Censor Election And Appointment Through Different Paths In The Ming Dynasty

Censors are an important part of the Ming Dynasty officials, they have a lowposition but a significant power. An upper Seven-Rank official can not only censurethe emperors, but also impeach ministers. Based on the Lan Tai Fa Jian Lu, The Memoirof Ming Dynasty, the Local Chronicles of Ming and Qing Dynasty, the documents andanthology of the Ming Dynasty, my paper analyzes the election and appointment ofCensors from four kinds of candidates which are Recommendees, Tribute Students,Provincial Graduates and Metropolitan Graduates, to reveal a direct picturedifferent from historical narration.This paper has three findings: firstly, the rise and fall of Censors in the Mingdynasty can be divided into three stages: four paths used together, examinations,domination of Metropolitan Graduates. Secondly, the regional quota exists in theelection and appointment of Censors. Thirdly, there are similarities and differencesbetween Censors elected from Provincial Graduates and ones elected from MetropolitanGraduates. The differences show the superiority of Censors elected from MetropolitanGraduates, which is closely related to their orthodox. The similarities indicatethat what path of Censors they are, once commissioned, the ones are treated equallywithout discrimination.