The absolutized development of the ming emperor's power should be common sense. There are good aspects to this as well as bad things. Well, it will allow the shrewd and capable emperor to smoothly implement and implement his own governing plan. The bad ones made some unformed emperors more willing to act according to their own interests, so that they disregarded their own virtues, resulting in the corruption of the dynasty.
The sad point of Chinese history is that there have been very few emperors who have never been brilliant and ambitious, and there are countless emperors who have not become instruments. However, even so, the influence of its imperial power on the power of the cabinet still shows certain differences, such as the Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Houxi did not go to the dynasty for one or two decades, and he practiced his own alchemy to seek eternal life, although it seems that the imperial power is extremely large, but the power of the cabinet is not stripped away and there is nothing to do. Even in the early days of his reign, there was a great suppression of imperial power.
For example, the history of the Ming Dynasty had a major impact on the dispute between the "Great Ceremony", and the resulting struggle between imperial power and cabinet power even lasted for more than twenty years.
In the sixteenth year of Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Houzhao died, and Zhu Houxi, who was then crowned "King xingxian", was only fifteen years old. His father was Zhu Youzhuo, the fourth son of Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen, who had died at the time. The news of Zhu Houzhao's death came, a teenager who was far away in Anlu, Hubei Province, for this cousin who had never met in Beijing, in fact, in addition to the change in etiquette, he should not feel that the emperor's death had any special relationship with himself.
But in Beijing, the epicenter of the empire, the political impact of the emperor's death is self-evident. The first is the establishment of heirs. Zhu Houzhao lived to be thirty-one years old and ruled for sixteen years, but was childless. In this way, how to find a suitable heir became the current major event of the imperial court. Empress Dowager Zhang ordered the cabinet to discuss and determine the future emperor. Yang Tinghe, the first assistant to the cabinet of the imperial court, was the first to speak, saying, "Brothers and brothers, in order, stand thickly." The empress dowager did not object to Yang Tinghe's proposal, and approved the opinion on this decision to be written into the emperor's will and implement it immediately. Second, greet the new Lord. Early in the morning of the day after the edict was promulgated, the imperial court sent the eunuch Wei Lin, The Shouning Hou Zhang Heling, the Lieutenant Cui Yuan of the Horse Capital, the University Scholar Liang Chu, and the Rebbe Shangshu Mao Cheng to Anlu with the edict, the edict, and the golden seal.
In early May of the sixteenth year of Zhengde, Zhu Houxi bid farewell to Anlu's hometown and began to go north. On the outskirts of Beijing, the cabinet greeted him with the courtesy of treating the crown prince. This made Zhu Houxi quite dissatisfied. He said, since the will and testament have asked me to take over the throne as "brother and brother", but you have greeted me according to the etiquette of the prince, should you let me be the prince? However, Yang Tinghe insisted on acting in accordance with the etiquette documents drafted by the Ministry of Etiquette, and Zhu Houxi did not agree. The two sides are deadlocked. In order to break the deadlock, the empress dowager led the wen and military officials to persuade the table to advance, and the persuasion was made three times, and Zhu Houxi thought that the name was right, got up from the Daming Gate to enter the palace, changed the name of the country to Jiajing, and officially ascended the throne as the eleventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Five days after Jiajing ascended the throne, he ordered the ceremonial officials to collectively discuss how to honor his father's ceremony of presenting The King Zhu Youbi. The Rebbe Shangshu Mao Cheng asked yang Tinghe, the first assistant, for instructions, and Yang Tinghe "gave it to the King of Tao and the King of Song Pu", proposing that this ritual must be followed, and also said with a threat: "This article is based on evidence, and those who dissent are treacherous and slanderous"! Yang Tinghe's "those who oppose him are traitors and villains, and they should be killed", which is equivalent to directly putting the opponents to death, and there is no room for negotiation at all. The result of this discussion actually directly blocked the emperor's purpose of posthumously sealing his father's "imperial examination". The reason why Yang Tinghe was so resolute, except for holding the "Great Sect" and "Small Sect", declaring that xingxian did not have the right to inherit the throne, and the reason why he was able to become emperor was only because of the feudal etiquette that was inherited from his uncle Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youfan. More importantly, strong opposition would invisibly increase his merits in welcoming Jiajing to become emperor, weaken the emperor's authority, and let the young new emperor know that the power of the emperor is not without limits. However, although Jiajing was young, his inner defense of imperial power was quite strong, and he absolutely did not allow the situation of imperial power falling by, so the conflict between imperial power and relative power was inevitable.
