History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
The Ming Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China ruled by Han Chinese, and the feudal monarchy reached new heights. Because zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, came from a humble background, he suffered a lot from childhood. Therefore, after ascending to the throne, he hated corrupt officials very much, and not only abolished the beggar system that had been practiced for more than two thousand years, but also set up many mysterious organizations to strengthen the central group and supervise and judge officials. Such as the establishment of the East Factory, JinyiWei and the Six Doors, there is no one before or after the ancients. These organizations are both mysterious and unique, and their existence can be seen in many film and television works, so what do they do, and today I will talk about their ins and outs.
Jinyiwei was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, and at the beginning it was only one of the twelve Janissaries of the Emperor, which is equivalent to what we call the Imperial Forest Army. Later, in order to monitor the movements of officials in the DPRK and China, Zhu Yuanzhang gave jinyiwei supervision functions and set up the Southern and Northern Town Fu Department, specializing in supervision, arrest, interrogation, and other work. Moreover, they were all made up of the emperor's cronies, directly under the emperor's orders, and could arrest anyone. Therefore, during the Hongwu years, don't let Jinyi Wei grab your handle, otherwise you will die a miserable death.
The East Factory was established by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di in the eighteenth year of Yongle, and because the work place was in the area of Donghuamen in the capital and was engaged in arrest matters, it was referred to as the East Factory. The main job of the East Factory is to arrest the key criminals, and it is worth mentioning that most of the officials of the East Factory are eunuchs in the palace, so they are also directly under the emperor's orders. The purpose of the early establishment of the East Factory was to monitor the civil and military officials and prevent them from plotting rebellion. However, in the later period, the eunuchs gradually strengthened their power, and the East Factory also had its own prison. The establishment of the East Factory also laid the foundation for the later eunuch dictatorship.
The scope of work of the East Factory is very wide, and he is still in the DPRK and the Central Committee to try major cases; he is in the Jinyi Guards to torture the repeat offenders; and he is still there in the various yamen of the DPRK and the CENTRAL Government. He monitored the officials' every move, recorded everything he saw and heard, and handed them to the celebrant for review every day, and then reported it to the emperor after selection.
The emergence of the West Factory was a new method of supervision and control adopted by the Emperor, who established the West Factory in order to maintain imperial power and exercise control over the powerful East Factory as the internal contradictions between korean and Chinese officials and eunuchs gradually deepened. Therefore, the West Factory is a temporary institution and has no formal official position. At that time, the power of the West Factory was once greater than that of the East Factory, and the scope of activities spread throughout the country. Later, due to opposition, it was not until Emperor Wuzong succeeded to the throne and the grand eunuch Liu Jin came to power, and the West Factory was reopened.
The Six Doors is the most mysterious organization, it is the combined name of Dali Temple, Si Xingbu and Duchayuan, because each door in each gate has three doors, and each door has two doors, so it is called six doors. Its personnel composition includes both court officials and capable people, and it can be said that it goes up to the court down to the people. The main work of the six doors was to assist the imperial court in handling some major and important cases, and its influence was very large, so it had great prestige among the people. In fact, it is an organization that specializes in assisting in handling cases, similar to the public security that specializes in criminal investigations now.
Therefore, the four secret service organizations of Jinyiwei, East Factory, West Factory, and Six Doors, in terms of power, the East Factory is the largest, and the Jinyiwei is this time, but when the West Factory exists, the power of the West Factory is more than that of the East Factory. In terms of function, it is the Jinyi Guard who is the most powerful, because he has the widest scope of work, and the six doors are ranked last. On the issue of folk influence, it is the six doors, because it has the most contact with ordinary people. But to say that the political influence and power, or the West Factory is the largest, but the existence time is very short, the East Factory is closely followed, Jinyiwei ranks third, the six doors are the last, because the six doors belong to the formal institutions, whether it is the emperor or the six ministries, they have an impact on it, so they are also constrained.