The Qing Dynasty was a feudal dynasty with a very strict hierarchy. Among the royal relatives of the Qing Dynasty, the position of the prince was one level higher than that of the county king, and in this case there were usually about 60 guards in the prince's palace, of which 20 were personal guards. The county palace usually has 45 guards, of which 15 are personal guards.
More importantly, the information of these guards was registered in the central government, and the emperor found it as soon as he checked it, so that the possibility of the prince and the county king raising private soldiers was largely eliminated, so fundamentally this was also a way for the emperor to strengthen the centralization of power.
First, the hierarchy of the Qing Dynasty
Ancient Chinese society is a feudal society, and in the feudal society, people and people are not born equal people, from birth to identity there is a great difference, some people are born that the emperor is born with ordinary civilians, to strictly follow the three principles and five constants to divide the social hierarchy to live.
The last dynasty of China's feudal society was the Qing Dynasty, and in this dynasty people also lived strictly according to ranks, first of all, among people and people, there would be a distinction between the royal family and ordinary people, and there would be different hierarchies among the royal family, because the royal family had a large population. Ancient emperors had three palaces and six courtyards, so they would have many sons and daughters.
And there is only one emperor, so the remaining sons also need to have some titles. In addition to the emperor, the highest ranking among the royal family relatives is first the prince and then the county king, and then there may be Baylor, beizi and so on.
And these royal relatives are different according to their rank, and the living expenses and some daily necessities they get in their daily lives are also different. Regardless of the degree of eating and wearing, the emperor is the best, called the imperial supplies, while the other royal relatives will reduce the specifications and quality of the items used according to their own rank.
2. The prefectural soldier system
In addition to the degree of eating and wearing, the royal family's relatives in their palaces, such as the prince's palace and the county king's palace, the number of guards and the rank of the guards are also different. In fact, in the very beginning, these princes and county kings would cultivate some of their own usable people, because the Qing Dynasty was able to make a fortune by relying on the Eight Flags system.
Many of the flag bearers of the Eight Banners became princes and county kings, and each flag lord had his own flag bearer, so in the beginning, the prince and the county king had their own cronies and their own guards. But later, these banner lords, that is, princes and county kings, became more and more powerful, so they threatened the imperial power, especially after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, emperor Taiji came to power.
Once the imperial power was secured, the emperor would take measures to control the power of these princes and counties, to a certain extent, to put military power into the hands of the emperor himself. Therefore, Emperor Taiji implemented the system of provincial soldiers, that is, princes and county kings were not allowed to raise their own private soldiers.
These guards, who protect the princes and the kings of the counties, must be sent to you by the emperor with the royal family. This shows that these soldiers and guards belonged to the imperial court, and the feng lu they took was also directly allocated by the imperial court, not from the prince and the county king's palace. The advantage of this was, on the one hand, that it could consolidate the power of the emperor himself.
On the other hand, it can also reduce the expenditure of the prince and the county king, because some princes and county kings may not need so many guards, and the idle few shares can be directly allocated to the prince's palace and the county king's palace for other uses.
However, the prefectural military system also has another disadvantage, that is, these guards and guards take public money, which is basically a dead wage, so there is not so much enthusiasm in the work, but it does play a great role in the concentration of imperial power.
3. Number of distributions
And about the number of these princes and the number of guards in the county king's palace has a strict hierarchy and number of control, first of all, the prince and the county king's palace are also divided into two kinds, one is the personal guard, has been with the prince and the county king action, the prince and the county king in the palace so the personal guard is also in the palace, if the prince and the county king want to go out to guard the personal guard will go out.
Because the work of the personal guard is more difficult, the personal guard is also selected from the higher grade of the guard, and this part of the guard is more trusted by the prince and the county king, although they are sent by the imperial court, but the personal guard still has to have a certain loyalty to the prince and the county king himself. During the Qing Dynasty, the prince could have 20 personal guards because of his higher rank.
The king of the county had to subtract five, and there were only 15 personal guards, and the names and family backgrounds of these guards were recorded in the imperial court. In addition to the personal guards, there are also ordinary guards in the prince's palace and the county king's palace, and the guards are always guarding the mansion and will not move around with the prince and the county king, then their usual work will be relatively simple.
So the soldiers who do this work, their rank is also slightly lower. There can be 36 guards in the prince's palace, and there are about 30 guards in the county palace. Moreover, because the status of the prince is higher than that of the king of the county, the guards in the prince's palace are generally the grade of the four products, and the words of the king of the county depend on the situation may be the four products, or it may be the five products.
Therefore, it seems that all the guards of the Prince's Palace add up to less than 60 or so, and the county palace is at most 45. Of course, this is not the number of slaves in the prince's palace and the county palace, because a royal palace is largely like a miniature palace, and there are many different positions. However, other important posts were basically arranged by the central government of the imperial court.
Take the position of housekeeper, for example. The emperor must not only ensure that the number of people he allocates to the prince and the king is sufficient so as not to be criticized by the world, but on the other hand, he must control the number and prevent them from taking other actions. In this way, the prince and the county king are completely controlled by the emperor, and in this case, the prince and the county king basically have no possibility of raising private soldiers.
Because if once they have such a thought and begin to take such an action, the emperor will definitely be aware of it, then it is equivalent to putting the desire for imperial power on the surface, and will definitely be suppressed by the emperor.
In fact, the emperor's approach is not completely unreasonable, because in many countries in Chinese history, it is because the king of the clan or other emperors' brothers are too powerful, which leads to the collapse of the country, just like an old Chinese saying, the side of the bed is not allowed to sleep.
4. Summary
Although the Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty in feudal society, it was also a dynasty where centralized power reached its peak, and the emperor used various methods to strengthen his power, such as controlling the number of guards in the prince's palace and the county palace through the palace soldier system and the rank of the guards to achieve the weakening of their power and ensure their own safety.