However, because of the opposition of the group of ministers, Jiajing, who had just ascended the throne and had an unstable position, could only compromise and put the matter aside for the time being. A few months later, Emperor Jiajing's biological mother, Jiang Shi, came to Beijing from Anlu. When I walked to Tongzhou, I heard the opinion of the minister of the DPRK and the Central Government, lost my temper, and said to the accompanying emissary of the imperial court: "You have become an official, your parents have been favored, my son has become the emperor, but he has become someone else's son, so what else will I do when I go to Beijing!" "After saying that, I stopped in Tongzhou and refused to go any further." After Jiajing heard the news, he ran to Empress Zhang with tears in his eyes and actually said, "You choose someone else to be the emperor, and I will return to my hometown with my mother and continue to be the king of the sacrifice." "This fifteen-year-old boy is tantamount to giving an ultimatum directly to the entire imperial court. Empress Zhang could only retain it while asking the cabinet to make proper suggestions. Yang Tinghe, who was in his sixties, had no choice but to suggest that Jiajing's father be honored as Emperor Xingxian and that Jiang be the empress dowager. Accordingly, the ceremonial officials arranged for Jiang to enter the palace from Dong'an Gate. The report was sent up, and Jiajing did not wait for it to be read, so he threw the fold to the ground. The ceremonial official had to change it to daming east gate to enter the palace. Jiajing was still not satisfied, and finally directly demanded, "The Virgin Mary should enter through the middle gate and see the Taimiao Temple." After Jiang heard the news, he set off from Tongzhou into Beijing.
After this battle, Yang Tinghe found that some of the ministers disagreed with him, so he used his power to demote Zhang Xuan, a politician who had catered to Jiajing's ideas, to the head of the Nanjing Punishment Department, and arranged for officials who followed his opinions closely in the officials' department and the Ministry of Works. Jiajing did not dare to move easily because his wings were not plump, so he knew that Yang Tinghe used the power in his hands to exclude dissidents, and did not take the initiative to intervene, silently preparing for the next imperial power and cabinet struggle. The gap between the imperial power and the cabinet has been formed and deepened, and unless there is a struggle and a new equilibrium is reached, the confrontation will only continue.
Three years after Jiajing, Zhang Xuan, who had already been demoted to Nanjing, and Gui Cao, the head of the Nanjing bureaucracy, saw that Jiajing had reached adulthood and that his political foundation had been stabilized, and for the sake of his own career, he speculated about Jiajing's meaning, so he put forward the old case again, asking for "quickly issuing an edict, following the name and examining the facts, and calling Emperor Xingxian an imperial examination." Jiajing was very happy to see The Songshu, and the idea that had been suppressed by the cabinet three years ago was put forward again, this time not only to add a false name to his father, but more importantly, to test his authority as emperor. He immediately ordered that the group of ministers be summoned for discussion. Yang Tinghe was still the same as three years ago, not backing down, and even using his resignation to blackmail Jiaqing. Libu Shangshu Mao Cheng immediately followed up, saying that he would also advance and retreat together. Jiajing saw that his face had been torn, and simply wrote the words "Listen to it" on their resignation, indicating that he did not care. The officials put pressure on the emperor to keep them, but Jiajing did not say a word, expressed a tough attitude with silence, and in the end, Yang Tinghe was stripped of his post.
