Sui set, Tang perfected, Ming abolished, limited to the prime minister's power
The system of three provinces and six ministries, a well-organized administrative system of ancient Chinese feudal dynasties. Its founder was Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui, who conspired to usurp the power of the Northern Zhou Dynasty during his tenure as the prime minister of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and expanded his power with the Prime Minister's Mansion as the core, gradually elevating the Emperor Yuwen of Zhou Jing, and successfully usurped the throne in 581 A.D. and established the Sui Dynasty.
In the face of many complicated court affairs, Emperor Wen of Sui realized that he could not rely on his own strength alone, but must find others to share the burden, so he established the system of three provinces and six ministries to consolidate the imperial power.
Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, followed the tradition and set up a prime minister to assist the emperor in handling government affairs and making decisions. In ancient times, the prime minister was listed as an administrative position in the state, and small matters were handled directly by the prime minister, and major matters were reported to the monarch for handling.
However, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Prime Minister Tian Wei held sole power, and he arranged all the appointments of the imperial court. Once, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked Tian Wei: "Has the prime minister already arranged, I also want to appoint a few people." ”
The ancient system stipulated that the prime minister controlled the three princes and nine secretaries of the imperial court, and he needed to report to the prime minister in case of emergency. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to avoid the loss of power in the court, promoted the low-level civil official Shangshu around him, and Shangshu directly conveyed the holy decree and assisted in handling daily government affairs, so Shangshu quickly replaced the decision-making body headed by the prime minister and stepped onto the stage of history.
Under the background of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty consolidating imperial power, the Shangshu institution continued to expand, and finally formed the Shangshutai. The emergence of Shangshutai was a major transformation of the political system of ancient Chinese feudal dynasties, and it was also a huge impact on the prime minister system.
By the time of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, the power of Shangshutai was further strengthened, and the Liucao Shangshu was established. Since then, Shang Shutai has real power and can directly issue orders downward, and Shang Shuling's status surpasses that of the prime minister.
However, although Shang Shuling's status was superior, it became a new target to threaten the imperial power. In order to limit the power of Shangshuling, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the emperor often appointed Lingshang Shushi or Lu Shangshu to actually take charge of the work of Shangshutai.
For example, Huo Guang, Zhuge Liang and others, they all presided over the work of Shangshutai in this capacity.
Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi set up Zhongshu Province to control government affairs with low-level ** and suppress Shangshutai. Zhongshu Province gradually replaced Shangshutai, forming a change of power. The middle secretary became the most feared person of the emperor, and set up a service organization, that is, the province of Menxia.
Menxia Province and Zhongshu Province jointly held the power of the imperial court, and the status of the prime minister declined. Yang Jian won the world, and how to prevent the relative power from threatening the imperial power became the primary issue. He could continue the practice of his predecessors and set up new institutions to replace the powerful institutions such as Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province.
However, this practice led to redundancy and overcrowding of the imperial court institutions, which could not fundamentally prevent the emergence of new institutions that threatened the imperial power.
Historically, Emperor Wen of Sui, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, established Shangshu Province, Menxia Province and Inner History Province on the basis of the previous administrative system to govern the country, which were respectively responsible for actual administrative affairs.
These three provinces became the administrative center of the imperial court, containing each other and directly under the control of the emperor. Among them, Shangshu Province is the busiest in daily work, with the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs and the Ministry of Industry.
These departments deal with personnel, etiquette, military, civil affairs, justice and engineering. During the Tang Dynasty, in order to avoid Li Shimin's name, the Ministry of Civil Affairs was changed to the Ministry of Households.
In this way, the famous "three provinces and six ministries system" was formed, which also became a major feature of the ancient Chinese administrative system.
After the establishment of the "six ministries" system in the Sui Dynasty, almost all dynasties followed this system, but some patches and improvements were made in it. The Tang Dynasty completely followed the political system of the Sui Dynasty, taking the "Three Provinces and Six Ministries System" as the administrative structure of the imperial court, and re-changing the Province of Internal History to the Province of Zhongshu.
