Lv Haifeng
In other words, in our ancient Chinese officialdom, there are almost any kind of positions, covering 360 lines of management. However, during the Ming Dynasty, there was a kind of official position that could be called zhu Yuanzhang's original creation, that is, "yan official". So, what's going on here? What kind of existence was the ancient "official of speech"? Let's go and investigate together.
In fact, as long as we mention the position of "official of speech", we have to admire Zhu Yuanzhang's imagination. Because, among the many emperors in ancient China, although Zhu Yuanzhang did not receive much education, during his term of office, he developed many new tricks, including the eight shares of soldiers, the abolition of the beggar system, the compulsory fixation of household registration by occupation, and a set of perfect supervision mechanisms that always hindered the imperial power, and this was the "speech official" system. To put it bluntly, they are some people who are specifically responsible for "finding fault".
Because of this, although these people are not highly hierarchical, they have great power, and even, it can be said, that they are within the supervision of the officials, and officials at all levels will tremble as long as they see them. However, as officials with great power, what conditions should be met for their emergence? On the one hand, "we must forget our families and be loyal and forget ourselves"; on the other hand, we must be upright and upright, upright and outspoken; on the other hand, we must have outstanding knowledge, and we must be familiar with all aspects of the government affairs and laws of the imperial court, and we must be able to cover ancient and modern times. In addition, it is necessary to have a certain career experience.
Of course, if we want to study it further, Yan Guan is actually not Zhu Yuanzhang's original creation, but as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. It's just that at that time, it wasn't called "yanguan". For example, the State of Qi has "Great Advice" and the State of Zhao has "Si Guo", all of which belong to the category of yan officials. However, in any case, if we look at the development characteristics of the profession of Yanguan, it was only in the Ming Dynasty that Yanguan really ushered in its own spring.
Because, during the Ming Dynasty, the officials not only showed more and more professionalism, but also more and more showed a kind of scale, from the "miscellaneous brand army" gradually changed to the "regular army", and its members were mainly served by the Ducha Yushi, from national events to city rumors, as long as they were not accustomed to it, they could go to the court to report. Moreover, they are only responsible for playing, and the right and wrong are judged by the emperor himself, and even if they are wrong, they do not have to bear the responsibility. Obviously, this is the typical "change if there is, and encourage what is not.".
Even in the Qing Dynasty, although the official was no longer worthy of the name and was useless, he still had a privilege, that is, to hear things. That is to say, it is allowed that without actual evidence, the officials of speech can report to the imperial court and correct the civil and military officials. Obviously, at this time, the officials in the imperial court can still "walk sideways.". Even, sometimes, even the Iron Hat Prince was jealous of them.
In short, what kind of existence was the ancient "official of speech"? That's one word, "cow." (Lv Haifeng)