The pre- and mid-period supervision and envoys of the Northern Song Dynasty had a certain impact on both the current and future generations, both positive and negative, mainly reflected in the maintenance of social order, the rule of officials, the evaluation of political performance, agricultural production, and the management of local garrisons.
Positive impact
- (1) Rectifying the ruling order: consolidating centralized power and promoting local economic and cultural development
The establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty was not the end of the five generations of chaos, and the social order was not stable and was still in a relatively chaotic stage.
The rulers of the first two dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty needed to do a series of work to consolidate their rule, such as rebuilding the state order, restoring the credibility of the government, and recovering the hearts and minds of the people. The rulers of the Five Dynasties in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty believed that the design of the political system should consolidate the foundation of national rule.
Therefore, the supervision system, which is one of the foundations of the political system, is valued by the rulers.
The Northern Song Dynasty arose in the chaotic era of the late Tang dynasty.
During the Middle and Late Tang Dynasties, the continuous expansion of the clan and town caused the separation of the local government and the central government, and eventually led to the demise of the dynasty, which was not unrelated to the continuous expansion and loss of control of local officials.
In addition, the collection of taxes during the Five Dynasties period and the threat of local powers to the central government caused instability within the various separatist regimes.
The so-called "vassals are good at wealth and do not return to the royal palace", this is also the issue that the rulers of the early Song Dynasty paid the most attention to.
Therefore, in the early days of the establishment of the regime, in the first year of Song Taizu's Kaibao, Song Taizu ordered all provincial prefectures to "record their participation in the army and bow according to the book, and this judge will raise it" in view of the problem that "the prefectures of the provinces were chasing the rent of the counties, paying the officials of Kongmu with their status, supervising the regents without authorization, defrauding the people because of circumstances, and disturbing the people". ”
It is precisely because the implementation of policies is ensured in the form of formal edicts that the inspector becomes the local supervisor, or to a greater extent, the manager in the process.
In the sixth year of Kaibao (973), after pacifying the Guangnan region, Emperor Taizu of Song appointed Xu Ze as a judge, and Xu Ze's authority had the name of envoy.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the transfer envoy was actually only used as a "transshipment matter for a certain land and water meter", and also appeared as a supervision envoy during the period. It was not until the Qingli period that the transfer envoy was given the name of inspector, emphasizing his authority of "supervision and supervision".
Therefore, in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty, out of the need to rebuild the local economic order and re-clarify the way the state tax was collected, the imperial court set up local transfer envoys.
Cultural and educational affairs are the foundation and key to a country's rule, and the Transit Department has the supervision and management powers, which is the expression of the emperor's will at the local level, so it bears certain responsibilities in this regard.
The Transit Division exercised its authority to supervise the writing, dissemination and impeachment or related handling of private publications, which was crucial to stabilizing the social order of the early Song Dynasty.
What is more clear is that in the second year of Daizhong Xiangfu, he proposed to issue warnings to civilian and military officials, and at the same time ordered local inspectors to supervise the words and deeds of local officials and daily government affairs.
- (2) Strengthen management and supervision of officials
The attitude adopted by the two dynasties in the first two dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty when establishing various systems was "quite heavy", that is, to govern the world by formulating relatively strict laws.
In view of the corresponding judicial supervision and problems in the specific implementation process, "prudence" is also taken as the basic principle to handle affairs, and "loyalty" is used as the basis for system design, which has become the source of the system.
This is a requirement for officials at the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, which is a principled provision, and actual operation needs to be discussed according to the specific situation at that time.
At the beginning of the regime's establishment, the supervisory envoy served as an important deterrent to local officials and generals fighting on the border, especially as envoys sent directly by the emperor, who were entrusted with the emperor's orders to manage and supervise local officials and wrongdoing in the military.
It can be seen that the exercise of supervision directly comes from the deterrent power of the imperial power, and its existence has an important role in promoting the improvement of the national supervision system.
It can be seen from this that in the course of military operations, the supervision envoy supervises the actual performance of officials and reports the performance of officials in battle to the emperor, which has a certain degree of positive effect on the emperor's direct understanding of the battle situation on the front line.