Although Yang Tinghe resigned, the confrontation between the DPRK and China was still ongoing. The newly appointed Rebbe Shangshu Wang Jun firmly opposed the proposal made by the emperor's Nanjing concubines, and Jiajing had to use the emperor's authority to suppress Wang Jun and force him to change the Xingxian Emperor into the Xingxian Emperor. He then ordered that Zhang Xuan and Gui Cao, who supported him, be transferred from Nanjing back to Beijing to be reinstated as officials to balance the opposition in the dprk. Subsequently, Jiajing asked the Ministry of Rites to posthumously honor Emperor Xingxian as Emperor Gongmu of Bunsen, and asked the Ministry of Rites to build another house on the side of the Fengxian Hall, which was specially placed with the "Imperial Examination" god's main plaque. Wang Jun saw that Jiajing was getting more and more inching forward, so he simply learned from Yang Tinghe and resigned and went home. Jiajing still didn't care and ordered Xi Shu to take over. Jiang Mian, a university scholar, saw that Jiajing did not follow the advice of the cabinet at all, and insisted on going his own way, and also learned from Yang Tinghe to blackmail Jiajing by resigning from his post, but Jiajing was still unmoved and let Shi Yao serve as a scholar of Wenyuange University. Unexpectedly, Shi Yao did not listen to Jiajing at all, and after taking office, he suggested that Jiajing immediately stop Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai from going to Beijing. At this time, Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai had already reached the halfway point, when they suddenly heard that the emperor wanted them to go back to their posts, they immediately understood the reason, and immediately sent a message to Jiajing, saying that they saw from the newspaper that the honorific title still had the word "Bunsen", which was no different from the emperor's uncle! The ceremonial officials deliberately deceived the emperor, and they were willing to come to Beijing to confront these people face to face.
Jiajing saw Zhang Xuan and Gui Cao's performance, felt that he could not compromise with the ministers who opposed him, and immediately seized the opportunity to quickly order the two to enter Beijing. In May of the third year of Jiajing, after Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai came to Beijing, they were immediately appointed as Hanlin scholars, responsible for ceremonial matters. In July, Jiajing, based on the duo's report, asked the cabinet to remove the word "Bunsen" from his parents' honorific titles. The university scholar Mao Ji and others resolutely opposed and refused to obey the emperor's orders. Jiajing could no longer tolerate the contempt of the ministers of the DPRK and the Central Government for his opinion, so he summoned Mao Ji and severely reprimanded him: The word "Bunsen" must be removed! If you don't have an emperor in your eyes, do you want me to have no father in my eyes? Mao Ji saw that Jiajing was angry and did not dare to confront him again, so Jiajing summoned the officials of the DPRK to Zuo Shunmen and formally ordered that the original "Empress Dowager Zhang Shenghuang of Bunsheng is now given the honorific title of 'Empress Dowager Zhang Sheng'" (害盛王皇皇 Empress)."
Although Jiajing, using the power of the emperor, forcibly removed the word "Bunsen", the opposition in the DPRK and China did not end. Some of the chancellors, led by Yang Ting and his son Yang Shen (劉慎), the Hanlin cultivator, were furious with Zhang Xuan and Gui Cao, who supported the emperor's opinion. They were even ready to surround Zhang Xuan and Gui Cai in the left shun gate and beat them into mud. After the news spread, Zhang and Gui were so frightened that they did not even dare to go to the court. The political struggle in the imperial court had reached such a ridiculous point, not only were there serious factional rivalries, but more importantly, Jiajing's power had been seriously challenged.
After the early morning of July 15, 3007, Yang Shen made a generous statement to the ministers who were watching: "The state has been raising soldiers for more than a hundred years, and the righteousness of fighting and dying is today!" As soon as this remark came out, the emperor, who had long been opposed, insisted on going his own way, and the officials who did not accept the minister's opinion immediately agreed. Yang Shen, together with the official attendant He Mengchun, and two hundred and thirty-seven people below the Ninth Qing Knelt at Zuo Shunmen, not calling out to the current emperor, but directly shouting Emperor Xiaozong. After hearing about it, Mao Ji and Shi Yao of the Cabinet University also joined the ranks of "kneeling".
