Introduction: The emperor is the best profession in the world, but it is not easy to be an emperor, if you do not master the art of the emperor, be careful to become the spokesman of the prime minister, and it is easy to become the mascot on the dragon chair
In the ancient feudal era of our country, the emperor was the best profession under the heavens, and the emperor, as the king of a country, was the supreme ruler who controlled the lives and deaths of tens of millions of people, and has always attracted people's attention; how many princes and generals and ordinary people have fantasized about one day, if they are honored with a great treasure, what a brilliant life it should be.
Therefore, as a compulsory course for emperors, the art of emperors has made many people curious from the beginning of its birth, and even many famous kings and politicians in each dynasty and generation have made great contributions to the revision and improvement of the art of emperors; this article will take you to trace the mystery of the art of emperors.
In history, many people often just see that as an emperor, you can enjoy all the rights and interests of one side, but the other side of an emperor is little known, and the political technology such as the art of the emperor is not something that everyone can master, because many of them limit the desire, behavior, speech, greed and other human characteristics of the emperor, and even some famous people say that many of the kings who really master the art of the emperor have paid great sacrifices.
They are the only "alternative" among these tens of millions of people; even more, they say that the art of the emperor is like a unique martial art, but this practice has two sides, either sacrificing oneself and successfully mastering it; or going into the fire and falling into the magic and collapsing the society. The key point is whether the king can sacrifice himself; so what exactly is the art of the emperor? Checks and balances are skillful, and the courtiers are good at seeing how the ancient emperors played with the imperial dynasty:
He who rules the world must first conquer himself; he who rules the world must first cultivate himself
For example, the emperor does not have the power to do whatever he wants, and the civil and military officials will watch, and the subordinate people will watch; basically, the emperor's words and deeds will become the basis for people to talk about models. Therefore, the emperor is the role model of the whole world, which no one else can replace, even the prime minister can not replace the emperor's exemplary role, do a good job of exemplary role, then the following officials, the people can actively follow suit, the people's livelihood is healthy. If we fail to play an exemplary role, the army will be scattered and the people will hate it, and the country will be destroyed.
The best exemplary role in history is the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian, Yang Jian not only has the talent of the emperor, but also the sage of the emperor; from the time of ascension to the throne to his death, the Sui Wen Emperor almost never wasted extravagantly, and he was extremely cautious and careful in his words and deeds; he repaid compassion for the people of the world, loved the people and loved the officials.
Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, was an example of "self-cultivation"
Yang Jian did a very good job in restraining his love, greed, lust, and desire for money, his harem favored the empress alone, usually thrifty and thrifty, shoes or cloth shoes sewn for him by the empress, during the period of Emperor Wen, there were almost no palace construction or renovation incidents in the country, and the sound of string music could rarely be heard in the palace except for banquet officials and major festivals.
Emperor Wen of Sui also attached great importance to money, but his emphasis was more on depositing money into the national treasury than for his own use; there was a story that Yang Jian's harem wanted to cut off the palace women, and according to the custom, each palace girl needed to give a certain severance payment when she returned home. This is also a large amount of money, which can be difficult for the empress, once Yang Jian returned to the palace, saw the empress frowned, asked her why?
The empress explained the reason, and Yang Jianha said: "This is easy to do, open the national treasury and take out some." Who knows that the empress directly rejected this proposal, she believes that entrepreneurship is difficult, the national treasury is the foundation of people's livelihood, can only be used for the country, for the people. After Hearing this, Emperor Wen of Sui was also worried, and in the end, the two people had no choice but to take out their savings as severance payments for the palace people.
Yang Jian is more so, the courtiers and people at the bottom have also followed suit, and during the Sui Dynasty, a thrifty trend was set off, which opened the rule of the emperor, which also laid a solid foundation for the strength and prosperity of the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Sui System, the reason why the Tang Dynasty can become the most prosperous dynasty in history, most of them are the foundation laid by the Sui Dynasty.
The key point in the implementation of the art of the emperor is the emperor's restraint on himself, and those who rule the world must first rule themselves, and those who rule the world must first cultivate themselves, which is the focus of a king's thinking. It is also this point that countless emperors in history cannot do, or do it for a period of time, but they cannot last. It is extremely difficult to suppress people's inner desires, which also makes it an extremely bumpy road to be a qualified emperor. Overcoming oneself can rule over others, and this is the art of emperorhood.
The Art of Equilibrium, Balancing Power, Balancing Relationships (Referred to as the Art of Three Balances)
There is also a very important point in the art of the emperor, that is, equilibrium; many people think that the emperor must listen to what he says, and the words he says must be listened to; however, to achieve this situation, there must be a premise guarantee, that is, the balance of power in the imperial court, between the subordinate groups, is in a state of checks and balances, then the emperor's right to speak at this time is the most effective.
