China's feudal supervision system includes the system of reviewing and changing bombs and the system of remonstrating officials. However, as the backbone of supervisory officials, it is the imperial history system. Shi Yu was a historian at first, and didn't have the supervisory function until the Warring States Period. During the Qin and Han dynasties, a supervision system was established with the suggestion system as the main body. In the Qin dynasty, an imperial history office was set up in the central government, with the imperial history doctor as the chief executive and the Qin official as the deputy prime minister, but its duty was to "correct the law" and supervise the officials. Establish county review institutions in local counties. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to achieve great unification and strengthen the supervision system, on the one hand, he placed the Prime Minister's official records outside the central imperial palace, "taking charge of the Prime Minister on the grounds of lawlessness" and created a captain. "Catching witches and supervising traitors" are not unified, but they can supervise each other, so that central and local officials are under multiple supervision. On the other hand, the local imperial envoys were abolished and the secretariat system was established.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the system of remonstrating officials was initially standardized, with its own independent leading organization-Menxia Province or Book Collection Province, which changed the situation that remonstrating officials were not systematic and their powers were unclear since Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the system of supervisors was very complete, and the imperial history system still set up an imperial history desk in the center, which consisted of three courtyards. "Yushitai has three courtyards, one is the court, the other is the court, and the third is the court." The local area is divided into ten monitoring areas, forming a strict monitoring network. At the same time, the admonishers were organized into two provinces, Zhongshu and Menxia, which were responsible for admonishing the emperor. In this way, the pattern of paying equal attention to remonstrance and non-remonstrance was formed, which promoted the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
The period of Song and Yuan Dynasties was the peak of the development of remonstrance system. In the Song Dynasty, the remonstrating officials formed their own system and set up remonstrating courts. However, remonstrance officials "often shoulder the responsibility of remonstrating history in parallel", while Taiwan officials are also "supervisors and storytellers", which makes the powers of Taiwan remonstrance officials mixed and opens the voice of the integration of Taiwan remonstration. The yuan dynasty abolished the remonstrance court, and the function of remonstrance officer was returned to Yushitai. In the Ming Dynasty, the central censorate was changed to Douchayuan, and thirteen censorate stations were set up in local areas. Together with the six departments (each of the six departments in the Ming Dynasty has administrative inspectors), they are called "science and technology officials" to supervise hundreds of officials. In the first year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, six subjects were merged into Duchayuan, and the feudal supervision institutions reached unprecedented unity.
Throughout the dynasties after the Qin Dynasty, although the names and internal organizations of supervisory organizations were constantly changing, feudal emperors regarded supervision as the standard for governing the country and officials, and made efforts to make the supervisory system self-contained, independently exercising the right of picket and impeachment, so that supervisors could exercise their power more effectively without interference from other departments.
In order to give full play to the deterrent effect of supervisory organs on officials, feudal rulers of past dynasties endowed supervisory officials with extensive and sufficient powers:
1. refers to impeaching the masses, abusing power for personal gain, corruption and dereliction of duty and other illegal acts. "Hanshu Yushi" Cheng said that "assisting the emperor, specializing in correcting disintegration"; However, in the Southern Jin Dynasty, in order to inspire the supervisor to correct the spirit of disintegration, it was allowed to "get wind of it" to play things according to rumors, and the player did not have to sign his name, even if the impeachment was wrong, he would not bear any responsibility. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, Yushitai's principle of "guarding against officials' evil and enforcing discipline impartially" was similar in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The object of the Ombudsman's impeachment can be said to be hundreds of civil and military officials except the emperor. The supervisor is directly responsible to the emperor, and does not need to seek the consent of superiors, such as the chief of Yushitai, and finally it is up to the emperor to decide.
2. The right to protest to the Internet. This is the main authority of ancient admonishers, which mainly includes riding a regular servant, advising doctors and giving people things. It is mentioned in the book that Wei Zhi, an admonition official in the Tang Dynasty, explained this matter. They often dispute the gains and losses of political affairs. In the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong ordered that when discussing military affairs, "the admonishers must be brought in to anticipate major events", which means that whenever the court makes a decision, the admonishers have the right to smell political affairs and express their opinions on the gains and losses of policies. It is precisely because of the advice of Emperor Taizong that the situation of "Zhenguan rule" came into being.