Eighteen-year-old Jiajing had never seen such a scene, and hurriedly sent the eunuch out to persuade the minister to return home. But the ministers did not listen at all, and replied in unison: "The decree will be withdrawn!" "This is tantamount to tearing the face of the emperor openly." From seven o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, the eunuchs repeatedly advised, but they were all rejected by the ministers. Jiajing felt that it would be impossible to put an end to the "political turmoil" peacefully, so he became furious and immediately sent Eight people, including Feng Xi and Zhang Chong, led by Lieutenant Jinyi, to prison. But the courtiers were even more indignant, crying loudly, and the sound shook the court for a while. This move further annoyed Jiajing, and he instructed Jin Yiwei to arrest one hundred and thirty-four people, and then put He Mengchun and eighty-six other officials on standby.
Two days later, Jiajing was still angry and ordered Feng Xi and eight others to be tortured and then charged with troops, while at the same time capturing officials with more than four pins and each official below five pins was given a staff. As a result, one hundred and eighty people, including the Editor King, were punished by the court staff, and seventeen of them died of their injuries in the course of their punishment. After this battle, Jiajing suppressed the "Zuo Shunmen Incident".
Jiajing used violence to quell the protests of the courtiers, and there was no longer any voice in the DPRK against the "ceremony." Even the officials who used to fight for great gifts were more "in accordance with the will" and no longer openly confronted the emperor, while Jiajing's idea of honoring the birth father was successfully realized.
A week later, Jiajing's father, the god of The Xingxian King Zhu Youyi, was welcomed from Anlu to Beijing and placed in the Guande Hall, with the honorific title: "Emperor Gongmu of the Emperor Kao", and there was no longer the word "Bunsen". At this point, the "Great Ceremony Discussion" that lasted for three years finally came to an end with Jiajing's victory. In the "Great Ceremony", the officials who supported the emperor were more valued from then on, and their power became more and more stable, and they began to exclude dissidents, severely cracked down on the former opposition, and eventually became an important political force in the imperial court.
In fact, the "Great Ceremony Discussion" seems to be a very ordinary and boring etiquette dispute, but behind it is the dissipation of imperial power and phase power. The intransigence of Yang Tinghe and the opposition officials he represented, in addition to the rigid belief in etiquette, also had the choice of taking sides in the official arena. Most of Yang Tinghe's representatives were high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty, and he was also the first assistant minister of orders, so he had great power, the largest number of dependents, and the greatest power. Attached to Jiajing were some middle- and lower-ranking officials, who, for their own careers, took advantage of the discussion of "great courtesies" in the imperial court and wanted to take the opportunity to change their political status. Jiajing entered Beijing from a young foreign king and became the monarch of a vast empire, and at first did not understand the meaning of the profound power struggle behind the "Great Ceremony". As he grew to adulthood, he became more and more frightened of the fall of imperial power, the expansion of power, and the confrontation of his courtiers. If in the early days, he was still alone against the group of subjects, and could only compromise, then when the "Zuo Shunmen Incident" occurred, he had already gained a firm foothold and had a group of people who supported him. Therefore, he did not hesitate to exert his imperial power to the extreme.
Although the "great ceremony" came to an end, the ending was a lose-lose situation. Although Jiajing maintained and consolidated his imperial position through the use of violence, the harm brought was also great, not only making it impossible for the Qunchen to respect his authority from the heart, but also opening up the closed road of Shunchang's rebellion. Jiajing slowly began to dislike politics in this internal friction, hiding in the deep palace, indulging in the illusion of immortal alchemy, and the country was controlled by traitors, which finally made the Ming Dynasty go farther and farther on the road of internal division and chaos.