Army Supervisory System In East Han Dynasty

In general, the army supervisors in East Han Dynasty are divided into two kinds:permanent army supervisor and temporary dispatched army supervisor. Permanentarmy supervisor mainly included Hu Jun、Cong Shi of vassal state、Ye Zhe whosupervised Li Yang camp、Zhong Hou of North Army、Zhong Langjiang who wasemissary to Xiong Nu and so on. And temporary dispatched army supervisor had tworoles: emissary of army supervisor and general.Among all these army supervisors, emissary of army supervisor had the higheststatus. And this kind of supervisor mainly contained Da Fu、Imperial secretary、YeZhe and Zhong Langjiang. Except Da Fu, all of them are the chief forms of ArmySupervisory System in East Han Dynasty.During this period, not only the major troops directly under the jurisdiction ofcentral authorities、the troops under the jurisdiction of localities、the camp troops orgarrison troops which open up wasteland and grow food grain, but the troops ofSouthern Xiong Nu which submit to authority of Eastern Han was also equipped witharmy supervisor. Eastern Han authority assigned Zhong Langjiang of Xiong Nu tosupervise its troops.Army Supervisory System in East Han Dynasty had three different stages whichare establishment in Guangwu Emperor period、transition in Shang Emperor periodand collapse in Zhongping Time of Ling Emperor period. Each of them had their owncauses. In the first stage, the establishment of emissary of army supervisor’s leadingposition had close thing to do with the background of that time. In the second stage,the surveillanced object had changed from generals to vassal states which resultedfrom the continuous uprisings everywhere. And the ranges of uprisings expandedconstantly. Therefore, the vassal states often recruited soldiers to suppress theuprisings which strengthened their military power, especially Ci Shi. Besides, the recruited soldiers rebelled sometimes which made the central government have to takestrict precautions against them. And this leaded to the transition of the surveillancedobject. In the third period, the Army Supervisory System collapsed under thebackground of the major troops directly under the jurisdiction of central authorities’declining, the private soldiers’ upsurging, and the breaking out of Huangjin Uprising.This situation had three reasons. First, Huangjin Uprising broke out suddenly andwidely which led to the fall of vassal states and the central government’s having nochance to dispatch army supervisor to local places. Second, after the breaking out ofHuangjin Uprising, the soldiers recruited by Eastern Han imperial governmentbecome private soldiers which resulted in army supervisor’s losing the support of statearmy. Third, the strength of army supervision power and becoming militaryappointment of Zhong Langjiang eventually disintegrated Army Supervisory System.During Eastern Han period, Army Supervisory System had intrinsic and distinctfeatures which are mainly follows: First, emissary of army supervisor had the leadingposition in army. Second, different army supervisors had definite division of work.Third, different army supervisors had different statuses and power according to theirdifferent identities when they were fulfilling their tasks. Forth, apart from the right ofsupervision, army supervisor also had the right of leading troops.The strengthen of Army Supervisory System in Eastern Han Dynasty embodiedthe centralization of military power and is useful to preventing military officers andlocal officials from grabbing the power. However, the disadvantages of abusingArmy Supervisory System are obvious, which affected the following dynasties deeply,especially eunuch army supervisor, which made Eastern Han Dynasty the initiator ofevil.