Regional Censorates (xing yushitai)

Regional Censorates The principal Regional Censorate was the Jiangnan Regional Censorate (江南诸道行御史台), usually called the Southern Taifu (南台).²

Founding and relocations

The History of Yuan (《元史》) Basic Annals show the office on the move: in the intercalary fifth month it moved from Yangzhou to Hangzhou.³

The Secretariat proposed abolishing the taifu outright and attaching its circuit surveillance offices to the central Censorate. When the emperor asked why it had been slated for abolition, the chancellor An Tong (安童) replied that "bandits rise repeatedly in Jiangnan, and the Regional Censorate has done most to restrain them," so it should not be abolished; but since the taifu and the Jiangzhe (江浙) Branch Secretariat both sat in Hangzhou, he proposed moving it to Jiangzhou, centrally placed among the Jiangzhe, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces. The emperor approved.³ According to the Yuan Shi, in the fifth month the taifu moved back to Hangzhou.³ One institutional history adds a further move back to Yangzhou in 至元二十六年 (1289).⁴

Structure, functions, and personnel

Over the dynasty's run the Jiangnan taifu employed 330 Han and southern Chinese censors against 275 Mongols and Semu.⁵

Its duties were to impeach corrupt officials, inquire into the people's hardships, audit the archives of prefectures and counties, and overturn unjust verdicts.² When the taifu was created the court issued the Xingtai Ticha Dengli (《行台体察等例》), a statute defining its scope.⁶ Patrol was the working method: six censors toured the three provinces and ten circuit offices in pairs, two per province, while the remaining eighteen stayed at the censorate.²

The biographies in History of Yuan chapter 175 show the careers the taifu offered. In 大德三年 (1299), after an inspection tour of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Gui (珪) was promoted to Investigating Censor (侍御史) of the Jiangnan taifu, moved to Surveillance Commissioner of Zhexi, dismissed more than thirty prefectural officials and hundreds of clerks, and recovered enormous sums in stolen funds; when he uncovered fraud in the salt administration, provincial officials bribed palace favorites to accuse him falsely, and only an imperial joint investigation established their guilt. He later became Investigating Censor-in-Chief (御史中丞) of the Jiangnan taifu and submitted a memorial of several hundred words urging moral cultivation, open channels of advice, promotion of the worthy, and adherence to the founder's precedents; his impeachments of great officials went unanswered, and he retired pleading illness. A later offer of the same post in the Shaanxi taifu he declined.⁷ In 至大元年 (1308) Yan (俨) was appointed Investigating Censor (治书侍御史) of the Jiangnan taifu; the record also notes the Jiangnan taifu disputing policy with the Jiangzhe Branch Secretariat, and that in 至治元年 (1321) and 泰定元年 (1324) Yan was named Censor-in-Chief of the Shaanxi and Jiangnan taifu respectively, declining both appointments.⁷

Political influence

The taifu's influence rested on oversight and on its standing as the dynasty's southern arm of legitimacy. An Tong's 1285 argument that it "did most to restrain" the recurring banditry of Jiangnan persuaded the court to keep the office rather than abolish it, and to move it instead.³ Its jurisdiction reached into provincial decision-making: provinces could not report policy proposals directly to the throne but had to route them through the censorate, and confiscated weapons in areas with a province, branch military council, or branch taifu were kept by those organs, the taifu included.^{1 • 3} Friction was real: according to the Yuan Shi, the Jiangnan taifu disputed policy with the Jiangzhe province, and Gui's prosecution of salt-administration fraud was met with fabricated charges from provincial officials.⁷ According to the Yuan Shi, the court authorized a branch taifu in Fujian so that documents from seven southern circuits could reach the central Censorate through it.⁸

References

1. 《行御史台》, 历史百科. https://www.39017.com/lishi/22935a/
2. 《浅说元代的监察制度》, 中国纪检监察报 (via 儒家网). https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/13279
3. 《元史》卷十三 世祖本纪, Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷013
4. 《御史台（行御史台）》, 《历代职官沿革史》. http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/d4677ecaba0abbd2b23dbcf106e8c1a8/276475c65bf5e3e55f0cb72e5b6914e4.md
5. 《元朝前期汉人监察御史的出身与迁调》, 中国社会科学院历史研究所. http://lishisuo.cssn.cn/xsyj/slxxjs/202001/t20200116_5078416.shtml
6. 《肃政廉访：元朝监察法律与廉政思想》, 光明网. https://news.gmw.cn/2025-06/28/content_38120656.htm
7. 《元史》卷一百七十五, Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷175
8. 《元史·志第四十一 百官七》, Moshuyuan transcription. https://www.moshuyuan.com/zh-tw/chapter/shibu/yuan-shi/zhi-di-si-shi-yi-bai-guan-qi.html

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynasty (1206 to 1368) › Government institutions and law

Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026

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