As the state's supervisory body and supervision officials, its role is concentrated in the state's assessment of local officials' daily government affairs.
The inspectorate supervises local officials and functions as part of the national monitoring system.
In this process, the supervisory forces, represented by the transfer envoys, began to intervene in the illegal acts of local officials and dealt with the officials involved, which became an important means of deterring local officials.
Transfers, inspectors, and supervisors play a role in the local economic and military fields.
The continuous affirmation of the imperial court edict has consolidated the position of supervision in practical work, further clarified its source of power, and thus occupied a fairly solid position in the national supervision system.
- (3) Be able to maintain local judicial fairness and promote the improvement of the judicial system
In the political system established by the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a prominent principle of "separation of powers and checks and balances".
The power of officials is decentralized by the imperial power, and through the decomposition of the functions and powers of officials, the imperial power is concentrated to the greatest extent, thereby greatly reducing the risk of local threats to the central government.
The inspectorate supervises the trial of local legal work and the judicial conduct of officials, so as to ensure the fairness of local justice and the normal conduct of judicial work. In the course of their actual work, the relevant officials of the Department of Prisons ensure the normal order of the local legal system.
For example, the edict issued in the third year of Chunhua (992) stipulated: "In the future, the road-by-road transfer department shall investigate matters, and only one inspector will be sent. Or there is a large section of prison affairs, temporarily taken from the order. ”
It can be seen from this that in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the inspectorate had the power to check the cases that had been concluded in the localities. Officials serving as inspectors may re-examine the trial process and trial results of cases that have already been concluded.
The Transit Division and the Prison Department, as the organs with judicial re-examination powers in the Prison Department, may conduct additional inspections in the light of the proceedings of the case.
This is a positive effect of the supervision and envoy's exercise of judicial supervision functions, and parties in cases who are "poor and cannot be destitute" should be assisted and corresponding appeal channels provided, which will become a manifestation and supplement to local judicial management.
Negative effects
The positive role played by the supervisory envoy in the early days of the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the continuous stability of the social environment, the slackening of officials' subjectivity, the gradual loss of vigilance at the beginning of the establishment of the regime, the relaxed social environment of the literati, the prosperity of the imperial examination, and the proliferation of officials in office, constantly showed problems.
The supervisory function, which originally existed as a supervision and management official, gradually became an extremely cumbersome part of the state power system, and even caused the problem of inefficient administration.
The quality of officials serving as supervisors and servants varies from good to bad, and those with low administrative ability have even become factors that interfere with local social stability, causing extremely poor social impact and directly endangering national stability.
The most concentrated manifestation of this is administrative inefficiency; As a result of the low quality of officials, the effectiveness of supervision varies from person to person, and it is impossible to unify the two aspects.
- (1) The decline in administrative efficiency has hindered the normal administrative order
The provisions of the political system of the Song Dynasty were conducive to the consolidation of political power and the stability of social order, but in the Yuanfeng period, with the stability of the regime, the jurisdiction and supervision of local economic affairs presented the problem of conservatism and inefficiency.
At the same time, the part-time management of the Transit Division conflicts with the daily government affairs of other government functional departments, and the Changping Division is mentioned as an institution separated from the Transit Department, and in the process of local management, due to the transfer of money and food from other departments, the phenomenon of "encroachment of costs" has occurred.
As far as the system of awarding officials is concerned, the transfer of supervisory posts on schedule, rather than according to the actual performance of officials, will lead to the problem that the quality of the officials serving is uneven, and the actual work results cannot be guaranteed.
In the process of exercising their duties, if the supervisor fails to perform his or her duties, it will have a very negative social impact on the normal execution of government affairs and become a point of social contradiction.
In the second year of Emperor Taizu of Song's Kaibao, Liu Yi, then secretary Cheng and Zhihedong Transit Officer, exceeded the deadline when issuing military salaries at the local level, causing problems within the army, so he was punished with dismissal from office.
In the same year, Ding Deyu impeached Li Xuan, the envoy of Xichuan and Li Xuan of the Ministry of Rites.
Once the personal relationship between officials is involved in government affairs, it will have a negative impact, and at worst it will threaten the credibility of the country and social stability.
