A Study On Henan Circuit Of The Censorate In Ming Dynasty

In the process of the reconstruction of the central power system in the early Ming Dynasty,the old Censorate,one of the three major government agencies,was remodeled by Ming Taizu.The status and role of Attendant Censor gradually decreased and finally abolished.While the status of the Investigation Bureau continued to increase,became the highest supervisory organ of the central government in Ming Dynasty.On the basis of the Investigation Bureau,the Ming Taizu made it a new Censorate,which reflected the system characteristics of the new Censorate which main function was supervision.In order to adapt to the control of local politics and the need of handling local judicial cases in the post-central secretariat period,the Ming Dynasty divided the imperial supervision into 13 departments,and divided them according to their respective provinces to supervise their criminal cases.Henan Circuit was the chief circuit of the thirteen circuits in the censorate,which was supervising the Provincial Administration Commission,Provincial Surveillance Commission,the Regional Military Commission,Princely Establishment and other government offices within the scope of Henan Province.Henan Circuit also supervised the central departments including the Ministry of Rites,the Censorate,the Hanlin Academy,the Directorate of Education,the Court of Imperial Sacrifices,the Court of Imperial Entertainments,etc.Henan Circuit as well as supervised the Directorate of Ceremonial,the Directorate for Palace Delicacies,the Directorate of Palace Seals,and the Directorate for Palace Maintenance of the inner government.It also supervised some government offices,Military Guards,and Salt Distribution Commissions in Beijing and Zhili Provinces.In the Ming Dynasty,the censors investigated all of the officials,who were the eyes and ears of the emperor.It can be seen from the record of Henan Circuit that the Ming Dynasty had special requirements for the censor's candidates in terms of their backgrounds,seniority,age and ability.The selection of Henan Circuit's chief censor was even more special.In the Ming Dynasty,in order to play the function of Henan Circuit stably,the censorate gradually made the position of Henan Circuit running fluid.Therefore,more and more investigating censors of the Henan Circuit changed their posts from other circuits in the Ming dynasty,which greatly increased the fluidity among the censors.In order to ensure the function of supervision,the censors in the Ming Dynasty also followed the principles of avoiding their relatives,their native places and their posts.In addition,the way out of the censor was mainly given priority to promotion.Among them,the way out of the investigating censor of Henan Circuit was more luxurious,who often to be promoted as the little Nine Ministers in Ming Dynasty.The rapid promotion of censors and the imbalance of internal and external promotion after middle Ming Dynasty also led to the excessive number of officials in the capital and intensified the political disputes.In the Ming Dynasty,Henan Circuit had many duties,including the general functions of censors,such as checking criminal cases,checking documents,correcting and prosecuting,and offering advice.Henan Circuit also gradually participated in and played an important role in the examination,investigation,promotion and other affairs of officials in the Ming Dynasty.Among them,Henan Circuit's investigation of internal and external officials was the manifestation of assisting in the management of the affairs of the censorate,which made up for the defect of some officials without their own superiors' assessment.In the internal and external investigation affairs of the Ming Dynasty,Henan Circuit was mainly responsible for issuing documents and visiting the officials,negotiating with the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel and the Bureau of Evaluations in the examination to draft the preliminary evaluation,and providing suggestions for the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate.At the same time,Henan Circuit and the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel exercised the function of supervision together,on behalf of public opinion on the investigation process to implement supervision.In the process of electing ministers and censors,with the rising of their own power,Henan Circuit and the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel gradually exerted influence on the formulation of the suggestions through the form of public opinion supervision.Because of its important functions,Henan Circuit gradually became the "leader of censors" in Ming Dynasty.The power of Henan Circuit interwoven with the power of central government and local government in Ming Dynasty,colliding and influencing each other.With the expansion of its functions,the relationship between Henan Circuit and its superiors became closer and closer.At the same time,due to the investigation of other circuits and the chief position,Henan Circuit gradually had a tendency to dominate the other censors.Although the functions of the the Six Offices of Scrutiny and the Investigating Censor of Circuits were different,there were many overlapping functions in the supervision of the central departments.Henan Circuit's participation and supervision of the officials in the Ming Dynasty to some extent infringed the power of the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel.Henan Circuit and other circuits participated in the investigation and election of officials in Ming Dynasty.On the one hand,it took away the