A Comparative Study Of The Censor System Of The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Censors played an important role in the traditional Chinese state affairs. Although Qing Dynasty inherited greatly from Ming Dynasty in terms of governmental structure and institutions, the censor system of Qing Dynasty was not that simple copy of that of Ming.It was in many aspects different from that of the Ming Dynasty. This thesis compares the censor systems between Ming and Qing Dynasties and analyses the institutional reasons why the censors of Ming and Qing Dynasties behaved differently.The thesis consists of five parts. The first part analyses the previous academic study in the censor system of Ming and Qing Dynasties and accounts briefly the transformations of the traditional Chinese censor system. The second part analyses the differences between the Ming and Qing censor systems in terms of the arrangement and setup, including its organizational setup and the changes of its authority limits, and it also analyses how the special Man-Han two-track bureaucratic system of Qing Dynasty influenced the censor system. The third part analyses the relationships between the censors , emperors, Jishizhong (给事中) and provincial governments in view of their individual political roles. The fourth part, taking the examples of the cases of Yan Song(严嵩)and He Shen(和珅),analyses the different restrictive relationships between the censor and the different governmental organizations. The last part is the conclusion. By means of analyzing the restrictive components which caused the different political behaviors of the censors in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the thesis puts forward that the oppression of monarchial power made the scholar-bureaucrats frustrated, and that the Man-Han two-track bureaucratic system and the secret memorial system lowered the level of the censors'participating in the politics.