The Relationship between Chinese Ancient Supervision and Administration: -- Also Discussing the Enlightenment to the Reform of Contemporary Supervision System

The relationship between supervision and administration is an important issue in China's ancient state power allocation and governance system. As far as system design is concerned, the two have different basic functions. Supervision is mainly to manage officials’ affairs to drive out evil and usher in good, while administration is mainly to manage civilians’ affairs to achieve harmony and promote achievements. The basic relationship between them is that supervision supervises administration. However, these basically correct understandings and systems have not been well implemented in practice. The relationship between supervision and administration has not been truly and reasonably coordinated, and these two are often seriously confused and intruded with each other. Supervisory organs have been attached to administrative organs for a long time, and the administrative organs have long-term supervisory powers. The Prime minister has exerted great efforts to control the "impeachment" power, and supervisory organs also assume a large number of administrative functions. From the dynamic point of view, from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the confusion and intrusion to the supervision caused by the administration is from strong to weak, and the confusion and intrusion to the administration caused by the supervision is from weak to strong. The mutual confusion and intrusion of supervision and administration has caused great harm to national governance. The coordination between supervision and administration in ancient China left a series of experiences and lessons, which have profound implications for the reform of supervision system in contemporary China.