Why can Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di speak for themselves, while the late emperor was constrained by civilian officials at every turn?
Most of the founding princes are extremely strong and full of aura, and it is difficult to be swayed by others, and the best of them is Zhu Yuanzhang. He started from scratch, experienced all kinds of difficulties and dangers, created a huge Ming Empire, and won the most upright position, he expelled the corrupt, dirty, and tyrannical Yuan Dynasty and admired all the people.
Zhu Di's ascension to the throne was not correct, but Zhu Di's ascension to the throne was achieved through his own efforts, which is similar to that of the founding prince. Moreover, Zhu Di made the Ming Dynasty stronger under the foundation of Zhu Yuanzhang, and the yongle prosperity was proof of this.
The so-called centralization of power is the first priority of the monarch, and only by firmly controlling power can we implement ambitions and ambitions and maintain long-term peace and stability.
Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely powerful, and he not only abolished the prime minister, but also killed a large number of officials in order to maximize his power. Therefore, under Zhu Yuanzhang's powerful aura, Wenchen did not dare to make a mistake, and Zhu Yuanzhang was full of energy, and he did not need too many Wenchen to divide his power.
Zhu Yuanzhang set up university scholars, that is, the prototype of the cabinet, but these university scholars were only Zhu Yuanzhang's advisers and had no power. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, a cabinet was set up, and Xie Jin served as the first cabinet chief assistant during the Yongnian period, at this time Zhu Di still firmly held absolute control, and the role of the cabinet was very small.
Zhu Di often rode in person, and the DPRK needed someone to help him exercise some of his power, so the power of the cabinet was slowly increasing. With the change of emperors, the cabinet power became more and more powerful, after the death of the Zhengde Emperor, the first assistant Yang Tinghe was responsible for selecting a successor, thus determining the throne of Jiajing, and during the Wanli dynasty, Zhang Juzheng could almost issue government decrees at will, and the emperor obeyed him. So why were the emperors after Zhu Di often constrained by the official clique?
First, the difference between the founding king and the king of the shoucheng
It is relatively easy to work, but it is very difficult to start a business, the founding father is like the builder of the road, and the emperors after that only need to continue to walk according to the path of their predecessors, which will be relatively easy. Zhu Yunjiao was a shoucheng king, he had not experienced war and fighting, he also lacked aura and determination, and his prestige was low, so this gave Zhu Di a chance.
Zhu Yunxiong blindly trusted Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, whether it was cutting the domain or sending troops, Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng's decisions were wrong again and again, but Zhu Yunzhao could not play a positive role. The cut fan directly forced Zhu Di to rebel, gave Zhu Di a reason for Jing's difficulties, replaced the expedition with Li Jinglong, and gave Zhu Di the opportunity to win, as if Zhu Yunjiao had been making a wedding dress for Zhu Di.
Although Zhu Di was not a founding hero, he honed himself in the subsequent wars and became the best general at that time. Zhu Yuanzhang was born in cloth, crawled and fought on the battlefield for many years, did not rub a little sand in his eyes, and judged the battle situation extremely accurately. These qualities are not possessed by the King of Shoucheng.
Historical records:
"Ding Ugly, kill Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru, and destroy his clan." Many people died in the gang. ”
After Zhu Di captured Nanjing, he killed Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru, the Zhulian family, and Jianwen's former ministers, and almost all those who opposed Zhu Di were killed. In such a situation, where there are still civil officials or anything, which one still dares to challenge the imperial power, this is not looking for death.
Zhu Di suppressed everyone with his violence, and in fact, Zhu Di was also surnamed Zhu, and he himself had the right to inherit, and under the grace and power, the world soon settled down. The aura is difficult to explain clearly, but it can be clearly revealed on Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang, and the performance should be strong, deterrent, confident and decisive. The difference in experience has created different people and different emperors, which is roughly the difference between the founding king and the king of shoucheng.
Second, the change of civil engineering
Zhu Yuanzhang still attached great importance to military generals at the beginning of the founding of the country, and most of the founding knights were military generals, after all, fighting wars depended on military generals, and moreover, at the beginning of the founding of the country, the war was still continuing, and only when it was stable did a large number of civilian subjects were needed.
