In his short story "The Great Wall of China," Franz Kafka wonderfully evokes the enormity and complexity of imperial China by describing the travails of a messenger struggling to make his way out of the vast palace complex in Beijing to deliver a missive from the emperor. Though he sets out at once, "how vainly does he wear out his strength" as he pushes his way through the palace throng; "still he is only making his way through the chambers of the innermost palace"; still he is fighting his way down the stairways, and crossing the crowded courts; "and so on for thousands of years."
Indeed, as Jonathan Spence says in this remarkable new book, the emperor's court was so remote that for most Chinese it was "like the moon." This posed a problem since the emperor was supposed to rule, and ruling required communication and surveillance. A sophisticated reporting system was therefore utilized to keep him informed of events throughout the realm.
Such a system was particularly necessary because sedition was said to be rife in the land. The ruling Manchus had overthrown the Ming Dynasty some 80 years before, but even now dissidents were still being detected. One came to the attention of authorities in 1728, when an anonymous letter libeling Emperor Yongzheng was delivered to a government official in a remote province.