We’ve been working on a manuscript of a paper on the age dynamics of the careers of civil officials during the Qing. It has reached the point where we are comfortable sharing it, both in the hope of receiving feedback, and also as a resource for anyone interested in the basic descriptive on the ages of appointment, service, and exit for Qing officials. We include life table estimates of the share of officials who might have left because of death or bereavement leave. Here is the URL to download the PDF:
Age Dynamics of the Careers of Qing Officials, 1830-1911 (updated November 9, 2023)
Here’s a figure from the paper, summarizing the age distributions of serving officials by type of degree and official rank:
