Commonly Used Flag Variables

Here we present code snippets to create flag variables for our commonly used variables for 1) selecting/excluding categories of records for analysis according to whether they may be appropriate or inappropriate for inclusion and 2) categorizing records according to the characteristics of a post or an official.

Selection or inclusion

Unoccupied posts

When posts were vacant, the Jinshenlu editions still listed them, but the names of the officeholders were covered over or not filled in. When analyzing characteristics of officials, as opposed to posts, we exclude unoccupied posts. We do so by creating a flag variable to identify records of unoccupied posts:

generate byte empty_post = 名 == "空白" | 名 == "涂黑"

If you are looking at posts, as opposed to people, you may not wish to apply this exclusion.

Invalid records

Some editions contain records that consist solely of the names of administrative units, without the names of positions, or people. These should probably be excluded from any analysis other than a straight count of records in the original file.

This code requires that you have already used the code below to create the variable 京官 to distinguish officials serving in the capital from the ones serving outside the capital.

generate byte invalid = !京官 & 名 == "" & ((官职一 == 机构二 & (ustrpos(官职一,"縣") | ustrpos(官职一,"州") == 3)) | (ustrpos(机构一,"府") & 机构二 == "" & 官职一 == "") |     (usubstr(机构二,1,2) == usubstr(官职一,1,2) & (usubstr(机构二,3,1) == "廳" | usubstr(机构二,3,1) == "廰")))

Duplicated records

In the editions that we transcribed from, some pages were repeated, leaving to duplicate records. These should normally be excluded from analysis. We included them in the public release because of our commitment to releasing the data exactly as transcribed. The following commands will flag the duplicate records, allowing for their exclusion or deletion.

