清朝风闻监察述论

A Brief Discussion of Hearsay Supervision in Qing Dynasty

清朝统治者既鼓励风闻,又侵蚀或破坏言者的风闻权,从而使风闻运作陷入深深的矛盾之中,其历史局限性显而易见。但风闻毕竟是纠察奸邪、肃清纲纪的有力手段,且风闻并非风闻即劾,亦非风闻惩处,风闻后尚需取证核实,方能正式弹劾。科道官奏弹不当亦有法律约束,因而风闻所引起的弹劾权滥用的负面作用是有限的。

The governors in Qing Dynasty both encouraged the hearsay and eroded or destroyed the speaker's right of hearsay. Therefore, the hearsay was deeply involved in the contradictory. The hearsay is after all a forceful means to supervise the evil and clean up the disciplines. The hearsay doesn't mean to impeach only by learning through hearsay and it need get proofs to impeach officials after learning through hearsay. If the professional officials don't impeach properly, they may get the punishment of law. So the side-effect caused by the abuse of the rights of impeachment through hearsay is limited.