Dongchang, whose full name is Dongzhishi Factory, is named after the main office in the north of Dong'anmen in Beijing (next to Donghua Gate in other accounts), as a secret service agency led by eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty, Dongchang was directly under the command of the emperor and was responsible for privileged supervision and intelligence gathering. Together with the Jinyi Wei of the same period, they were called "factory guards", and the two were regarded as the symbol of the "spy governance" of the Ming Dynasty by later generations.
Zhu Yuanzhang learned the lessons of the previous dynasty, and when he was alive, he set up the ancestral precept that eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in politics, and the eunuch group can theoretically only do logistics for the emperor, and should not form institutions such as Dongchang that can affect the government and politics. However, this ancestral precept was broken by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. The reason for this is closely related to the controversy over his throne.
Zhu Di was originally the king of the northern princes, King Yan, and the throne had nothing to do with him. However, he chose to embark on the road of rebellion, launched the Battle of Jingjing, and kicked his nephew Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen from the throne. In the Ming Dynasty, an era deeply influenced by Confucianism and emphasizing loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, Zhu Di's behavior will undoubtedly be regarded by many as a great rebellion.
Although due to Zhu Di's authority and force, opponents maintained respect for Zhu Di on the surface, but deep down they were full of contempt and dissatisfaction with Zhu Di. Zhu Di is well aware of this, and knows that he may face challenges from all directions at any time.
In order to ensure the stability of his rule, Zhu Di quickly strengthened the power of Jinyiwei after succeeding to the throne, so as to closely monitor the every move of the court officials. However, the Jinyiwei and the civil official system have been playing with each other for many years during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, and the two have gradually formed an intricate relationship of interests, which makes Zhu Di feel that the supervision of Jinyiwei is weak, so after moving the capital to Beijing in the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420), Zhu Di ordered the establishment of the "East Investigation Factory", which is known as the East Factory.
The power of the East Factory is mainly reflected in the "inspection and arrest", and the similarities and differences with the Jinyiwei, in a word, to explain that it is "to visit the rebellion, the evil words, the great evil, etc., and the Jinyiwei are equally powerful", the establishment of the East Factory not only balances the power of the Jinyiwei, to avoid its monopoly, and in the case that the emperor is most concerned about, the East Factory also carries out special treatment to ensure that the case can be quickly and effectively resolved in accordance with the emperor's demands.
However, the arrest of people in Dongchang is not unrestrained in the system, and the arrest of dignitaries and dignitaries not only needs to hold a "driving post", which means that the action is issued by the emperor, but also needs to be confirmed by the criminal department in the imperial court supervision department. Even if someone is caught, Dongchang cannot directly interrogate him, but needs to hand over the prisoner to the Beizhen Fusi in Jinyi Weizhong for trial.
The leader of the East Factory is commonly known as the factory prince, and the full name is "the eunuch of the official banner of the East Factory, the governor of the Qin Mission", and the position was originally selected by the emperor to serve as a trusted eunuch in the twenty-four yamen of the internal officials, and there is no fixed formula for changing with the emperor's personal preferences. However, after Emperor Jiajing, Dongchang, as the only armed institution within the eunuch group that was fully controlled, was generally concurrently served by the most powerful eunuch of the internal officials, the eunuch Bingbi or the eunuch of the palm seal, and was no longer an independent existence.
There are no subordinate officials under the factory office, but there will be security officers according to business needs, one is the "Punishment of a Thousand Households", who is responsible for leading the team to enforce the criminal law. One of the "100 Households of Rational Punishment" is to interpret the application of the Criminal Law in the case. The two are commonly known as "sticking criminal officers", and they are generally deployed from the brocade guard.
In addition to the first-level structure, at the execution level, the East Plant is mainly divided into two major sections: internal and out-of-office.
The internal service is called "subordinate", which mainly manages the daily operation of the East Plant, and is roughly responsible for the internal affairs of the foreman, foreman, secretary and other internal affairs plates, and performs tasks for the field of the East Factory, and does a good job in logistics support.
The field service is called "Detective", also called "Fan Service", and the Dongchang Fanzi often mentioned in the TV series refers to them. "Fan service" is the executive department of the East Factory, and the factory officer ordered the case to be handled, and they were the ones who went to investigate the case and arrest people. It is worth noting that the "Fan Servants" are different from their factory fathers, they are not eunuchs, and they are mainly recruited from the Jinyi Guard.
Dongchang has a close relationship with Jinyiwei, not only in terms of case-handling steps and powers, but even in the overlapping personnel. It can be said that the East Factory is like a project department in Jinyiwei, and it is reasonable to gradually surpass Jinyiwei in the later stage. In short, the emperor distrusted Jinyiwei, so he selected a group of elites from them and handed them over to the eunuchs around him to manage, thus giving birth to Dongchang.
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References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Volume VII, Hu Dan. Appendix, Chronology of Ming Si Li Supervisor, East Factory, and Nanjing Guardian Tai Supervisor. "Research on the Eunuch System of the Ming Dynasty", "Jade Light Sword Qi Collection".