Shuijie Shuijie Salt Administration Yamen

Shuijie Shuijie Salt Administration Yamen

The Salt Administration Yamen is a symmetrical courtyard-style building, with six departments—Military, Rites, Personnel, Justice, Household, and Works—arranged on the east and west sides. These are subordinate agencies of the yamen. In today’s terms, they would be equivalent to various bureaus, ministries, and commissions, each specifically managing aspects such as a county’s production and development, judicial construction, and military defense.

On the east side of the yamen are the Personnel Office, Rites Office, and Household Office. The Personnel Office was responsible for the examination, recruitment, appointment, and promotion of officials within the county, as well as maintaining records of local scholars such as jinshi, juren, and xiucai, and documenting general information about officials serving outside the county, including their backgrounds, careers, and positions. The Personnel Office in Shuijie displays official attire from the Ming and Qing dynasties, showcasing the distinct uniforms of civil and military officials, including black gauze hats, court robes, official boots, belts, and more. The square rank badges (the main symbol distinguishing official ranks) from the first to the ninth rank are restored and displayed, providing a clear visual understanding.

The Rites Office was in charge of organizing celebratory, mourning, and ceremonial events across the county, such as Confucian worship and religious rites. During imperial examinations, it also managed the county-level examinations for students, provincial exams for degree holders, and metropolitan exams for juren. The Rites Office in Shuijie showcases a diagram of the Qing dynasty’s imperial examination system, illustrating how “civil servants” were trained in ancient times.

The Household Office was closely related to people’s daily lives. It managed household registration, collected taxes and corvée labor based on these records, and oversaw food relief during years of famine. The Household Office in Shuijie displays measuring grain containers, detailed fish-scale-style household registers, and silver ingots of various sizes used as official currency.

The Military Office functioned like a modern-day militia department. It was responsible for recruiting and training soldiers, organizing martial arts examinations for military candidates, as well as defending the city and suppressing bandits. The hall displays scale armor worn by soldiers and officers, protective vests, and an array of weapons including swords, spears, axes, halberds, and hooks—all gleaming coldly and commanding awe.

The Works Office was akin to an ancient urban and rural development committee, overseeing complex tasks such as farmland management, water conservancy, construction, and handicraft manufacturing. The head of the Works Office was called the Works Secretary, holding the official rank of eighth grade. The Works Office hall in Shuijie displays tools such as wooden plows for farming and straw capes for rain protection.

The Justice Office, the last of the six, handled civil and criminal cases within the county, including trials, sentencing, arrests, and litigation. It also managed jailers, midwives, coroners, and executioners, while liaising with the chief county magistrate to handle official matters. The Justice Office hall in Shuijie exhibits a variety of ancient instruments of punishment, such as spike boards covered with seven-inch iron nails, ghost-headed execution swords, iron-and-wood shackles, and copper dog-head guillotines.

Attraction Location

Address: No. 3 Kaifang Avenue, Tinghu District, Yancheng City (Renmin Road)