奏疏、章表，是东亚古代官吏书写给君主的文书，皇帝用朱砂红笔亲手批谕后发还原奏人。章表分用以谢恩为「章」，用以陈述事实为「表」。奏疏的内容有多个种类，包括言事、对策、请安等。 明朝分题、奏、表、讲章、书状、文册、揭帖、制对、露布与译。 揭帖经「缄封」则称为密揭，因不经内阁《实录》并不记载这些密揭内容。密疏早在汉代就有，密揭则在明初与内阁制度一起形成 。密揭格式上类揭帖，形式上又像密疏，在明万历朝得到很大的应用。 明朝初年，形成密折制度。清朝康熙帝添加奏折，也称「折子」，即密奏文书，可以由原奏人直达皇帝，无需经过层层官僚关卡。

A memorial to the throne (Chinese: 章表, zhāngbiǎo) was an official communication to the Emperor of China. They were generally careful essays in Classical Chinese and their presentation was a formal affair directed by government officials. Submission of a memorial was a right theoretically available to everyone from the Crown Prince to a common farmer, but the court secretaries would read them aloud to the emperor and exercised considerable control over what was considered worthy of his time. They were used in imperial China as a means of regulating corrupt local officials who might otherwise have escaped oversight.