Friends who know the "History of the Qing Dynasty" know Li Hongzhang, who was an outstanding political minister and foreign minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and who devoted his life to the imperial court. In fact, Li Hongzhang was born in 1823 in Hefei, Anhui Province, and after that he had many titles, such as a late famous minister, the leader of the foreign affairs movement, the people liked to call him "Mr. Li Er", and in his later years he called himself "Yi Shu", etc., but the officials liked to call him "Li Zhongtang", so do you know what official position "Zhongtang" was in the Qing Dynasty?
In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, not only Li Hongzhang was called "Zhongtang", the big corrupt official and Liu Yong and others were also called Hezhongtang and Liu Zhongtang, which shows that the people who can be called "Zhongtang" are not insignificant and have an unusual position in the imperial court, and at the same time, these three people have a common official title, which is the Cabinet University Scholar, which belongs to the official position of Zhengyipin of the Qing Dynasty.
The title "Zhongtang" originated in the Tang Dynasty, when the Tang Dynasty followed the sui Dynasty's old system of "three provinces and six ministries" system, and the emperor sealed three provincial institutions, namely: Shangshu Province, Menxia Province, and Zhongshu Province, of which Shangshu Province was divided into 6 parts: Bingbu, Gongbu, Ceremonial, Punishment, Household, and Official. The officials in charge of managing the three provincial departments became the prime ministers, and the three prime ministers worked together to deal with the government affairs of the government, which was initially located in Menxia Province, and after 683 AD, the Tang Dynasty began to move the government affairs hall to Zhongshu Province, and the three prime ministers began to work in Zhongshu Province, and later the officials referred to the political affairs hall in Zhongshu Province as Zhongtang.
During the Ming Dynasty, The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was too powerful, worried that the power given to officials and subjects was too great to cause trouble, so he abolished the official position of prime minister and removed it together with Zhongshu Province, so the 6 departments under Shangshu Province became personally managed by Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1382, the imperial court began to establish university scholars, and by 1402, the cabinet system was basically improved, so the cabinet university scholars were born. The cabinet department was generally responsible for the emperor's consultation on political affairs, and the original cabinet university scholar's authority was still very low, at best, a staff adviser, just for the emperor to solve the puzzle, and the final decision was still in the hands of the emperor. After the Ming Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty came to power, the cabinet university scholars were slowly valued, and their power was greatly increased, and their final real power was similar to that of the prime minister at that time, so the cabinet university scholars became the most important administrative officials of the imperial court.
During the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, university scholars generally set up their workplaces in the cabinet office, with the real power to decide government affairs, and the halls of work were set up with left and right Zhongshu officials, and university scholars were located in the middle of the office, so officials also used to call the cabinet university scholars "Zhongtang", in order to distinguish between the names of the officials in front of the middle hall, such as Wang Zhongtang, Chen Zhongtang, Li Zhongtang, etc. Some Qing Dynasty notes also have descriptions of the title of the middle hall: "In the Hanlin Courtyard, the presiding scholars live on both sides, and the cabinet university scholars sit in the middle hall, so they are called the cabinet elders or the middle hall."
The cabinet office system of the Ming Dynasty was used until the Qing Dynasty. In 1644, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty decreed that the Cabinet of the Ming Dynasty should be worked together with the civil and military officials such as the Six Ministries, including Manchu officials and Han officials, and everyone worked together harmoniously to form a new Qing Dynasty cabinet system. In the eighth year of Yongzheng's ascension to the throne, Yongzheng began to make the cabinet university scholar a Zhengyipin official, which belonged to the highest power in the middle grade at that time, and its duties and powers were equivalent to those of the Ming Dynasty prime minister. However, it should be noted that "Zhongtang" is only a simplified title for Qing officials and university scholars, rather than an official official officially appointed by the imperial court, which needs to be clearly distinguished.
In addition, most of the officials in the official field of the Qing Dynasty liked to be close to the cabinet university scholars, and at this time, due to the problem of etiquette and customs, everyone called the prime minister the middle hall in order to be more cordial. For example, qing dynasty officials like to call military ministers Xiangguo, and Xiangguo is not an official position in the qing court official rank system. Therefore, the reason why Li Hongzhang was called Li Zhongtang should be related to his cabinet university non-commissioned official position, and the "middle hall" of the Qing Dynasty generally refers to the official positions of prime minister and university scholar.