| + | *In the [[Forbidden City]], during the Tang Dynasty, emperors sat together with their grand councilors to discuss matters of state. In the Song, officials stood in the emperor's presence. In the Ming, the emperor sat on a raised dais, and the officials knelt in his presence. Behind the audience hall were the emperor's private chambers and harem. In 1425, the palace had 6300 cooks serving 10,000 people every day. By the 17th century, there may have been as many as 9000 court ladies and 70,000 eunuchs. - Craig, Heritage of Chinese Civilization, 107-108. |
| *The number of county seats in the [[Chinese bureaucracy]] remained relatively stable over the centuries, as county boundaries were regularly redrawn to accommodate the growing population. They numbered 1180 in the Han, 1235 in Tang, 1230 in Song, 1115 in Yuan, 1385 in Ming, and 1360 in Qing. - Benjamin Elman, ''A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China'', University of California Press (2000), 130. | | *The number of county seats in the [[Chinese bureaucracy]] remained relatively stable over the centuries, as county boundaries were regularly redrawn to accommodate the growing population. They numbered 1180 in the Han, 1235 in Tang, 1230 in Song, 1115 in Yuan, 1385 in Ming, and 1360 in Qing. - Benjamin Elman, ''A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China'', University of California Press (2000), 130. |