So why is this happening, don't subordinates have to obey the emperor? Jiangshan is not fought down by the emperor alone, Jiangshan is fought down by the emperor with a group of people, and therefore, the importance of the courtier is actually far better than the emperor, but the emperor is the core point of the connection between the courtiers, which is the role of the emperor.
In a dynasty, if the courtiers are united and do not balance each other, then the spearhead of the courtiers will be directed at the emperor, so the bureaucratic struggle will become a struggle between the imperial power and the subject power, which is extremely terrible, and once this situation is reached, it is equivalent to the imperial court having two emperors, a real emperor and another powerful emperor.
If the art of weighing is not well grasped, the emperor will become the spokesman of the prime minister
If an emperor makes the imperial court into such a situation, then it can only be considered that the emperor is extremely unqualified, historically, the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty are very prone to such a situation of dynasties, of which the power of even the courtiers at the end of the Han Dynasty is much higher than the imperial power, which directly led to the emperor becoming a royal spokesman and mascot. The Tang Dynasty is more of a group of officials with the prime minister as the core, and has always competed with the imperial power, which later directly led to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, many people still have great doubts about this, the Ming Emperor has such a great power, or to engage in checks and balances.
To understand this, everyone should be clear that the emperor is a person after all, after all, he is not a god, and the emperor cannot get too close to the civil and military officials, and getting too close to a certain official will directly affect the stability of the imperial court and the prestige of the imperial power. This also leads to the fact that many times officials have more contact with their highest-level leaders, prime ministers or first assistant ministers, and become the core spokesmen of the officials, and everyone can know that if the emperor does not balance, then the final consequence is that the emperor himself eats.
The emperor's art of checks and balances in the early Ming Dynasty was the most slippery
The early Ming Dynasty was the era when the art of checks and balances was the most slippery, from Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Qizhen, the emperor saw the gradual expansion of the power of officials such as the prime minister and the first assistant of the cabinet, Zhu Yuanzhang began to support the Jinyiwei clique, and the Jinyiwei directly obeyed the emperor, which directly led to the Jinyiwei and the civilian official clique holding each other back.
Unfortunately, in the later period, the Jinyiwei forces were too powerful, and the civilian official clique was overwhelmed, and later the Jinyiwei family was dominant, and even in the Zhu Di period, they almost reversed, usurping the imperial power and quelling the Jinyiwei rebellion, Zhu Di felt that the civilian officials could not get the Jinyiwei, so what to do? It is easy to do and support another force, this force is the East Factory, and the emergence of the East Factory is directly separated from the JinyiWei and the civilian official clique, and the politics of the imperial court has become efficient and clean.
Because of the good distribution of the three powers, it directly led to the fact that by the time of Zhu Qizhen, the political situation of the imperial court was very stable; the Ming Dynasty's check and balance technique was still very good, but the emperors before the Ming Dynasty were all more shrewd and powerful emperors, and they never considered whether the successors behind them could continue to check and balance in this way.
The emperor of the late Ming Dynasty, with insufficient ability and poor grasp of the art of checks and balances, became the mascot on the dragon chair
The emperors behind, although they were also full of poetry, but the art of governing the country was still not skilled enough, and then could not be suppressed, the emperors set up a west factory, made the separation of the four powers, and later even made an internal factory, the power game was more and more chaotic, but also more and more intense, and finally the east factory won, to Wei Zhongxian's period, Wei Zhongxian was the de facto emperor, and the one on the dragon chair was a mascot symbol.
After Chongzhen ascended to the throne, Wei Zhongxian was overthrown, and the West Factory and Jinyiwei had long been completely crushed by Wei Zhongxian, but the civilian official clique Taoguang was obscure, and once Wei Zhongxian died, the civilian official clique immediately rebounded, and the emperor could not be determined, which eventually led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty; the art of checks and balances of kings was a profound learning, and the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that the art of checks and balances was not thoroughly played, and directly caused the imperial court to smoke and miasma.
In fact, the art of checks and balances is extremely demanding for people's wisdom, your brain is strong enough, you can always understand the situation, you can really play the ministers, if you do not have much confidence in their own art of checks and balances, then the two rights of checks and balances is the best choice, do not play too much, three powers, four rights this one is not careful, directly into their own input.
The art of harmonizing yin and yang, rigidity and softness
The art of kings actually originates from Taoist doctrine, in which the king must also master the art of reconciling yin and yang; what is the harmony of yin and yang, rigidity and softness? In fact, you need to understand the art of the gentleman, you also need to understand the art of the villain, what kind of measures are handled by what kind of people, what kind of black cauldron, which people need to carry, not all black cauldrons have to be carried by the king, then the prestige of the king is extremely influential.
