The cabinet position first appeared in the Ming Dynasty, as an institution that assisted the emperor in handling state affairs after Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister, and continued until the Qing Dynasty. In this process, the status of the cabinet was constantly changing, until the birth of the Military Aircraft Division, which began to directly affect the auxiliary functions of the Cabinet, and the Qing Dynasty also maintained the status quo of symbiosis between the Military Aircraft Department and the Cabinet.
The Military Aircraft Department can be said to be the emperor's closest direct subordinate institution, directly listening to the emperor's instructions. The great significance of its existence is to strengthen the imperial power, to be able to help the emperor's orders, the most direct implementation in place, which has the meaning of replacing the cabinet. However, why can't the Military Aircraft Service replace the Cabinet when it becomes the central body?
Before Yongzheng established the Military Aircraft Department, the cabinet had been the main state affairs agency of the Qing Dynasty, and this institution had been in use since the Ming Dynasty. The establishment of the cabinet can be traced back to the Hongwu years, after the establishment of the Imperial Court University, most of the people who directly participated in the maintenance of the aircraft were from the Hanlin Academy, which was the earliest composition of the cabinet.
When Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong, his purpose was to abolish the thousand-year-old system of prime ministers, so that power was completely concentrated in the hands of the emperor and truly centralized power was realized. However, after losing the prime minister, in the face of a large number of state affairs, Zhu Yuanzhang was once in trouble. So he set up an independent system of four auxiliary officials outside the six ministries and became a secretarial body to help the emperor handle state affairs.
It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the premise of the four auxiliary officials system was upgraded, and a real cabinet system began to exist. However, at this time, the cabinet was only a secretary function, its grade was not high, and it did not have real real power. It was not until the Qing army entered the customs that the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty was followed and upgraded to become a truly powerful institution.
Since there was a cabinet to assist the emperor, why set up a military aircraft department?
The military aircraft department was originally established because of the frequent wars in the northwest during the Yongzheng period, because the main purpose of the cabinet was to review the folds and assist the emperor in his administration. In the face of a large amount of war information, Yongzheng was careful to leak secrets, so he set up a military aircraft department at Longzongmen, where Manchu princes and ministers were working.
"Draft History of the Qing Dynasty": "In the seventh year of Yongzheng, he used troops in the northwest, worried about leaking secrets, and first set up a military machine room, and later changed to a military aircraft department." ”
However, when the war was over, Yongzheng was deeply impressed by the convenience of the Military Aircraft Department, so he retained it and renamed it the "Prime Minister's Affairs Office", which specialized in handling the affairs of the emperor's direct subordinates. It was not until the Qianlong period that it was renamed back to the "Military Aircraft Department" at the behest of the Qianlong Emperor.
In fact, the establishment of the Military Aircraft Department had another role, because the increasing power of the cabinet seriously affected the centralization of the emperor's power. In order to be able to better control the imperial court, Qianlong reactivated the military aircraft department in order to balance the power of the cabinet, and even had the meaning of replacing it. However, the Military Aircraft Service did not really replace the Cabinet, or even formed a symbiotic relationship with it.
Because the military aircraft was at the beginning of its establishment, it was to solve the inconvenience of the emperor. In particular, at some critical moments, the emperor was unable to directly find cabinet ministers and ask them to carry out government affairs. At this time, there was a military aircraft department that could directly handle his instructions, which was the most efficient existence, so the military aircraft division always existed.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was no military aircraft department at that time, and the emperor wanted to deal with the urgent matter, and could only rely on eunuchs to carry it out. In this way, the real power of eunuchs was indirectly expanded, and the occurrence of eunuchs' chaotic government affairs occurred. In order to avoid such a situation, the Qing Dynasty set up a military aircraft department composed of Manchus and became the emperor's confidant.
"Draft History of the Qing Dynasty": "Since the establishment of the Military Aircraft Department, all the letters of undertaking and handling of each document are related to the confidentiality, which is similar to the important affairs of the Pingzhang Military State called by the previous generation, and does not refer specifically to the planning of decisive victories." ”
In fact, there has always been an intersection between the Military Aircraft Department and the Cabinet, because no matter what kind of instructions the Military Aircraft Department handles from the Emperor, the final performance will still be returned to the Cabinet for review. At the same time, we carefully look at the history of the Qing Dynasty, and all the university scholars are often concurrently military ministers, that is, the management cabinet and the military aircraft department.
It can be said that the Military Aircraft Department and the Cabinet are the two functional departments of the Emperor to deal with things, but the two departments handle different degrees of confidentiality. However, the composition can be similar and overlap.
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[Reference: "Kiyofumi manuscript"]
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