Also -oun, -ēn. [Chinese ya tent or pavilion of a general, official residence, office + mun gate.] The office or official residence of a Chinese mandarin; hence, any department of the Chinese public service, as the tsung li yamun or Chinese ‘foreign office,’ established in 1860.
1827. H. E. Lloyd, Timkowski’s Trav., iii. I. 111. The tribunal (called the yamoun) is the supreme court of the country of the Kalkas: it has the civil and military jurisdiction, and administers justice: sentence is past according to the printed code of laws.
1858. Merc. Marine Mag., V. 45. He saw pagodas, and yamuns.
1883. Sunday Mag., 632. The yamun or official residence of the county magistrate.
1891. Daily News, 28 July, 5/1. He … made a run for the official yamen, but was overtaken before he could reach it, and murdered with every circumstance of fiendish barbarity.
1907. Times, 30 May, 5/2. The intention is to attack and burn every yamên and to exterminate all the officials with the object of overthrowing the Government.
