Prime Minister and Prime Minister, the peak of the ancient people, the highest dream of all civil officials, are they the same thing? The answer, of course, is no, the prime minister is only an official position, in most dynasties, he is under one person, above ten thousand people, and the prime minister is not a specific position, he is a collective name for the top civil officials.
In the Han Dynasty, the prime minister was the chancellor, in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Lu Shang Shu Shi, the Zhongshu Supervisor was the Zai Xiang, the Tang Dynasty, the three provinces of Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province, shangshu province, these positions can be called the prime minister. In the Ming Dynasty, the position of chancellor was explicitly abolished, but the cabinet of this period could also be called the prime minister, and even the military minister of the Qing Dynasty, the people also had a title called the prime minister. Simply put, the prime minister is definitely the prime minister, but the prime minister is not necessarily the prime minister.
This kind of general statement from specific official positions to abstractions, the meaning contained in the middle is profound, the emperor is more and more unable to bear to have a minister around him, we are now called xiangxiang, Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, it profoundly explains the root of this truth, and the prime minister may be a collective leader, or it may be a rapidly changing personnel flow, this title is not specific to the position and individual, so that the emperor's sense of security is slightly stronger.
One. How the Prime Minister and the Xiang Kingdom went from being outrageous to being abolished
1． Xiang Guo and Xiang Xiang
Although For a long time, Xiang Xiang was the well-deserved first person among the hundred officials in ancient China, but his original setup was the deputy of Xiang Guo, Xiang Guo was the first civil servant of the Qin and Han dynasties, and the name of Xiang Guo was too tall, Lü Buwei, Han Xin, Xiao He, the first person of the hundred officials below the emperor, it seems that most of the owners are not very good, according to the principle of Confucian modesty, he has become more and more of a false title, xiang has become a real power faction Lü Chan is the last Xiang Guo of the Western Han Dynasty.
Such a noble title and Lü Hou's trust did not stop the pace of his old man's rebellion, and Lü Chan finally became the Xiangguo who died in the toilet, which made the title of Xiangguo seem to be contaminated with some dirt, and for a long time, no one dared to be Xiangguo anymore.
2． Chancellor and courtier
People in modern society, you mention The first reaction of people with a male physique is to feel that they are talking about Cao Cao, and the first reaction of people with heroic physique is to feel that they are talking about Zhuge Wuhou. It can be seen that since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the word Xiang has been hung with specific people on a rope that cannot be undone for a thousand years.
Two hundred years later, Cao Cao found the chancellor again on the official list of the Eastern Han Dynasty. When the emperors read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, they must have felt the same way, and the powerful ministers were advancing step by step in the comprehensive suppression of the monarchy, and Cao Cao was a textbook-like existence. How the emperors after the Eastern Han Dynasty looked at the chancellor seemed to have the shadow of Cao Aqi, and in the emperor's heart, the chancellor was about to become a knot.
Fortunately, Zhuge Liang was able to find some positive energy for Xiang Xiang with a bow, but from ah dou's point of view, Zhuge Liang was certainly not a person who coveted power, but in fact he still overshadowed Ah Dou, and loyal subjects like Wu Hou were suspected of ignoring the leadership when they specifically exercised power, and how could future ministers reassure the emperor.
3． Han to Ming, the trajectory of the complete disappearance of the Prime Minister
Wei and Jin were not too interested in the chancellor, until the Sui and Tang dynasties, the position of the chancellor was completely forgotten from the official list, except for a very few dynasties, the emperors tacitly agreed not to set up a chancellor. All the way to Tang Xuanzong's Shangshu left and right servants, and the Southern Song Dynasty's Shangshu left and right servants. It is very clever to divide the official position of the prime minister into two, avoiding the excessive concentration of the power of the minister. It is the political wisdom of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
The short-lived dynasty of yuan did set up a chancellor, but when Zhu Yuanzhang arrived, after Hu Weiyong's affairs, this fierce emperor saw through many things, and the official position of chancellor disappeared from Chinese history forever. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, where imperial power was becoming more and more concentrated, naturally there was no plan to give the chancellor a purpose, and in the Qing Dynasty, even the group of prime ministers seemed to have suddenly disappeared, and only the emperor and slaves were left in the court.
Two. Prime Minister: The existence of a very human subject
1． The meaning of prime minister
Zai xiang is composed of the meaning of the two words Zai and Xiang, Zai as early as the pre-Qin period, is the official name in charge of the affairs of the royal family, Dazai Yiyin is the number one meritorious person established by Shang Tang, and Xiang itself has the meaning of auxiliary, Zai Xiang is literally the person closest to the king.
He slowly became the title of the executor of the administrative system, he may be a person, or he may be a group of people, his specific position corresponding to each dynasty is different, many times it is a legal title, he is the spokesman for the independence of the administrative power to the ruling power, while assisting the emperor, playing the leader of the hundred officials, and as the head of the administration, there is also the meaning of checking and balancing the emperor, this two-sidedness makes the prime minister gradually disliked by the emperor, using various measures to weaken the power.
2． Specific prime ministers of each dynasty
The prime minister is the group that actually holds the power of the top civil servants, Qin Han, he basically corresponds to the prime minister, but the exemplary power of Boss Cao is too bad, and by the Wei and Jin dynasties, various new administrative systems and the names of the chief officials have become the annotations of the prime minister.
