For example, after receiving an imperial edition of the Code in 1743, the Guangxi governor recorded the ritual he performed: “Upon hearing that the imperial edition of the Code would arrive, I went outside the city gate, where I knelt and waited. I respectfully brought the Code to my office. I set up an incense table, kowtowed towards the direction of the imperial palace, and expressed my gratitude for this imperial grace.”73 Then he submitted a memorial to formally extend his gratitude to the emperor. The Code would probably be enshrined in the government’s library. Imperial editions of the Code were the emperor’s gift and the government’s property—a book to revere, not to consume. Extant imperial editions of the Code show few, if any, traces of use: there are few marks, notes, or worn pages. If people actually read these editions, they must have done so with extreme care.
The quality of the Code published by the Wuyingdian was high in the Yongzheng and early Qianlong periods, but as printing quality declined in general in the Wuyingdian after the mid-Qianlong period, the quality of the Code also dropped.74 The physical size of each edition of the Code did not shrink, and there were no significant differences in the quality of paper used in each edition. However, the