In February of the first year of the founding of the emperor (581), at the founding ceremony, Yang Jian announced the composition list of the new government, the most eye-catching thing is not who became any official, but the head of government became the six ministers of Shangshu Province, Menxia Province, Neishi Province and Shangshu Province, which meant that the six-official system implemented in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was completely abolished.
This is an imminent reform.
Although Yuwen Tai led the six towns to rise in Guanzhong, his strength was still difficult to compare with Gao Huan in Shandong, and it was even more difficult to compete with the Southern Dynasty, which claimed to be an orthodox cultural position, and there were also emperors who needed to consolidate imperial power, and there were various military generals who did not necessarily support him. Yuwen Tai knew that if he wanted to form a strong momentum with Shandong and the Southern Dynasty, in addition to the whole army and farming, he would also be unique in culture, as a spiritual pillar to maintain internal unity and resist foreign enemies.
To this end, Yuwen Tai asked the courtiers Su Qi, Lu Wei and others to further raise the retro banner, taking advantage of the cultural background of the Guanzhong region, using the Zhou Dynasty system as the right Shuo, and wanted to overwhelm Shandong and the Southern Dynasty.
Yuwen Tai also imitated the Zhou Li to establish the six-official system. The six-official system refers to the establishment of six chieftains by the central government, Nameng Tsukasa (天官), Da Situ (地官), Da zongbo (Chun Guan), Da Sima (Xia Guan), DaSi Kou (Qiu Guan), and Da SiKong (Winter Guan), who are in charge of various administrative affairs and are led by DaZai Tsuka, thus providing a strong institutional guarantee for Yuwen Tai to control the administration of the Western Wei Dynasty.
However, Yuwentai may not have thought that the official system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the division of the kingdoms, which was contrary to Yuwentai's concept of seeking centralized power, although Yuwentai strictly guarded against the fall of power and stipulated that the six-official system only applied to some central organs, but since it was a system, there would definitely be a chain reaction, and it was impossible to transfer the will of the people. Therefore, Yuwen Tai stipulated that anyone who was unfavorable to the Yuwen clique would follow the old Hu Han system as needed, that is, as mentioned in the Zhou Shu Lu Dialect biography, "although the Zhou Li was performed at the time, its internal and external duties were also used by Qin and Han and other officials." That is to say, the six-official system formulated by Yuwen Tai is the product of taking the meaning out of context to serve the realpolitik, and Mr. Chen Yinke, one of the four great masters of historiography, commented that the Northern Saturday official system is a false decoration of the old zhou official's old text to suit the vulgar customs, not a donkey and not a horse, borrowing the hearts of people who have been deceived for a while. The essence of the six-official system is a system that is patched together for the sake of expediency, and it will be difficult to continue soon after its implementation. The stipulation that Ōzaizuka had the power to take over the power had caused the evil consequences of the dictatorship of the powerful ministers, and Yuwen Goo was the best example. Therefore, after Emperor Wu of Zhou killed Yuwen Hu, the official position of Dazaizuka no longer ruled the Five Provinces, and his subordinates Yuzheng Dafu, Nayan Dafu, and Emperor Dazong's subordinate Neishi Dafu were directly subordinated to the emperor, which was an important change in the six-official system.
Later, Emperor Xuan of Zhou set up four auxiliary officials, the Great Qianxuan, the Great Right Bow, the Great Left Auxiliary, and the Great Hou Cheng, with the aim of dispersing power and restricting each other. It should be pointed out that these changes already have the shadow of the later three provinces and six ministries system, but they have not yet broken through the framework of the six-official system. Although Yuwen Tai started with military merit, after the establishment of the Northern Zhou regime, the specific environment for the military establishment of the country in that year has changed, and the military and political system is no longer applicable, not to mention that with the Northern Qi system as a reference, the official system of the Northern Zhou Is even more inferior and unclasseous, so being abandoned by Yang Jian is the inevitable development of history.
