The Change Of Power. Xunan Censor Ming Dynasty And Local Politics

The system of imperial itinerant inspector( Xun'an yushi)as a unique supervising system played a very important role in the political life in the Ming Dynasty. The paper intends to explore the role of the imperial itinerant inspector in the local politics of the Ming Dynasty so as to deepen the understanding of the centralized polity in the Ming Dynasty in the light of its change in power.The paper is divided into three parts:The first part covers the background of the establishment of the imperial itinerant inspector, its independent supervising position and major powers in the early Ming Dynasty.The second part is about the intensification of the supervising and judicial, and some military and administrative powers of the imperial itinerant inspector as well as a detailed argument of its relationships with the provincial inspector-general (An chashi) and the grand coordinator(Xunfu) in the mid and late Ming Dynasty.The third part analyzes the causes of the aggrandization of the imperial itinerant inspector's powers and argues about the influences of its aggrandized powers on the local politics in the Ming Dynasty.