generate duplicate = 阳历年份 == 1834 & 季节号 == 3 & ((序号 >= 428 & 序号 <= 484) | (序号 >= 541 & 序号 <= 596) | (序号 >= 968 & 序号 <= 1010) | (序号 >= 3190 & 序号 <= 3238) | (序号 >= 3529 & 序号 <= 3573) | (序号 >= 3860 & 序号 <= 3902) | (序号 >= 5058 & 序号 <= 5091) | (序号 >= 5300 & 序号 <= 5323) | (序号 >= 5687 & 序号 <= 5723) | (序号 >= 5969 & 序号 <= 6018) | (序号 >= 6466 & 序号 <= 6501) | (序号 >= 8318 & 序号 <= 8353) | (序号 >= 9179 & 序号 <= 9209) | (序号 >= 9575 & 序号 <= 9607) | (序号 >= 10359 & 序号 <= 10428) | (序号 >= 10904 & 序号 <= 10934) | (序号 >= 12290 & 序号 <= 12324) | (序号 >=13078 & 序号 <= 13114) | (序号 >= 14266 & 序号 <= 14294) | (序号 >= 14547 & 序号 <= 14578) | (序号 >= 14642 & 序号 <= 14674))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1857 & 季节号 == 1 & (序号 >= 11366 & 序号 <= 11376))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1898 & 季节号 == 2 & ((序号 >= 428 & 序号 <= 461) | (序号 >= 604 & 序号 <= 651) | (序号 >= 751 & 序号 <= 802) | (序号 >= 1272 & 序号 <= 1453) | (序号 >= 2133 & 序号 <= 2170) | (序号 >= 2461 & 序号 <= 2487) | (序号 >= 2824 & 序号 <= 2858) | (序号 >= 2976 & 序号 <= 3015) | (序号 >= 3052 & 序号 <= 3128) | (序号 >= 3737 & 序号 <= 3786) | (序号 >= 4078 & 序号 <= 4132) | (序号 >= 4360 & 序号 <= 4427) | (序号 >= 4590 & 序号 <= 4632) | (序号 >= 5169 & 序号 <= 5214) | (序号 >= 5403 & 序号 <= 5453) | (序号 >= 5917 & 序号 <= 5972) | (序号 >= 6317 & 序号 <= 6371) | (序号 >= 6503 & 序号 <= 6521) | (序号 >= 6880 & 序号 <= 6917) | (序号 >= 6946 & 序号 <= 6973) | (序号 >= 7043 & 序号 <= 7081) | (序号 >= 7189 & 序号 <= 7228)))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1898 & 季节号 == 2 & ((序号 >= 7436 & 序号 <= 7469) | (序号 >= 7856 & 序号 <= 7891) | (序号 >= 8374 & 序号 <= 8406) | (序号 >= 8479 & 序号 <= 8515) | (序号 >= 8586 & 序号 <= 8621) | (序号 >= 9515 & 序号 <= 9549) | (序号 >= 9957 & 序号 <= 9989) | (序号 >= 10051 & 序号 <= 10080) | (序号 >= 10733 & 序号 <= 10738) | (序号 >= 10798 & 序号 <= 10832) | (序号 >= 11219 & 序号 <= 11249) | (序号 >= 11306 & 序号 <= 11332) | (序号 >= 11389 & 序号 <= 11415) | (序号 >= 11639 & 序号 <= 11655) | (序号 >= 11671 & 序号 <= 11704) | (序号 >= 11880 & 序号 <= 11918) | (序号 >= 11989 & 序号 <= 12027) | (序号 >= 12061 & 序号 <= 12130) | (序号 >= 12266 & 序号 <= 12267) | (序号 >= 12458 & 序号 <= 12495) | (序号 >= 12641 & 序号 <= 12676) | (序号 >= 13011 & 序号 <= 13045)))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1898 & 季节号 == 2 & ((序号 >= 13403 & 序号 <= 13438) | (序号 >= 14147 & 序号 <= 14220) | (序号 >= 14283 & 序号 <= 14356) | (序号 >= 14384 & 序号 <= 14418) | (序号 >= 14765 & 序号 <= 14795) | (序号 >= 14891 & 序号 <= 14923) | (序号 >= 15374 & 序号 <= 15407) | (序号 >= 16000 & 序号 <= 16034) | (序号 >= 16295 & 序号 <= 16325) | (序号 >= 16731 & 序号 <= 16760)))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1901 & 季节号 == 2 & ((序号 >= 5208 & 序号 <= 5242) | (序号 >= 6939 & 序号 <= 6977) | (序号 >= 10338 & 序号 <= 10373) | (序号 >= 10531 & 序号 <= 10561) | (序号 >= 11108 & 序号 <= 11123) | (序号 >= 11299 & 序号 <= 11337) | (序号 >= 12625 & 序号 <= 12665) | (序号 >= 12799 & 序号 <= 12836) | (序号 >= 13653 & 序号 <= 13657) | (序号 >= 13805 & 序号 <= 13830) | (序号 >= 14513 & 序号 <= 14545)))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1901 & 季节号 == 3 & ((序号 >= 557 & 序号 <= 591) | (序号 >= 726 & 序号 <= 764) | (序号 >= 1112 & 序号 <= 1145) | (序号 >= 2456 & 序号 <= 2497) | (序号 >= 2696 & 序号 <= 2730) | (序号 >= 3365 & 序号 <= 3430) | (序号 >= 3890 & 序号 <= 3941) | (序号 >= 6359 & 序号 <= 6379) | (序号 >= 6482 & 序号 <= 6524) | (序号 >= 6819 & 序号 <= 6845) | (序号 >= 7177 & 序号 <= 7214) | (序号 >= 7792 & 序号 <= 7824) | (序号 >= 7891 & 序号 <= 7923) | (序号 >= 8144 & 序号 <= 8177)  | (序号 >= 8596 & 序号 <= 8633) | (序号 >= 9630 & 序号 <= 9663) | (序号 >= 9838 & 序号 <= 9872) | (序号 >= 9962 & 序号 <= 9992) | (序号 >= 10087 & 序号 <= 10117)))

replace duplicate = duplicate | (阳历年份 == 1901 & 季节号 == 3 & ((序号 >= 11049 & 序号 <= 11063) | (序号 >= 11322 & 序号 <= 11352) | (序号 >= 11716 & 序号 <= 11742) | (序号 >= 11933 & 序号 <= 11953) | (序号 >= 12213 & 序号 <= 12245) | (序号 >= 14053 & 序号 <= 14084) | (序号 >= 14858 & 序号 <= 14890) | (序号 >= 14921 & 序号 <= 14950) | (序号 >= 15373 & 序号 <= 15405) | (序号 >= 15993 & 序号 <= 16025) | (序号 >= 16127 & 序号 <= 16161) | (序号 >= 16654 & 序号 <= 16687) | (序号 >= 16718 & 序号 <= 16747) | (序号 >= 16929 & 序号 <= 16966)))

Posts that only appear in commercial editions 坊刻本

Certain posts were almost never recorded in official editions 官刻本 that were produced by the government, and only appeared in commercial editions 坊刻本 produced by publishing houses. See the User Guide for details. The CGED-Q includes a mixture of commercial and government editions. When constructing time trends in the composition of officials, excluding posts that were only recorded in commercial editions will produce more stable results, with fewer fluctuations from one edition to the next in the numbers of posts, or characteristics of the officials who held them.

