[…] I groped from step to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the banister with my pocket-handkerchief.

The Viceroy (Tsung-tu or Chih-tai) of the two provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi had his official residence in those days at Shiuhing, some fifty miles up-river from Canton, but was often at Canton at critical times. He was supreme in civil matters with in his jurisdiction, except for the independent jurisdiction of the Hoppo, and was ultimately responsible for maintaining law and order.

For it seemed flatly impossible that different people should look exactly and undistinguishably alike.

The best guide to this change is a New York University lecturer named Geoff Shullenberger, who has written a pair of essays exploring the political valence of Foucauldian ideas.