Yang Jian was a person from the Yuwen Hu era and had a profound understanding of the shortcomings of the six-official system, so reforming the six-official system was something that Yang Jian had to do after establishing the Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian referred to the Northern Qi system, and at the same time absorbed the advantages of the three-province system of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, rectified and streamlined it, and made it more neat and standardized to adapt to the overall operation of the new dynasty.
After a series of reforms and adjustments by Yang Jian, the new official system was a three-province and six-minister system, of which Shangshu Province was the administrative organ of the imperial court in addition to the three provinces, with one Shangshu Ling and two left and right servants as the chief and deputy governors. However, later, due to the high power of the Shangshu Order, it was easy to form a constraint on the imperial power, so in addition to the later reign of the Sui Emperor Yang Guang, Yang Su briefly held this position, the Position of the Sui and Tang Dynasties Shangshu Ling was falsely granted, so the left and right servants were the actual responsible persons of Shangshu Province, of which the left servant was the largest, and there were six departments under the official department, the ceremonial department, the military department, the capital official, the degree and the ministry of works, each department set up a Shangshu, who was the head of the department, and the left and right servants and the six Shangshu were collectively called eight. Together, they constitute the leadership core of Shangshu Province.
Menxia Province is mainly in charge of sealing and refutation, and the hundred officials or edicts must be reviewed by Menxia Province, and those that do not conform to the rules can be rejected, so Menxia Province is the bridge between the emperor, Neishi and Shangshu Provinces. Menxia Province set up two Nayan people, four Yellow Gate Waiters, as the chief and deputy chiefs, under the record of affairs, under the order of the history of six people, Yang Jian will be in charge of the imperial palace in charge of the work of the imperial palace in the Jishu Province and enter the province, which means that menxia Province in the Sui Dynasty can also command the six bureaus of the city gate, Shang food, Shang Yao, Fu Xi, imperial palace, and diannei, still responsible for internal service work.
Neishi Province (later renamed Zhongshu Province) was mainly responsible for formulating edicts, setting up one supervisor and one order each, and four attendants, who were the chief and deputy governors of Neishi Province. There are eight people in the house and sixteen people in the general office, who are in charge of specific affairs.
In addition, there is a secretarial department in charge of national scripture books and astronomical calendars; The Province of Inner Servants is in charge of the affairs of the palace, and is in line with Shangshu, Menxia, and Neishi, but the specific responsible for state administrative affairs is the three provinces and six ministries.
It is worth mentioning that the three-province system achieved a major change in the system of prime ministers, the heads of the three provinces were all officials serving the emperor in the Qin and Han dynasties, shangshu and Zhongshu provinces developed into independent institutions during the Cao Wei period, and Menxia Provinces were also established around the time of the Western Jin Dynasty. After a long period of development and evolution, Shangshu Province became the executive organ of state affairs, while Zhongshu and Menxia Provinces became the main institutions connecting government affairs between the emperor and his ministers. By the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the state apparatus could only function through the three provinces.
On the basis of the above, Yang Jian improved and integrated the three-provincial system, and the prime minister was jointly held by the governors of the three provinces, and the corresponding was to abolish the three gongfu and its subordinates, so that the three dukes became honorary officials, so that the prime minister was no longer just the head of the hundred officials responsible to the emperor, but the representative of the highest department of the central government, and the leading organ Zai was completely replaced by the personal opening of the government since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the "zai chancellor" was institutionalized to prevent the recurrence of the situation of personal dictatorship.
In addition to the three provinces and six ministries, the emperor could also appoint other officials to participate in the government, and throughout the Sui Dynasty, the high-level rulers were basically composed of the six ministries of the three provinces, the heads of military departments, and other officials appointed by the emperor.
After Yang Jian reformed the official system, he formed the operation of the state management system at two levels. At the decision-making level of state affairs, under the direct leadership of the emperor, the members of the prime minister team jointly discuss and decide on the major policies of the country, and the edict is drafted by The Zhongshu Ling, which is reviewed by the menxia province, and if it is found that there is anything inappropriate, it will be blocked, otherwise it will be finally approved by the emperor and handed over to the Shangshu Province for distribution to the department to be implemented. The two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia are located on the east and west sides of the Zhonghua Hall in the palace, and the prime minister discusses state secrets, of course, in the palace, and the location is located in Menxia Province.
