In the impression of most people, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were conscientious and unscrupulous, while the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, except for the previous emperors, were cynical and chaotic emperors. But even if the Ming Dynasty had Ming Shizong and Ming Guangzong who died after eating Dan medicine, there were also Ming Xizong who did carpentry, and even the Wanli Emperor who did not go to the dynasty for 28 consecutive years. The Fact that the Ming Dynasty was able to stand for nearly 300 years under the toss of so many faint and incompetent emperors was truly a miracle in China's feudal dynasty.
In fact, there are so many miracles in the world, and the main reason why the Ming Dynasty can still stand under the toss of so many emperors is that it has a rudimentary form of a modernized democratic political system - the cabinet system.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, in order to solve the contradiction between imperial power and Xiang power, Zhu Yuanzhang lifted the threat of the emperor's power by using Hu Weiyong's case to successfully abolish the position of chancellor, and the six ministries were directly under the administration of the emperor. However, the consequence of abolishing the chancellor was to increase Zhu Yuanzhang's workload.
According to volume 25 of the "Aftermath of Chunming Dreams", "During the eight days, the internal and external masters played 1,660 zafan and recorded 3,291 events." Within eight days, Zhu Yuanzhang approved a total of 1660 internal and external chapters, involving 3291 events. The magnitude of the workload can be seen from this, so much so that Zhu Yuanzhang issued an exclamation that "the heavenly rational things of the degeneration generation, the total number of opportunities in the day, how can it be done all week by week".
In order to reduce his workload, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that the Huagai Hall, Wuying Hall, Wenyuan Pavilion, and Dongge university scholars should be set up to assist his work, and the identity of these four scholars was only that of advisers, without any decision-making power, and all decision-making power was in zhu Yuanzhang's hands. But even so, the emergence of the four scholars was a major step forward, and it provided a prototype for the emergence of the cabinet.
In the ming dynasty of Zhu Di, Zhu Di was unable to deal with the folds in the court in a timely manner because of many imperial conquests, and in order to improve administrative efficiency, Zhu Di specially sent Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Rong, and others to the Wenyuan Pavilion at noon to participate in the advance of the aircraft, called the cabinet. The cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty was officially born, but at this time, the cabinet was only a parliamentary power, to put it bluntly, it was only a senior secretary under Zhu Di.
In Zhu Di's later years, the power of the cabinet was greatly enhanced, and he had the power to assist the emperor in managing the six shangshu and became the emperor's top staff and decision-making body. During the reigns of Emperor Mingxianzong and Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, the power of the cabinet was greatly enhanced, and it became a representative of the civilian government that was strong enough to resist the imperial power. Emperor Mingwu Zhu Houzhao was notoriously absurd, and in order to fulfill his desire to go to war, he also gave himself the title of a great general, and during his term of office, there was a rebellion of The King of Anhua and the Rebellion of the King of Ning. However, it was precisely with the support of Yang Tinghe and other cabinet elders that there was not much turmoil.
Emperor Ming Shizong and Emperor Mingmu successively had The First Assistant of The Cabinet of High Power, such as Yan Song and Gao Gong, who had great power, and at this time, Yan Song and Gao Gong, who had monopolized power, became the "ministers" of the Ming Dynasty. But this is not the peak of the cabinet's power, the real cabinet to the peak of power is the famous minister Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng's reform made the cabinet the center of government operation. Under the impetus of this central system, even if there is an emperor like Wanli who has not been in the dynasty for 28 years, the imperial machine can run smoothly.