authority of the the Ministry of Personnel,and on the other hand,it made up for the lack of management functions of the administrative system.The Censorate and the Ministry of Personnel were mutual cooperation and mutual restriction,but many political disputes between the Ministry of Personnel and Censorate after the Jiajing Dynasty.The Ministry of Rites was the government office investigated by Henan Circuit.The criminal cases and files of the Ministry of Rites were handled by Henan Circuit.The supervision of Henan Circuit was mainly manifested in the supervision of the affairs and officials of the Ministry of Rites.In terms of the cases of criminals,there is a division of labor between the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice.At the same time,the Censorate had the role of supervising and reviewing the criminals cases of the Ministry.In addition,from the view of the scope of investigation and punishment of Henan Circuit and Henan Bureau officials department of the criminal department,the scope of investigation and punishment of the two is basically the same,it can be seen that the principle of the division of the thirteen circuits and Bureaus of the central ministries in the Ming Dynasty was the same.Henan Circuit also had a supervisory role in the investigation and selection of military attaches.The relationship between Henan Circuit and the central power in the Ming dynasty was mainly manifested in the advice of decision-making,the remonstrance and rebuttal of the exercise of power.Henan Circuit and other circuits' opinions affected the decision-making,but the emperor had the final power of deciding the advice of the supervisor,which restricted the exercise of its functions.The Grand Secretariat can exert influence on central decision-making and thus interfere with the exercise of the censor's power.However,officials of Henan Circuit and other censors have implemented supervision on recommending Grand Secretary,which can limit the power of the Grand Secretariat.They limited each other and collude with each other at the same time.In addition,Henan Dao originally had the power to supervise the inner court such as the Directorate of Ceremonial,but with the rise of the power of the inner court,and the influence of the Internal-limitation-external political pattern of the Ming Dynasty.In fact,the external courts,such as Henan Circuit,did not have the ability to restrict the inner court.On the one hand,the relationship between Henan Circuit and local power was reflected in the trial and supervision of local criminal cases by Henan Circuit,on the other hand,it was also reflected in the examination and supervision of the Regional Investigating Censor and the Provincial Surveillance Commission by Henan Circuit.In Ming Dynasty,through the establishment of the Regional Investigating Censor,a central vertical supervision channel was constructed.This channel gradually overtook the government transfer system at all levels and the original local supervision system,and promoted the transformation of the function of the Provincial Surveillance Commission in Ming Dynasty.The functions of Henan Circuit,such as inspecting censors,recommending officials,collecting public opinions and inspecting local officials,were closely related to the Regional Investigating Censor and the Provincial Surveillance Commission.It was the Censorate's right hand of supervising the Regional Investigating Censor and the Provincial Surveillance Commission.In the late Ming Dynasty,the Censorate tried to strengthen supervision and control over the Regional Investigating Censor through Henan Circuit,in order to strictly investigate corrupt officials and clarify local officials.However,due to the political turmoil,Henan Circuit did not really play a role in examining and restricting the Regional Investigating Censor.In the Ming Dynasty,Henan Circuit had the evolving trend of expanding its functions and gradually alienating its authority.On the one hand,the expansion of the power of Henan Circuit came from the distribution of the Censorate,and on the other hand,from the collective of the officials of the censors.The evolution of its power was not only caused by the expansion of its own supervisory power,but also by the multiple influences of its own government and the external political environment.The alienation of the functions of Henan Circuit in the Ming Dynasty was manifested in that some of its functions went beyond the scope of supervision and had a tendency to directly participate in some administrative affairs.In addition,the censors of Henan Circuit also existed a certain degree of corruption.The special position of Henan Circuit in the investigation,advice and impeachment in Ming Dynasty made it the focus of contention among all parties in the late Ming Dynasty.Henan and other circuits' function operation contains the political values of public discussion and public opinion.In the politics of the Ming Dynasty,the procurators led by the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel and Henan Circuit were the main group who controlled the public opinions.Such public opinions had a great influence on the election,appointment and removal of officials,which was also the intrinsic value support for the expansion of the power of the censors in the Ming Dynasty and the continuous improvement of their discourse power.However,the censors only held public opinion in the name without any real,and even used public opinion to hold the government under control,interfered with the political operation,and aggravated the political infighting in the late Ming Dynasty.