Friends who like to see the palace drama will certainly be familiar with some official positions in the Qing Dynasty, especially some ministers who work under the emperor, as well as feudal officials in various places, who are often "on camera". For example, the governor was in the Qing Dynasty, that is synonymous with "high-ranking official", we know that the governor is a big official, after all, he is in charge of a province, but the governor is in charge of two or three provinces at the same time, and even in special periods, some governors can manage five or six provinces at the same time.
However, during the Qing Dynasty, a series of bureaucratic systems were introduced in order to consolidate imperial power, which limited the rights of various feudal officials. Generally speaking, the governor has the most jurisdiction over one or two provinces, and the most provinces are only the governors of the three eastern provinces, so the official position of the governor in the Qing Dynasty is not high, and it is a positive second product. The talent of the shoshu title of the concurrently military department is highly matched to from one product.
No way, after all, the power of the governor is great, and he is in charge of several provinces. However, it was also a feudal official, and another higher official occupation in the Qing Dynasty was much more humiliating. Because this profession ranked higher than that of the governor, but the real power was not even as good as the prefect of the fourth product.
This profession is "Admiral", a high-ranking military position in the Qing Dynasty, fully known as the Admiral Military Chief. Officially born in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, he was responsible for local military affairs, and was in charge of an area of one or two provinces, tens of thousands of square kilometers, or even hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, which can be regarded as a feudal official.
So why is it said that the Admiral has no real power? It turned out that at the beginning, the power of the admiral was very large, after all, as a high-ranking military position, commanding the officers and men of several provinces, and it was also divided into the land admiral and the admiral of the water division, which was also a very powerful presence among the yipin officials. However, it was precisely because the power was too great that in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the rulers continued to cut their power, and finally became an idle.
How idle is it? In the TV series, we often hear the "Nine-Door Admiral", which is the title after the Admiral was stripped of power. The so-called Nine Gate Admiral is responsible for the guarding and access control of the nine gates of the inner city of Beijing, Zhengyang Gate, Chongwen Gate, Xuanwu Gate, Anding Gate, Desheng Gate, Dongzhi Gate, Xizhi Gate, Chaoyang Gate, and Fucheng Gate.
Of course, in a sense, the task of the Nine-Door Admiral is also quite important, after all, it is responsible for the security of the emperor. Therefore, the Nine Gate Admiral was generally also a person who was deeply trusted by the emperor, who was in charge of the work of guarding the capital, inspecting, access control, night patrol, prohibition, armor protection, and arrest.
In some places, the viceroy was even more miserable, and in order to limit the rights of the admiral, it was stipulated that the admiral's leading soldiers should ask the imperial court for instructions everywhere. In addition, the military power was divided up by the governor and the inspector for the most part.
As feudal officials, such as the governor, the inspector and even the prefect of Sipin, they all had the right to directly give secrets to the emperor, but the viceroy, as a Yipin official, did not have this power. In other words, there is no power to be bullied, and there is no qualification to even make a small report.
The Qing Dynasty conducted an official examination every three years, and the local officials were appointed by the governor and the inspector to serve as the chief inspector, which meant that the governor had to be investigated by the subordinates as a pin official, which could be described as extremely humiliating.
Many people may ask, then what is the imperial court doing to establish such an official position? In fact, it is very simple, don't look at the small rank of some officials in the Qing Dynasty, in fact, the emperor who has great power dares not pay attention to it. The position of "Admiral" is quite powerful on the surface, but in fact it has no real power. For some officials who have done too much credit and still have self-respect. To "promote" him to the rank of viceroy is actually to ascend in the light and descend in the dark. So it was all about consolidating imperial power.