Convict Politics and Convict Economy

Scholars of Chinese history are well acquainted with the use of convict labor in constructing infrastructure, serving in armies, erecting monuments, and aiding in the establishment of settlements in newly acquired territories. This chapter explores the role of convict labor in local government. I argue that convict laborers were integrated as essential aides to officials. While they were exploited as both objects and instruments to sustain the political economy, convicts simultaneously occupied crucial roles in operating the governmental apparatus and administering the populace. The local administrative space functioned as an open prison. Despite the brutality inherent in the exploitation of convict labor, the unearthed administrative documents masked the grim reality, projecting a veneer of civilized order onto this group. Legal statutes and administrative records granted bureaucrats and scribe–functionaries the authority to control convicts; paradoxically, these same documents also subjected the bureaucrats and scribe–functionaries to scrutiny. Failure to meet expected job performance standards could result in criminalization, turning these officials into convicts themselves.