Yamen

A Yamen (Chinese衙门) is a local authority in imperial China, from the true took office in that management area from the respective district magistrate and prefect.

Typical tasks of the county and prefecture - Yamen was about the local finance, public works, civil and criminal justice as well as the proclamation of imperial decrees. On the provincial level, a stronger separation of duties by a technical point was recorded: The three line officers (三大 宪San Da Xiàn ) were responsible with their respective Yamen for legislation and administration, the judiciary and military affairs. There was also Yamen on imperial level; the most famous of which, the Zongli Yamen took the duties of a Foreign Office.

Structurally consisted of Yamen usually from a front gate, a courtyard and a hall. Attached were offices, holding cells and storerooms. Usually lived administration officials with his family on the grounds of Yamen. Notably, the was during the Qing Dynasty, when officials for the official practice was prohibited in their home area to avoid conflicts of interest.

The Yamen in their classic forms, finally fell to the Wuchang Uprising and the Xinhai Revolution to the victim, in the course of which swung open the warlords to the actual rulers. The administrative structures created later by Sun Yat-sen, however, attacked the concept of partial Yamen again.

• Chinese History