We all know that the Ming Dynasty was established by the Cloth Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, so the starting point of the Ming Dynasty is not the same as other dynasties, the Ming Dynasty also has a characteristic, that is, its unique secret service organization, which is not easy to see in other dynasties, JinyiWei is a secret service agency that grew up in the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang, and at the beginning it was to protect Zhu Yuanzhang's throne, which was originally an institution set up by Zhu Yuanzhang to grasp the situation of his own subjects and people. Initially, this institution did have a certain achievement in this aspect of poor corruption, and it also very well guaranteed the status of Zhu Yuanzhang, marking the strengthening of the centralized organs.
Jinyi Wei
However, as the power of this institution became more and more extensive, the scope of surveillance became more and more extensive, Zhu Yuanzhang began to worry that this institution would cause trouble to himself, and would also become a hidden danger for future generations, so he abolished this institution, but after Zhu Di usurped the throne, he reactivated this institution, and in the near future, Zhu Di also faced the same problem as Zhu Yuanzhang, the power of Jinyiwei was too big, but the clever Zhu Di did not abolish Jinyiwei, and he did not want to lose the intelligence organization. So he chose to set up another secret service organization, the East Factory.
East Factory, West Factory
The East Factory, like the Jinyiwei, belonged to the imperial intelligence agency, obeyed the emperor alone, and the positions of the two sides had a very large overlap, and the reason why Zhu Di did this was to prevent the Jinyiwei's power from being too large to exceed his own power, and it was too passive in that situation. After he established the East Factory, not only because the quality of the competitive intelligence was higher, but also because the power of the Jinyiwei was dispersed, but also able to supervise each other, for a time the East Factory and the Jinyiwei were in a stage of equal strength, which was the best situation for the emperor.
Owner of the West Factory
This situation was undoubtedly the most perfect situation that the emperor could see, but Ming Xianzong felt that this was not enough, and in order to strengthen his rule over his courtiers, he deliberately set up the West Factory outside the East Factory, and in order to distinguish the East Factory, the Emperor at that time merged the Jinyi Wei and the East Factory into one factory guard organization, and in the following period, the West Factory surpassed the power of the other two institutions. The scope of activity is not only in the capital, but all parts of the country have become their surveillance area.
The emergence of the West Factory is mainly because the Dongcheng and Jinyi guards at that time have begun to have a tendency to get rid of the emperor's control, although they ostensibly obey the emperor, but they are often yang and yin, the emperor's words are discounted in their hands, the emperor at that time suffered from the lack of a real obedience to his own organization, so the famous West Factory was born, although the birth of the West Factory also protected the development of the Ming Dynasty for a long time, but the demise of the Ming Dynasty was also because the eunuchs were in power and did not understand the way of governing the country In the end, the Ming Dynasty went to its demise.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty