158035

The Characteristics of the Supervisory Organs in the Song Dynasty

The supervisory organs of the Song Dynasty followed the system of the Tang Dynasty, with the Yushitai set up in the center and the three courts under it. “Song History · Official Records IV” said: “There are three courts under it: one is the Taiyuan, which serves the Yushi Liyan; the other is the Palace. Courtyard, serving the censor Liyan in the palace; Sanchayuan, supervising the censor Liyan.”

Yushitai has a doctor of the censor and a censor Zhongcheng. Official Yushi is nominally the highest officer of Yushitai, but in the early Song Dynasty, the regular officials were not removed, but only added to other officials. Prosecutors with constitutional titles include Procurator Censor Doctor. After Yuanfeng changed the official system, they were removed together.

Therefore, Yushi Zhongcheng became the real chief of Yushitai, called the head of the station; the deputy chief was to attend to the censor and know miscellaneous affairs. The duty of the censor is to “prosecute officials for evil, and correct the rules and regulations. The court will argue about major matters, and play the bombs on minor matters.” From the prime minister to the general small officials, they are all included in the censor’s supervision and impeachment.

Those who serve as servants in the palace or supervise the censors are called “supervising the censors in the line” because of their low official ranks. In addition, there are also two officials who are responsible for the trial of criminal cases. According to regulations, if the censors of the three courts make sparse remarks, comment on the government or impeach officials, they must first report to Zhongcheng according to regulations. During Renzong’s time, after Liu Yun became Zhongcheng, the censor did not need to ask the chief of the station for instructions.

The local officials are supervised by the general judge. At the same time, the emperor often sent transfer envoys, inspection envoys, and observation envoys to various places for inspection, all of which belonged to foreign censors. The transshipment envoy was originally in charge of finance, but also served as a supervisory official. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the duties and powers of local supervisors were increased, and the appeasement envoy was called a handsome minister.

When the prime minister went out on patrol, even though he was in Dianzhou, he must also take up this post. Later, on top of the appeasement envoy, Xuanfu and Zhizhi were set up, and they did not lead the state, but were above the commanders of all roads, and became the chief of the road. Kaiyuan proclaimed the administrative division of the province on behalf of the province, and the harbinger of the procuratorate system in the Kaiming dynasty.

The number of censors in the Song Dynasty was not customized, and could be more or less, depending on the emperor’s will. Except for the fixed number of censors, other censors could increase or decrease at any time.

Admonishers in the Song Dynasty were called Sijian and Zhengyan. The duty of an admonisher is to make criticisms and suggestions to the emperor, but in fact they have no name and fail to perform their duties. In the end, he was confused with the censor and specialized in supervising officials. According to regulations, the admonisher should report to the emperor once a month, which is called “monthly class”.

They could report to the emperor whatever they heard casually, regardless of whether they had evidence or not. At that time, they were called “rumors and bombers”. If the play is not true, the admonisher does not have to be punished.

If the admonisher of Yushitai fails to rectify it within a hundred days after taking office, he will be dismissed as a foreign official or fined “humiliating Taiwan money”. This kind of regulation further encouraged Yushi to abuse the power of impeachment. For example, Tang Dong (d^ng, sound hole), the censor of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, once accused Wang Anshi face to face, talking nonsense, but Shenzong did not blame him. Therefore, the prime ministers of the Song Dynasty were greatly restrained and had no choice.

According to regulations, the Taiwan admonisher cannot be served by someone who has a relationship with the prime minister, let alone be nominated and recommended by the prime minister. Therefore, the relationship between the Taiwan admonisher and the prime minister is extremely tense. At that time, people said that the prime minister and Yushitai were hostile camps and hated each other. Regarding this relationship, Wang Fuzhi commented in Volume 4 of “On the Song Dynasty”:

The prime minister uses the emperor who gives up listening, the admonishing official gives the prime minister who deprives him of listening, and the emperor’s gains and losses are given to the admonishing official who listens; ringing the prime minister is governing, and it is meritorious service. Those who admonish officials use ropes to correct the emperor, not those who use ropes to correct the prime minister…

Renzong ordered that the prime minister not be allowed to use Taiwan officials, and those who are not recommended by Zhongcheng know and miscellaneous should not be dismissed, saying: “Let the prime minister use the Taiwan officials himself, Then the prime minister should not dare to speak out about his faults.” Woohoo! The Song Dynasty prospered with words, but the government was in chaos in the court, the people worked in the fields, the borders were crowded, and the day was cut down to perish. The censor was separated from the Taiwan admonisher before the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, the two were actually merged into one. They were mainly used to monitor officials to see whether they were loyal to the emperor, but not whether they were loyal to their duties. Although this has been the case in all dynasties, it is particularly prominent in the Song Dynasty. With the strengthening of the autocratic imperial power in the Song Dynasty, admonishers dared not advise the emperor’s faults. Therefore, there is actually no difference between admonishers and censors, and they are both responsible for impeaching officials. Confluence of remonstrance.

From the above, the four powers of administration, military, finance, and supervision of the central organization of the Song Dynasty were clearly divided, and in short, belonged to the emperor. These power centralization measures of the rulers of the Song Dynasty became more and more strict, even reaching the level of “the finer the finer, the more secretive the denser, and there are always laws to prohibit”. Volume 69 of Yang Wanli’s “Cheng Zhai Ji” records such a thing:

Song Taizu once ordered Houyuan to build a smoker cage, but it was not completed for several days. Taizu blamed his left and right, and his officials replied that this matter must go through many gates such as Shangshu Province, the headquarters, the temple, and the bureau. Emperor Song Taizu was furious after hearing the word “Yi”, and asked Prime Minister Zhao Pu, “When I was among the people, I could buy a smoker cage with tens of dollars. I am the Son of Heaven, but I can’t do it for a few days. Why?” Zhao Pu replied:

“This is a self-contained system, not for your majesty, but for your majesty’s descendants, so that if the descendants of future generations make extravagant things unreasonably, destroy money and things, and send them to various places, they must have Please take note of Taiwan’s admonition, this article has a deep meaning.” After hearing this, Taizu turned his anger into joy and said: “This article is excellent!”

It can be seen that the rulers of the Song Dynasty established various “legal systems” for two purposes. One is to make “political “Out of one”, “power belongs to the top”, “a soldier’s nationality, a source of wealth, and a place’s defense are all done by the people themselves.” A hundred officials are nothing more than “following the law and obeying their duties”.

Therefore, from the central to the local, “the upper and lower sides are connected, like the body and the arms, like the arms and the fingers”, achieving unprecedented concentration and unity; the second is to define it as “the law of the ancestors” and require the descendants to “observe it” to ensure the Zhao family The long-term peace and stability of the dynasty.