Grand Council (Qing dynasty)

'Office for Military and Confidential Affairs'; Manchu: coohai nashūn i ba), officially the Banli Junji Shiwu Chu (Chinese: 辦理軍機事務處; lit.

Despite its important role in the government, the Grand Council remained an informal policy making body in the inner court and its members held other concurrent posts in the Qing civil service.

The Southern Study (Chinese: 南書房; pinyin: Nánshūfáng; Manchu: Julergi bithei boo) was an institution that held the highest policy-making power after its establishment in 1677.

Members of the Hanlin Academy, selected based on literary merit, were posted to the Study so that the Emperor had easy access to them when he sought counsel or discussion.

[1] After defeating the Dzungars, the Yongzheng Emperor found that the streamlined operations of the Office of Military Secrets avoided problems with bureaucratic inefficiency.

Its proximity to the Emperor and inner court, secrecy, and unofficial status allowed it to expand and sustained its central role in state administration, and also freed it from some of the constraints of many of the outer-court agencies.

[6] During the regencies of the empress dowagers Ci'an and Cixi, the Grand Council took on many of the decision-making duties, particularly as the two women were novices in affairs of state.

Soon after the two women became regents for the Tongzhi Emperor in 1861, edicts went out detailing how state papers and affairs were to be dealt with, with many of the policies being decided by the Grand Council.

Such a configuration would lead Zeng Guofan to remark, after an audience in 1869, that "the state of affairs hinged entirely on the Grand Councilors....whose power surpassed that of the imperial master."

From that time until the nearly simultaneous deaths of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor a decade later, they jointly received the Grand Council at audiences.

The most senior among them was called the Chief Councilor (Chinese: 領班軍機大臣; pinyin: lǐngbān jūnjī dàchén), but this was simply a working designation and was not an official title.