So I remember a while back, I picked up Law and Order in Sung China, expecting to read up on chapters and chapters on Bu Kuai in Zhan Zhao's tradition. Instead, I was treated to a truly impressive discourse on the Baojia militia, the civilian sheriffs and their archers, and the military Xunjian (Patrolling-Inspectors) and their soldiers. However, the Bu Kuai had no mention at all!

So what place did they play in the Song system of law enforcement? In other dynasties, if they were around?

I assume that they were civilian and not military. Were they grouped among the archers in civilian law enforcement? Were they equivalent to the policeman you see every day, patrolling the streets? Or were they dispatched on assignments? How did they differ from the archers in responsibilities and equipment (and remuneration or rank and prestige)?

Just wondering, what is chinese character for "Bu kuai"?

捕快。

I probably should have said it in the original post.

捕快(bu kuai)

This word means that a man responsible for the rapid arrest.

捕---arrest

快---rapid or very fast

8-]

The word is not the wording of the Song Dynasty.

In song county-level law and order system,县尉( County Sheriff) is the core and accept the governor's leadership.

县尉( County Sheriff) manage many people,they called 弓手(bow man).

It's not wording of the Song dynasty?

Just out of curiosity, where do the men like Zhan Zhao fit in then? I was curious because Law and Order in Sung China only mentioned the sheriffs and their archers.

Hi Zongbao,

I did a quick search on "bukuai" in my dictionaries and in Charles Hucker's Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Here's what I came up with:

- Another name for bukuai was buyi 捕役.
- Neither bukuai nor buyi was an official title that came with a salary.
- Bukuai were employees of the local yamen, in charge of arrests.
- They were hired from the local population.
- There is no mention of bukuai in any of the official histories.
- The earliest mention of bukuai the Hanyu da cidian mentions is from Hong lou meng! This suggests that "bukuai" was indeed not a Song term.

Cheers,
Madalibi

PS: Could you tell us more about Zhan Zhao? Where did you see the term "bukuai"?

wo~~~~~~~~~~

zhan zhao?

8-]

I regret to tell you that there is not this man in history. The characters come from a novel named <<七侠五义>>( 7 heroes and 5 friends).

Many many chinaese people very like this novel,so many many chinaese think he is real man in history.but not.

8-]

This is precisely why I was asking: I had never heard of him! Glad to know that my ignorance was not about an important historical figure.

Madalibi

In novels, he is Bao Zheng's major bodyguard and bu kuai.

Those are Ming novels though, if I'm correct, so I think it should at least predate Hong Lou Meng, but of course, I've already shown myself to be iffy on the subject of Bu Kuai!

I knew that name sounded familiar! I just couldn't place it. I believe his nickname was the "Royal Cat" (or something like that) for his acrobatic skill.


Is the Seven Heroes and Five Gallants where you read about the Bu Kuai? If not, where did you read about it? I have read McKnight's Law and Order in Sung China and don't remember reading about them either. I have A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China too. I'll have to look the entry up for "Bu Yi". To tell you the truth, the more I originally read this thread, the more I started thinking the Bu Kuai might have been the lowly attendants of the local magistrate who actually did the examining of bodies (as mentioned in Song Ci's treatise on Forensic science). I thought this because (if I remember correctly) Magistrates nor the bowmen were the people who actually arrested people. It was their lowly civilian counterparts. The two just sounded similar.

Bowmen were mostly interested in the maintenance of order, rather than arrests, correct? Yeah, I don't remember reading about them arresting people--just patrolling.

Well, I haven't read the whole novel, but bits and pieces and Chinese TV have done it for me. Yep, Zhao Zhao is the "Imperial Cat" or the "Southern Knight".

I have that dictionary too, but I can't seem to find the entry for Buyi. The dictionary jumps from A - C. What page did you find it on.


Yep. And sometimes they (along with their military counterparts) were the people who caused the trouble. Who was to police the police?

I have a book on Edo Period policemen and I believe they had a similar system of civilian helpers.

