yushitai 御ご史し臺だい or duchayuan 都と察院, the Censorate

The yushi dafu 御ご史し大夫たいふ, translated as Censor-in-chief, was the highest-ranking state official supervising and controlling the officialdom of the empire. During the early decades of the empire the office of Censor-in-chief was only second to the Counsellor-in-chief (chengxiang 丞相じょうしょう) but gradually transformed into the highest position of the institution of the Censorate (yushitai 御ご史し臺だい). The Censors of the Former Han period 前漢ぜんかん (206 BCE-8 CE) were practically Vice Counsellors and often took part in important political decisions. The staffs of the Counsellor and Censor were called the "two ministries" (erfu 二に府ふ). The position of Censor often served as a springboard to that of Counsellor. Its nominal salary was 2,000 shi 石いし "bushels" of grain. All memorials to the throne had to pass the office of the Censor before being processed, and all edicts issued by the emperor were to be countersigned by the Censor before being promulgated and transmitted to the Counsellor and the regional governments. The Censor thus served as a person to check the influence of the Counsellor.

The control of officialdom by the Censor meant that he was allowed to indicate corrupt or illegal practice of each state offial and to interview officials charged of misdoings. His assistant was the Palace Aide to the Censor-in-chief (yushi zhongcheng 御ご史し中ちゅう丞すすむ, or Vice Censor), several attendant censors (shi yushi 侍さむらい御ご史し) and bandit-suppressing censors (xiuyi yushi 鏽衣御ご史し, lit. "embroidered-robe censors"). The task of the Vice Censor was to supervise the regional inspectors (cishi 刺史しし) and the regional governors (taishou 太守たいしゅ) and magistrates (ling 令れい) directly, and to investigate the court officials. He was also to supervise all punishments of state officials. The 15 attendant censors had the main task to indicate misdoings of state officials and to initiate arrest and interviewing of suspects. Bandit-suppressing censors were only appointed in case of need and supervised the suppression of rebellions.

In 8 BCE the office of Censor-in-chief was renamed Grand Minister of Works (da sikong 大だい司つかさ空そら) and became one of the Three Dukes (sangong 三公みつきみ). Position and salary of the Censor were concurrently raised to a level equal to that of the Counsellor and the Minister of War (da sima 大だい司馬しば). Between 5 BCE and 1 BCE the office was again given the former name. At the end of the Later Han period 後ご漢かん (25-220 CE), the warlord Cao Cao 曹操そうそう (155-220) abolished the Three Dukes and reinstated the offices of Counsellor and Censor. During the whole Later Han period, the tasks of the Censorate were managed by the Vice Censor, while Censor-in-chief was just a honorific title. For a short time during the Wei period 曹魏 (220-265), the Vice Censor (acting as chief Censor in fact) was called gongzheng 宮みや正ただし "Rectifier of the palace".

The Northern Wei 北きた魏たかし (386-534) called this office zhongwei 中尉ちゅうい "Commandant of the palace". From the Sui period 隋ずい (581-618) on, the Censor-in-chief was reinstated in his former position of head of the Censorate. The Vice Censor was renamed from yushi zhongcheng to yushi dafu. This was no problem because the term and office of yushi dafu had been abolished at the end of the Han period. This means that the nominal Vice Censor who had acted as Censor since that time, was now called by a term corresponding to his real function, namely that of Censor-in-chief. The new Vice Censor was called zhishu shi yushi 治ち書しょ侍さむらい御ご史し "secretarial censor", yet the early Tang dynasty 唐とう (618-907) changed this title into the former designation of yushi zhongcheng.

Between 662 and 670 the Censorate (yushitai) was renamed Xiantai 憲けん臺だい. Empress Wu Zetian 武則たけのり天てん (r. 690-704), enacting substantial reforms of the central government, renamed the Censorate Suzhengtai 肅政臺だい and divided it into two departments (left and right), each headed by a suzheng dafu 肅政大夫たいふ (i. e. the Censor-in-chief) who was assisted by a sixian dafu 司つかさ憲けん大夫たいふ (i. e. the Vice Censor). The left Censorate controlled the officials in the capital and the metropolitan military officials, while the right Censorate supervised the civilian and military officials in the provinces. These two departments were renamed yushitai in 705, but were only reunited in one single entity in 712.

