B. _Boards._--Besides boards concerned with the affairs of the court there were, before the pressure of foreign nations and the movement for reform caused changes to be made, six boards charged with the conduct of public affairs. They were: (1) _Li Pu_, the Board of Civil Appointments, controlling all appointments in the civil service from the rank of district magistrate upwards. (2) _Hu Pu_, the Board of Revenue, dealing with all revenues which reached the central government. (3) _Li Pu_, the Board of Ceremonies. (4) _Ping Pu_, the Board of War. It controlled the provincial forces. The Manchu forces were an independent organization attached to the palace. (5) _Hsing Pu_, the Board of Punishments. It dealt with the criminal law only, especially the punishment of officials guilty of malpractices. (6) _Kung Pu_, the Board of Works. Its work was limited to the control of the construction and repair of official residences.
As rearranged and enlarged there are now the following boards, given in order of precedence:--
1. _Wai-wu Pu_.--This was established in 1901 in succession to the _Tsung-li Yamên_,[33] which was created in 1861 after the Anglo-Chinese War in 1860 as a board for foreign affairs. Previous to that war, which established the right of foreign powers to have their representatives in Peking, all business with Western nations was transacted by provincial authorities, chiefly the viceroy at Canton. The only department at Peking which dealt specially with foreign affairs was the _Li Fan Yuen_, or board of control for the dependencies, which regulated the affairs of Mongolia, Tibet and the tributary states generally. With the advent of formally accredited ambassadors from the European powers something more than this was required, and a special board was appointed to discuss all questions with the foreign envoys. The number was originally four, with Prince Kung, a brother of the emperor Hien Fêng, at their head. It was subsequently raised to ten, another prince of the blood, Prince Ching, becoming president. The members were spoken of collectively as the prince and ministers. For a long time the board had no real power, and was looked on rather as a buffer between the foreign envoys and the real government. The importance of foreign affairs, however, especially since the Japanese War, identified the _Yamên_ more with the grand council, several of the most prominent men being members of both. At the same time that the _Tsung-li Yamên_ was created, two important offices were established in the provinces for dealing with foreign commercial questions, viz. the superintendencies of trade for the northern and southern ports. The negotiations connected with the Boxer outbreak proved so conclusively that the machinery to the _Tsung-li Yamên_ was of too antiquated a nature to serve the new requirements, that it was determined to abolish the _Yamên_ and to substitute for it a board (_Pu_) to be styled the _Wai-wu Pu_, or "board of foreign affairs."