"Financial" is the income and expenditure activities of the state and the government, and is an important form and means to reflect national governance. Although the word "financial" rarely appears directly in ancient Chinese books, "national use", "national economy", "subsidy", "financial management" and so on often refer to this meaning. Rulers of China have attached great importance to financial work and are well aware of the importance of strengthening supervision of fiscal operation.
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On-calculation system
"On-calculation " is a unique economic management system in ancient China. This system had already begun as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. "The Literature of Zhou·Tianguan" records: "At the end of the year, all officials will be ordered to correct their governance, receive their meetings, and listen to their affairs and order the king to abolish them. At the age of three, the government will be punished and rewarded." This means: at the end of the year, officials at all levels will be ordered to correct the problems in management, accept the assessment of their superiors, listen to their reports on their respective political situations, and then ask the monarch to promote those who have made meritorious contributions and punish those who have committed guilt. Every three years, a comprehensive assessment of the political achievements of officials will be conducted, and those who have no political achievements will be dismissed and those who have outstanding political achievements will be promoted. What is emphasized here is the supervision and assessment of officials, but the basis is to "become acquaintance", that is, to accept a comprehensive report of local officials on their work, and the focus is on the summary of various accounting information. This kind of report is the prototype of the accounting system.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the princes were in power. The King of Zhou lost control of the local area and could not accept the local plan. However, the princes refer to the practice of the King of Zhou and accepted the local plan within the jurisdiction. The annual plan was called the "year plan" and the three-year plan was called the "big plan". Warring States Qin State formulated the "Golden Bu Law", which also emphasized the situation of fiscal revenue and the requirements were more specific.
Han Dynasty specially formulated the "Shangjian Law" to further standardize this system. The Han Dynasty attached great importance to the system of superior planning. The emperor often held grand ceremonies to accept collective planning from various counties and states, and often summoned the officials of the counties and states to inquire about the relevant situation. The compilation of "collected books" not only requires accuracy and no moisture, but also requires timeliness and relevant statistics should be completed within the specified time. Otherwise, relevant personnel such as the prefect of the county, the prime minister, the prefect of the state, the senior accountant and other relevant personnel will be punished.
After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the above-mentioned system still exists, but the specific content continues to change.
Censorship System
In Qin Dynasty , the official in charge of the planning work is pillars lower history , that is, the earliest censorship. The Qin Dynasty's censors were headed by the Censors and their status was second only to the Prime Minister. Their subordinates entered the various offices of the court. Supervising the financial operation and the implementation of economic regulations formulated by the court was one of their daily tasks. They were also responsible for reviewing the financial revenue and expenditure situation and accounting books reported by local governments.
By the Han Dynasty, the censor system was further developed. As the head of the censor, the censor's status was further improved. The position of prime minister was vacant. The censor's position was usually promoted by the censor. The censor and the prime minister were collectively called the "two courts". in the Han Dynasty also established censor , which was specifically responsible for, led the censor in the court, supervised the governor in the local area, and assumed the heavy responsibility of supervision. In order to strengthen local supervision, the Han Dynasty divided the country into more than ten prefectures and governors, with the governors in charge and inspecting the counties and states under their jurisdiction. Although the rank of the governor is not high, he directly supervises the prefect of the county and the prime minister, and supervises the daily operation of each county and state. Various matters related to finance are also one of his supervisory responsibilities.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the censor system continued to develop, and the importance of the censorate continued to increase. Tang Dynasty Censorate's supervision scope was expanded to the county level, and the supervision of economic work was further strengthened. The Tang Dynasty censors had a huge organization and had a Taiyuan, a Hall and a Procuratorate. Their responsibilities were further divided into details. In addition to conducting ordinary administrative supervision on officials at all levels, they also focused on strengthening the supervision of granaries and warehouses and supervision of local financial operation. As needed, they directly sent the censors to serve as renters, taxes, land and money transfers, salt and iron transfers, and minting coiners, etc., and intervened in all aspects of fiscal revenue and expenditure, taxation, finance, etc.In addition to daily supervision, the Censorate also sent Censors to conduct inspections in various places to promptly discover criminal acts in the economic field, with the focus on whether there are additional taxes and whether officials have gained their own pockets, etc., and they will be impeached once discovered. The Tang Dynasty's perfect censor system provided strong guarantees for the national fiscal operation. The Tang Dynasty suffered severe damage from the Anshi Rebellion and did not immediately perish, which is closely related to the important role played by this set of financial supervision and guarantee mechanisms.