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the place where the prime minister discussed important matters was called the "government affairs hall", and the daily deliberations were worked together, so there was also a situation of merging the zhongshu and the subordinate positions, and it can be said that the system of collective decision-making of the prime minister was becoming more and more perfect.
Of course, if from the perspective of the departments and affairs under its jurisdiction, Shangshu Province seems to have the greatest power, and the establishment of the new dynasty is in ruins and waiting to be revived, and the emperor often takes care of every opportunity and personally inquires about various things, which is easy to give people the illusion that Shangshu Province is dominant in the three provinces.
In fact, according to the Sui Book of Rites, among the three provinces, Zhongshu and Menxia provinces had a closer relationship with the emperor. When the work of creating a state system came to an end, as daily affairs gradually got on the right track, the role of Zhongshu and Menxia Province became more and more important, and Shangshu Province was not necessarily a member of the prime minister's team. Therefore, the fundamental principle of Yang Jian's reform of the system of prime ministers is to separate decision-making from governance as much as possible, so that the prime minister becomes a decision-making group, which also determines that the prime minister is the emperor's assistant minister, and as the opportunities for other officials appointed by the emperor to participate in the affairs of the government are increasing, and the role of Shangshu Province in decision-making is gradually reduced, the characteristics of the leading organs of the prime minister's decision-making are more clear, not to mention that at that time, the Zhongshu and the officials under the door still retained a strong color of the emperor's attendants, indicating that the three-province system was still in the process of further improvement.
The second is the clarification of the level of government affairs implementation, after the decision of the general policy policy, it is handed over to specific departments to implement, Yang Jian after the reform of the official system, in addition to the three provinces and six ministries, there are Taichang, Guanglu, Weiwei, Zongzheng, Taibu, Dali, Hongxu, Sinong, Taifu Nine Temples and Dushuitai, Guozi Temple, Jiangzuo Temple, etc. The Nine Temples are juxtaposed with one qing and one shaoqing as the main official, and various full-time administrative departments are under their jurisdiction, called "bureaus".
Before Yang Jian reformed the official system, the Three Dukes presided over government affairs, and Jiuqing was responsible for specific implementation under his leadership. After the reform, the new prime minister completely replaced the previous three dukes, but the administrative structure was still huge, and even the situation of Shangshu Province and the Nine Temples standing side by side appeared. Opinions on how to solve this problem are not unified, and most of Yang Jian's attention to reforming the official system is focused on the system of prime ministers, and there is no time to take into account the problem of the coexistence of institutions.
The prominence of the problem attracted Yang Jian's attention and began to solve it. At that time, Yang Jian's guiding ideology was to emphasize the role of the three provinces and strengthen the centralization of power, so the method of merging the provinces and monasteries came into being.
In April of the third year of the reign of Emperor Kai (583), Yang Jian first abolished guanglu temple and dushuitai, merging these two departments into Sinong, abolishing Wei Wei into Taichang Shangshu Province, and abolishing Hongxu into Taichang. However, the abolition of the institution can not fundamentally solve the problem, can only be more clear responsibility, as far as possible to implement the responsibility to a department, but the division of labor problem can not be solved at once, so in the twelfth year of the emperor (592), the three temples of Guanglu, Weiwei and Hongxu were re-set up, and the second year the Dushuitai was also restored, and everything was restored to its original state. Looking at The period of Yang Jian's reign, it did not solve the problem of unclear division of labor between the temples and the six ministries.
However, from today's point of view, the three provinces and six ministries system implemented after Yang Jian's reform of the official system is a system that inherits the past and the future, which not only lays the foundation for the operation of the Sui Dynasty, but also lays the basic framework for the central political system of the tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties after that. Although Zhu Yuanzhang later abolished the chancellor system, the auxiliary vassal system he established still did not get rid of the framework established by Yang Jian, and its influence was extremely far-reaching.