In the ninth year of Ming Hongzhi (1496), a foreign official named Xu Ke received the emperor's will and was promoted to the post of attendant of the Nanjing Ministry of Works. It is said that this is a good thing, but Xu Ke has a slack, you know
"When a minister enters, it is advisable to go out of the court to push, and he who has not heard of the transmission and received it." The subject does not dare to go through his way, please depose him. ”
What does Xu Ke mean by this? In layman's terms, the state has a system, has always entrusted ministers with important posts, must be in accordance with the procedures of the bureaucracy (that is, court push), never heard the emperor directly ordered the appointment, this is the right way, my life is like this, do not dare to take other ways, this official can not be, please take it back.
Also in the ninth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Hongzhi bypassed Tingtui and awarded Wang Yue the imperial history of ZuoDu, which in turn caused dissatisfaction among the courtiers, and the officials of the Confucian Dialect wrote letters opposing Emperor Hongzhi, and Emperor Hongzhi was forced to have no choice but to let Wang Yue zhishi.
The Ming Emperor bypassed the cabinet and the officials and directly ordered the appointment of officials, and the official saying was called "Transmission" or "Middle Purpose", which was not in line with the ancestral law, so it was bound to cause strong opposition from the courtiers.
The emergence of this phenomenon is closely related to the relationship between the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty and the scholars. The imperial power of the Ming Dynasty, relative to the Tang and Song Dynasties, undoubtedly reached a peak. Since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system and the emperor's firm control and grasp of the central decision-making power, the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty has occupied a prominent position among the Chinese dynasties.
Conceptually speaking, since Zhu Yuanzhang introduced the harsh punishment of officials and the heavy punishment of officials, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty implemented a high-pressure policy toward the bureaucrats of the scholars, and treated the ministers with slavery, which was in stark contrast to the respect and courtesy of the Song Dynasty for the scholars. The expansion of imperial power also changed the mentality of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, taking the world as the asset of the Zhu family and acting arbitrarily. Several historically typical emperors who appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, such as the absurdity of Emperor Wuzong, the stubbornness of Emperor Sejong, and the greed of Emperor Shenzong, are the reflection of this mentality.
But from another point of view, the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty was not as inviolable as that of the Qing Dynasty, and the emperor's behavior was not completely unrestrained. Although the emperor of the Ming Dynasty no longer mentioned "ruling the world with scholars", he also understood that he had to get the cooperation of scholars and bureaucrats to sit firmly in the country, so to a certain extent, the emperor sometimes had to make compromises with scholars.
When we read the historical materials of the Ming Dynasty, we often find that the bones of the scholars and doctors of the Ming Dynasty are generally relatively hard. They dared to abandon their officials and knighthoods to maintain the system, insisted on "taoist monarchy", and even had many acts of martyrdom. To a certain extent, the emperor's behavior was restricted, in other words, the system and the Taoist system were two thresholds that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could never cross.
If the emperor insisted on going his own way, it was bound to cause non-cooperation or even resistance from the courtiers. The most prominent thing is that the cabinet often does not recognize the emperor's unreasonable edicts, refuses to draft them, and seals them back. There is also the fact that the emperor does not approve of the cabinet's vote, but the cabinet believes that its opinion is correct, and it can also ignore the emperor and refuse to rewrite it.
If the emperor's holy will is not drafted by the cabinet vote, it is illegal and is regarded as a violation, and the six branches can be sealed, and the ministry can carry it out. This situation often occurred after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
For example, after the Jiajing Emperor succeeded to the throne, he wanted to honor his biological father as the emperor, and issued a hand edict to the cabinet minister Yang Tinghe and others, and Yang Tinghe and others sealed the edict for the sake of etiquette. The Jiajing Emperor also did not dare to act rashly because of the opposition of the courtiers, and finally achieved his goal after three years of tossing, but the price was also very large, and the Jiajing Emperor did not hesitate to intimidate the court staff, killing many ministers with the staff, and encountered unprecedented resistance.
Sometimes, in order to achieve his own goals, the emperor did not hesitate to threaten, induce, and even bribe his subjects. After Emperor Yingzong was captured, ministers led by Yu Qian and others elected Emperor Yingzong's brother
King
Succeeded to the throne for Emperor Jingtai.
Zhu Qiyu had won an imperial throne for no reason and should have been satisfied. According to the system, this emperor of his is not a concubine, and the future legitimate heir should still be the crown prince established by Emperor Yingzong. However, soon after Emperor Jingtai took the throne, he thought of making his own son the crown prince, but because he was worried about the opposition of the courtiers, he bribed the courtiers.
Even so, Emperor Jingtai encountered great resistance in the process of establishing the crown prince, going back and forth for five or six rounds before it was finally realized. It can be seen that it is very difficult for the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to break the ancestral system and violate the Taoist system.
As far as the emperors and systems of the Ming Dynasty are concerned, although the system has no mandatory constraints on the emperor, the emperor often violates the system. But objectively speaking, the power of institutional restraint still exists. Because the regulations such as the drafting of votes, court pushes, and court deliberations were explicitly written into the "MingHui Code", they had a certain rigidity, and the emperor acted in violation of the system, and he would risk being resisted by the court.
Due to the existence of the system and limited constraints, the emperor felt that it was difficult to make enemies with the group of scholars and doctors on his own, which led to the rise of the power of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. The emperor used eunuchs to restrain his courtiers, but in fact, there was no way to do it.