Zhu Yuanzhang's analysis of political reform, the historical dialectic between power and system
In the old imperial society, the struggle between imperial power and medicine power lasted until the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), when Zhu Yuanzhang abolished Zhongshu Province and Prime Minister after Hu Weiyong's case, and set up six departments of Zhongshu Province, and the emperor was directly in charge of six departments and hundreds of divisions, which ended the struggle between imperial power and medicine power. However, due to the limited energy of the emperor, the cabinet as the emperor's secretary began to appear on the stage of history. So, how did the cabinet rise from secretary to de facto prime minister? Actually, it's a long process.
As the emperor's power grew, so did the workload of the cabinet, which initially consisted only of the emperor's private secretaries.
The Ming Dynasty initially followed the system of the Yuan Dynasty, set up Zhongshu Province, and set up the left and right prime ministers, until the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380) After the Hu Weiyong case, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang abolished Zhongshu Province and the prime minister, and Zhongshu Province and its ** reached its heyday.
Even a workaholic like Zhu Yuanzhang could not do everything himself, so in September of the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), four Shangshu were set up, with Confucian Wang Ben, Du You, and Gong Ran as the Spring Shangshu, Du Jiaozhi, Zhao Minwang, and Wu Yuan as the Xia Shangshu, and the two Shangshu in autumn and winter were appointed by the Spring and Summer Shangshu. Later, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382), the Siqing was abolished and replaced by the Huagai Palace, the Wuying Palace, the Wenyuan Pavilion and the East Pavilion to help them deal with government affairs, which was actually the prototype of the Council of Ministers.
When the emperor of the Ming Dynasty sent Zhu Di, Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Rong and others to lead the Wenyuan Pavilion and Wumen, he set up a cabinet system to let them participate in major affairs, which was called the cabinet. In the past, the prime minister had decision-making, negotiation and administrative power, so he had great power, but later the cabinet only had the power to negotiate, and the decision-making power was firmly in the hands of the emperor, and the executive power was assigned to the six ministries, and the local departments in the six ministries were directly responsible to the three departments. Obviously,"Since then, the cabinet ministers have occupied the beginning of the cabinet organization, and the inspection is inspected, the reading is read, and the officials are the officials, and there will be no ** signature"。It is a division of labor, and it is self-evident"。He said that the cabinet currently exists only as the emperor's secretarial department, unlike the former prime minister's yamen.
The establishment of the cabinet also established a special mechanism for the operation of **, that is, that of the Ming Dynasty"Ticket preparation"。All important documents of the imperial court were first drafted by the cabinet, and the cabinet was responsible for drafting some opinions, writing them in pen and ink on the book of the proposed ticket, and then submitting it to the emperor for approval together with the fold, this process is called the draft ticket. The emperor then makes a final decision based on the opinions formulated by the cabinet and approves it in red letters, called"Red batch"or"Zhu Pi"。
Actually, the cabinet"Vote"Just to provide the emperor with a reference to the past opinions, just to save the emperor from reviewing and reflecting on the process of the problem, the final decision is still the emperor's"Zhu Pi"。For example, the place that reports the disaster situation must first verify whether the disaster situation is true, and then formulate disaster relief measures according to the actual situation; To allocate funds, the Ministry of Finance has money; To adjust grain, neighboring provinces have grain, and so on. The Cabinet's job is to resolve the Emperor's inquiries, the hearings, submit some feasible opinions, and then leave the final decision to the Emperor.
Thus, the size and power position of the cabinet was initially reflected in acceptance"Recommendations", that is, the degree of trust that the emperor has in the members of the cabinet.
The power of the cabinet began to increase during the reign of Renxuan, and reached its peak during the reign of Zhang Juzheng in the early years of Wanli.
Initially, ministers were not only lower in the cabinet, but also had no real power, but were only servants. However, this began to change during the reigns of Renzong and Xuanzong.
