本文旨在探討資訊與皇權強化之間的關係。本文認為皇權強化的憑藉之一，即是對於對資訊的掌控。皇帝資訊愈多，權力愈大。明清兩代可謂我國歷代專制君主權力發展至極致的頂端，兩代皇帝對資訊的掌控益發嚴密。本研究擬以通政使司為素材，透過其在明代的興與在清代的衰，雖然兩者在外表現象上截然不同，但是，其背後所具有之意義卻是相同的，即兩代皇帝均欲透過資訊管道及資訊內容的掌控以強化皇權。通政使司在明代的興，是因為皇帝為了架空中書省相權，直接掌握資訊管道與資訊內容，強化君權所採取的步驟之一。相對之下，通政使司在清代的衰，卻也是皇帝為了有效掌控資訊管道與資訊內容，強化君權的方式之一。因之，本文主要在於解釋通政使司興及衰與皇權強化之間的關係和意義；通政使司在明代的興與在清代的衰，皆出於皇帝欲擁有直接、迅速與隱密之資訊管道與欲獲致真實、充分與隱密資訊內容的一種努力。而皇帝對資訊管道與資訊內容上所期望的特色，也許即為皇權對資訊的要求。

The article intends to analyze the relationship between information and the reinforcement of the emperors’ power during the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasty. The article assumes that one of the important means that the emperors strengthen his power is to control over the information straightly. The more directly the emperors control the information channels and the more volume of information the emperors could earn, the more power the emperors could possess. It is quite natural for any emperor to dominate the information channels singly and to gain information as soon and as much as possible. The article applies the T’ung-Cheng Ssu as the object to observe this proposition. The rising of the T’ung-Cheng Ssu’s happened in the beginning of Ming Dynasty and its downfall took place in the end of Ch’ing Dynasty. It is interesting, although the rising and downfall appeared complete opposite phenomena on the surface, they came about by the same cause----the emperors attempted to strength their power. In order to obtain the total information around the whole country rapidly and secretly, the emperors in Ming Dynasty created T’ung-Cheng Ssu to deprive the prime ministers’ power on information. For the identical reasons, the emperors of Ch’ing Dynasty built up a new information gathering channel----the Palace Memorial System to substitute T’ung-Cheng Ssu. Comparative to T’ung-Cheng Ssu, The Palace Memorial System was more directly and strictly controlled under the emperors. As well as it offered more quick and private and complete information as the expectation of the emperors.