taotain.
/ˈtaʊtʌɪ//ˈdaʊtʌɪ/ Historical.
The title given to the Chinese provincial officer responsible for the civil and military affairs of a district, abolished shortly after the establishment of the Republic in 1911.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > office > holder of office > magistrate > chief magistrate of a district > [noun] > Chinese
taotai1747
1747 New Gen. Coll. Voy. IV. i. vi. 253 To every District there also belongs a Mandarin, called Tau-ti.
1835 Chinese Repository 4 279 The class of officers next in rank to these are called taou or taoutae: they are not under the orders of the ‘two sze’, but of the governor and lieut.-governor, and it is their duty to take part in the ‘protection’ and ‘circuit-supervision’ of portions of the province.
1848 S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom I. vii. 345 The gabel and commissariat are mostly under the direction of officers called tau, or tautai, sometimes termed intendants of circuit, who have other functions in addition.
1848 S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom I. vii. 346 The tautai..are a kind of deputy of the governor-general and lieutenant-governor, residing in the tau, or circuits, into which each province is divided.
1895 Daily News 19 Jan. 6/6 A number of Chinese guerilla troops recently tried to enter Neuchwang. The taotai of the city closed the gates, and offered an armed resistance to their entry.
1926 Blackwood's Mag. Nov. 629/1 A mandarin named Liang was sent to the island as Taotai.
1943 J. T. Pratt War & Politics in China xii. 193 When the Revolution came to Shanghai the Taoti—the chief Chinese official—requested the consular body to take temporary charge of the court.
1959 P. Fleming Siege at Peking iii. 42 Henceforth Bishops would rank with Governors-General and Governors, Provicaires with Treasurers, Judges and Taotais, and so on down the respective hierarchies.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2018).
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n.1747