Hook sinking | in ancient China, this system has an extremely important position

In the history of china's ancient local supervision system, the Ming and Qing supervision system has an extremely important position. The standardization of the exercise of the supervision power and the strict supervision and restraint of the supervision and supervision power have played an important role in maintaining local stability and maintaining the centralized power system.

The formation and evolution of the Ming and Qing dynasties supervision system

Ming Taizu drew lessons from the chaos of previous dynasties and attached great importance to the role of the supervision system. In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), the Xingzhongshu Province, which had been used too much power in the Yuan Dynasty in the early Ming Dynasty and posed a threat to centralized power, was abolished, and the administrative organs of the provinces were divided into three. The Department of Political Envoys is set up to be in charge of civil affairs and finances, the Prefecture commander is set up to be in charge of military affairs and government, and the Department of Punishment is set up to be in charge of justice and supervision.

The three divisions coexist, do not belong to each other, independently exercise their respective powers, and check and balance each other in order to strengthen the central control over the localities. All major affairs in the province must be jointly agreed upon by the three divisions and implemented after approval by the imperial court. However, the three divisions at the provincial level do not belong to each other, and in the event of major affairs, coordination between the divisions is not easy, and it is difficult to make decisions, which affects the efficiency of governance. In order to solve this problem, the governor's patrol system gradually emerged.

The system of patrolling had begun to sprout during the years of Hongwu and Jianwen. In the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421), the imperial court sent Eight people, including Shangshu Jianyi, to tour the provinces, marking the beginning of the formation of the Ming Dynasty patrol system. Xuande's five-year provincial patrol system was basically established.

In the fourth year of Jingtai, the titles of Inspector Gadu Chayuan Deputy Capital Yushi or Yudu Yushi became customized to exercise the supervision function, so its power was "the heaviest impeachment". Yang Jizong patrolled Yunnan with the imperial history of the capital you, and "impeached eight people who did not hold office". Guangxi Inspector Li Shi impeached Huang Runyu "did not understand the criminal law", and Huang was moved to Zhi County. Inspector Han Yong of Datong "impeached the general soldiers, the generals who were greedy for money, and the slack preparedness, all arrested in the law."

During the Orthodox years, because of the inter-provincial unrest, there were frequent disturbances, and the provincial governors often "could not revitalize the strategy of joint subordinates and revive the teachers of sin." Thus, the establishment of a governor to deal with military affairs emerged. Subsequently, the governor's power gradually involved administrative affairs and controlled local military affairs. During the years of Zhengde and Jiajing, the governors were successively set up in various places. Since the governor took the title of metropolitan imperial history or vice capital of the imperial court, he was the inspector of the imperial court, "the title of governor with the wind constitution is not only the local pros and cons, that is, the great politics of the imperial court are all unintenable." In the Wanli Calendar, Jin Fu Wei Yunzhen and Huai Fu Li Sancai "are extremely concerned about the affairs of the world, and reading their performances is rare, that is, the Way of Science" is rare."

In the relationship between the Governor and the Governor, the Governor is under the governor's control but not subordinate to the governor. The governor not only belongs to the local supervision system, but also controls local military and political affairs, "ruling over the soldiers and the people, stabbing the priests, controlling chaos on one side, and covering the affairs of the people." It had an important impact on the politics of the Ming Dynasty.

In the early Qing Dynasty, local supervision basically followed the Ming Dynasty system, and the governor had become the highest local military and political chief in the Qing Dynasty. The governor and the governor, because they also have the constitutional title, are part of the central supervision system, have the power to supervise and evaluate local officials at all levels, "take it as their duty to rectify the officials, and when there is a bad record of unscrupulous subordinates, they should participate in impeachment at any time" when they visit and hear about it." The imperial history patrol system, which played an important role in local supervision in the Ming Dynasty, was only implemented for fourteen years during the Shunzhi period, and was abolished in the last year of Shunzhi.

The governor was a feudal official, but the official official of the governor was only the governor or inspector. Such a system design also means that although the governor claims to be omnipotent in local affairs, he does not actually deal with specific affairs, and local specific affairs are carried out by the Second Division. In the early Qing Dynasty, the term of office of the governor was also relatively short, generally only two or three or three or four years. These measures reduced the likelihood that the governor would form a local interest group to counter the imperial court.

The characteristics and role of the Ming and Qing supervision system

First, the rulers attach great importance to the supervision and supervision system. The rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties attached great importance to the supervision system, and gave the supervision a lot of power in the system, and the Yongzheng Dynasty's "Great Qing Huidian" stipulated, "The establishment of the supervision, the rule of the civil and military, the Dong Lishu post, the picket assessment, and its full-time appointment." In the twelfth year of Qianlong, it was stipulated that "the general system of hundreds of officials should be supervised, and the two divisions of the cloth should be subordinate to the officials." In ancient China, as a bureaucratic administrative state, the bureaucracy was hierarchical, and shangguan had great authority over subordinate officials. The Governor and Inspector of the Qing Dynasty served as the highest local administrative heads and held constitutional positions at the same time. The Governor-General took the rank of Right Inspector Of the Imperial Household from Yipin and the Inspector took the rank of Right Vice-Governor Of The Imperial History, and was stationed in the provinces to supervise the local governments, which was higher than the rank of the local inspectors in any era in history, and had a very high authority at the local level. The governor and the governor supervise the prefectures and counties, and the governor and the inspector supervise each other, and the local officials at all levels are strictly supervised. It is precisely because of the great attention of the rulers that the supervision system can play an active role in local supervision.

