Bingbu, as one of the central "six ministries" set up by the feudal dynasty, its origin can be traced back to the "five soldiers system" of the Three Kingdoms Cao Wei period, when the Cao Wei military system set up five soldiers, such as middle soldiers, foreign soldiers, cavalry, capital soldiers, and other soldiers, and the commander called the five soldiers Shangshu.
By the Sui Dynasty, the Bingbu officially became one of the six departments of the imperial court, in charge of the military, and determined that Shangshu was the chief officer of the Bingbu and Shilang was the subordinate officer of the Bingbu (later divided into two people), which has been used in later generations. The Tang Dynasty once changed its name to Si Rong, Wubu, etc., but later restored the name.
In the Song Dynasty, in order to curb the power of the military department, the Privy Council was set up to administer the military, and the power of the military department was weakened. During the Ming Dynasty, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies was set up, which had the right to command the troops but did not have the right to transfer troops, while the military department had the right to transfer troops but did not have the right to command troops. The two do not belong to each other and contain each other.
During the Qing Dynasty, with the unprecedented strengthening of imperial power, the emperor directly issued orders through the "upstart departments" such as the South Study Room (Kangxi Set) and the Military Aircraft Department (Yongzheng Set), and the Military Department was also reduced to a specific executive office.
Nevertheless, as the nominal supreme commander of the imperial military apparatus, The Shoshu of The Imperial Army remained a high-ranking and powerful presence (from Congyipin during the Qing Dynasty). However, it is interesting that in the Qing Dynasty, the number of Soldier Shangshu was far more than one person, sometimes as many as more than ten people, so what caused the existence of this situation?
In the center, the imperial court was divided into two Manchu and Han dynasties
During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu ruling class, out of deep-rooted distrust of the overwhelmingly dominant Han Chinese, divided the position of Shangshu of the Imperial Imperial Army into two ministers, Manchu and Han.
And this kind of "Manchu and Han double matching" system is also unequal, the Manchu Bingbu Shangshu is the real power to control the printing, while the Han Bingbu Shangshu is more responsible for the implementation of specific affairs, it can be said that it is just a high-level "tool man" of the Qing court (Ji Xiaolan, who has always appeared as a popular literati, also served as the Bingbu Shangshu).
In addition to Shangshu, the two attendants on the left and right of the Bingbu (the Qing Dynasty official was Zheng Erpin) were also divided into Manchu and Han, so that the "leading group" of the Bingbu had the phenomenon of "three posts and six people" (the same was true of the other five departments), and the Qing Dynasty Manchu rulers' vigilance against the Han people could also be seen.
In addition, the Qing Dynasty followed the old system of the Ming Dynasty, and also set up a set of "central ministries and commissions" in shengjing (present-day Shenyang, Liaoning) including the military department (although Shengjing only had "five ministries" and no officials, because it "castrated" the personnel power of the capital), but the military department of Shengjing did not have Shangshu, only the waiter "presided over the work", and only a Manchu filled the post.
In the local area, many governors also held the title of Bingbu Shangshu
During the Ming Dynasty, the governor was not permanent, nor did he form a perfect system, and by the Qing Dynasty, the governor officially became the most senior local military and political governor (belonging to the civilian official system) of Zhengerpin, generally governing two to three provinces, which can be described as "on the horse to manage the army, down to manage the people", and the power is very large. From the Kangxi Dynasty onwards, in order to improve the status and treatment of the governor, some senior or favored governors began to appoint the title of "Bingbu Shangshu", such as Yao Qisheng, the governor of Fujian who recovered Taiwan with Shi Lang, and Yu Chenglong, the governor of Liangjiang, known as the "first honest official", who was awarded the title of Bingbu Shangshu, and the official qualities of these people were correspondingly promoted from Yipin.
In the late Qing Dynasty, with the increase of war, more and more governors began to enter this rank, such as Zeng Guofan, who led the ranks of Shangshu of the Military Department under the Viceroy of Liangjiang, Zhang Zhidong who led the Rank of Shangshu of the Viceroy of Liangguang, and Li Hongzhang came to the top later, directly leading the rank of University Scholar directly under the Viceroy and entering the ranks of Zhengyipin.