Sui and Tang prime ministers, that is, the heads of the three provinces, in terms of numbers, the prime ministers of these two dynasties exceeded the sum of the previous dynasties, the emperor shared the power of the subjects, strengthened the central control of the intention at a glance, the Tang Dynasty's prime ministers are too many, to the extent of affecting the operation of government affairs, according to the emperor's different in addition to the Zhongshu Order, Shang Shu Ling, Zhongshu Shilang, Huangmen Shilang, Shangshu Servant Distribution of Power, fickle. Give people Tang Shi Zaixiang, the name is particularly incorrect. There is also the existence of a temporary prime minister, and the government affairs system is extremely complex.
In the Song Dynasty, the display of the status of the prime minister who sat down and sat with the emperor to discuss political affairs was abolished, the dwarfing and uncertainty of the status of the prime minister was further strengthened, the emperor's routine of decentralization of power was one set after another, and the prime minister no longer had the prestige of The Tang Dynasty.
After the abolition of the chancellor in the Ming Dynasty, the middle hall of the cabinet was barely considered to be the prime minister, but the cabinet was a department full of flexibility according to the emperor's personality and ability, and the status of the decision-maker and the counselor was repeatedly swayed, Zhang Juzheng of course could be counted as the prime minister, but Chongzhen abolished and changed the cabinet, and the gold content of the two words of the prime minister was naturally small and pitiful.
In the Qing Dynasty, the heavy ministers in the upper study and the military aircraft department were actually a bit contrary to the prime minister, and the Qing dynasty was also taboo about the prime minister, and rarely openly put forward such a concept, and the subject power had been suppressed to this period.
Three. From the prime minister to the prime minister, the display of the emperor's heart technique
1． From one-person responsibility to collective leadership to conceptual ambiguity
Qin Han's chancellor is the prime minister, that is also the real holder of real power, Han is the period when the power of the subject is exerted to the peak, but Cao Cao's example is too bad, the later emperors are more and more disgusted with the position of the chancellor, from the Han onwards, the frequency of the appearance of the chancellor in the sea of history is less and less, even if he is short-lived, the meaning and authority are also very different than the Han Dynasty, until Zhu Yuanzhang is really lazy and vain, and completely throws the chancellor into the garbage heap of history.
As a legal and nominal title, the title of prime minister has also been weakened, and countless officials and departments have spread out the power of the original one person, and in the Tang Dynasty, such a situation reached a climax, of course, such a situation also has the increasingly complex factors of government affairs, and it is no longer possible for a person to fully grasp the administrative power from drafting, implementation to supervision.
After the Ming Dynasty, the concept of the prime minister became more and more ambiguous, the Ming Dynasty prime minister, the Qing Dynasty prime minister read, it seems that it is not so smooth, the power of the top civil servants is further personalized when fragmented, the cabinet and military ministers, almost all of them are the embodiment of the emperor's personal will, he sometimes does not even look like the formal government affairs system, how can the personnel of these two institutions be regarded as the real administrative heads?
2． The independence of executive power can no longer be discussed
The ancient emperor was the symbol of the state, the symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, and the formulator of the strategic policy, but the specific implementation of government affairs has always been the affairs of the Zai Xiang group, and the mastery of administrative power is also the basis for the ministers to compete with the emperor, however, since the Ming Dynasty, the emperor has become more and more arrogant in the subtle administrative management, and the legal principles of the existence of the Zai Xiang group have been greatly challenged.
In the Qing Dynasty, the disappearance of the prime minister was only the executor of the emperor's decrees, and this trend continued from the Song Dynasty, and the Song to the Qing Dynasty was also a period of straight-up imperial power.
The authority of the prime minister to rule the hundred officials is questioned, and the emperor himself is the most suitable candidate to rule the hundred officials, and this kind of ruler legally alleviates the possibility of confrontation between the monarchy and the subject, and in the face of the supreme vertical management of the monarchy, there is no need for a buffer zone, and the disappearance of the prime minister and the gradual demise of the prime minister all stem from such a simple truth.
epilogue:
Xiang xiang is a specific official position, the prime minister is the honorific title of the status, we can completely understand the difference between the prime minister and the prime minister from this perspective, their power size is constrained by the specific conditions of the dynasty, the same minister, the Han Dynasty is definitely greater than the power of the Tang Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, and the power change of the prime minister is also the same trend, the control is getting lower and lower, and finally there is even no sense of existence.
According to historical evidence, the dislike of the official position of the chancellor must have originated from Cao Cao, and the continuous weakening of the chancellor stemmed from the contempt of countless powerful ministers for the emperor in history. From individual power, to collective leadership, to the stripping of administrative control, the emperors' methods were resolute.
Of course, in the process of implementing actions to weaken subjects, they have encountered countless backlash, but the decline of power or subject power is almost a historical necessity.
The strengthening of the centralized system has put the individual or group of prime ministers in fact in an increasingly awkward position, the disappearance of the prime minister as a specific position, and the increasingly vague concept of the prime minister, which is an irresistible trend of historical development, and when we distinguish the difference between the prime minister and the prime minister, and compare their power, we must not forget such a historical law.
Resources:
Zizhi Tongjian
Historia
History of the Ming Dynasty