Such accounts also appear in the private notes of officials of the time.
According to the "Shuishui Jiwen", during the Emperor Taizu of Song, Li Jilong had a disagreement with Lu Zhihan, who was then the transfer envoy, and always wanted to frame Lu Zhihan, so he falsely claimed to send troops that year and ordered the transfer department to raise grain and grass, and after the grain and grass were raised, he also said that the date of dispatch had changed, and the grain and grass were scattered.
After that, the border gate warned again that food and grass needed to be raised, but this could not be achieved in the short term.
Therefore, Li Jilong took the opportunity to speak to Emperor Taizu of Song and asked to punish Lu Zhihan. Without detailed investigation, Emperor Taizu of Song ordered the disposition of the three transfer envoys, including Lu Zhihan, and demanded that they be executed immediately.
At that time, only Qian Ruoshui, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, stood up and spoke to Song Taizu, suggesting that it be dealt with after a detailed investigation. After detailed verification, Song Taizu found that Li Jilong was responsible, but the three transfer envoys such as Li Jilong and Lu Zhihan were also demoted to varying degrees.
- (2) The work effects of supervision duties vary from person to person, and the results of supervision are not uniform
The appointment of inspectors was originally intended to supplement the lack of local inspections, but in practice the appointment process has had the opposite effect.
The fact that there are inexperienced appointments in the inspectors often hinders the actual operation of local administration and must be replaced, which is closely related to the activities of the supervisory group, which shows that the actual administrative effect is closely related to the quality of the officials themselves.
For example, during the Qing calendar period (1041-1048), in order to further consolidate the authority and status of the Caoji, "the commander and the inspector" served as the supervisory force among the supervisors. For example, during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, Sun Pu had a bad record as a local governor, and during his tenure in Hangzhou, he used his authority to buy yarn from Zheng Man in Xiaoshan County, before which Zheng Man deliberately raised the price of yarn.
During his tenure in Hezhou, Sun Chu privately sent officials between Qingzhou and Linzhou to engage in the business of buying and selling yarn, silk, and medicines, placing large sticks and other torture instruments above the public court, and indiscriminately punishing, sometimes beating people who came to complain because of his anger, and once cutting off the hamstrings of thieves.
Such evil deeds were carried out by the inspectors who carried out the emperor's will to investigate, and when the recitals were delivered, they decreed that Sun Pu be demoted to the deputy envoy of Ningguo Jiedu, and the supervisors were all demoted for negligence.
Throughout the course of Sun's crime, due to the inaction of the supervisor, it caused a bad social impact.
Officials who mishandle government affairs fail to receive due punishment, officials themselves have low administrative ability, and problems such as the state system will lead to the inability of supervision envoys to ensure maximum administrative efficiency when exercising their powers, which is precisely the reason why supervision envoys failed to produce practical effectiveness on officials in the early and middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Transshipment envoys played a pivotal role as state economic supervision officials in the early and middle Northern Song Dynasties. However, the actual effectiveness of the supervisory post has not been realized, leading to the corruption of the supervised officials.
When performing their duties at the local level, the inspectors turned a deaf ear to the problem of official corruption, and Song Renzong's punishment for the derelict supervisors was only a punishment of "20 pounds of copper each."
This was also by the time of Emperor Renzong of Song, the actual effect of official administrative work was insufficient, and it became a malpractice of the imperial court, so it had to promote social reform.
Ouyang Xiu believed that after becoming a transfer envoy, he did not become an important force in clarifying the rule of officials in the "Qingli New Policies", but became a force that hindered the operation of local administration.
The quality of officials serving is uneven, or even unqualified, resulting in a situation in which "officials are corrupt, prisons are indiscriminate, and the people have no complaints." Even individual inspectors allowed the rebels to loot areas during their tenure.
When the inspectors exercise their functions and powers at the local level, they have achieved limited political achievements, and even hindered the original local governance order.
Such a person who treats the country's orders as a dead letter will disturb the national order and then turn into a situation in which they blind each other.
It can be seen from this that the personal quality of the officials in the supervision service is directly related to the status of office, and the role of those with low moral character and ability in hindering the state is also very obvious.
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