The reason why these governors were given the title of Bingbu Shangshu.
First of all, the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to local affairs and recruited local officials.
These governors with the title of Shangshu of the Military Department could not only be promoted to a higher level in official qualities, but more importantly, he was not only a local official, but also had a certain influence and discourse power in the central government.
This set of means to win people's hearts was not the first of the Qing Dynasty, it can be traced back to the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms envoy system, when the imperial court, in order to attract some envoys with heavy troops and actually warlordized, specially gave them the title of "Tongping Zhangshi" (full name "Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi", exercising the power of prime minister in the late Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties), such as Zhu Wen, the grandfather of Liang Taizu, Yang Xingmi, the founder of Yang Wu of the Ten Kingdoms, and other generations of tyrants, who had been envoys of the Tang Dynasty. In this sense, the title of Governor General of the Army can also be regarded as a copycat and a miniature version of the envoy.
Secondly, it is also convenient to optimize the work docking and grade correspondence between the governor and the local military attaché as civilian officials.
The military system of the Qing Dynasty was similar to that of the Northern Song Dynasty (with the Forbidden Army as the central army and the Van Army as the local army), with the Eight Banner Army as the central army, stationed in the Beijing Division and other important places, and the high-ranking commanders were called generals and were Zheng Yipin; the Green Camp Army was the local army, mainly stationed in the provinces, and the high-ranking commanders were the admirals, which were from One Pin (generally managing the Green Camp Army in one or two provinces). In addition, under the admiral, there was also a general soldier, which was a positive second product. Although the governor held a lot of power, he was only a zhengerpin, only equal to the general soldier, and could not be equal to the general and the governor at all.
The addition of the title of Bingbu Shangshu was at the same level as that of the Admiral, which also narrowed the gap with the general. In this way, the grade relationship between the two sides was optimized and the communication between the two sides was facilitated; second, the governor as a civilian official could also work with senior military attachés in the name of the military department.
Finally, this is also a disguised recognition of the late Qing court for local officials to establish armed forces on their own.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the rise of rebel armies such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army, coupled with the fact that the Eight Banners and the Green Camp were decayed and powerless to suppress, they were "forced" to allow some local Han forces to recruit troops and build their own armies, such as Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army, Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, Zuo Zongtang's Chu Army, and so on. And giving these governors the title of Bingbu Shangshu also gave them the name of bingbu to justifiably recruit troops.
In this way, there will be several or even dozen Shangshu of the Qing Dynasty. Theoretically, the Manchu Shangshu of the Imperial Court's Military Department was in charge of the Indian power, the Han Shangshu was specifically enforced, and the many governors who held titles only enjoyed their ranks and carried out their work in the name of the Bingbu.
However, in the late Qing Dynasty, with the rise of han officials, especially the powerful army in their hands, the real power of these feudal officials who held the title of Bingbu Shangshu increased day by day, and gradually became the mainstay of the empire, while the status of the imperial court's military department continued to decline, and its power continued to weaken. By 1906, the faltering Qing Dynasty had implemented reforms, and the Military Department had been reorganized into the War Department, which was more adapted to the development of the times. Since then, the position of Shoshu Bingbu has completely become history.
It is worth mentioning that the last Qing Dynasty soldier Shangshu (Han) Lü Haihuan (can also be regarded as the last in history), a traditional family from a person with advanced concepts beyond the times, he has a great enthusiasm for welfare and public welfare, and presided over the founding of the Red Cross Society of China. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China government continued to put him in charge of the Cause of the Red Cross, and Lü Haihuan lived up to his trust and played an important role in disaster relief and charitable relief, and was unanimously recognized and highly praised by all sectors of society. This is also a good story left by this last soldier Shangshu to history and future generations.
author:
Willows up and down
Correction/Editing:
Lilith
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, written by Zhao Erxun and others
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author