Disciplinary Power: A Political Analysis Of The Supervision System In The Tang Dynasty

Supervisory system has a long history in China, and plays an important role in Ancient Chinese political civilization, which is an indispensable part in enhancing central authority and maintaining social stability. Today, we can still learn from it and get some enlightenment. As the most prosperous Dynasty in ancient China, Tang Dynasty and its supervisory system embody great value which worth our research and investigation.Supervisory system of Tang Dynasty is complete and the legal system is quite mature. It includes central supervision, local supervision, even emperor is included. Actually, Tang Dynasty has already formed censorate system, imperial censors system, local supervisory system, supervision regulation system. Censorate system is further divided into Tai Court, Dian Court, and Cha Court. Imperial censors system mainly consists of Jianyifafu(grand master for censorship), Jishizhong(senior supervising secretary), Buque(assistant consultantship), Shiyi(responsible for guarding memorial to the throne from censors). The former system is mainly responsible for supervising officials, while the later system for adjusting and regulating autocratic monarchy. Local supervision is the extension of imperial authority and reflection of power concentration. Such an detailed and strict supervisory system of Tang Dynasty features many advantages like high independence, high official quality, and clear responsibility division. It is the the fact that due to class attribute and unavoidable limit of federal society, supervisory system of Tang Dynasty also has its own problems and defects. However, in the perspective of modern political science, supervisory system of Tang Dynasty still has its shining aspects that worth our learning and research, such as establishing and perfecting the laws and regulations, emphasizing on local supervision, keeping the independence of power of supervision.In view of this, this paper will conduct a systematic analysis on supervisory system of Tang Dynasty carrying out in the line of central and local supervisory institute and system. This paper consists of five parts. The first part unfolds the research value, current status and method on supervisory system of Tang Dynasty. The second part conducts an analysis on the historical background of supervisory system of Tang Dynasty form three aspects, namely the inheritance and development from former Dynasty, the need of power adjusting and the inexorable outcome of enhancing imperial power. The third part discusses the constructing mechanism of supervisory system of Tang Dynasty. Taking AnLushan Rebellion as an important time node, by discussing central supervision, local supervision, supervisory laws and regulations, its operating conditions and operation failure reasons, a contrastive analysis on central supervision and local supervision is carried out. The fourth part concludes the gains and losses of supervisory system of Tang Dynasty. The fifth part further explores supervisory system of Tang Dynasty and draws the lessons that worth learning, including the construction of supervision laws, importance of public participation, independence of power of supervision, possession of power of supervision and its efficiency and etc.