What is the significance of the admonition system in Chinese politics?

The possibility of criticizing the emperor's decisions, which in a way implies the principle of freedom of speech, is of great interest to those who study the history of the Chinese political system. This principle has been enforced throughout the dynasties, though sometimes with little formality. A large number of zangzhi and zangzhi summaries of admonitions to the emperor in various eras have been preserved in the form of zangzhi in official history books and state archives, and have been handed down to the present day. These zangbao are clear evidence of the implementation of the admonition system. Admonition is also known as admonition, admonition, direct admonition, and regulation. The unique meaning of the Chinese word admonition is to dispute the absolute authority of the emperor. In this respect, admonition was different from supervision, which was to challenge the authority of an official. However, both admonition and supervision are mechanisms for monitoring the functioning of the state apparatus, and in this respect they have **** similarities. In order to illustrate the difference between the two, it is necessary to draw on an understanding of state institutions.

In the Chinese political tradition, the emperor, the son of heaven, was the sole holder of all power, so that Montesquieu's separation of powers is nowhere to be found in Chinese state institutions; however, in order to exercise imperial power, it was still necessary to establish a set of institutions and systems. This set of institutions and systems has been refined throughout China's long political history, and while it is difficult to distinguish between categories of officials holding various positions from a political point of view, technically speaking, they have their own roles to play. Chinese political institutions can basically be divided into two categories: those that assisted the emperor in making decisions, and those that carried out the emperor's decisions. The difference between these two types of clearly different functions within the state apparatus is technically similar to that between the legislature and the executive in a modern state, but politically it is based on the concept of imperial power, which is different in nature from the classic concept of the legislature, so I call it the difference between the directive body and the executive body. Based on this distinction, the function of the procurator is to supervise the proper functioning of the executive, and thus belongs to the executive body; whereas the function of the advisor is to supervise whether or not the imperial power is able to make good decisions, and thus belongs to the directive body. How the supervisory mechanism of this apparatus was established and how it evolved, this paper attempts to explore this question through a brief history of the admonition system, in order to elaborate the status and role of the admonition system in the Chinese political tradition.

The history of admonition can be divided into two major stages: the establishment and development stage from the Han to the Song Dynasty, the shelving stage in the Yuan Dynasty, and the deterioration in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

quality. However, due to the complexity of the admonition system itself, it is difficult to explain its evolution clearly. The officials who remonstrated were called admonition officers, and figuratively they were also called speech officers, but speech officers also referred to supervisory officials. While the supervisory officials were under the Metropolitan Police Department, the admonition officials were never under a unified organization. The duty of advising was usually carried out by both the counselor and the gazetted minister***; literally, gazetted minister meant to be responsible for court affairs, but in fact the gazetted minister also had the mission of advising. Admonition includes zang and refutation. As already mentioned above, the zangcai (奏议) refers to critical comments made to the emperor, usually in written form, or verbally if the admonisher is a member of the governmental deliberative body. Sealing and refutation is a procedure whereby when an admonisher finds an imperial decree or other document containing the emperor's will objectionable, he or she returns it sealed to show his or her disagreement with it.

The Qin and Han dynasties, the admonition of the first for the addition of the official, the emperor will be admonishing the duties entrusted to a private adviser with the title of the service, the permanent service, the scattered riding permanent service, such admonition in the Qin Dynasty, mostly for the military generals. In the Han Dynasty, those who served as counselors had different identities, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141 B.C.E. - 87 B.C.E.) appointed Kong Anguo, who did not have an official position, to be the chief counselor. The number of counselors was arbitrarily determined by the emperor, and could be as many as dozens. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the number of counselors became fixed.

