The Supervision Mechanism of Official Historians in Early Chinese Civilization
Early Chinese civilization had a mechanism of which official historians supervised over monarchs and nobles.During the Shang Dynasty,official historians were in charge of literature.They provided historical basis for sacrificial activities,participated in administrative and military affairs.They were able to constrain monarchs'behavior from a mysterious perspective,which made them become an important political force,though their supervisory measures were still relatively primitive and crude.During the Zhou Dynasty,official historians implemented the regulation of"the behaviors of monarchs must be written down(jun ju bi shu;君举必书)"and their admonitory activities were more frequent and active.They collected the historical literature and allusions of the Zhou Dynasty,provided experience and guidance for aristocratic life.In the Spring and Autumn period,there were two regulations,"reporting(fu gao;赴告)"and"presenting to the court(shiyu chao;示于朝)",which could form a huge domestic and foreign public opinion and realized a strong supervision for the nobles.The specific social background of early Chinese civilization gave birth to the supervision of official historians,which has left institutional cultural heritage to later generations.
Early CivilizationOfficial HistorianSupervision MechanismShang and Zhou Dynasties
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