776 RICHARD S.HOROWITZ transformed the appearance of the central government.The Six Boards which had formed the central government's main operational ministries were changed beyond recognition-old offices were com- bined and in a few places dissolved,and new offices created.The executive structure of the ministries was reorganized to eliminate the old executive councils made up of two presidents and four vice presidents and create a single responsible executive at the top.The goal was to define the responsibilities of central government agencies more clearly and create a more effective system of leadership. While the Commission and the 1906 reforms have received some scholarly attention,both have been seen as steps towards another goal:the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.3 This is short- sighted,for the 1906 reforms marked an epochal shift in Chinese public administration:a departure from the late Imperial system that had governed China in the Ming and Qing periods,and the acceptance of a European-style ministerial system.Where the effort to create constitutional monarchy proved fleeting,the move to a min- isterial system has endured. This paper examines the effort to transform the upper echelon of the central government.It looks at the 19o6 reforms in relation to efforts to articulate criticisms and proposals for reforms going back to the 186os,and reflects on how both external pressures and an emergent Qing critique of the old system led to the reforms. The Qing Bureaucratic Monarchy and Ministerial Government To understand the significance of the New Policy reforms to govern- ment institutions,we must first consider how the Qing system around 1goo differed from its European and American counterparts. By the mid to late nineteenth century,European states(and those deeply influenced by them like Japan and the United States)had developed elaborate,specialized systems of administration.In each of these states,the central administration was divided into function- 3 Norbert Maienberger,The Emergence of Constitutional Government in China(1905- 1908):The Concept Sanctioned by the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi (Bern:Peter Lang,1980), 51-66;E-tu Zen Sun,The Chinese Constitutional Missions of 1905-6,Journal of Modern History 24:3 (1952):252-69;William L.Tung,The Political Institutions of China (The Hague:Martinus Nijhoff,1964),ch.1.This approach goes back to Harold Vinacke,Modern Constitutional Development in China(Princeton:Princeton Uni- versity Press,1920),51-66.776 RICHARD S. HOROWITZ transformed the appearance of the central government. The Six Boards which had formed the central government's main operational ministries were changed beyond recognition--old offices were com￾bined and in a few places dissolved, and new offices created. The executive structure of the ministries was reorganized to eliminate the old executive councils made up of two presidents and four vice presidents and create a single responsible executive at the top. The goal was to define the responsibilities of central government agencies more clearly and create a more effective system of leadership. While the Commission and the 1906 reforms have received some scholarly attention, both have been seen as steps towards another goal: the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.3 This is short￾sighted, for the 19o6 reforms marked an epochal shift in Chinese public administration: a departure from the late Imperial system that had governed China in the Ming and Qing periods, and the acceptance of a European-style ministerial system. Where the effort to create constitutional monarchy proved fleeting, the move to a min￾isterial system has endured. This paper examines the effort to transform the upper echelon of the central government. It looks at the 19o6 reforms in relation to efforts to articulate criticisms and proposals for reforms going back to the 186os, and reflects on how both external pressures and an emergent Qing critique of the old system led to the reforms. The Qing Bureaucratic Monarchy and Ministerial Government To understand the significance of the New Policy reforms to govern￾ment institutions, we must first consider how the Qing system around 1900oo differed from its European and American counterparts. By the mid to late nineteenth century, European states (and those deeply influenced by them like Japan and the United States) had developed elaborate, specialized systems of administration. In each of these states, the central administration was divided into function- 3 Norbert Maienberger, The Emergence of Constitutional Government in China (9go5- 90o8): The Concept Sanctioned by the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi (Bern: Peter Lang, 198o), 51-66; E-tu Zen Sun, 'The Chinese Constitutional Missions of 1905-6,'Journal of Modern Histor, 24:3 (1952): 252-69; William L. Tung, The Political Institutions of China (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964), ch. 1. This approach goes back to Harold Vinacke, Modern Constitutional Development in China (Princeton: Princeton Uni￾versity Press, 1920), 51-66