Some people will say, "Isn't this just black belly?" If the king does this, who will still help him! "In fact, a frank and frank king often does not last long, everything is handled by himself, one person carries, first of all, not to say that the pressure can not suppress the court, on the body can bear it? There are many things in the world that are going to die, and if the emperor bears it himself, why do he want officials?
The emperor took credit, and the ministers took over
This requires the reconciliation of yin and yang, the subordinates discuss and deal with it, and finally the emperor issues an edict, the merits are in the emperor's side, and the fatigue is on the side of the minister; this is somewhat similar to the modern squeezing of labor, but for ancient society, this is more able to make the subordinates sell their lives, the king enjoys thousands of praises, and the subordinates who dedicate behind the scenes are rewarded by the emperor, which is the way of the emperor.
If you encounter a very big event, the subordinates cannot take responsibility, the emperor needs to bear the responsibility, but in general, the emperor almost bears one or two black pots for several years or decades, and the rest must be borne by the subordinates.
To understand the stability of a society, the prosperity of the country, as the spokesman of imperial power, the emperor can not be full of mistakes, then the direct consequence of this is that the emperor is unqualified, unqualified people need to let qualified people to be, rebellion will also have a reason. Therefore, the emperor's yin and yang technique must also be played with pure fire, and those who should let their men carry the black cauldron will be given to their hands, and good deeds will be given to the emperor, all of which is not the emperor's own selfish desire, but for the long-term peace and stability of the imperial court.
Rigidity and softness are harmonious, and the meaning of the king is unpredictable
Tough and soft are also one of the emperor's compulsory courses, treating the military, treating politics, and treating people's livelihood, both have gang and soft, a qualified emperor, externally able to use both grace and power on various occasions, rigid and soft, both can make others feel afraid, but also can make others feel kind, let people know the true character of the emperor.
The emperor can only make people know whether his personality is good or bad, which can really put an end to the use of some people with hearts, so this is also an important reason why the emperor cannot get close to a certain minister at will; there are actually not many emperors who can be rigid and soft, and Emperor Wu of han cannot do the same as the gentle and the strong, and only Liu Xiu, Cao Cao, Li Shimin, Li Longji, Zhu Zhanji, Kangxi, Qianlong and other emperors in history can do this, which is not to overthrow other emperors at once, other emperors are more or less lacking in the art of rigidity and softness.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was full of rigidity and did not know how to detour, which led to one of the reasons for the fall of the country
The Ming Dynasty is a typical Dynasty that is too strong, and the Soft Is Too Weak Dynasty, we all know that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are very bloody, as long as foreign enemies invade, it doesn't matter what you do, fight! And there are too many internal high-pressure policies, the kings are directly just for you, and rarely after you return to you dates.
Since the Beginning of the Ming Dynasty since Zhu Yuanzhang, the life of the courtiers has been extremely difficult, do you say that you are not greedy? Life can't go on, greedy, right? Immediately overthrown by the emperor, the emperors are still hardened one by one, involving laws and regulations and national security, managing your three seven twenty-one, directly killing you.
In fact, this practice of the Ming Dynasty cannot be said to be wrong, but it only says that it cares too much about the people below, but does not care about the feelings of the courtiers, after all, the courtiers are also the people of Li Min; the Ming Dynasty is just like this, giving itself just gone, to know that the officials have accumulated pressure for a long time, once liberated, then the consequences are unimaginable.
As soon as the Chongzhen Emperor took the throne, the evil consequences of the Ming Dynasty have always been revealed, the courtiers hate the imperial family, once in power, then the consideration is themselves, anyway, the emperor never thinks about us, he is not good to himself, so what is the picture in this life? This is how the Ming Dynasty collapsed step by step.
brief summary
There is a saying in the historical circles that China's learning for more than two thousand years has been learned in Xunzi, and more than two thousand years of policy, Qin Zhengye; Xunzi admired Confucius's Confucianism, absorbed the strengths of a hundred families, and added the elements of "law" that had a far-reaching impact on the education of future generations, especially the education of the study of emperors.
Throughout the ages, the art of the emperor is a double-edged sword, both to make the emperor a stable command of the imperial court, but also to make the emperor disappear in an instant, the emperor who really mastered the art of the emperor, are extremely difficult emperors, these emperors must also give up the biggest weakness of their human nature - desire, can do the hand for the cloud to cover the hand for the rain, not only need superb wisdom, clever means, but also need a cruel character, such an emperor is extremely harsh and terrible to himself, and therefore, often such an emperor is not long-lived, After all, let yourself carry your weight forward every day.
References: Tao Te Ching, Xun Zi, Zizhi Tongjian, Shi Ji, Ming Shi, etc