THE  GOVERNMENT  69
are  selected  from  the  official  class,  the  class  known  as
“  expectant  ”  Hsien,  Fu,  or  Tao  men  qualified  to  serve  in
the  posts  for  which  they  are  expectant,  inscribed  on  the
register  of  the  Board  of  Civil  Office,  but  not  yet  nominated
to  a  substantive  post.  Entry  to  this  state  of  expectancy
is  in  theory  the  result  of  examination  in  literature  ;  this
is  a  glorious  tradition  ;  a  hundred  years  ago  it  was  in
the  main  probably  true,  but  to-day  money  and  political
influence  are  the  keys  which  open  the  gates  of  political
preferment.

IV.  The  Township  and  Village
The  Hsien  is  the  civic,  political,  judicial  and  fiscal  unit
of  Chinese  life  ;  it  comprises  one  walled  city,*  or  in  the  case
of  many  of  the  provincial  capitals  the  half  of  a  walled  city
(in  the  case  of  Soochow  the  third  of  the  city),  with  the
country  immediately  around  it.  In  it  every  Chinese
subject  is  inscribed,  and  this  inscription  he  does  not  willingly
forfeit  or  abandon,  no  matter  to  what  part  of  the  Empire
or  of  the  outer  world  his  vocation  may  call  him.  Here  is
his  ancestral  temple  if  he  is  of  the  gentry,  his  ancestral
home  in  any  case  ;  here  will  he  return,  if  permitted,  in  the
evening  of  his  life,  and  here  will  his  bones  be  sent  should  he
die  abroad.  During  the  whole  of  his  life  he  is  identified
with  his  Hsien  ;  it  may  be  convenient,  and  may  elucidate
his  political  policy,  to  speak  of  Li  Hung-chang  as  an  Anhwei
man,  but  to  his  fellow-countryman  he  is  the  Hofei  (hsien)
man.
The  official  head  of  this  district  is  the  Chih-hsien,  who
may  be  called  Mayor,  if  it  be  understood  that  the  municipal
limits  extend  until  they  meet  the  territory  of  the  adjoining
municipalities.  His  official  salary  may  be  from  Tls.  100
to  Tls.  300  (£15  to  £50)  a  year,  with  an  allowance  “  for  the
encouragement  of  integrity  among  officials  ”  amounting
to  three  or  four  times  his  salary  ;  the  emoluments  of  his
*  The  cases  of  cities  without  walls,  in  outlying  corners  of  the
Empire,  are  so  very  few  as  not  to  affect  the  general  statement.