Study On The Commissioner For Water Transport During The Ming Dynasty

There is no causal relationship between water transport and the canal line. They connected themselves through politics of government. Water transport of grain was the result of the canal capitalization, although it embodied the disadvantage of sacrificing the local interest and cultivating the defects of interest groups, in a sence, the water transport of grain breeded the pride of the nurture and nationa.The days from Qin Dynasty to Han Dynasty, and from Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty were the two peak period of the wanter transporting development, which regarded the beginning of the transport system and professinal officers as the brand. The officials in charge of water transport during the Ming Dynasty, had experienced a transformation from all the causes, the commander to civilian general cao. the Offical of Warter Transport, Cammander-in-Chief and the Imperial Commissioner for Canal Administration.The Commissioner was the top offical of water transport during the Ming Dynasty, who handed the power of overseeing military affairs, governing of Fengyang and surrounding areas, manageing, and so on. The civil Commissioner system was the inevitable result of the development of water ttransport, and reflected the call of the times about the dilemma of governance in the Yellow River and proction of water transport. It also embodied institutional approval after Wang hong became a Commissioner, and obtained great prestige.There were 103 Commissioner. Regarding native place of the Commissioner candidates, the court had no special limit. Althougy there were the institutional constraints about not being a offical in his province, the sourtherners being the norther officals, the people of south Zhili province Xiajiang not being a Commissiomer, in practise, the appointment didn’t consider the north of Changjiang River native officals, the others were not. The identity before a offical becoming the Commissioner was probably a office from Imperial Censorate, six ministries and Procincial Administrators. Most of them were from Shilang of Finance, War and Public works departments. The duration of Comissioners was very short, only an average of 1.88 years. It would a V shape distribution if we regarded Jiajing as the community, and this situation came down in one continuous line with the history of Ming Dynasty. Imperial Censorate or six ministries became the main departmeng after the departure of the Commissioners. The specific job basically followed officials of the Ming Dynasty preferment route map. The parts of quiting or death Commissioners were not on the list.There was a zero-sum game between the commissioner and other government departments. Specifically, there once were the power conflicts among the Commissioner、the Commander-in-chief and the Senate about grain transport、river regulation、management of army、participation in the local civil affairs etc. However, with power expansion of the Commissioner, the power of the Commander-in-chief and the Senate eventually inteqrated into the power system of the Commissioner. There were a lot of overlap on the job-palm between the Commissioner of Water Transport and the Commissioner of Canal, which merge and split often occurred. The two merge of Wanli 5th years and two with Wanli 26th year were representative.These fully reflected the complicated situation of managing the water transport, canal and profound political background. The Commissioner and Imperial Censorate、six ministries remained a complanate and derived relationshap. But In the game before the power and interest, they draw distance. There were a number of government agencies in the Huaian Fu. For the Huaian city construction, civil affairs, personnel and other aspects, the Commissioner possessed considerable voice. But in the administration, the two sides deliberately alienated. In the game of power with other bureaucratics, the Commissioner gradually completed its system evolution, whose motive came from the pursuit of maximization of power and interests,and were nothing with to improve the allocation efficiency of water transport. The Commissioner organization gradually fell in a cycle of increasing investment and allocation efficiency. Many of the rules set the starting completely from departmental interests, and gradually developed the malpractice of difficult eliminating, while the execution of the water transport system becames a internal share about power and interests.Many of the Commissioner’s writing had spreaded, however, now we can only read 16 works or title series of them. Such these thinkers like Shao Bao, Zheng Xiao, pan Jixun, Zhang Han, Wang Zongmu, their knowledge aimed to serve the society, establish the achievement, especially in some disputes about water transport, the Commissioner’s thesis reached great influence. On the grain syndrome, the Commissioner had a profound understanding about the total number, regionalation, advantages and disadvantages. Not only did they support grain syndrome to reduce transport intensity, but also against the excessive expansion to avoid shaking the existing basis of water transport. About shipping the grain on sea, one of offbeat, Wang Zongmu Cao vigorously advocated and tried two times, although the experiments were blocked because of supervisors criticism, his thinking about the 12 profits of shipping on sea contributed specialy in the retraining and silent history of thought during the Ming Dynasty. About pension of transport army, the Commissioner suggested the court to increase the soldiers ’revenue from solving the owe of month grain, resolving the soldiers’ debt, adding Qingji silver, allowing with selling local products etc. The theory could not completely solve all difficuties, but it may be a little help, and took a space in the confucianism history of the Ming Dynasty.The descriptions of the Commissioner in History of The Ming Dynasty have a lot of errors. For example, the text that Wang Hong killed evidoers added the words "read the paper and not rose", omitted details and aftermath. About the Zhiyun method creation, the so-called saying that Song Li made shallow five hundred boats, transported grain of million Dan from Huai, Yang, Xu, as the number of the shipping on sea, and the recordation that the soldiers piecewised replay and saved transport in Bejing Bin, Tongzhou Bin among the five port of Huaian, Xuzhou, Linqing, Dezhou, Tianjin in Yongle 13th year, were not tenable.The Commissioner had a special status in the governor system of Ming and Qing Dynasty. That the Commissioner finished its civil services marked the governor system formally established. The process of evolution and the role of upload were roughly the same as the other governors. However, the Commissioner belonged to a special governor, whose identity of prefecting military, charging of the provincial civil affairs, supervision etc, could not be mentioned in the same breath with the other military governos. The Commissioner and other governors had also earned the authority and accountability of the border province officials, aithougy no name and position. So it could be said that the Commissioner Neither was a temporary official, nor a true sense of border governor.