This study denominated the Qing era “an era of exile” and clarified the character of the Qing dynasty as a successor to the Chinese tradition.
The present study focuses on three significant factors for exile punishments in the Qing dynasty that have not been emphasized to date: the fact that exile was widely executed as a real punishment, that general counties in the mainland became the place of exile, and that the emergence of various problems such as the management of criminals became an internal factor in exile reform and, by extension, the traditional five-punishment system. I considered two issues in performing this research. First, I investigated the background to the widespread use of exile punishments in the Qing dynasty. Second, I considered the aspects of exile execution and how to deal with the problems derived from it, together with central norms and aspects of local treatment.
In short, exile was an ancient yet controversial system within Chinese history that was inherited by the Qing dynasty. The Qing rulers engaged with traditional challenges as well as China’s well-developed criminal law, administrative system, and local organizations. In dealing with exile as a form of punishment, the Qing dynasty acted as a faithful implementer of traditional Chinese law rather than as a reformer.