When it comes to the Ming Dynasty, many people will think of the backbone of "the Son of Heaven guards the gate of the country, and the king dies in the society", and many people will also think of several famous mysterious organizations of the Ming Dynasty: Jinyiwei, East Factory, West Factory, and Six Doors. In recent years, many film and television dramas have appeared in these institutions, such as the movie "Jinyiwei" and "Embroidered Spring Knife" written about Jinyiwei, "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" appears in the East Factory and West Factory, and the "Four Famous Catches" series is dedicated to the introduction of the six doors of this department. These artistic creations made people more curious about the responsibilities and status of the various institutions of the Ming Dynasty, but few people understood the powers and status of these major secret service agencies, and which institution was more powerful?
Jinyi Wei
In the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate his own rule and strengthen his control over the state, Ming Taizu ordered the establishment of a guard army, and the "wei" under the "station" was set up as the basic unit, and the soldiers' guardhouse was placed in the capital city. After Zhu Yuanzhang's reforms, the Jinyi Wei became the most important part of the Twelve Guards Army, and its power gradually developed and grew, during which it was abolished and then restored immediately, until it was abolished during the Southern Ming Dynasty, a total of 290 years. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, jinyiwei (later known as Luan Yiwei) was also established, although it only existed for one year, it can still be seen that the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei had a deep influence on the Qing Dynasty.
Initially, the Jinyi Guards mainly had three major roles: vigil, guarding the emperor, investigating cases, and arresting prisoners. Later, it developed to the ability to interrogate prisoners privately, as well as to gather intelligence and spy on military intelligence, and they had the right to arrest anyone and listen to the emperor's dispatches. JinyiWei was commanded by command envoys, and this position was generally held by the emperor's close generals, as was the case with Lu Bing during the Jiajing period. Zhu Yuanzhang originally established this organization in order to firmly grasp the power of the state in his own hands, at this time the Jinyi guards mainly played the role of supervisory officials, and later their authority became larger and larger, and they also made outstanding contributions in obtaining intelligence and plotting against the enemy. During this period, Jinyiwei was deeply trusted by the emperor and had greater power.
East Factory
The East Factory appeared later than the Jinyi Wei, and during the Ming Dynasty Zu Yongle years, in order to eliminate the discussion of "improper position" in the court, consolidate his own rule, and establish the "East Bureau" which was mainly managed by eunuchs. The head of the East Factory was generally a trusted eunuch, on the one hand, it was convenient for him to supervise the words and deeds of the people and ministers, and on the other hand, it was also because the emperor was afraid that the Jinyi Guards were too powerful and covered the sky with one hand, so he used the East Factory to check and balance each other. In contrast, the eunuch institutions were more trusted by the emperor and had greater power. They do not need to consult the judicial department, only responsible to the emperor, to a certain extent, representing the emperor's will.
In the early days of the establishment of the institution, the East Factory was only responsible for "visiting and plotting against evil and evil words", and only the Jinyi Weibei Town Fusi had the power to interrogate. Later, the scope of supervision of the East Factory became larger and larger, all the ministers, ordinary people, and scholars in the court lived under their surveillance, and some of the Officials of the East Factory also used the emperor's checks and balances to interrogate and kill ministers who disagreed with them at will, and the famous eunuch Wei Zhongxian during the Ming Dynasty was extremely powerful when he was the head of the East Factory, and was called "Nine Thousand Years Old", which made the imperial power move down for a time.
West Factory
Xichang, or "Xi ji shi factory", appeared in the Ming XianZong Chenghua years, mixed prison and court powers, but only existed for 5 years (the middle was revoked), after experiencing Wang Zhi and Gu Dayong's two viceroy eunuchs, the west factory disappeared in the long river of history, the west factory also once commanded the east factory and JinyiWei at its peak, and in "Dragon Gate Flying Armor", Xichang Yuhuatian had a very domineering line that impressed me: "First cut and then play, imperial privilege!" This is the West Factory! "It can be seen that it was the monstrous power of its heyday.
Six doors
Six doors is a folk colloquial name for the three legal divisions, named after the hall southeast and west separated by three gates, and each side of the gate is composed of two doors, so it is called six doors, belonging to the government judicial department. Its organization has a wide range of members, ranging from officials from the DPRK to many non-governmental dignitaries, mainly responsible for investigating some major and important cases that the government cannot conclude. In different dynasties, the six gates contained different components, such as in the Song Dynasty, it referred to Dali Temple, Punishment Department, and Yushitai, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it included Punishment Department, Dali Temple, and Duchayuan. Its authority is much smaller than that of the Jinyi Guard, and it needs to follow the process and obey the law.
From the above analysis, we can conclude that at different times, the power of the various institutions of the Ming Dynasty had its own ups and downs, and these changes depended on the emperor's trust in each institution at different times. This "boss" takes turns, and most of the time the repetition of their powers is strengthened, which one is more powerful depends on the attitude of the emperor, and the various institutions are tools for maintaining feudal rule.
In fact, whether it is the Jinyi Wei, the East Factory and the West Factory, or the Six Doors, they were all set up by the emperor to balance the courtiers, and it was the product of strengthening the monarch's centralization. However, if the establishment of secret service intelligence agencies is complicated, the consequences will be that everyone in the court is in danger, the situation is unstable, the people are full of complaints and anger, the state eunuchs are in power, and the politics is dark, which also accelerates the pace of the fall of the Ming Dynasty.