The
Central Secretariat or
Zhongshu Sheng , or simply the
Secretariat, was one department in the
Three Departments and Six Ministries government structure officially established since the
Sui dynasty in the
history of China. As one of the three departments, it was the main policy-formulating agency that was responsible for proposing and drafting all imperial decrees. The
Song dynasty modified that tripartite division of executive agencies in the central government. Under the Song, as also under the
Liao and
Jin dynasties, those organs had exercise much of the executive authority for the emperor. Under the Mongol
Yuan dynasty, the Central Secretariat with enlarged functions stood along as the sole organ to lead the civil administration in the Yuan realm, as the Yuan founder
Kublai Khan wanted a centralized executive agency that take charge of all civil governing affairs throughout the empire. Models for it had long been part of Chinese imperial government, but now it was to function in a new context. The Central Secretariat also directly governed a large territory surrounding the Yuan capital
Khanbaliq (modern
Beijing) known as the Central Region (腹裏,
fuli), including the present-day
Hebei,
Shandong,
Shanxi, the south-eastern part of present-day
Inner Mongolia and the
Henan areas to the north of the
Yellow River (initially also the
Mongolian steppe). Branch Secretariats (行中書省) were set up throughout the empire and were subordinated to the Central Secretariat. Branch Secretariats gradually became provincial-level administrative organizations or institutions known simply as the
provinces (行省), though they were not exactly provinces in modern sense. There were 11 "regular" provinces in Yuan dynasty.The Yuan Central Secretariat was adopted by the early
Ming dynasty, and the Central Secretariat was led by the
Chancellor of China, although unlike the Yuan it did not directly control the Central Region. It was eventually abolished after the last Chancellor
Hu Weiyong was killed by
Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming, who later established the
Grand Secretariat. The Central Secretariat was no longer set up again by later rulers of China, and the Three Departments and Six Ministries structure was officially replaced by the Six Ministries structure.