In 1644, with the Death of the Chongzhen Emperor, the Qing Dynasty officially began. As a nomadic people, the political system of the Qing Dynasty itself was actually not perfect. Therefore, when the Qing Dynasty was just founded, many systems were directly copied from the Ming Dynasty.
Among them, the Ming Dynasty's patrol system was also completely continued.
During the Ming Dynasty, the inspector was originally only a temporary official position. The so-called inspector was initially just a title for central officials to go to the local level to supervise the inspection. However, after the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty, this official position began to be localized. This is mainly because during the Ming Dynasty, transportation was not very developed, and it was often inconvenient to send central officials to local areas. Instead of doing so, it would be better to establish such an official position at the local level.
After the Chenghua period, the Ming Dynasty completely abolished the regulations for inspectors to go to Beijing to discuss matters. This is tantamount to formally recognizing the inspector as a local permanent official. After the Entry of the Qing Dynasty, the post of Inspector also continued, and he became the highest official of the provincial administrative unit.
That's how the post of Inspector, which we are familiar with today, came about.
But you know what? Among the provinces of the Qing Dynasty, there was only one inspector, which was extremely special. The most special thing about this is the Inspector of Shandong. The other inspectors were all from the official position of Erpin, but the inspector of Shandong was the official position of Zhengerpin, which was half a pin higher than the other inspectors, and sat on an equal footing with the governor.
Do you know why?
In fact, the reason why the Inspector of Shandong is half a pin is because the location of Shandong is relatively special. The Qing Dynasty was most critical in two places, one was the directly subordinate area in the north and the other was the Liangjiang region in the south. The former was the capital of the Qing Dynasty and the political center of the Qing Dynasty. The latter was the most important source of taxation for the Qing Dynasty and can be said to be the money bag of the Qing Dynasty. As long as these two places are well grasped, the Qing Dynasty will not be unstable.
For example, the San Fan Rebellion during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty was because the Qing Dynasty firmly grasped these two places, which finally won the victory.
And the place between Zhili and Liangjiang is Shandong. In order to transport the taxes and grain and grass of the two rivers to Zhili, they must pass through Shandong. It can be said that only by ensuring the stability of Shandong can we ensure that the two rivers are completely connected and maintain the stability of the country.
Similarly, once there is a problem in Shandong, the Qing Dynasty is not far from extinction. For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the governor of Shandong was Yuan Shikai, who later single-handedly ended the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, from the perspective of maintaining national stability, it is necessary that the governor of Shandong is consistent with the position of viceroy directly under the governor and the governor of Liangjiang.