CHINA'S STRUGGLE FOR NAVAL DEVELOPMENT TRADITIONAL CHINESE WATER FORCE forces to Chenhai;a little later,the Ningpo prefect (chih-fu) Officer recruits came from the civil service,the ranks of heredi- was ordered to build a boom of boats and chains to keep the tary nobles,officers'sons,the land military,successful candidates enemy out.24 In addition,each of the highest officials had his in the military examination system,and the rank and file.Some own command.In the coastal Manchu and Green Banner estab- water force officers were ex-pirates who had been lured from lishments,there were twenty-four of these commands,not uni- their old calling by the offer of rank.2 There were minute reg- formly established:the distribution was such that in Kwangtung ulations governing promotion,in which the accumulation of and Fukien each there were five commands,those of the gov- seniority and merit were nominally basic.However,the emperor ernor-general,governor,admiral,general,and Tartar general, could set aside the regulations,and not all officers were experts. but in Chihli only two,for the governor-general and admiral.25 Imperial interference was most notable in the higher ranks; These so-called "direct commands"were nominally of brigade below junior lieutenant,provincial authorities had the say, strength (those under the military men were larger than those for officers and enlisted men.They preferred men of the sea, under the civilian officials),and were largely independent.Other fishermen or ex-pirates,or men of martial accomplishment as Green Banner forces in each province not in direct commands shown in the land military.Fukien was a favored source of sea- were "indirectly"commanded by the named officials.Some brig- faring men;it was said that the Fukien pirates included the adier-generals had more strength than their superiors in this "flower"of the nation,whereas the imperial fleet had chiefly the system;some district civilian officials with military concurrencies “dregs..”30 could be nearly independent,acting only in response to a"direct" There were detailed provisions for rewards,honors,and super- command;in some cases,local officers had to answer to three or annuation.Green Banner punishments were drawn from a basic four chiefs,as did the senior post captain of a water force unit code dating from 1781,which had been slightly amended.Officers on Formosa who corresponded with the Board of War about and men were not subject to the same penalties.For the former, the Formosan aborigines,and was also beholden to the Tartar a greater emphasis was laid on corrective humiliation (one general and the admiral at Foochow,as well as to the Min-Che Westerner in the 18go's noticed a water force officer near Shanghai governor-general.26 with an arrow thrust through his ear,captioned with a statement In this elaborate system,the Green Banner table of organiza- of the culprit's disregard of a military law),a which included tion for land and water forces (brigade,regiment,battalion, degrading them but keeping them on at their posts.For coward- squadron,and post)almost disappears from view.Yet the disar- ice or treason,the code uniformly prescribed death.The opera- ray was not a function of dynastic decline.The system had been tion of the code depended on the will of the emperor.There largely created by the K'ang-hsi Emperor,to ensure stability.27 was no provision for the investigation of a charge by a military Comment on the personnel system of the traditional water court,and the criteria were ultimately moral,so that ultimate force must be based largely on material directly pertinent to the judgment could be exercised only by the Son of Heaven.Un- parent Green Banner land force.There were nine Green Banner certainty about condignity of punishment,or the imperial mood, officer ranks in each of the provincial forces.The water force must have been familiar to men in action,certainly to the higher designations,in approximate English equivalent,were admiral, officers.32 senior post captain,junior post captain,commander,lieutenant Most training took place in prescribed coastal patrols.These commanding,senior lieutenant,junior lieutenant,sub-lieutenant, patrols were not always properly made,for an edict of 1806 re- and ensign.These nine ranks corresponded to the nine basic ferred to standing orders about coastal training and warned civilian official grades,save that admiral did not rank in the top officers to select good men,and to go to sea themselves.Just before half of the opposite'civilian grade (each of these being divided the Opium War,annual examinations were specified for water into an upper and lower half),but only in the lower.Military force officers,who again were ordered to go to sea in person.as service did not have the prestige of the civil service.28 In 1840,an imperial commissioner expressed concern about per- 8 0