In this system, the province of Shangshu is the highest administrative department, responsible for the implementation of government decrees and the decision-making of affairs. The Ministry of Books is responsible for transmitting the edicts and documents, drafting edicts, and providing advice.
The province is responsible for deliberating the decisions and edicts of the province of Zhongshu, making recommendations and having the right to dismiss them. Du Fu, a genius of the Tang Dynasty, once held the position of a member of the Ministry of Industry, which is equivalent to the number one leader of the Ministry of Industry.
The province of Shangshu was in charge of the country's financial and material resources, and the power of Shangshuling was second only to that of the emperor, but the position was usually vacant. Shangshu Province is handled by the left servant and the right servant, and the Shangshu left and right are assisted.
The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei once served as Shangshu Youcheng, known as "Wang Youcheng". According to the records of the New Tang Dynasty Book and the Hundred Official Chronicles, the decision-making process of the imperial court was as follows: after the emperor and the ministers discussed, the Zhongshu Province drafted the draft, the Menxia Province reviewed it, and the Shangshu Province implemented it and issued it in the name of the emperor.
Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province and Shangshu Province jointly assisted the emperor, and the power was dispersed to three departments and checked each other, avoiding the situation of a single prime minister monopolizing power.
During Wu Zetian's reign, all the institutions of the three provinces were renamed with feminine colors, such as Zhongshu Province was renamed Fengge, Menxia Province was renamed Luantai, and Shangshu Province was renamed Lintai.
However, Liu Yizhi, the squire of the Fengge, was dissatisfied with Wu Zetian's behavior, and he believed that Wu Zetian should be directly in charge of the government, rather than operating behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Liu Yizhi's dissatisfaction was learned by Wu Zetian, and she angrily said that Liu Yizhi was the person she promoted and reused, and he betrayed her, is he worthy of her kindness?
Under Wu Zetian's instructions, a minister stood up and said that Liu Yizhi was guilty. The crime is that he accepted a bribe from the Khitan tribe, and also had an affair with other concubines.
As a result, Wu Zetian publicly issued an order calling for an investigation of Liu Yizhi. When Liu Yizhi received the order from the envoy, he showed a great sense of justice and retorted that if this order had not passed through Fengge and Luantai, then it could not be called an order of the emperor.
Because, according to the regulations of the time, the order had to go through these two bodies when it was issued. And Liu Yizhi himself is the Fengge squire, he doesn't know this order at all, so he doesn't recognize its legitimacy.
In the face of Liu Yizhi's questioning, the messenger who read out the order was speechless and could only go back to report to Wu Zetian. Seeing Liu Yizhi openly questioning her order, Wu Zetian was even more angry, and she directly convicted Liu Yizhi of "refusing to defend the envoy" and gave him death.
The epitaph unearthed from the tomb of Liu Yi clearly stipulates in the book "Tang Law and Consultation and Occupational System Law" that those who defend the system will be hanged if they do not use the courtesy of the ministers, nor do they become the rulers, nor do they refuse to defend them.
This not only reflects Wu Zetian's dedication to power, but also exposes her indifference to the lives of others while maintaining her own authority. Wu Zetian even changed the hanging in the law to "death at home" to maintain her perfect image.
In the face of this high-pressure situation, Liu Yizhi can only choose to accept it and express his gratitude to it. This practice of "directly skipping the Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province and issuing edicts to the outside world" fully demonstrated the supreme authority of the imperial power and also revealed the powerlessness of the "three provinces and six ministries" system in the face of the imperial power.
Just after Liu Yizhi was forced to commit suicide, there was another incident that deepened people's understanding of the "three provinces and six ministries" under the imperial power.
