Wardens’ Offices Of The Five Wards And The Governance Of Metropolitan Area In Ming Dynasty

In the imperial era, Metropolitan Area in which the Emperors resided is the central of the Empire for its political and military importance, thus appropriate institutions had always been important for its great influences on ensuring its security and operation. Ming Dynasty inherited and imitated the constitution of Yuan Dynasty, setting up Wardens’Offices of the Five Wards(WOFW,五城兵马司) as a specialized institution for the governance of the capital. WOFW was the short title of five Warden’s office of the Eastern, Western, Southern, Northern, Central cities, the WOFW of Nanking took its operation at Hongwu23rd year. In Peking at Yongle2nd year the Warden’s office was firstly established, then at Yongle7th year, WOFW was established by imitating that of Nanking, thereafter, at Yongle18th year the WOFW was divided into five Warden’s office, namely the Eastern, Western, Southern, Northern and Central Warden’s office, by which time the operation of Warden’s office had been settled. The obligations of WOFW are quite complex, namely, arrests of thieves, inspections for fires, managements of market, cleans of street, postmortem and examination of injuries, residence registration and relief for famine and the poor etc.This paper is mainly on the constitution and development of WOFW, attempting to analyze the relationship between WOFW and other governance administrations of the Peking, to discuss its roles in the governance system and its influence, then to reveal the characteristics of the distribution and structure of power in the imperial governance system in Peking.The author of this paper holds such views:WOFW was one of the most important institutions for the governance of Metropolitan Area in Ming Dynasty, taking five cities as its principal jurisdiction. The duty of WOFW was not unchanged in the early time of Ming Dynasty, on the contrary, which gradually was increased until the time of Hongzhi with the primary obligations settled. The governance system of Metropolitan Area was a large complex, in which City Wall, Imperial City, Capital had their own governance institutions. In the five cities of Metropolitan Area, besides WOFW, there were other governance institutions such as Ward-inspceting Censor, Chang-Wei System, Six Ministries, Shuntian prefecture and country of wanping,daxing, Policeman Camp, so there was superposition about their obligations, which needed corporations and coordinations in special events, the aim of such governance policy was a apportionment and balance of the power, but it had indispensable disadvantages, that is, the unclear obligations, the appropriations and usurpations of power, which means a hamper for the governance efficiency. The WOFW stood at the lower rank, its power inevitably subjected to the institution of high rank and gradually was eaten away, hence there were sometimes servitudes outside the scope of its duties sent by other administrations, Chang-Wei System and Ward-inspceting Censor taking the most part. That the power of WOFW that belonged to the executive system was interfered by the Ward-inspceting Censor of supervisory system and Chang-Wei System, the represents of imperial power and spy politics implied the excessive power of supervisory system and spy politics in Ming Dynasty, and revealed the dominative power of the emperor in the governance of Metropolitan Area. By the late Ming Dynasty, the efficiency of WOFW had been weakened for many reasons, such as the residents in Metropolitan Area would not trail a pike, the increase of the amount of the duties in the governance, and the corruptions of WOFW etc.