Abstract: As a punitive measure，the confiscation of household property did not originate in Qing times．But it was not until the Qing that property confiscation was extensively imposed on guilty officials and became a hallmark of Qing politics．Investigations of confiscation in Qing have already been done，yet these studies have lacked precision in numerical terms and the subject requires more accurate description．The growth of digitalized archival materials has resulted in an increase of text-searchable literature and the work of examining large amounts of documents has become more feasible and efficient than ever before．For the first time a statistical analysis of the topic has become possible．This paper is an initial effort to provide a systematic statistical account of property confiscation employing a thorough examination of Qing Palace Archives that addresses the scale，frequency，and incidence of Qing property confiscations． For the whole Qing dynasty more than two thousands records have been captured but they were unevenly distributed in the Yongzheng ( 1723 － 1735) ，Qianlong ( 1736 － 1795) ，and Guangxu ( 1875 － 1908) reigns，both of which showed a high frequency of confiscation．This study has also found that property confiscation involved a great number of officials’subordinates，servants，relatives，and other individuals of various social statuses such as merchants，lower gentry，and commoners．As for the reasons for confiscation，although Qing statutes listed about a dozen grounds，the reality was not always in accord with the law; statistical results show that deficits，treason，and corruption were the three most common offenses，whereas malfeasance，poor military performances，and literary inquisition cases accounted for the many other confiscations．In the Qing，whether to confiscate or not depended much on the emperor’s will，and the punishment was enforced to varied degrees in different times．