Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 3/Yamen Runners
Yamen Runners.
In Ch‘ung ch‘ing chou districts there are some 3,000, with 300 ling pan (領班), or superiors: there they control the literati. In Kuan hsien the case is reversed, because that district has produced two or three Han-lin scholars, thus raising the status of the literati. Ch‘ung ch‘ing has only produced chin shih (進士). The result is that the yamen runners' oppression is intolerable in one place while it may be mitigated in another.
Warrants may be given to a ling pan to call up an accused person, huan p‘iao (喚票), or to apprehend him, chü p‘iao (拘票), or for an immediate arrest, ch‘u ch‘ien (出籤), or to summon a man in public service to answer a charge of corruption, ch‘ien ch‘uan (籤傳), or to assemble gentry and public men for consultation, ch‘uan tan (傳單).
A tax-gatherer, liang pan (糧班), or his sons, may enter the literary examinations, but not the other yamen underlings.
The hu pan (戶班), or local runner, knows every person in his district and is used in making arrests.
The p‘u pan (捕班) are the chief jailor's runners, for catching robbers, and the tsao pan (皁班), or hou pan (吼班), are the "black band" with tall hats, who run shouting before the magistrate's chair, when he goes out on public business.
There are various other bands, messengers, door-keepers, etc., etc.
There is an apprenticeship to this work and often the apprentice suffers for his master's mistakes. If he is beaten, the ling pan gives him 400 cash; if he is condemned to the cage he gets 100 per day and 300 cash on release; if he suffers capital punishment, the ling pan supports his widow. Many become yamen runners to escape the result of crime, thus eluding the law a little longer. An official can put runners to death and thinks very lightly of doing it.
In some districts there are women thus employed.