I once heard that the rulers of Korea back during the Joseon Dynasty would employ representatives that were tasked with sneakily rooting out corruption, and these representatives had authority equivalent to the King himself. Is there any historical evidence to support this?

by VyrusReign

It certainly sounds like a super badass way to deal with corruption, but I'd like to know if this is legit.

wotan_weevil

Essentially, yes. They didn't have authority equivalent to the King, but their organisation was independent of other branches of the government, reporting directly to the King. Therefore, no member of other branches of the government was above them in the chain of command, or had any authority over them. The investigating officers had access to the King himself, to prevent other officials from trying to block them.

This organisation was modelled on the Chinese Censorate, which was first established by the Qin Dynasty (the Qin were notoriously hardcore when it came to law and order, and applied this to their own government). The duties, power, and effectiveness of the Censorate varied over time, but their two main functions remained the same:

  1. To monitor government officials, both in the palace and throughout the country, to prevent and detect corruption and other abuses of power.

  2. To monitor the behaviour of the Emperor, to make sure he performs his duties properly.

Needless to say, the investigating Censors were feared and disliked.

The Joseon Dynasty Korean Censorate (called Samsa in Korean, 三司 in hanja, 삼사 in hangul, meaning "The Three Offices") performed the same functions, and also played a stronger advisory role for the King, including educating the King in history and philosophy (i.e., Confucianism). The Korean Censorate had been established by the Koryo Dynasty, and the Joseon continued and strengthened it.

A modern parallel for the investigative role of the Chinese and Korean Censorates is the British Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which investigates charges of police misconduct and corruption. As they say, "We are independent, and make our decisions entirely independently of the police and government". That independence is important for the performance of their duty.

Further reading:

For a convenient overview of the structure of the Ming government, including the Censorate, see Hucker, C. (1958), "Governmental Organization of The Ming Dynasty", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 21, 1-66. doi:10.2307/2718619 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2718619