Zhu Yuanzhang set up the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, which was the highest military organization, and the orders for the dispatch of troops and generals were issued from the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, and the power was very large. In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, Vala also invaded the border of the Ming Dynasty first, and at the instigation of Wang Zhen, Zhu Qizhen led troops to personally recruit. Under wang Zhen's wrong command, the Ming army encountered the enemy at Tumu Fort, and the Ming army suffered heavy casualties, and Zhu Qizhen himself was also captured.
"The division collapsed, hundreds of thousands of dead. Gong ZhangFu of england, Chen Ying of fengning marquis, Du Ma Du Wei And Yuan, Pingxiang Bo Chen Huai, Xiangcheng Bo Li Zhen, Sui'an Bo Chen, Xiu Wu Bo Shen Rong, Du Governor Liang Cheng, Wang Gui, Shangshu Wang Zuo, Kuang Ye, Xue Shu Cao Nai, Zhang Yi, Shilang Ding Xuan, Wang Yonghe, vice capital Yushi Deng Tang, etc., all died, Emperor Bei hunted. ”
Zhu Qizhen personally brought a large number of civil and military officials of the imperial court this time, and unfortunately, these officials were buried by the enemy along with the soldiers. This caused a major problem, that is, the official fault, the British Gong Zhangfu, the Bingbu Shangshu Kuang Ye and other high-ranking officials were killed, and the imperial court had to use a large number of civilian officials.
The problem was that the balance of power was broken, and Yu Qian became the number one commander of the army in part because a large number of officials were killed. Coupled with the crisis of the times, Yu Qian's power has become unprecedentedly large, and all troop mobilization and material rationing are all decided by Qian alone.
After the end of the defense of Beijing, yu Qian's policies were retained, such as the regimental battalion troops in the capital, so the power of Hu civilian officials increased, the military general was further weakened, and most of the power of the governor's office of the five armies was withdrawn from the military department. Although the civil engineering change caused the Ming army to lose 100,000 soldiers, it gave the civilian officials the opportunity to strengthen themselves.
Iii. The Emperor's Inaction and Administrative Needs
Zhu Yuanzhang was one of the most diligent emperors, working day and night, and did not have too many hobbies, which may seem inconceivable to others, but Zhu Yuanzhang did it. As the peacetime grew, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty also became more and more lazy, and even the phenomenon of not going to the dynasty appeared, such as Jiajing and Wanli.
Hai Rui's world-famous "Public Security Neglect" has records such as "single-mindedly cultivating the truth, exhausting the people's fat, indiscriminately reviving civil engineering, ignoring the dynasty for more than twenty years, and relaxing the law and discipline" and so on. It can be seen that the emperor Jiajing did not do a very good job, and the construction of a large number of civil expenses was excessive, and these emperors inevitably had, and the most criticized thing was that he did not go to the dynasty for twenty years, and he practiced cultivation for many years, delaying a lot of government affairs.
There is still a difference between the Jiajing Emperor and the Wanli Emperor, the Jiajing Emperor will still handle government affairs to some extent, while the Wanli Emperor does not leave the palace for many years, except for extraordinarily important matters. Power is a good thing, everyone wants, since the emperor has relaxed his power, then the civil officials will climb up the pole, Yan Song, Xu Jie and other powerful ministers appeared in this way.
There are many unreliable emperors, but the imperial court must continue to operate, so everyone will elect an agent, which is equivalent to the general manager, to help the emperor to handle government affairs, and the accompanying emperors are getting lazier and lazier, and the power of the cabinet is getting bigger and bigger, until Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli years reach their peak.
If the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were like Zhu Yuanzhang, then the civilian-official clique would be suppressed forever. But unlike people, many emperors came to enjoy life and did not like to fulfill their duties, so the rise of civil officials became a powerful force to compete with imperial power.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor was no longer the protagonist, the cabinet was the number one person on the stage, and it was their existence that made the Ming Dynasty glorious.