A Study On The Censorate System In Song Dynasty

The censorate system is an important political system in Chinese history. In ancient time, it once played a constructive role in political lives. In accordance with the record of Chinese ancient books, the flush of censorate system started in Qin and Han Dynasties, and after a long time of development, it grew mature in Sui and Tang Dynasties. The following Song Dynasty witnessed it's golden age. The censorate system in Song Dynasty was composed of three departments, namely headquarters bureau, investigation bureau and palace bureau. It had the traditional power of supervising and restricting bureaucrat , besides the new power of giving political or private advice to the emperor and discussing all kinds of government affairs. In that period, due to the up-growing of the scholar-bureaucrat and the formation of political balance, the censorate in Song Dynasty developed in an unprecedented way, which efficiently fighted against corruption, rebellion and split;strengthened the supervision on the bureaucracy;defended the emperor from abusing power and promoted the development of incorruptible government of Song Dynasty. It's achievement was the most splendid and outstanding in Chinese history. Although the censorate system in Song Dynasty failed at last for the dicatorial system drawbacks, it's historical experiences of success and reasons of fall can be served as an important apocalypse in improving the current supervision system.