A Review on the Tang Central Government’s Supervision over Local Governments’ Finance

Abstract

The financial management system enacted in the early period of the Tang Dynasty was characterized by centralized revenues and expenditures.In such a system,local governments were not entitled to financial revenues autonomy and were subject to financial supervision by the central government.Owing to the relatively sound legal foundations of the financial supervision,local government officials were not often found to commit illegal financial acts.However,in the relatively late period of the Tang Dynasty,with the decentralized financial power,usual financial supervision over local governments by the central government were nearly suspended,which in turn caused the birth of a new financial management system in which the central government and local government saw to their respective financial revenues and expenditures.Thus,there were corresponding changes in the bases of the financial supervision over local government by the central government,supervising subjects and the areas of supervision.