Yamen
A Yamen ( Chinese 衙門 / 衙门 , Pinyin Yámen , Jyutping Ngaa 4 mun 4 * 2 ) was a local authority in imperial China , from which the respective district administrator or prefect performed the official business of the respective administrative area.
Typical tasks of the county and prefecture yamen included local finance, public works, civil and criminal justice, and the announcement of imperial decrees. At the provincial level, there was a stronger separation of duties according to technical aspects: The three management officials ( 三大 憲 / 三大 宪 , Sàn Dàxiàn ) were responsible for legislation and administration, for the judiciary and for military matters with their respective yamen . There were also yamen at the imperial level; the most famous of them, the Zongli Yamen , performed the duties of a foreign office.
Structurally, the yamen usually consisted of a front gate, a courtyard and a hall. Offices, detention cells and storage rooms were connected. The line officer usually lived on the yamen site with his family. This was particularly true during the Qing Dynasty , when officials were forbidden from exercising their duties in their home territory in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Yamen in their classic forms finally fell victim to the Wuchang uprising and the Xinhai revolution , in the course of which the warlords rose to become the real rulers. The administrative structures created later by Sun Yat-sen , however, partly took up the concept of the yamen again.