The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
In the feudal imperial society, the establishment of the heir of the son of heaven is related to the fundamentals of the country, and before the Qing Dynasty, all the dynasties and dynasties established the candidate for the crown prince during the emperor's lifetime, and thus formed a set of official systems around the prince and the prince. Probably from the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Eastern Palace" became the official office of the crown prince, and the word "Eastern Palace" became a synonym for the prince.
The system of the Eastern Palace was complete in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and from the perspective of its establishment, the significance of the Eastern Palace institution for the crown prince as the crown prince was similar to that of the emperor of the imperial court, in a certain sense, the Eastern Palace system was a fairly complete power system, or a "quasi-imperial court", because in fact the Eastern Palace system was a miniature imperial court.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were three divisions of the prince, three young men (prince Taishi, Taifu, Taibao, Prince Shaoshi, Shaofu, Shaobao) and prince guests, each in charge of counseling and teaching the prince. The Zhan ShiFu under it resembled the Shangshu Province of the imperial court. Zuo Chunfang set up Zuo Shuzi, Zhongyun, Si Yilang, etc., in charge of the attendants, praised the ceremonies, refuted the zheng qi song, supervised the provincial seal, and printed the prince's decree and sent it to the Zhan Shifu. His position is similar to that of the menxia province's shizhong ( 侍中 ), Shilang ( 侍郎 ) , and Shi Zhong (給事中).
His positions as Zuo Zhi de and Zuo Zanshan Dafu were in charge of teaching and satirizing, which were equivalent to the positions of Zuo Shan Riding ChangShu and Zuo Zhi Dafu of Menxia Province. The subordinate Chongwenguan is in charge of the four libraries of the Eastern Palace, and its position is similar to that of the secretary province; the functions of the Canon bureau, the inner direct bureau, and the canonical bureau are similar to the responsibilities of the Shang Food, Shang Medicine, Shang Yi, Shang Ren, and Shang She Bureau under the DianZhong Province; there are also the Ten Rates of the Prince, that is, the left and right guards, the left and right Division, the left and right Clearance Rate, the left and right Supervision Gate Rate, the Left and Right Inner Rates, and the each command of the Eastern Palace Soldiers and Guards, patrol guards, and other matters, which are no different from the Sixteen Guards of the Imperial Court and the Palace Ban.
Of course, there are many offices and official positions in the Eastern Palace, so I will not list them all here. All in all, all the official positions in the Eastern Palace can be found in the imperial court. It can be seen that in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the system of the Eastern Palace was already very complete, and it formed an extremely close correspondence with the political system of the imperial court.
Although theoretically, the Eastern Palace system should also be included in the system of the central political system. The political significance of this design was to ensure that the crown prince could familiarize himself with political affairs as a crown prince, and was honed in preparation for the smooth transition of imperial power in the future.
For example, when Emperor Gaozong of Tang made Li Hong the crown prince, that is, out of the consideration of "being the party of the government, the righteous capital is practiced", the crown prince was specially ordered to "sit inside the Guangshun Gate every five days, and the various divisions have a play, and the small things are not the crown prince." In this way, the crown prince can use this to practice government affairs, so whenever the former emperor dies, the will often orders the crown prince to "coffin front", that is, the emperor's throne, so as to avoid a power vacuum in the process of power transfer. The establishment of the Eastern Palace system is also comparable to the political connotation of the imperial court.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were also frequent situations in which the prince supervised the state, which can also reveal from another side why the Eastern Palace system is compared with the mystery of the imperial court. The so-called prince supervises the country, that is, the general leader and hundreds of officials, acting as the regent. At the time of the supervision of the country, the crown prince seemed to be like a king in the world, and his Eastern Palace system was also upgraded. According to the Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty, "If the crown prince oversees the country, and Zhan Shi and the left and right sons are the three envoys, then Si Zhiyi and Si Yilang and Sheren are informed on a separate day, detailing whether they can be or not, so as to explain it." ”
According to the system, the three divisions of the Tang Dynasty were the governors of Yushitai, Zhongshu Province, and Menxia Province, who had the power to "play big things and specialize in small things". That is to say, during the period when the crown prince was in charge of the country, the crown prince Zhan Shi and the left and right Shuzi were like the highest officials of Zhongshu, Menxia, and Yushitai, forming a new leadership core.
In other words, during the period when the prince was supervising the country, to a certain extent, it represented that the center of the imperial court was temporarily moved to the Eastern Palace. In addition, the imperial court Zaifu minister often concurrently held the official title of Donggong, or the Eastern Palace official was appointed as the prime minister after the crown prince ascended the throne, which was very common before Tang Xuanzong, and roughly reflected the significance of the Eastern Palace system to the national political system and a certain characteristic of the Eastern Palace system in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
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