After the Song Dynasty , the court established a multiple financial supervision mechanism based on the censorship system. The censors of the Song Dynasty could directly inspect the financial income and expenditure account books, and find problems, and directly investigate and deal with them in accordance with the law. Yuan Dynasty , the censor system was innovative again. The censorate was also set up in the local area, focusing on implementing local financial supervision. At the same time, a censorate was established, with the government and integrity visit envoys, stationed in 22 supervision areas across the country, and cooperated with the censorate to conduct comprehensive supervision of all matters including local economic development. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the court set up , and Six Ministry Officers, and its main body was various types of censors with specific division of labor. The Censors also led the supervision censors divided in various places. Because the institutions are more refined and the personnel are more abundant, their supervision effectiveness is also improved.
hook system
Supervision of economic and fiscal operation is different from ordinary administrative supervision, and requires professional knowledge and means. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Cao Wei set up the department Cao, which was one of the Shangshutai . It supervised the audit for the economic and financial departments such as degree branch , warehouse department, warehouse department, civilian department, etc. The audit objects include fiscal revenue, funding and use, and important project construction progress. department Cao became the earliest professional audit department. Since then, the audit function has become clearer. During the Sui Dynasty, the Ministry of Justice was affiliated with the Ministry of Official Affairs, one of the three provinces and six ministries. It was independent of the financial department and conducted a comprehensive audit supervision of the financial operation and funding use. This kind of supervision is also called "hooking". The
hook-up system was more mature in the Tang Dynasty. The Binary Department responsible for hook-up was affiliated with the Ministry of Justice. The highest official was a doctor, with the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the Whether in the court or local government, administrative or military, "everything is in conflict with everything", allowing the audit tentacles to penetrate into every corner of economic and financial operations.
The Tang Dynasty's hook and cover system is very detailed and comprehensive, with clear and strict requirements on the completion time, review procedures, etc., and there are specific solutions to the problems found during the hook and cover. For example, if the failure to report the report as required, it will affect the closure work as scheduled, or if the fraudulent means are used to provide false data, the relevant responsible persons must be punished. If the situation is serious, they will be dismissed or punished. If local governments are found to have intercepted fiscal revenue or financial deficits caused by failure to act according to the rules, relevant officials will also be punished. Officials in charge of the work of plagiarism must also be subject to discipline and assessment.
The highest financial institutions in the Song Dynasty were the three departments of Salt and Iron, Dubra and Ministry of Revenue, and were under them. The three departments of Gouyuan and Dumo Investigation Department can conduct pre-audit audits for some important financial income and expenditure. In addition, the audit functions are also available for the Youshi Department, the Duli Department, the Military Department, the Treasury Department, the Inner Warehouse Department, etc. Later, the three departments were removed, and most of the audit functions were concentrated in the Ministry of Justice. They summarized various audit results in the form of "monthly planning, examination, annual meeting" and other forms to form final audit opinions. After the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Bili was abolished, and the " external audit " undertaken by Bili has been weakened, but various "internal audit" mechanisms have been developed, such as the six departments of the Qing Dynasty, both auditing, governors and Taoist officials, etc., which has become a new feature of supervising financial operations through auditing methods. (The author is a scholar of literature and history)
(Original title: Characteristics of the "financial supervision" system in ancient China)
Source: Beijing Daily Author: Chen Zhonghai
Process Editor: TF021
Copyright Statement: The copyright of the text belongs to the Beijing News Group and may not be reproduced or adapted without permission.
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