The Censorate of the Tang empire consisted of three departments, namely the Headquarters Bureau (taiyuan 臺たい院いん), the Palace Bureau (dianyuan 殿しんがり院いん) and the Investigation Bureau (chayuan 察院). The Headquarters Bureau was headed by four to six attendant censors (shi yushi) who controlled the state officials and interrogated criminals. This bureau also controlled the income and expenditure of the capital granaries (taicang 太ふとし倉くら) and the Left Vault (zuocang 左ひだり藏ぞう) of the Court of the Imperial Treasury (taifusi 太たい府ふ司し). They were to see to that no illicitly acquired funds (such as ransom pay) entered the state treasury. It was especially the so-called attendant censor of miscellaneous matters (zaduan 雜ざつ端はし) who practically exercised unrestricted powers. The Palace Bureau was managed by nine palace censors (dianzhong shi yushi 殿中でんちゅう侍さむらい御ご史し) who supervised the arrangement of the officials during court audiences (chaoban 朝あさ班はん) and the imperial regalia (yizhang 儀仗ぎじょう).

Within the capital they oversaw the metropolitan police forces who cared for law and order on the streets and the markets. Generally, members of this bureau also assisted the Headquarters Bureau. The Investigation Bureau was managed by fifteen investigating censors (jiancha yushi 監かん察御史し) who controlled all officials and inspected the various provinces, prefectures and districts. They also managed all forms of punishment and jails. In their function of inspectors of the local government they were given several functional titles according to their task, like touring censorial inspector (xun'anshi 巡めぐ按使) when inspecting provincial (dao 道みち) administration, or postal inspector (guanyishi 館たて驛えき使し) when inspecting courier stations. They were sent out to inspect booty and war prisoners or military success and failure.

They oversaw the creation of military agro-colonies (tuntian 屯田とんでん) and the production of coins, and some inspectors cared for the pacification of the unruly mountain tribes of the southwest. In the central government, they were especially entrusted with the investigation of the Six Ministries (liubu 六ろく部ぶ) and also assisted the Palace Bureau in the management of the imperial regalia. Among all these various tasks, the autonomous impeachment of officials and the exaction of punishment were the most outstanding issues. Officials of the Censorate did not to have to ask for permittance by higher authorities to execute impeachments and were even allowed to impeach their own colleagues. The Censor-in-chief himself was to be investigated by the vice directors (cheng 丞すすむ) of the Imperial Secretariat (shangshusheng 尚書しょうしょ省しょう), at least in theory.

Legal matters could be brought directly to the court through the Palace Secretariat (zhongshusheng 中書ちゅうしょ省しょう), supervising secretaries (jishizhong 給きゅう事ごと中ちゅう) and the Censorate, or by submitting a report to the Censorate by putting it in a petition box (ligui 理り匭). In 648 the Censorate was given a prison of its own. Before that date, prisoners were interrogated and held in the jail of the Court of Judicial Review (dalisi 大だい理り寺てら). All censors were allowed to arrest and put into jail whoever was charged with a crime. This prerogative made the Censorate a powerful tool in the hands of rulers if they wanted to get rid of opponents, and it was a well-used tool during the reign of Empress Wu who entrusted Lai Junchen 來らい俊しゅん臣しん (651-697) with the suppression of her critics.

Although the Censors and their assistants occupied not a very high position in the hierarchy of state officials during the Tang period they wielded great power and had a deep influence on the whole officialdom, but also on financial affairs. The most important persons in this positon were Yuwen Rong 宇文うぶん融とおる (d. 730), Yang Shenqin 楊慎矝 (d. 747), Wang Hong 王おう鉷 (d. 752) and Yang Guozhong 楊國忠ちゅう (700-756). All mighty officials of the empire concurrently were given the title of assistant censor or Vice Censor. These "outsiders" that not really belonged to the proper staff of the Censorate were called the "Outer Bureau" (waitai 外そと臺だい). During the late Tang period, these purely vain titles mushroomed throughout the empire, and virtually all military commissioners (jiedushi 節度せつど使し) in the various provinces were concurrently called with the title of Censor. With the decrease of the imperial power after the rebellion of An Lushan 安やす祿ろく山さん (703-757), that of the Censorate also declined. The right to inspect troops had been usurped by the eunuchs that controlled the central government, while the local government was in the hands of the military commissioners (fanzhen 藩はん鎮). In the early 9th century, the Censorate had lost its control over all jurisdictional matters.