Through a labor-intensive and rather iterative process of looking at the distributionss of posts according to whether they are in commercial or government editions, we have developed code to flag the posts that only only seem to appear in commercial editions. Use at your own risk. Our approach was ad hoc, and to put it kindly, inductive.

local 干支 "丁卯 丁巳 丁未 丁酉 丁醜 丙午 丙子 丙戌 丙申 丙辰 乙亥 乙卯 乙巳 乙未 乙酉 乙醜 乙未 壬午 壬子 壬寅 壬戌 壬申 壬辰 己亥 己卯 己巳 己未 己酉 己醜 巳卯 巳巳 巳醜 庚午 庚子 庚寅 庚戌 庚申 庚辰 庚寅 庚辰 壬辰 戊午 戊子 戊寅 戊戌 戊申 戊辰 戊戌 甲午 甲子 甲寅 甲戌 甲辰 甲午 甲辰 癸亥 癸卯 癸巳 癸未 癸酉 癸醜 癸未 丙戌 丙子 辛亥 辛卯 辛巳 辛未 辛酉 辛醜"

generate byte 坊刻本官职 = 机构一 == "禦前侍衛" | 机构一 == "神機營" | 机构一 == "總管內務府衙門" | 地区 == "內務府" | 地区 == "內務府" | ustrpos(机构一,"旗都統") > 0 | (ustrpos(机构一,"國子監") > 0 & (ustrpos(官职一,"教習") > 0 | ustrpos(官职一,"旗") > 0)) | (官职一 == "庫使" & (机构一 == "工部衙門" | 机构一 == "戶部衙門"))

replace 坊刻本官职 = 坊刻本官职 | 机构二 == "藍翎侍衛" | 机构二 == "刑部額外司員" | 机构二 == "工部額外司員" | 机构二 == "花翎侍衛" | 机构二 == "禮部額外司員" | 机构二 == "坐粮廳衙門" | 机构二 == "坐粮㕔衙門" | 机构二 == "從九品吏目" |     机构二 == "禦前侍衛" | ustrpos(机构二,"額外")

replace 坊刻本官职 = 坊刻本官职 | 机构三 == "額外中書舍人"

replace 坊刻本官职 = 坊刻本官职 | 官职一 == "禦前侍衛" | 官职一 == "翰林院五經博士" | 官职一 == "花翎侍衛" | 官职一 == "藍翎侍衛" | usubstr(官职一,-2,.) == "行走" | 官职一 == "額外序班" | 官职一 == "司樂" | 官职一 == "額外中書舍人" 

replace 坊刻本官职 = 坊刻本官职 | 官职一 == "武英殿校録" | 官职一 == "額外經厯" | 官职一 == "額外待詔" | 官职一 == "額外典簿" | 官职一 == "額外主簿" | 官职一 == "揀發副指揮" | 官职一 == "額外主簿" | 官职一 == "揀發吏目" | 官职一 == "特授正指揮" | 官职一 == "揀發正指揮" | 官职一 == "特授副指揮" | 官职一 == "額外主事" | 官职一 == "特授吏目" | 官职一 == "候補主事" | 官职一 == "額外中書"

foreach x of local 干支 {
    replace 坊刻本官职 = 坊刻本官职 | 官职一 == "`x'" | 官职一 == "`x'科" | ///
        官职一 == "`x'" | 官职一 == "`x'科" | 机构二 == "`x'" | 机构二 == "`x'科" | 机构二 == "`x'" | 机构二 == "`x'科"
}

Posts that appear for the first time in 1911

A large number of posts appear for the first time in 1911. If your focus is on posts that are included in every edition, or nearly every edition, then you may want to flag them and exclude them. The following snippet produces a variable new_in_1911 that can be used for this purpose:

generate byte new_in_1911 = ustrpos(机构一,"檢察廳") | ustrpos(机构一,"審判廳") | ustrpos(机构一,"審判檢察两廳") | 机构一 == "稅務處" | 机构一 == "提學司" | 机构一 == "提法司"
label variable new_in_1911 "Post appears for the first time in 1911"

Categories of officials or posts

Banner versus non-Banner officials

Because the appointment and promotion of Banner (旗人) officials was very different from that of non-Banner officials (民人), we almost always analyze them separately. We create flag variable to identify them based on the contents of four variables that normally are only filled in for Bannermen: 旗分, 身份一, 身份二, 爵位. We also anyone who doesn’t have a surname recorded is a Bannermen:

generate byte 旗人 = 旗分 != "" | (姓 == "") | (身份一 != "") | (身份二 != "") | (爵位 != "")

Central versus non-Central government officials

The characteristics of officials who served in the central government (京官) differed from those who served in the provinces (外官). We generally distinguish them in analyses.

gen byte 京官 =  地区 == "京師" | 地区 == "內務府" | (地区 == "盛京" & (机构一 == "刑部衙門" | 机构一 == "戶部衙門" | 机构一 == "工部衙門" | 机构一 =="禮部衙門"| 机构一 =="兵部衙門"))