Auxiliary ministers are not uncommon in Chinese history. The earliest written records can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, such as the Zhou Gong assisting King Zhou Cheng. As the political legacy of the successors to the previous emperor's throne, the purpose is to assist the chancellor to help the young lord achieve a stable transition of power while dividing power (or actually holding power) with the young lord.
However, the natural contradictions between the ministers and the emperor often make the establishment of auxiliary ministers and auxiliary ministers embarrassing. Those who can leave a good reputation are only people with great personality charm such as Zhou Gong and Zhuge Liang. After seizing power, the auxiliary ministers will also compete for power, resulting in political turmoil, which is contrary to the original intention of establishing auxiliary ministers. Although Huo Guang supported Emperor Zhao of Han and Emperor Xuan of Han and made great contributions to the power of the Western Han Dynasty, after Huo Guang's death, the Huo clan tried to rebel, and it was precisely because of Huo Guang's increase in power after Huo Guang was an auxiliary chancellor; and during the period of the establishment of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Rui entrusted Sima Yi and Cao Shuang as auxiliary ministers before his death, and assisted the young lord, but in the end, although Cao Shuang had attacked Sima Yi, in the end Cao Wei Jiangshan was still stolen by Sima Shi.
Therefore, the establishment of the Auxiliary Minister is extremely risky. However, when history developed into the Qing Dynasty, this system of auxiliary ministers did not disappear, but abounded. Among the 12 Qing emperors, almost all of them set up auxiliary ministers. The Shunzhi Emperor and the Kangxi Emperor were only 6- or 8-year-old children when they ascended the throne, and the setting was excusable. However, when the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne, he was already 25 years old, and he was no longer a young lord, and he knew the administrative strategies and policies of his father, the Yongzheng Emperor, so why did the Yongzheng Emperor still set up an auxiliary chancellor composed of Four people, namely, Yunlu the Prince of Zhuang, Yunli the Prince of Guo, Zhang Tingyu, and the former scholar Ortai of the University?
First of all, there is the political needs of the yongzheng dynasty at the end of the yongzheng dynasty. As the victor who passed through the Kangxi Emperor's ninth son' conquest, there have always been many voices about whether the Yongzheng Emperor was right or not, although the Yongzheng Emperor suppressed the eighth prince Yin Yu and the ninth prince Yin Yu after he ascended the throne, but even so, led by Hongchen, the son of the deposed prince Yin Rong, there was a great opposition in the Manchu Qing imperial family at that time, and this voice also led to the occurrence of the Hongchen rebellion in the fourth year of Qianlong, of course, this is the afterword.
Moreover, in the Yongzheng Dynasty, in order to increase fiscal revenue and rectify the Discipline, the Yongzheng Emperor carried out some measures to control corruption, which also violated the interests of such as the Emperor's uncle Long Keduo, and the implementation of the economic measures of "returning fire to the public", "spreading the land into acres", and "collecting grain as one for the officials and gentry", while enhancing the strength of the state, can be said to have vigorously suppressed the interests of the gentry and official groups, which also led to opposition abounding; and also in the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Zeng Jing case broke out among the people, and as the ruler of the ethnic minorities, Is it Hua or Yi? Yongzheng was even more in order to be able to educate the people, and engaged in a Huayi debate with Zeng Jing himself.
In fact, as a father, as an outstanding politician, the Yongzheng Emperor laid the basic picture of the political situation for his son, but this basic plan was actually unstable, so the Yongzheng Emperor had to use his trusted important ministers Zhang Tingyu, Ortai and two royal relatives as auxiliary ministers to assist the Qianlong Emperor to achieve the stability of the regime and the stable continuation of a series of measures taken by the Yongzheng Dynasty.
Second, there is the redistribution of rights. After the Qing army entered the customs, under the eight-flag system, in fact, the flag owners all had rights that could not be underestimated, and with the acceleration of the integration of Manchu and Han, the spread of Confucian culture, and the rise of the status of the Han people, and the establishment of the imperial family, manchu and Han combined auxiliary ministers, just as the Kangxi Emperor dynasty with Aobai, Soni, Longkeduo, and Suksaha as auxiliary ministers, can not only be used for their own use, but also can be divided to a certain extent, to avoid monopoly of power.
It was also with the assistance of Yun Lu, Yun Li, Zhang Tingyu, and Ortai that the Qianlong Emperor was able to inherit his father's legacy, and the Qing Dynasty also reached its peak.