How did the ancient Ming Dynasty work?
Compared to previous dynasties, the Ming Dynasty had a unique power structure and the way the court operated, which was extremely efficient in practice, as the court had a sophisticated working system that worked well even when the emperor ignored the government. The disadvantage was that the emperor was in a state of poverty to a certain extent, which was the main reason for the tension between the rulers of the Ming Dynasty and the imperial court. To understand how the Ming Dynasty worked, we can conduct a general examination at both the local and local levels.
Center: Unique ticketing system.
The Ming Dynasty initially implemented a centralized system, with a left prime minister and a right prime minister, but after the Hu Weiyong incident in 1380, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the centralized system and the prime minister, and delegated the power of the centralized system to the six ministries, which in turn were directly responsible to the emperor. While it was true that imperial power was highly centralized, the emperor's workload increased dramatically, and a cabinet system emerged to cope with the heavy work of the court.
In the cabinet system, the emperor has decision-making power, the cabinet has negotiation power, and the six ministries have executive power. The cabinet is equivalent to the emperor's secretariat or staff, and is only responsible for making feasible proposals, which are then decided by the emperor and implemented by the six ministries.
All important documents of the imperial court are drafted by the cabinet, written on the draft with pen and ink, and then submitted to the emperor for approval, this process is called vote drafting. Actually, the cabinet"Vote proposed"The original intention was the preliminary opinion of the emperor's reference, it only saved the emperor's review and thinking process, and the final plot was still the emperor's"Zhu Pi"。Hence the size and size of the powers of the cabinet"Proposed Ticket"The status of the emperor's initial appearance was based on the emperor's trust in the cabinet members.
Until the Renxuan period, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and others, the former ministers of the East Palace of Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi, because Yang Shiqi and Yang Rong not only entered the cabinet, but also served as the chief celebrant and supervisor, since then, the cabinet rule began to deteriorate, and began to move from behind the scenes to the front of the stage. During the Ming Dynasty Zhu Qiyu Jingtai, Wang Wen went to serve in the Ministry of Officials, and then entered the cabinet, since then, the system of the control room and the edict study room began to be implemented, according to the will of the Shangshu and the six Shangshu, the cabinet has greater power. Although the reigns of Zhu Qizhen, Chenghua, and Hongzhi of Ming Yingzong were repeated, the power of the cabinet began to increase again, and it began to become a representative group of civil officials against imperial power.
Coincidentally, the rise of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty was also closely related to this learning system. Although the system greatly reduced the emperor's workload, it was difficult for one person to read a large number of notes, so eunuchs trained in internal studies began to replace the brush-wielding imperial celebrant Hongpi eunuchs. From then on, the emperor had to approve a part of the zhangzhang chapter every day, and the rest was approved by the lower-level eunuchs, so the power of the eunuchs began to tighten.
Local: Power-sharing.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty was adopted, and in the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), a political envoy was set up, and a political envoy was set up on the left and right. In addition, the Department of Judicial Supervision has also been set up, with a person appointed by the procurator to be in charge of the criminal department and provincial affairs, and the local branch of the Metropolitan Procuratorate has been set up to supervise the local government. In the provinces where the General Staff is located, the General Staff was created together with the General Staff. In this way, the local military, political, and legal powers are separated, and the three parties cooperate with each other and check each other.
Xuanfu Division: In the Ming Dynasty, the Xuanfu Division was a first-level administrative organization that was mainly responsible for four tasks. The first task is to accept government decrees, that is, to accept government affairs and decrees issued by superiors, to inform the provinces, prefectures, and counties, and to ensure their implementation and enforcement. The second task is to manage the civil servants under its jurisdiction, that is, to manage the civil servants at all levels in the counties, provinces, and districts under its jurisdiction, pay salaries regularly, evaluate their performance, and report to the government. The third is to be in charge of finance and taxation, responsible for collecting taxes in various provinces, supervising the fiscal revenue and expenditure of each province, and collecting statistics on household registration, tax service, population, land and other civil affairs in each province. Fourth, set up local imperial examination institutions, organize local provincial examinations according to the examination syllabus, and select talents for the imperial court.
(b) Department of Criminal Justice and Public Prosecutions: This department is responsible for the administration of justice throughout the province and has two main functions. The first is the prosecution of crimes, which is responsible for investigating the results of cases in the provinces, states and counties and reporting the results to the Ministry of Justice. The second task is to oversee the authorities. As the local branch of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Judicial Information Department is also responsible for supervising the local level of the procuratorate and reporting to the procuratorate on the situation of supervision.
Headquarters: The department is the highest local military command organ on weekdays, responsible for the management of guards, soldiers and generals at all levels in the jurisdiction, and also accepts the command of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and is subordinate to the Ministry of War.
In addition, since the introduction of the system of temporary appointments during the Xuande period, the military seniority of the governor or prefect could not interfere with the powers of the Minister of Justice, which, according to the Minister of Justice, could only be done without special authorization.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty also implemented the division of internal and external rule militarily, and set up guards in the inner provinces and border towns respectively. In addition to the local criminal department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate also dispatched governors to various localities. In addition, an important component of the Ming Dynasty was the factory guard system, which was mainly responsible for surveillance and intelligence work, and was therefore extremely powerful because it was directly responsible to the emperor.