During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were Qin Hui, Shi Miyuan, Jia Nidao and other powerful ministers, all of whom could cover the sky with one hand. And the Northern Song Dynasty had relatively few powerful ministers, and the power was not so great, why is this?
The emperor of the Song Dynasty advocated ruling the world with scholars, and implemented the national policy of emphasizing literature over military force, and did not kill any scholars. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, the power of the civil official group was still very large. Of course, most of these powerful ministers are representatives of the civil and bureaucratic system, and they do not have so much power, but they just concentrate everything on him and establish authority against other authoritarian figures. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the national strength of the Song Dynasty was relatively strong, so there were few powerful ministers. It is mainly the long-term concurrent service of Tongping Zhangshi (hereinafter referred to as the Prime Minister) and the Privy Council, and the Prime Minister alone can hold the military and political power. The Taizu Dynasty system was not established, and the symbolic significance of Wei Renpu's part-time job was greater. The main purpose of the Injong Dynasty was to deal with natural disasters and national defense wars, and to make the prime minister also a pivotal envoy so that administrative efficiency could be improved. During the time of Song Renzong, although Lu Yijian's rank was higher than that of Zhang Dexiang and Yan Shu, he was also checked and balanced by them. Moreover, in the early and middle of the Renzong Dynasty, he often released the slaughter and adjusted the team, which also avoided the breeding of power ministers. Another reason may be the failure of the supervisory function of Taiwan's admonition, and there was a situation in the Guangzong Dynasty in which "one minister went to Taiwan to admonish the party, and the other minister went to Taiwan and admonished the party to advance."
From the time of its establishment, the small dynasty of the Southern Song Dynasty faced the pressure of survival, and the Jin army pursued it relentlessly, but fortunately, the small dynasty of the Southern Song Dynasty survived with the courageous battle of the four generals of Zhongxing. The Southern Song Dynasty faced the Dali Kingdom, the Western Xia Kingdom, the Jin Kingdom, and the later rising Mongol Dynasty, coupled with the weak national strength, the emperor had to reuse some ministers to share the pressure. During the period of Song Gaozong, due to the coercion of the Jin people, Song Gaozong had to rely on Qin Hui to make peace, and Qin Hui took the opportunity to power and eventually became a powerful traitor. In the Southern Song Dynasty, only Song Xiaozong himself was conscientious and always held the power in his own hands. Later, Song Ningzong, due to his mediocre talents, could only rely on his ministers in the face of an increasingly complex situation. In the early part of his reign, the government was controlled by Han Yanxuan, and in the later period, it was controlled by Shi Miyuan and Empress Yang. The emperors after Song Ningzong had one thing in common, the emperor didn't care about anything or the powerful ministers were the great heroes of the emperor's family. For example, Shi Miyuan, Li Zong's rise to power was manipulated by him, and Zheng Qingzhi catered to Li Zong's mentality of wanting to make contributions back then, Dong Songchen is the emperor who loves him. As for Jia Yidao, he belongs to the so-called "re-creation of the royal family". The last Chen Yizhong is the "hero" who overthrew Jia Yidao, and Zhang Shijie is the military pillar of the small imperial court.
Of course, the powerful ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty did not have as much power as they imagined. During the Song Dynasty, Cheng and Zhu science flourished, and the Confucian ethics of Compendium were further established, and it was difficult for those powerful ministers to usurp the throne. When Qin Hui was dying, Song Gaozong took decisive measures to eradicate his henchmen in one fell swoop and finally regain power. When the war was lost, the powerful ministers, such as Han Yanxuan and Jia Yidao, became the object of diversion and were eventually killed. On the other hand, since Song Gaozong, Song Ningzong and Song Lizong had no children, they had to find the sons of the clan to inherit the throne, so it can be inferred that most of the emperors of the Southern Song Dynasty had physical problems, so they had to rely on the ministers to deal with the government. Those powerful ministers were just the domestic slaves of the Zhao family, and although they could sometimes become housekeepers, they could not overthrow the Zhao dynasty.