3. Judicial power. The judicial power here includes judicial supervision and judicial power. The former had this power since Qin and Han Dynasties, while the latter only existed in the Southern Dynasties. A joint examination system for court officials was established, and Yushi and Cheng also participated in the judicial trial. Later it was inherited by the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the system of joint hearing of three divisions was established, that is, the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Yushitai jointly tried cases, which was called "three divisions adjudicating cases". In addition to the "three divisions" system, in the Qing Dynasty, in the event of a major case, a joint trial system of nine divisions was also implemented, that is, the punishment department, Dali Temple and Duchayuan tried the case together with officials, households, rituals, soldiers and officials. It can be said that the ancient empire was both an inspector and a judicial officer.
4. Audit right. It is an audit of the implementation and decision-making of the national financial budget and an audit of financial irregularities. In the Tang dynasty, the imperial censor patrolled the county, that is, digging and casting money; In Song Dynasty, the transshipment department was not only the chief in charge of finance and taxation, but also the supervisor. Its functions and powers included "carrying out annual duties, inspecting storage and auditing account books". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in the Qing Dynasty, all accounts and accounting statements of feudal yamen institutions were submitted to Douchayuan for inspection.
The above acts were the main functions and powers of ancient inspectors. In addition, the procurator also has the right to dispose of it, that is, to allow the censor to play it first and then play it under special circumstances, and to "dispose of it with the matter." For example, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the imperial censor corrected the officials of civil and military affairs, and those who were inferior to six grades were asked; There are also the right to supervise the trial, the right to supervise the army and the right to investigate. Its extensive power is rare in the history of world supervision.
It can be said that in order to strengthen the monitoring of the central and local institutions at all levels, the feudal emperors effectively prevented and stopped the occurrence of officials' violations of law and discipline, and endowed the supervisors with great powers, which was conducive to the effectiveness of supervision.
Throughout the ancient society of China, prosecutors were cracking down on corrupt officials, clarifying official administration, cracking down on local separatist forces and maintaining centralization; It played a positive role in correcting the emperor's mistakes and preventing decision-making mistakes. Most of the prosperous feudal times in history were related to the emperor's strengthening supervision. For example, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the secretariat system, he added a captain to help him achieve "great unity"; Emperor Taizong made great efforts to improve the status of the admonisher, "humbly accepting the words of the admonisher" and realizing the rule of chastity. In the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong also attached great importance to supervisory officials. In the 14th year of Kaiyuan, the establishment of "one hospital and three hospitals" improved the supervision system of the Tang Dynasty, so the official administration was clear at that time. Yuan Shizu attached great importance to the function of Yushitai. He once said: "I am left-handed and right-handed in the book. Yushitai is both a doctor and a doctor." He repeatedly supported the supervisor to correct the illegal behavior of the powerful minister and achieved "great unity."
However, the role of ancient supervisors also had limitations, especially when a feudal dynasty was abnormal or a dynasty entered the middle and late period, and there was a ruling crisis, it was difficult for supervisors to play their normal role and even catalyzed official corruption. For example, after the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, consorts and eunuchs took turns to monopolize power and manipulate the appointment and removal of supervisory officials, and supervisory organs gradually became tools for unscrupulous officials to run amok. During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the inspectors actually corrected and impeached 26 diligent local officials who had nothing to do with eunuchs. In the later period, due to the successive autocratic powers of Li and Yang, Yushi rarely publicly expressed his impeachment. During the reign of Emperor Wu Zong in the Ming Dynasty, eunuch Liu Jin placed his cronies in the supervisory organs. At that time, the procuratorate actually became a tool of eunuch power.
In a word, in China's feudal autocratic society, although the supervision system is strict, it has different functions in different historical stages because of its dependence on imperial power. This is the inevitable result of feudal autocracy, and it is also an insurmountable drawback of the ancient supervision system.