中華民國五院

The second Principle of the People is 民權, or democracy. One of the two powers is the power of governance 治權. This was Sun’s view of the structure of an ROC government. It incorporates elements of Western three-branch governments with traditional Chinese administration, to give a government consisting of 5 ‘courts’, known as Yuan 院.

The five Yuan are:• Legislative Yuan 立法院• Judicial Yuan 司法院• Executive Yuan 行政院• Control Yuan 監察院• Examination Yuan 考試院

The Legislative Yuan 立法院 is the Republic of China’s main legislative body. It has 113 seats, 79 of which are directly elected, and 34 seats are allocated based on the nationwide proportion of votes. 6 of the 79 are reserved for aboriginals. A term is 4 years long.

The Judicial Yuan 司法院 is the Republic of China’s highest judiciary. Consisting of 15 justices 大法官, its job is to interpret the Constitution, adjudicate criminal cases and impeach the president or vice-president.

The Executive Yuan 行政院 is the executive branch of the Republic of China government. It is composed of 34 ministries, committees, councils and museums, and will be covered in more detail in later levels.

The Control Yuan 監察院 is based on the traditional Chinese censorate 御史臺／都察院, which monitors other government agencies to root out corruption.

The Examination Yuan 考試院 is based on the Imperial Examination 科舉 system which became prominent during the Tang Dynasty 唐朝, where people would have to take an exam to enter the government. The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualifications of civil servants.

This is the Republic of China’s current system of government. In the next few levels, you can learn the Chinese names, logos, headquarters and presidents of the Yuan.