In "The Great Ming Style", the handsome, handsome, clever, beloved, and blossoming emperor's grandson was the later Emperor Xuande of Ming Xuanzong, who reigned for ten years and hurriedly left. Xuanzong's personality is between his grandfather Chengzu and his father Renzong, Wen Tao's martial arts are not bad, but not as keen as his grandfather to attack Mongolia and expand the territory, nor is he as dedicated to keeping success and rising civil rule as his father, so in general, in terms of domestic and foreign policies, he continues his father's orientation, on the one hand, he abandons the policy of foreign expansion and shifts the focus to internal affairs, on the other hand, he is not as diligent as his father, has a wide range of interests and hobbies, and is more playful, so he is not as frugal and loves the people as his father.
Because Emperor Renzong reigned for a short time, he died in a hurry after only eight months, so the main ministers reused by the imperial court were also those ministers promoted in the later period of Yongle, especially Sanyang and Jianyi, who were all temporary choices, Xuande trusted them very much, and also let go, and things inside and outside the imperial court were basically handed over to them. That is, during his reign, the cabinet system was roughly formed, becoming the center of the entire government operation, from the secretarial team of the original Yongle period to a core institution that actually held power, and played the function of the previous prime minister. Of course, this is also because he has a wide range of interests, so that he can free up time to play.
It was also because his main energy was not focused on the handling of the government, but on a considerable part of the energy spent on various interests and hobbies, and the power of the cabinet began to expand, so he also consciously cultivated eunuchs in the inner court to balance the cabinet. In order to allow eunuchs to better play the role of restraining the cabinet in the operation of the government, he specially held a study class in the inner court, that is, the Inner Book Hall, to teach the young eunuchs who had just entered the palace to read. In this way, the power and status of those eunuchs who had a little culture before and could read and write were raised more quickly, and their role was more important. The most famous of these, of course, is Wang Zhen, who actually became the crown prince, the chief master of the later Yingzong.
Because Xuanzong was still very young when he died, the crown prince was still in his infancy when he succeeded to the throne, and he was very immature in all aspects, and the Ming Dynasty followed the rules left by Zhu Yuanzhang before, "the mother and queen do not bother to come to the dynasty", which gave the eunuchs more room for power to operate, and Wang Zhen became the center of power at that time. Although in the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, eunuchs had already begun to submit to the ming dynasty's vassal states, and there were more famous eunuchs such as Zheng He in the Chengzu period, on the whole, the opportunity for eunuchs to interfere in the government affairs of the dynasty was still relatively small, and eunuchs interfered in the government of the dynasty, and gradually formed the main power group of the inner court, that is, in the Xuande period, after Emperor Yingzong ascended the throne, this trend was more obvious, and Wang Zhen was above the civil bureaucracy of the entire imperial court.
If the eunuch was only the Jinyi Guard in charge of the Beizhen Fusi, or the Governor of the East Factory, in fact, the power was not as great as later, because outside the system of the daily government operation of the entire imperial court, the space for power was relatively small. However, because Xuanzong delegated power to the cabinet on the one hand, and consciously cultivated the power of the eunuch clique in the inner court on the other hand, a situation of eunuchs interfering in the government of the dynasty was formed, which actually broke the ancestral system left by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, making eunuchs an important part of the entire political power structure of the imperial court, and excessive eunuch interference became a major feature of Ming Dynasty politics. Regardless of whether the first assistant of the cabinet has the ability to make a difference, he must have the support of a eunuch with greater power in the inner court, even if it is Zhang Juzheng, without the support of Feng Bao, it is difficult to move forward.
However, eunuchs and civilian officials are different, and the character and insight of eunuchs is a variable with no institutional guarantees, and this variable has become the biggest variable in the entire Ming Dynasty politics. Although the civilian official clique also has all kinds of traitors and villains, on the whole, because the civil official system of the Ming Dynasty is already very mature, even if there are often mediocre people with no ability to take power, it is not easy to appear a completely dark situation in which the treacherous villains control the government. But whether the eunuch is wise or not is completely accidental, there is a relatively wise eunuch, the politics of the Ming Dynasty is relatively clear, but also relatively stable, the emergence of a eunuch who likes to get power, but has no ability, it is easy to cause chaos. Therefore, there were many more virtuous eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, but there were also many notorious bad eunuchs.