The second is to supervise the supervision of the governor in handling local affairs. As the highest local administrative head, the governor sits in the locality, and the governor has the right to "comprehensively manage the military and the people, control the civil and military forces, evaluate officials, and repair wounds and seal the territory." The inspector is the chief in charge of the local affairs of a province, "in charge of announcing morality and intentions, soothing the people, repairing the political punishment, reviving the pros and cons, and evaluating officials." "Its mandate involves all aspects of local government affairs. Supervision of the handling of local government affairs by the superintendent is more conducive to improving the effectiveness of supervising local government affairs.

Third, the power of supervision is subject to the checks and balances of the system. From the superficial point of view of the system, the integration of the power of supervision and supervision is easy to cause the monopoly of the power of local governors, which is contradictory to the centralization of power, which is not conducive to the coordinated development of central and local relations. However, it should be noted that although the governor has the highest local administrative power in the system, the following two points have greatly weakened the influence of the governor in the actual operation of the power. First, in the handling of major local affairs, the final decision power is not in the governor, but in the imperial court and the emperor, the power of the overseer is limited. Second, the governor is the highest local governor, but the governor does not have a second official, and the specific administrative affairs are handled by the second division in accordance with the provisions of the system, and the governor does not interfere. Therefore, its right to dispose of local affairs is greatly restricted, preventing the excessive concentration of supervision power.

The Ming and Qing supervision system played a great role in strengthening the centralization of power. The supervision system developed to the Qing Dynasty, the governor as a magistrate was originally Zheng Erpin, due to the concurrent title of Right Capital Yushi, became from Yipin, and the inspector was promoted from Erpin to Zhengerpin. This has the highest status in the local supervision and local administrative structure in ancient China, and strengthens the authority of the local supervision mechanism.

In addition, as the highest inspector of the central government stationed in the local area, the Ming and Qing governors held a high position of authority, and in terms of institutional setup and operation mechanism, there were no officials who could be paralleled or of higher status, and they could be restrained or interfered with, and although the inspectors were institutionally controlled by the governor, they were not subordinate officials of the governor and also exercised the power of supervision independently. Even the local supervision bodies under the control of supervision and control exercise their supervisory powers independently, which is an important factor in the effective functioning of the supervision mechanism.

Supervision and restraint of the supervision power

In order to prevent the ming and qing governors from abusing the supervision power and corrupting the law, the Ming and Qing rulers took the following measures to supervise and restrain the supervision power.

First, the inspector from the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau' Inspector Goshi. For example, during the Ming Dynasty' Chenghua Dynasty, the Inspector of Liaodong was impeached by Wang Chongzhi of the Imperial History, and tried his best to deceive the enemy. Hu Zongming, who was in charge of Liaodong during the Jiajing Dynasty, was demoted for supervising the impeachment of Yu shi.

Second, the supervision organs and their officials supervised and restrained each other, such as the Kangxi Governor Zhang Boxing participating in the impeachment of the Governor Gari, the Yongzheng Dynasty Governor Li Fu participating in the impeachment of the Henan Governor Tian Wenjing who abused the right to participate in the impeachment, and the Zhejiang Governor Li Wei and the Governor of Liangjiang, Fan Shixuan, and other governors participating in the case, which is a typical case of mutual supervision by local inspectors.

Third, although the post of governor is to supervise subordinate local officials, if the superintendent violates the discipline program, the subordinate officials also have the right to supervise, such as Yang Zongli, the governor of Sichuan, who was named zuo to participate in politics because of the impeachment of Zhang Wenkui, an official of the Department of Political Affairs.

Fourth, local inspectors should be strictly evaluated. Appraisal is an important restraint measure and supervision method for officials. Although the governor was a local administrator, because the governors all carried the title of constitutional, they were included in the sequence of officials at the same level as the left capital yushi and the vice capital yushi for evaluation. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, strengthening supervision over supervision officials and strengthening mutual supervision and mutual inspection of the supervision system was conducive to giving better play to the functions of the supervision power in preventing and punishing corruption.

In short, the Ming and Qing dynasties were an important stage in the development of the history of China's local supervision system, and the supervision and supervision system established during the Ming and Qing dynasties under the direct control of the imperial power played an important role in local governance, anti-corruption and honesty, and straightened out the relationship between the central and local governments, so that the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty had a long period of official rule and social stability. However, as a product of the monarchical system, the supervision system has its inherent limitations, and the function of the supervision organ is inextricably linked to the monarch's will and the changes in the situation. In particular, due to the turmoil in the country, the rise of the overseers has formed a situation in which the tail cannot be lost. The serious loss of supervision and supervision functions and the spread of official corruption became one of the reasons for the eventual collapse of the Qing Dynasty.

(The author is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Politics and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law)