While the main Censorate was in the capital Chang'an 長安ながやす (modern Xi'an 西安しーあん, Shaanxi), there was a second Censorate (liutai 留とめ臺だい) in the eastern capital Luoyang 洛陽らくよう (modern Luoyang, Henan) that was especially useful when Emperor Gaozong 唐とう高だか宗むね (r. 649-683) and Empress Wu Zetian moved the court to that city. With Emperor Zhongzong 唐とう中ちゅう宗むね (r. 705-709) returning to Chang'an, the eastern Censorate was gradually dissolved and only rudimentarily staffed.

The Song dynasty 宋そう (960-1279) inherited the structure of the Censorate from the Tang empire, yet there was no yushi dafu and instead, the Vice Censor took over the post of chief censor. His lieutenant was the associate or "general purpose" censor (shi yushi zhi zashi 侍さむらい御ご史し知ち雜事ざつじ, short zhiza yushi 知ち雜ざつ御ご史し).

Officials that had just started their career in the Censorate were given the suffix "on probation" (lixing 裏うら行ぎょう). There were also some auxiliary investigators (tuizhiguan 推直官かん) in the Song-period Censorate. Around 1020, the office of Remonstrating Censor (yanshi yushi 言げん事ごと御ご史し, also called jianguan yushi 諫官御ご史し or yanshiguan 言げん事ごと官かん) was created and newly institutionalized in 1045. The traditional separation of censorial functions between remonstrance officials (jianguan 諫官) and surveillance officials (chaguan 察官) became therewith obsolete. In 1080, the former situation was restored, yet the Censorate was rearranged according to the Six Ministries, and six investigation sections (liu'an 六ろく案あん) were created whose staff had to control the officials of the respective ministry as well as the ressorts of other central government agencies that were organised in a similar way with six departments.

The Section for Revenue (hu'an 戶と案あん) soon also took over the task to control the transport commissioners (zhuanyunshi 轉うたて運うん使し), and the Section for Justice (xing'an 刑けい案あん) supervised the judicial commissioners (tidian xingyu 提ひさげ點てん刑けい獄ごく). The Section was in the beginning headed by three Censors, each heading two resort, but later on a Censor was created for each Section. Three other censors functioned as remonstrating censors controlling the department of the palace library (bishusheng 祕書ひしょ省しょう or mishusheng 秘書ひしょ省しょう) and the palace domestic service (neishisheng 内侍ないし省しょう). In 1084, the associate censors (zhiza yushi) were renamed attendant censors (shiyushi) and the remonstrating censor (yanshiguan) was renamed palace censor (dianzhong shiyushi), as before. The six investigating officials (chaguan) were renamed "investigating censors" (jiancha yushi). The offices on probation and those of auxiliary investigators were given up.

The structure of the Censorate remained in place during the Jin 金きむ (1115-1234) and Yuan 元もと (1279-1368) periods.

The Ming dynasty 明あきら (1368-1644) replaced the title yushi dafu (Censor-in-chief) by duyushi 都と御ご史し, and that of the yushitai (Censorate) to duchayuan 都と察院. This was in 1682, when eight Chief Investigating Censors (jiancha du yushi 監察かんさつ都と御ご史し) were appointed that toured the twelve provinces (dao 道みち) of the empire. In each province, 3 to 5 censors took over surveillance of the officialdom. In 1383, the position of the Censor-in-chief was considerably promoted by an increase in rank (from 7A to 3A, soon even 2A). He was supported by two Censors-in-chief (left and right duyushi 都と御ご史し), two Vice Censors-in-chief (fu duyushi 副ふく都と御ご史し), four Assistant Censors-in-chief (qian duyushi 僉都御ご史し), and a staff of registrars (jingli 經歷けいれき) and administrative clerks (zhishi 知事ちじ). Between 1400 and 1402, the name of the Censorate was once more changed from duchayuan to yushifu, yet the Yongle Emperor 永樂えいらく帝みかど (r. 1403-1424) discarded this renaming when he usurped the throne. In 1425, the provincial censorates were called branch departments of the Censorate (xingzai duchayuan 行くだり在ざい都と察院) and were administratively put side by side with the provincial branches of the Six Ministries. The number of censors in each province was fixed in the next decades, yet the offices could also be taken over concurrently by supreme commanders (zongdu 總督そうとく) or grand coordinators (xunfu 巡めぐ撫なで).

The general structure of the Ming Censorate remained intact during the Qing period 清きよし (1644-1911).

The imperial Censorate, in existence until the end of the Chinese empire in 1911, was the model for the Control Yuan (jianchayuan 監察かんさつ院いん) of the Republic of China.