When Tang Zhongzong Li Xian ascended the throne as emperor for the second time, Empress Wei's family, Princess Anle, Shangguan Jieyu and others were repeatedly "bribed, sold officials and awarded knights". As long as anyone can pay 300,000 yuan to bribe the harem, they can bypass the normal personnel system and directly get the appointment signed by Tang Zhongzong himself.
Despite this, Tang Zhongzong did not fully comply with the wishes of the empress and his daughter, and he sealed these edicts diagonally and wrote the character "edict" with an ink pen to distinguish them from the edicts written by Zhongshu Province on yellow paper and red paper.
After receiving these imperial edicts written by the emperor, Zhongshu Province did not dare to intervene too much because it did not have the approval of Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province, but only went through the process symbolically, and then handed them over to Shangshu Province for specific implementation.
In the imperial court at that time, officials who were bought with money were generally looked down upon, and they were called "Moyi oblique feudal officials", or "oblique feudal officials" for short.
There are also some just ** who are deeply disgusted by this corruption, and they do everything in their power to prevent bribe-givers from climbing to the top of the ranks. For example, Li Chaoyin, who was a member of the Ministry of Officials at the time, was one of them, and he prevented more than 1,400 "oblique officials" personally appointed by the emperor.
From this incident, we can see that Tang Zhongzong, under the influence of the queen and his daughter, although he directly bypassed Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province, he was still a little weak in front of the national administrative system.
In fact, the "three provinces and six ministries system" is a collective prime minister system, and the heads of Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province and Shangshu Province or the left servant and the right servant are all prime ministers, so as to avoid the dictatorship of only one prime minister in the court in the past.
However, in the actual situation at the time, the senior and capable of the three governors could still become the leader of this political group, thus threatening the emperor's power, but the emperor also took precautions against this.
The political hall is the signature of the first official of the Tang Dynasty, integrating administration, decision-making and supervision. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, three provinces were set up: Zhongshu, Menxia and Shangshu, with decision-making, deliberation and implementation as the division of labor.
In order to allow the leaders of the provinces to work together and improve work efficiency, the emperor stipulated that all those who served as ordinary officials, governors, and aircraft affairs under the Tongzhongshu sect had the right to enter the political hall to discuss matters.
Although none of these people are official leaders of the three provinces, they can also exercise the power of prime minister. Doing so would not only preserve the imperial power, but also prevent the threat of the ruler against the imperial power.
The system of three provinces and six ministries is an important part of the ancient imperial power notice, and it is a check and balance between the courtiers, rather than the check and balance of the emperor himself, of which Zhongshu Province is the institution in charge of core decision-making in the three provinces.
In 644 AD, Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, appointed Cen Wenwen as the Zhongshu Order, responsible for the administrative power of the imperial court. Although Cen Wenwen was honored by this, he was also worried.
He knew that he was neither the founding father of the Tang Dynasty nor the former ministry of Tang Taizong, so he was worried that he would not be able to take on such a big responsibility. Tang Taizong appointed Cen Wenwen mainly because he admired his literary brilliance, rather than because of his decision-making ability.
In addition, Cen Wenwen won the favor of the emperor for his honest and conscientious work attitude, and the emperor needed such a Zhongshu order more to help him manage the government than an active-minded and ambitious decision-maker.
After the Song Dynasty, the three-province system gradually collapsed, and Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province merged into "Zhongshu Menxia", and the power of Shangshu Province was also divided to other institutions.
Despite this, Tang Taizong's decision to appoint Cen Wenwen as the Zhongshu Decree still had an important impact on the development of China's ancient political system.
The administrative system of ancient China has undergone many changes, from the three-province and six-ministry system in the Tang Dynasty to the abolition of Shangshu Zhongshu Province in the Song Dynasty, and then to the abolition of the Prime Minister and Zhongshu Province in the Ming Dynasty, and finally formed the six-ministry system.
This kind of institutional change reflects the strengthening of imperial power and the decentralization of power, and the idea of separation of powers and checks and balances contained in it provides a guarantee for the rule of imperial power. Refer to the New Tang Dynasty Book