Hucker's book is classified by Wade-Giles spelling, so bukuai would read as pu-k'uai and would appear under "p." But neither "pu-k'uai" nor "pu-i" (buyi) is listed. To me this is a clear sign that bukuai was not an official post. Hanyu da cidian 漢語大詞典 says bukuai are also called buyi 捕役 ("corvee laborer [in charge of] captures"), and both Hanyu da cidian and the Grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise) say that bukuai were local constables who assisted the magistrate in arresting suspects. I'm sure they caused plenty of trouble of their own too, since magistrates sometimes hired local goons as constables to keep them under watch.

Finally, note that bukuai were not the same as those who examined corpses for the magistrate. Those coroners were called wu zuo 仵作 or xing wu 刑仵.

Cheers,
Madalibi

I ashamed that I didn't realize that. I know the difference between pinyin and wade-giles. I tend to be single-minded sometimes. Plus, it's been a while since I've cracked open the dictionary. So, with "B" (and not P), on my mind, I flipped to the end of the A's and hit the C's. Can you help pull the "KICK ME!" sign off my back?

I didn't remember the exact name for the coroners at the time. The two just sounded similar since they were civilians and worked closely with the magistrates. Thanks for the info anyway. I'm glad that this thread was created since a section of the novel I'm writing deals with Song law enforcement. I wonder if there are any scholarly papers on the subject that mention the buyi. I can't find mention of it in any of McKnight's other books. I guess that shows they really were not that indispensable.

On a related note, do you know where I can get the newest CD version of the Hanyu da cidian? I bet Ricci's dictionary cost you a pretty penny. I've seen the full set sell for 800 Euros and well over a $1,000 U.S.

These things happen to the best of us!


...or that McKnight was not thorough, or that he couldn't find relevant sources! Since Song local sources are much less abundant than, say, Qing local sources, silence on buyi does not necessarily mean they were not important. Of course we still have to make sure they even existed in the Song. Does McKnight say something about how (and by whom) criminals were arrested?

I did a quick Google research on buyi and bukuai and came up with a few sources in Chinese. I don't have time to do all the translations, but here are the links with brief descriptions:

http://baike.baidu.com/view/125157.htm (a brief introduction to bukuai, their many alternative names, and even their equipment; says that because bukuai had no salary, 敲诈勒索便成为一种风气! also claims that bukuai 捕快 was a contraction of buyi 捕役 and kuaishou 快手, and that the term bukuai appeared only in the Ming and Qing)

http://www.iguwan.net/topic.html?u=freemar...play&id=207 (picture and description of an authentic "bukuai sword"!!!)

http://www.legalhistory.com.cn/docc/tushu1...5&sortid=72 (link to a chapter in Huang Liuhong's 黃六鴻 Fuhui quanshu 福惠全書 [preface from 1694] on how local magistrates should manage arrests; contains the typical warnings on the wrongdoings of yamen personnel, among which the buyi are singled out; some of the problems mentioned (extortions, wrongful arrests, etc.) must have been common in the Song too; parts of Huang Liuhong's book have been translated/paraphrased as A Complete Book Concerning Happiness and Benevolence: Fu-hui ch'uan-shu, A Manual for Local Magistrates in Seventeenth-Century China (1984), but I don't know if the chapter on arrests is in the translation)


I have the three volume small-print edition of the Hanyu da cidian. I don't know where to procure the CD version of the Hanyu da cidian, but an Internet search should give you the answer. The Ricci is pricy, but if you're like me and you're in the field of Chinese history, this is something you'll keep using for the rest of your life. This is why I decided to purchase it. Never regretted it!

Cheers,
Madalibi

I have four of McKnight's books, all of which deal with law enforcement during the Song, and not one of them mentions them. One of his books is a lengthy translation of court cases from the 13th century ranging from black magic to theft. If I remember correctly, he stated that civilians working with the police did the arresting.


The available sources make it seem like they came about during the Ming and Qing dynasties.


I will definitely have to save up to buy Ricci's dictionary. I have a nasty problem with buying pricey scholarly books one after another. It really puts a strain on my bank account. I'm sure I can find the CD version of the Hanyu da cidian online somewhere. Thanks.