4 - Collective versus Unilateral Decision Making

Summary

Chapter 4, “Collective versus Unilateral Decision Making,” explores an important aspect of the changing dynamic between inner and outer political space, namely, the relationship between the two functioning information systems of bureaucratic communication and documentary control that were headquartered in these two political spaces. Centered around the inner court, the “imperial channel,” under the sole authority of the emperor, issued “inner directives” (neijiang/yubi 內降/御筆). In contrast, the “public channel,” centered in the outer court, worked through a complex process of consultation and document processing that, in theory, offered multiple opportunities for input from officials of the Secretariat and remonstrance agencies. A review of the interaction between these two parallel, competing systems of communication affords a window into the complexities of the daily, practical dynamic between these two centers of Song governance.