In September of the twelfth year of Hongwu (1379), Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the envoys of the Champa State to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty had arrived in Beijing for more than a month and no one paid attention to them, and he could not help but be furious, and what made Zhu Yuanzhang even more angry was that no one reported this matter to him during this period, so Zhu Yuanzhang immediately issued an edict reprimanding Hu Weiyong and The Right Minister Wang Guangyang of Zhongshu Province.
Although Hu and Wang ostensibly bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and apologized, they constantly hinted to Zhu Yuanzhang that the Rebbe was the culprit in this matter, and the Rebbe ministers also argued that they had already reported the news of the arrival of the Champa envoy to The Capital to Zhongshu Province.
In the face of the mutual attack between Zhongshu Province and the libu ministers led by Hu and Wang, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more angry, so he issued an edict to execute Wang Guangyang, the right chancellor of Zhongshu Province, and sent the rebbe ministers to prison for questioning.
After learning the news of Wang Guangyang's execution, one of Wang Guangyang's concubines, Chen Shi, expressed her willingness to accompany Wang Guangyang to his death. After Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to investigate, he learned that the Chen clan was actually a slave who had been punished and confiscated into the official, and according to the custom, the slave who was punished and confiscated into the official could only be rewarded to the meritorious minister, and Wang Guangyang, a civilian official, could not adopt the Chen clan as a concubine through normal channels. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang also issued an edict to send Hu Weiyong and all relevant officials to prison for questioning.
Seeing that the general situation had gone after Hu Weiyong was imprisoned, Tu Jie, Shang Xuan, and others hurriedly reported to Zhu Yuanzhang the crime of Hu Weiyong's deception and conspiracy to collude with Lu Zhongheng and other military generals to plot rebellion. In this case,
Zhu Yuanzhang announced the abolition of Zhongshu Province, and strictly forbade subsequent monarchs to re-establish Zhongshu Province and Xiang Xiang.
With the abolition of Zhongshu Province, the system of prime ministers, which had been in place for more than 1,500 years, was completely ended.
Then, the question arises: after more than 1,500 years of implementation, why was Zhu Yuanzhang deposed soon after he ascended the throne?
To answer this question,
We must understand how the power to maintain the smooth implementation of the prime minister system has been gradually weakened.
The Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty can be called the peak period of power in China's ancient history, Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty only persuaded the chancellor Li Si to change the heir Fu Su personally selected by the First Emperor Ying Zheng to Hu Hai, and Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty even had to go to the Xiangfu to ask for advice (
The state has a big discussion, and the Tianzi car driver is fortunate to be in his temple
）。
However, after Emperor Wudi of han ascended the throne, he felt more and more
"Shangzuo Tianzi rationalizes yin and yang, and when shun si shi, the next is appropriate for all things; the outer town caresses the princes of Siyi, and the inner relatives attach to the people, so that the Qing Doctor can each hold his post."
The xiang power of xiangquan severely restricted the imperial power, so in order to weaken the xiangquan power, he took measures such as setting up three centimeters of xiangquan power, appointing officials from the cold gate as the prime minister, and replacing the prime minister with Shangshu to exercise part of the phase power.
After the implementation of these measures, the purpose of weakening the power of the phase has been achieved.
However, the foreign relatives quickly filled the power vacuum that had arisen due to the weakening of the power of the phase.
The result was the usurpation of Han Jianxin by his cousin Wang Mang.
After the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, after summarizing the lessons of Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, he had to deeply agree with the reason why Yingzheng was originally called emperor, and based on it
"The system of power is arbitrary over the king"
At the core of this change of law in the Warring States period, Liu Xiu believed that only by strengthening imperial power and weakening xiang power could we ensure the long-term peace and stability of the country. Therefore, he officially replaced Xiangfu with Shang Shutai.
The ancient world is scattered, and mo can be one?, it is a combination of princes, and the words are ancient and harmful to the present. The present emperor also has the world, don't make a black and white statue. - "Historiography of the First Emperor"
According to Liu Xiu's conception, the strengthening of imperial power can fill the power vacuum left by the weakening of xiang power.
And the Shang Shutai, which has some power, will become the secretarial body of the emperor,
In this way, there is no need to worry about Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty repeating itself in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
But
The rise of the scholar power in the Eastern Han Dynasty hindered the strengthening of imperial power.
Shang Shutai, who had some power, was unable to balance foreign relatives and eunuchs. In this way, the Eastern Han Dynasty was destroyed in the struggle between foreign relatives and eunuchs for power.
The Sui and Tang dynasties after the Eastern Han Dynasty, when summarizing the lessons of the demise of the previous dynasties, all underestimated the degree of strengthening imperial power and weakening the degree of phase power, so
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the three provinces and six ministries system dispersed the phase power to the point where it was impossible for anyone to gather the phase power in one.
In the Song Dynasty, the power of the xiang was divided more and more dispersed: the two governments (Zhongshu Menxia and the Privy Council) were divided into administrative affairs and military affairs, the three divisions were in charge of financial power, and the senate and governor were also set up as deputy ministers, and at the same time, institutions such as the Examination Court, the Court of Examiners, and the Court of Trial were also set up in the imperial court. In this case, Lü Mengzheng, the chancellor of the Song Dynasty, said this to Zeng about imperial power and xiang power——
Now His Majesty is determined to do everything in his power, and his subordinates stop at carrying out the holy will. The subject often speaks with his peers, and is honored to know it.
The four words of "pursuing the Holy Will" fully illustrate the fact that Xiangquan has been weakened to dispensable from the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.
Because all the prime minister can do at this time is to act according to his will.
The Yuan Dynasty can be seen as the period of returning to the light of phase power,
Relying on the Zhongshu Province at the imperial court and the Xingzhongshu Province scattered throughout the country, the Xiang power of the Yuan Dynasty almost returned to the level of the Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, so that the Prime Minister of the Yuan Shun Emperor was able to lead a million troops to engage the rebels.
The establishment of Daming means the official end of the period of returning to the light of the phase power.
Soon after Hu Weiyong was appointed chancellor in the sixth year of Hongwu, he showed his arrogant side, killing and deposing zhu Yuanzhang without being dealt with by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and the internal and external chapters were read first and then presented to Zhu Yuanzhang, and later he actually used his power to wantonly recruit military generals such as Lu Zhongheng and Marquis Feiju of Pingliang.
Zhu Yuanzhang was certainly clear about this, because he could know exactly what the chancellor was worried about at home and what anyone he had seen and said, but he had actually endured Hu Weiyong for six years. You know, Zhu Yuanzhang's abolition of Hu Weiyong's phase is simply as easy as a palm, so,
Zhu Yuanzhang's indifference to Hu Weiyong was only an attempt to eliminate the power behind Hu Weiyong and the system of prime ministers that had been implemented for more than 1,500 years by means of wanting to get away with it.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, as Hu Weiyong's various crimes were successively denounced, Zhu Yuanzhang announced that the prime minister would be abolished and the successor king would not be set up again, and the system of prime minister, which had been implemented for more than 1,500 years in China's ancient history, was abolished.
To sum up, the reason why the system of prime ministers, which has been implemented for more than 1,500 years, was abolished shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne.
Mainly because the power to maintain the smooth operation of the chancellor system had been weakened in the Song Dynasty to be dispensable and Zhu Yuanzhang's desire to capture the last prime minister in history, Hu Weiyong.