Since Akihito's Zhu Gaochi, Yang Shiqi, and Yang Rong were all former ministers of the East Palace, these two people gained the trust of the ministers and not only entered the cabinet, but also held the position of minister. In this way, the cabinet not only has the right to negotiate, but also has a certain administrative power, and because of the emperor's trust, it has a certain decision-making power, so the cabinet began to move from behind the scenes to the front.
This situation recurred in the early years of Emperor Yingzong, when the power of the Council of Ministers was weakened by the favoritism of the eunuch Wang Zhen. However, Wang Zhen reigned in the fourteenth year of Orthodoxy (1449)."The change of the civil fort"After Zhong's death, the group of foreign relatives and ministers headed by Yu Qian, the secretary of the military department, came to power, and the power of the Council of Ministers was greatly increased due to the loss of meritorious generals. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Qiyu and Wang Wen entered the cabinet and served as the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, since then, the Ministry of Officials has been set up, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs has been set up, and the six departments are under the orders of the Cabinet, and the power of the Cabinet is equivalent to the power of the Advisory Bureau, and the administrative power is firmly in the hands of the Cabinet, and the first assistant of the Cabinet has become the head of the hundred officials in practice, and the power has begun to be significantly strengthened.
In the early years of Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, three powerful scholars Li Xian (died in 1467), Chen Wen (died in 1468), and Peng Shi (died in 1475) died one after another, but Liu Dingzhi (died in 1469), Shang Ci (retired in 1477) and other intelligent and virtuous people completed the formation of the prime minister's cabinet, and also benefited from the bad reputation of Wan An (died in 1489) and Liu Ji (died in 1493), coupled with Wan Guifei's excessive favor for him, which greatly weakened his strength for a time. However, he also took advantage of the bad reputations of Wan An (d. 1489) and Liu Ji (d. 1493), which, combined with Wan Guifei's excessive favoring of him, severely weakened the power of the cabinet for a time. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, the power of the cabinet was again severely weakened due to the bad reputations of An Lushan (d. 1489) and Liu Ji (d. 1493), as well as their excessive favor of Wan Guifei. However, when Hyojong began to strengthen the power of the cabinet again, he not only appointed sages such as Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian, but also placed great trust in them, and by that time, the cabinet had actually become the head of the hundred officials, enough to challenge the imperial power that had already emerged during the Zhengde period.
During the Jiajing period, Zhu Houxi of Ming Shizong changed the Huagai Hall to the middle book half hall, changed the Huangti Hall to the middle half hall, and listed the cabinet scholars before the six books, and the status was greatly improved. At this point, the academicians of the Ming Dynasty in the cabinet, although they do not have the name of prime minister, they already have the power of prime minister. In the twenty-first year of Jiajing, Fang Song, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, was a strong minister for more than 20 years, and finally had decision-making power except for the prime minister, and his power was completely different from that of the previous prime minister.
After the Jiajing and Longqing dynasties, the power of the cabinet reached its peak in the early years of Wanli. Due to the emperor's young age, the emperor's tutor, Zhang Juzheng, easily influenced the emperor's decision-making. Coupled with the good relationship between the eunuch Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, wrote his views on the power of others to Shang Shu under the banner of a celebrity, and then used his own"Vote proposed"Finalized, then adopted by the emperor. That's all,"Shangshu"Ministers, Cabinet Ministers"Ballot papers", the Emperor's"Reds"-- All of them have reached the pinnacle of cabinet power under the manipulation of Zhang Juzheng.
In the early years of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng came to power, and his reforms made the cabinet the center of the most important activities, and Zhang Juzheng was indeed close to becoming a modern prime minister.
As an aside, the emergence of the eunuch group in the Ming Dynasty is actually closely related to the continuous growth of the cabinet's power, because the cabinet's power is too large, which makes the emperor and the cabinet seriously constrained, so he has to rely on the eunuchs"Confirm the rights of the red person", and the power of the factory guard represents the contradiction between the inner palace and the outer palace, which also became the key to the party struggle in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. This also became the key to the party struggle in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. As the power of the cabinet increased, so did the power of the inner court, thus creating a new balance.