A composite work whose author states in his pref. that he collected several juan of materials on the “tasks of the time” (集有時務數卷) when he was employed at the Ministry of Public Works, while at the same time enriching his knowledge of government by reading Lü Kun’s and She Ziqiang’s government manuals (治譜) (see under Shizheng lu and Zhipu; Zheng writes Yu 余 instead of She 佘, as do the Siku commentators). The work thus appears to date from Zheng’s early career as a capital official. Lü Kun is very frequently quoted, She Ziqiang more rarely so. The text discusses the tasks and various problems of every administrative unit and official position in the empire, from the Grand Secretariat down to localities. The essays on the Grand Secretariat and ministries (j. 1) and on individual provinces (j. 2) consist essentially of quotations from memorials and decisions dating from the Shunzhi and early Kangxi periods. Most sections in j. 1 begin with a structural overview of the agency concerned, indicating its origins and functions before discussing more detailed topics. Besides information concerning the geography and natural resources of each region, the considerations on the various official positions in the provinces in j. 2, from governors down to government students, quote liberally from Lü Kun’s Mingzhi pian (q.v.) and other writings; the subbureaucracy is also discussed. J. 3-5 are the equivalent of an extremely comprehensive and detailed standard magistrate handbook, starting with the appointment at the capital, then discussing the proper conduct of the official in his dealings with his colleagues, his subordinates, and the populace (including a few sections which are unusually frank in their approach), yamen organization, and the various tasks at hand, in the form of usually short paragraphs; however the essays on tax administration, famine relief, and the administration of justice in j. 5 are fairly extensive. The information on the practical side of administration in j. 4-5 occasionally provides a step-by-step guide on how to handle grain, taxes, legal affairs, and so on; much attention is paid to such minutiae of governance as procedural issues, proper methods for filling out forms, things to watch out for, etc. Although the work is clearly by Zheng Duan, for some reason the authorship at the beginning of j. 1 in the Congshu jicheng chubian version is given as “written (撰) by Yin Huiyi” 尹會一 (1691-1748) and compiled (輯) by Zheng Duan.”