Li Tuo the Mandarin has a very oblique and obscure origin in a film that I used to be fascinated by when I was very young, The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness, the biopic of the missionary, Gladys Aylward. That was the first time I heard about the local administration of China through Mandarins who dispensed justice from their palaces. A little research into such things gave me the idea of Li taking a position as Mandarin. Of course, he would have a wife and she would be a sweet, beautiful young thing. Li’s love for a succession of women marks him out from most of the Time Lords we have ever known before.

Whether his compassion and desire for justice marks him out from other Mandarins, I cannot answer. I don’t know enough about that system of government. Hopefully there were wise, just men like him in charge of Chinese provinces under that old feudal system.

What is certain is that the Mandarin’s Palace was also a magistracy, a prison and a place of execution and since beheading was the method of execution most of what happened during Marion and Kristoph’s visit is accurate enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_Dynasty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_%28bureaucrat%29
http://chinahistoryforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t6547.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inn_of_the_Sixth_Happiness