During the Six Dynasties period, the centralized organization was further improved and gradually divided into three major parts: the province of Shangshu (尚书省) was responsible for execution, while the provinces of Zhongshu (中書省) (also known as Neishu (内書省) and Menxia (門下省) were responsible for instructions. While the Zhongshu Province drafted edicts on behalf of the emperor, the Menxia Province liaised with the Zhongshu and Shangshu Provinces, i.e., communicated between the instructing and executing agencies, and on the one hand communicated the emperor's will to the executing agencies, and on the other hand forwarded to the emperor documents such as zhangbiao (奏折) and other documents submitted by the executing agencies. The mission of advising the emperor was undertaken by Menxia Province. At this time, the sealing and refutation has gradually become a rule, the Minister of Counselor can reject the official to the emperor submitted to the zangbao, can also be the emperor's order to return to the Central Book of the province.

Tang inherited the former system, and greatly improved. Door under the province set up in four and auxiliary member if in, and set up the left counselor four, the left scattered riding standing minister four. The center of the province is set up right counselor four, right scattered riding four. The Tang dynasty also created a complementary Que and glean two official positions, divided into left and right, the left under the door, the right under the province of the central book. Complementary elucidation and gleaner for the admonition, responsible for looking after the other admonition for the presentation of the four boxes used.

The Song emperors continued to attach importance to the admonition system, and the large-scale class book called the "Ruofu Yuan Gui" (册府元龟), which was ordered by Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty (997-1022 A.D.), included 379 famous admonitions from the ancient times to the Five Dynasties. The Song dynasty remodeled the central institutions of the Tang dynasty, with the Zhongshu province as the main civil affairs and the Privy Council as the main military affairs, both of which **** were the main institutions of the central government and were placed in the forbidden center; and the Menxia province was placed outside the palace as an office of the government. From then on, the province was changed from a directive body to an executive body. Admonishers were gathered in the newly established Admandatory Academy, under which there was the Drum Academy, which was responsible for the management of the admonishing book box that inherited the tradition of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, there was also an inspectorate, which was responsible for reviewing the remonstrance. The duties of the Admiring Yuan were not limited to the supervision of the Emperor's writings, but could also supervise the writings of officials at all levels, and in particular could supervise the political activities of the prime ministers, who were the ones who advised the Emperor. In this way, admonition and supervision are no longer so clear. In the Song dynasty, it was common to create the office of the Imperial Historian, a position occasionally seen in the Five Dynasties, which was mostly filled by procuratorial officials appointed to replace those who had been removed from office due to dereliction of duty. These measures were taken by the Song emperors to strengthen the checks and balances between the various institutions. The Hundred Horsemen Standing Attendants were subordinate to the Post-Menxia Province, which was the main sealing and refuting province, and consisted of six rooms, which corresponded to the six sections of the Post-Menxia Province.

The Liao Dynasty of the Khitans, the Jin Dynasty of the Jurchen, and the Yuan Dynasty of the Mongols, though formally retaining the system of admonition, had in fact abandoned it altogether. Each of these dynasties had its own system of aristocratic participation centered on the khan. The duties of the Han admonition officers were either limited to ceremonial duties (the admonition officers in the Liao dynasty's southern official system only inspected Han officials) or existed in name only (the Yuan dynasty abolished the gazetted ministers and left only the royal historians to manage miscellaneous affairs in the palace). However, the local inspectorates established in the Jin Dynasty were strengthened in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Mongol rulers did not allow Han Chinese to serve as inspectors.

Ming Taizu (1368-1398 AD), after the destruction of Yuan and the establishment of Ming in 1368, inherited the Yuan system, not only did not restore the province under the door, which had been abolished by the Jin Dynasty, but also abolished the province of the Central Committee of the Book of Changes, and tightened the directive body into a Cabinet, with the emperor administering the six ministries of ministers, and not having a prime minister. Gaozhizhong was abolished, the Imperial Historian was changed to the six sections, under the General Administration Department, responsible for dealing with the instructions and executive agencies between the edicts and other documents; six sections and six corresponding to the Ministry. However, the duties of the magistrates, who were originally responsible for advising the emperor, were changed to the supervision of officials at all levels, similar to those of the imperial historians. The Qing Dynasty, which ruled China after the Ming Dynasty, further strengthened the emperor's autonomy in decision-making, and in 1723, the six departments were merged into the Duzhaoyuan, which was responsible for monitoring the fifteen departments in each province.