In the minds of many people, the ranking of local officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties should be as follows: governors, inspectors, envoys, envoys, daotai, and so on. For example, the governor of zhili, the governor of Liangjiang, and other feudal officials are certainly one notch higher than the governors of the provinces. But this is not the case, and although the governor is not as large as the governor's jurisdiction, he is not necessarily afraid of the governor. The Viceroy of Liangjiang was able to administer 3 provinces, but in terms of his ability to control Jiangsu Province, it was even possible that he could not defeat the Governor of Jiangsu.
First, let's look at the history of the Governor and the Governor. During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, inspectors and viceroys gradually appeared. At first, they were all temporary official positions, but in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the inspector gradually became a fixed local official, and the governor was still temporary. Only the governors of Jiliao and the governors of the three sides were exceptional, and official positions such as the governor of Zhejiang were temporary. After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a series of ming systems were adopted, but they were improved. During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, governors and inspectors gradually became normalized local officials. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, each province had an inspector, and every two or three provinces had a governor, and only the viceroy directly under the governor and the governor of Sichuan administered one province. On the face of it, the governor manages one province, the governor manages two or three provinces, and the governor should be the superior of the inspector, but this is not the case.
The Governor was from Yipin, hanging the title of Shangshu of the Bingbu Department. The inspector is zheng erpin or from the second product, hanging the title of the right capital of the imperial history of the capital chayuan. In terms of rank, the governor is higher than the inspector. However, the titles of hanging posts are all false, and the key moments still need to look at real power. The governor was responsible for the military affairs of two or three provinces, for example, the governor of Liangjiang was sitting in Nanjing, and could manage the Green Battalion army in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces. In addition to General Jiangning, the Viceroy of Liangjiang was the highest governor in the southeast region. However, the Governor of Liangjiang could only manage military affairs, and the Inspector was the highest governor of a province, responsible for all aspects of military, government, civil affairs and finance. The envoys are responsible for economic construction and civil affairs, the envoys are responsible for public security and judicial work, and the xuezheng are responsible for the education work of the whole province. Inspectors have great privileges in the province and are known as Futai or Zhongcheng Lord. The Governor has his own advantages over the Governor.
Although the governor can manage the military affairs of two or three provinces, he cannot interfere in local administration. In fact, the governor also has the power to manage the military affairs of a province, but if there is a conflict with the governor in military affairs, the opinion of the governor needs to prevail. However, in other areas such as economy and civil affairs, the governor has no right to interfere. Otherwise, there is a high probability that the inspectors, envoys, and envoys will be jointly impeached. In times of war, because of the war, the governor was indeed able to restrain the patrol. But in times of peaceful development, the governor does not necessarily have more power than the governor. For example, the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the Governor of Shaanxi, had much higher administrative control over Shaanxi Province than the Governor-General. In Jiangsu Province, the Governor of Liangjiang sat in Nanjing, and the Governor of Jiangsu sat in Suzhou. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Governor of Jiangsu was even able to suppress the Viceroy of Liangjiang. Due to the peace in the world, the Governor of Liangjiang had no way to do anything.
The situation was even more embarrassing for the Viceroy of Huguang and the Governor of Yungui, with both the Governor of Huguang and the Governor of Hubei living in Wuchang, while the Governor of Yunnan and the Governor of Yungui were in Kunming. Since the governor and the governor were in the same city, the good drama began. The governor nominally suppressed the governor, but the inspector had more power than the governor. The two feudal officials often fought openly and secretly with each other, and even staged stories of mutual impeachment. Of all the governors, only the Viceroy of Zhili and the Viceroy of Sichuan were particular, both of whom administered only one province and therefore held the post of Inspector. In other words, it belongs to the governor and the inspector. Therefore, the viceroy of Sichuan and the viceroy directly under the governor held all the great powers, and the governors of other provinces were very envious.
Because the issue of overseeing the same city has been unresolved, it directly affected the financial expenditure of the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the Qing dynasty, the Qing dynasty decided to carry out administrative reforms. Those provinces that oversee the same city are dismissed as inspectors. For example, the Viceroy of Huguang concurrently served as the Governor of Hubei and the Governor of Yungui concurrently served as the Governor of Yunnan, and the Viceroy of Liangjiang and the Governor of Jiangsu were not in the same city, and in order to strengthen the power of the Viceroy of Liangjiang, the Qing Dynasty also handed over the salt affairs of the Lianghuai region to the Viceroy of Liangjiang. In the final stages of Qing rule, due to the chaos in various places, the Qing Dynasty trained new armies in the provinces and handed over local financial power to the governors. By this time, the governor's power exceeded that of the governor, but this situation came to an abrupt end after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.