The Study Of Officials Self-impeachment In Ming Dynasty

The self-impeachment of officials is a common phenomenon in Chinese ancient political life, namely, it is a behavior by officials'stating their own faults and asking for being punished. The self-impeachment of officials is quite normal in the Ming dynasty, for example, there are a large number of records in the Ming shi-lu. According to the different features of self-impeachment in different periods, this paper divides into three phases. The first phase is from reign of Emperor Hong-wu to Xuan-de, and the cases of officials'self-impeachment are less in this period, the Emperors'attitudes of officials disposal are mostly tolerant. The second phase is from reign of Emperor Zheng-tong to Wan-li, it took place the most concentrated self-impeachment cases in this period and reflected complex political motives. At the same time, there are a great number of cases that the Emperor forced the officials to do their own self-impeachment. The self-impeachment officials suffered many substantial punishments, such as salary punishment, flogging at court, transferring and even getting sent to prison. The third phase is from reign of Emperor Tai-chang to Chong-zhen, it is the most remarkable characteristic that officials'losing the war became the self-impeachment's reason in this period. Overall, the officials' self-impeachment phenomena are particularly prominent after the middle of the Ming dynasty.According to the different intentions, the Ming dynasty officials" self-impeachment"s reason can be divided into five types:self-impeachment caused by making faults, namely stating the faults due to violating the relevant laws and provisions of the Ming dynasty; self-impeachment caused by disaster, namely impeaching themselves to making up the loss under the background of disaster; self-impeachment caused by "being forced to impeachment" and it is an Emperor's approach to punishing the officials who made mistakes; self-impeachment caused by being impeached, namely a way to gain the emperor's forgiveness after being impeached; self-impeachment caused by governmental inspection is a usual way to deal with the governing assessment, and it really has little substance.From the real intention of the self-impeachment, the officials'self-impeachment in the Ming dynasty mainly have five kinds of motivations. The first is actually making faults, self-impeaching to gain the purpose of reducing liability. The second is named self-impeachment, but actually remonstration, that is, remonstrating by self-impeaching, this phenomenon is particularly prominent in the case of making up the loss under the background of disaster. The third is retreating in order to advance, that is putting pressure on the emperor in order to achieve a political purpose. The fourth is following the existing conventions in the process of governing assessment but mostly perfunctory. The fifth is because the officials dissatisfied with the political reality and self-impeached in order to be far away from the whirlpool of politics, this is particularly true in the middle and late Ming dynasty. From the view of self-impeachment motivation, it is not only the Ming Dynasty officials'introspective behavior, but also the officials'political means.In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's disposing self-impeachment officials is divided into four levels:severe punishment, symbol of punishment, unpunished and no disposal; severe punishment includes flogging at court, imprison, demotion transferred and "being forced to retire"; symbol punishment includes staying on the job with a crime and leaving without pay; unpunished includes three methods: "wen-zhi-wei-liu'", "bu-yun-ci" and "kuan-you"; no disposal includes three methods: "liu-zhong", "bu-bao" and "wu-wen". At the same time, the way the emperor dispose of self-impeachment officials is influenced by many factors. For all factors, the official grade and office is a key factor affecting the results of self-impeachment officials. Senior officials was usually forgiven, low-level officials may be severely punished. The self-impeachment officials being in charge of frontier military affairs were disposed by the symbolic punishment or unpunished. The emperor's character is also a crucial factor affecting the results of self-impeachment officials. Emperor Zheng-tong, Emperor Jia-jing and Emperor Wan-li had ever not disposed of the officials, especially in the Emperor Wan-li late ruling, Emperor Wan-li didn't see the relevant materials about self-impeachment officials. In general, the Emperors' attitudes of self-impeachment officials'disposal are mostly tolerant.From the political culture perspective, what follows can be found by understanding the Ming dynasty officials'self-impeachment behavior:first of all, self-impeachment is one of the methods that scholar-officials restrain over the emperors'power. In the Ming Dynasty, the abolition of the system of prime minister led to the result that the imperial power had been strengthened and the scholar-officials'power had been greatly weakened, when facing the fatuous and incompetent emperor, scholar-officials take a self-impeached approach to put pressure on the emperor. Secondly, self-impeachment is a reflection theory of heaven-human induction at a political level. After disaster happened, the emperor and officials cultivating their original nature became a convention, and one of the method of cultivating original nature is self-impeachment. Finally, self-impeachment embodies the principle of Confucian officials, "If he country's political corruption, hide talents, and do not be an official." when facing the fatuous and incompetent political situation and being far from the political bright, in terms of retirement conditions, officials often take a self-impeached approach to fulfill the Confucian political philosophy. This phenomenon is most typical in the middle and late Ming dynasty.To summarize, in the political practice, the Ming dynasty officials' self-impeachment had gone beyond the category of introspection and became the tool of achieving the multiple political intentions. The investigation of the self-impeachment phenomena in the Ming dynasty officials is a significant aspect to understand the pursuit of value in the Ming Dynasty official groups, the vogue of government officials and the political ecology in the Ming dynasty periods.