directly reported to the emperor. Two years later, the Censorate was set up. Audit functions were mainly manifested in the following three aspects: (1) to expose misdeeds in government offices and identify officials who took bribes, bent the law, and violated the decrees of finance and economy; (2) to appraise the administrative performance of officials over the economy; (3) to manage the Supervisory Censors from the Court of Censors in charge of auditing. As recorded in The History of Ming the latter were responsible for “investigating misdeeds of officials, auditing the account books, and checking the treasury, salaries, warehouse inventories, money, grain, salt, water transportation, tea and horses.”35 In addition, the Ming Dynasty assigned the task to the Jishizhong (an imperial attendant) of the Six Ministries (Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of War, Ministry of Punishments, and Ministry of Works), which directly reported to the emperor instead of the Censorate and other organs. The History of Ming recorded that Jishizhong was responsible for auditing on administrative control, supplement, appropriate and audit ministerial affairs at all levels.36 The Jishizhong could participate in government affairs, discuss politics and suggest persons to be given an official rank and dismissed, and also take charge of audit supervision over a wide range of activities.
The Supervisory Censors from the Court of Censors and the Jishizhong from the Six Ministries were collectively referred to as “Kedaoguan” (supervisory officials), exercising independent audit powers under mutual coordination and restraint. However, the Ming Dynasty encouraged the two sides to monitor and report on each other, to prevent Kedaoguan from deceiving the emperor. Consequently, this resulted in endless disputes and abuses of power. After the reign of emperors Jiajing and Wanli, the increasing factional strife aggravated this situation. “In the reign of emperor Shizong, the restrictions on public opinion were much relaxed, resulting in different arguments. It was a worry that some arguments were excessive and inapplicable. As they often bore ill wills more opinions would mean nothing but more chaos.”37
The Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) basically followed this auditing system. The system of combining supervision and examination was introduced. In the first year of emperor Yongzheng’s reign (1723), the Six Ministries were incorporated into the Censorate, thereby reducing their power to make remonstration and deliberation. On the other hand, this strengthened the efforts of the Censorate to investigate, report, and rectify the acts of all departments and related officials. In the Censorate, the Six Ministries, Fifteen Departments, Imperial Office of Censor, and Censor Office of Imperial Household Supervision Department had audit power.38 The Six Ministries were to “verify all government affairs,” “investigate and interrogate the official business to write off official papers,” and so forth. Despite the different audit fields, the Six Ministries were jointly responsible for inspecting warehouses, water transportation, and provisions, as well as salt-related matters, where audit powers were mostly assigned to the Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Works. The Fifteen Departments exercised certain audit power.39 According to the Wenxian Tongkao of the Qing Dynasty (Comprehensive Investigations based on Literary and Documentary Sources), “Supervisory Censors from the Fifteen Departments were responsible for investigating the misdeeds of all officials, checking the records of lawsuits by all government offices, inspecting the capital garrisons, supervising all levels of examinations, and inspecting departments, courts and offices; externally, they were responsible for supervising the affairs relating to salt, transportation, warehousing and schools.” Among them, checking the records, supervising salt, and transportation were specifically related to the audit function.
The Kedao Audit Supervising System of combining supervision and examination was introduced in the Ming and expanded in the Qing Dynasty, to meet the needs of centralism under imperial power. On the whole, the system of “unity of special audit, concurrent audit and internal audit by different departments respectively” had been abolished, though it was a beneficial exploration in auditing. Accordingly, the Kedao Audit Supervising System was inevitably downgraded to a tool of imperial autocracy and rule by man. For example, in the Censor Office of the Imperial Household Supervision Department under the Censorate, “all revenues and expenditures of the Imperial Household Department shall be checked and compared by the censor in accordance with the budget of the Capital Province, in order to check the records of lawsuits by all government offices.”40 However, the Imperial Household Department, with more than 3,000 officials and tens of thousands of personnel under its jurisdiction, directly served the imperial family. On the contrary, the Censorate only assigned two 7-grade part-time officials and three 9-grade inferior officials to examine and audit the Imperial Household Department, making the work a mere rubber stamp. As a matter of fact, the Censorate was responsible for write-off, that is, to legitimize the expenditures of the imperial family and corruption of powerful ministers, which led to it being given the title of “the worst least useful government office of the Qing Dynasty.”
(5) Auditing System in the Early Days of the Republic of China and Nanjing KMT Government Period
From the early days of the Republic of China to the Nanjing Kuomintang (KMT) government period (from April 18, 1927, to May 20, 1948), the Court of Auditors was set up in parallel with the Executive Yuan (Ministry), the Supervisory Institute the Supreme Court, the Board of Examination, and other ministries, and then restructured into a subsidiary body of the Supervisory Institute. The system of combining supervision and examination was thus introduced. Under the five-chamber political system, the audit offices of the Republic of China were independent of the fiscal administration and government administrative systems, possessing certain independence. The auditing system had the features as set out below.
First, audit institutions were mandated by the Constitution. The legal status of auditing and duties of audit institutions were specified in the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China promulgated in 1914, the Constitution of the Republic of China released in 1923, the Draft Constitution of the Republic of China unveiled in 1936, the Constitution of the Republic of China announced in 1947, and so forth. Correspondingly, four audit laws were promulgated successively.
Second, audit methods were flexible and diverse. Due to constant wars, heavy debts, and a weak financial position in this period, the audit institutions made great efforts to rectify the economic and financial order, so as to safeguard stability. They turned to ex ante audit, random investigation, field audit, travelling audit, off-office audit, and other methods, reflecting a strong trend of innovation and flexibility.
Third, the pilot project of a publicity system of audit results was carried out. The audit communique was prepared and printed by the audit institutions on a regular basis and made public. The announced contents were mainly associated with government decisions, laws and decrees on audit work, important instruments of audit business, disclosure of specific audit cases, and introduction of audit results.
Fourth, the professional quality of audit officials was emphasized. The special laws including the Establishment Law of the Court of Auditors, Law of the Court of Auditors on Organization, and Law of Penalties on Audit Officials provide a firm regulatory basis covering job requirements, qualifications for selection, salary and professional ethics, and so forth. In 1946, half of auditors in the Court of Auditors had a university degree, which was very rare among government institutions at that time.
Audit supervision played a certain role in consolidating financial discipline, combating corruption, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, and assuring government operations. However, due to the corrupted political system and official system, the limitless abuse of power by a privileged class and financial chaos, different men and institutions in power, such as tycoons manipulating the economic lifeline and the military sectors that consumed a huge of funds, repeatedly refused to accept audit supervision. As a result of long-term wars, it became increasingly difficult for auditing to
Zhang Tingyu,
Zhang Tingyu,
Zhang Tingyu,
Qing Emperor Gaozong,
Zhao Erxun and Ke Shaomin,
The Palace Museum,
