What are the innovations of the Tang Dynasty's supervision system?

The Tang Dynasty developed the supervision system of the Sui Dynasty and made the supervision organization more complete. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the central government set up the Imperial Palace of History, with the third-ranking imperial historian as the head of the Palace, and two fourth-ranking imperial chancellors as his assistants. The Imperial Palace of History was called the Xiantai, and the doctor was called the Daxi Xian. Wu Zetian, changed the Imperial Palace of Government for the left and right Su Zheng Tai. After Emperor Zhongzong, it was changed again to the right and left Imperial Palace of History.

The mandate of the Imperial Palace of History is "to take charge of the state's criminal and constitutional rules and regulations, in order to purify the dynasty" (Tang Six Canons, Volume XIII). The Imperial Academy has three courts:

①Taiyuan, the Imperial Household, "in charge of correcting the hundreds of bureaucrats, pushing the camera";

②Temple Court, the Imperial House of the Temple, "in charge of the rituals of the Temple Court offerings";

③Cha-yuan, the supervision of the Imperial House. Royal Secretary belongs to, "in charge of the division of inspection of bureaucrats, the state, corrective punishment and prisons, clean up the rituals of the court" (ibid.). Tang Dynasty is divided into 10 monitoring area, said 10 Road (later increased to 15 Road), each set of supervision of the Imperial Historian 1 (successively referred to as the press, interviews with the disposition of the make, observation of the disposition of the make, etc.), specializing in touring the states and counties belonging to the press. The Tang Dynasty further enlarged the power of the supervisory organization and the royal historian. The royal historian enjoyed part of the judicial power, and had the right to supervise the judicial trials of the Da Lisi and the Ministry of Justice.

The system of admonishing officials also became complete in the Tang Dynasty. The setup of admonition officials was already in place during the Qin and Han Dynasties, and developed greatly during the Wei, Jin and Nan Dynasties. During the Tang Dynasty, the central court practiced a three-province system, in which the main responsibility of the Menxia Province was to correct political gains and losses, and to criticize and admonish people.

Menxia province set scattered riding standing minister, counselor doctor, fill in the queue, gleaner (of which the right fill in the queue, the right gleaner subordinate to the Central Book Province), the governor, etc., to cite all the master of the moral defects, the national decision-making, all have to advise the correct. Among them, the governor in charge of sealing and refuting (i.e., review of the meaning of) the imperial system, the power is more important.

Expanded Information

Nature

Ancient Chinese supervision officials are commonly known as the "imperial history", the imperial history of the "imperial" word, that is, on behalf of the ancient state's highest The word "imperial" represents the meaning of personal ownership and possession by the emperor (monarch), who was the supreme ruler of the ancient state. This is also true in history. As early as in the Warring States period, the post of imperial historian appeared, and its duties were mainly in charge of the affairs of the king's side, and later gradually evolved into a supervisory official.

The Zhou Li - Chun Guan (周礼-春官): the Warring States period, the Royal Historian totaled 172 people, and his initial job was to take charge of the books and ordinances, and to accompany the king's left and right of the secretary and secretary of the official. Later on, the king often learned about all aspects of the situation and all parts of the country through the royal historians, and later on, the king relied on the royal historians to supervise the central and local officials.

In this way, the royal historian gradually became the eyes and ears of the monarch. The origins of the ancient imperial inspectors determined the nature of the ancient inspection system, which was the eyes and ears of the emperor (monarch) and his tools.

In addition, the traditional Chinese political system has established a centralized authoritarian state since the Qin Dynasty. In such an empire, the emperor relied mainly on bureaucrats to rule and govern the state. However, in the eyes of the emperor, bureaucrats were merely a tool of rule. The aristocracy was unreliable, and the bureaucrats were equally unreliable.

Levenson, a famous American historian and sinologist, argues in his book Confucian China and Its Modern Destiny that there are two kinds of changes in China's historical changes, one is the change within the traditional Chinese society, and the other is the change between the tradition and the modern times. Traditional Chinese society was not a pool of stagnant water; it was full of tensions and conflicts, such as those between the monarch and the bureaucracy.

(Note: Levinson, "Confucian China and its Modern Fate", China Social Science Press, "Preface to the Translation", p. 8.) Levinson argues that the monarch needed private bureaucratic agents, and that the bureaucrats had been an anti-feudal tool of the monarchs of the Qin-Han and later Tang dynasties, in direct opposition to the power of the king.

After helping to remove all rivals to the king's power, the bureaucrats themselves became the only force that could stand against it. The Chinese emperor could neither deprive the bureaucrats of their formidable bond, prestige, and behavioral functions at the outset, nor could he attract them later with an appreciation that went beyond the bureaucrats - by granting them true titles of nobility.

It is clear that successive Chinese emperors developed and utilized the system of surveillance to the fullest extent in their tensions and conflicts with bureaucrats. In explaining the nature of this inspection system, the Guanzi - Nine Guardians argues that the purpose of the monarch's establishment of a full-time inspector is: "First, to grow the eyes, second, to fly the ears , and third, to make the trees bright."

"Xunzi - the way of the king" also believes that the monarch set up to monitor the intention of the royal historian is: "outside the wall, the eye can not see also; before the mile, the ear does not hear also; and the human masters to keep the division, far from the world, close to the territory, can not not be a little known also." Yuan Ye Yeqi "grass and trees" book, the Yuan Shizu Kublai had a saying: the administration of the province is my left hand, the military Privy Council is my right hand, the supervision of the Royal Historian is I used to heal these two hands. It is a very vivid description of the nature of the ancient Chinese monitoring system.