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In Chinese history, the Ming Dynasty is one of the most noteworthy dynasties to write about and study, not only because it was the last feudal dynasty ruled by the Han Chinese, but also because the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were almost "unusual".
In the early Ming Dynasty, several emperors, including the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, could be called promising kings. However, almost all the emperors in the middle and late periods were "problem emperors", and they did not seek to govern during their reign, which also had a negative impact on the country.
Didn't the emperor train his successors? On the contrary, the Ming Dynasty had a complete successor training system, but this system obviously went wrong.
Statue of the Ming Dynasty emperor
First, how were the successors of the emperors before the Ming Dynasty trained?
Ban Gu wrote in the Book of Han:
"The king of the ancient world knows this, and he rules the world from the south, and he does not take education as a major task."
It can be seen that successive dynasties attached great importance to clan education. Only by educating and cultivating excellent successors can we keep the country forever. Ancient Chinese feudal dynasties have always had a complete training and education system for royal successors, which originated from aristocratic education and covered the children of the royal family and the children of the clan who were dependent on the royal family. Therefore, in a broad sense, it can be called "clan education system" and in a narrow sense, it can be called "East Palace System".
The discussion of this article is limited to the "Donggong system", that is, the system of cultivating the children of the royal family, excluding the children of the clan family.
Map of the early Ming Dynasty
The establishment of the East Palace system was fundamentally to cultivate royal successors. Therefore, in the pre-Qin period, when the emperor system had not yet been established, the East Palace system could not be talked about at all.
In addition, the Qin Dynasty was the first unified feudal dynasty on the mainland, laying the basic pattern of China's feudal system for more than 2,000 years. As an integral part of the feudal political system, it is natural that the Donggong system can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty. The East Palace system of the Qin Dynasty was relatively rudimentary and in its infancy. This is not unrelated to Qin Shi Huang's taboo to talk about his aftermath before his death, and his dedication to pursuing immortality. However, at that time, some of the prince's subordinate official names had already appeared, such as Zhan Shi and Youcheng.
During the Two Han Dynasty, the Donggong system gradually took shape.
In the Han Dynasty, there were two major sequences of officials related to the imperial succession: one was the crown prince and the young fu. The officials of this sequence are mainly responsible for the education of the prince, and the subordinate officials include the prince's doctor, the prince, and so on; The second is the Donggong Zhan Shi. The officials of this sequence are mainly responsible for the daily life of the prince, and the subordinate officials include the prince and the family order. The content of education was also quite extensive, with the early Han dynasty focusing on Huang Lao thought, and later turning to Confucian classics, which also reflected the changes in the ruling ideology of society at that time.
Ming Dynasty Bazaar
During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the central dynasty faced a long-term division and division, and different countries also formed their own unique royal successor training systems, the East Palace system was further developed and improved, and the official system was further refined.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Donggong system experienced changes that first flourished and then declined. From the early Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the Donggong system succeeded Wei and Jin, and the primogeniture system continued, and even clearly stipulated in legal documents that the rights and interests of the eldest son should be protected. "The official system of the East Palace also follows the previous generation and is more complete.
However, Li Shimin's "Xuanwu Gate Change" actually broke the tradition of the succession of the eldest son, which also led to frequent palace coups in the succession to the throne in the early Tang Dynasty, and it was not until the middle of the Tang Dynasty that this scene improved, and the imperial succession returned to the tradition of establishing the throne.
In the late Tang Dynasty, eunuchs frequently intervened in government, and most of the six emperors from Emperor Wenzong to Emperor Zhaozong were supported by eunuchs, and the East Palace system at this time was useless. During the Two Song Dynasty, the Donggong system gradually declined, basically following the Tang Dynasty system, but without systematic design, it can be said that it is "set up according to things and set up as appropriate".
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang
Second, how did the Ming Dynasty cultivate imperial successors?
It can be seen from the above that in the early Sui and Tang dynasties, the Donggong system developed to its peak, and then showed a trend of decline as a whole. The more the Ming Dynasty, the more arbitrary the establishment of its institutions, and the training and education of imperial successors was not systematic, often depending on the personal preferences of the emperor. Sometimes, due to the emperor's suspicion of the crown prince or the contradiction between the two, the emperor would take measures to limit the power of the East Palace, and all the officials of the East Palace, including the crown prince, would be punished or even dissolved directly. These characteristics were also reflected in the Ming dynasty's East Palace system.
The construction of the Ming Dynasty's East Palace system began very early, because Zhu Yuanzhang made Zhu Biao crown prince in the month of Hongwu's accession to the throne in the first year, and later it turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed too early to make him crown prince. Moreover, after Zhu Biao's death, he made another big mistake in the matter of making the crown prince or the grandson. After Zhu Biao's death, Zhu Yuanzhang preferred to make the wise Zhu Di crown prince and asked his subordinates for advice. Although he eventually chose Zhu Yunjiang in accordance with the tradition of Liyan, his hesitation gave Zhu Di the ambition and excuse to seize the throne after Zhu Yuanzhang's death.
Akito to the snow to enjoy plums
Similar to the previous dynasty, the Ming Dynasty also attached importance to the cultivation and education of the crown prince, and established the cultivation concept of equal emphasis on cultural quality, moral education, and practical ability since the Taizu period, and this set of training methods did play an obvious role in the early and middle Ming Dynasty. The education of the crown prince can be divided into two stages, and before the crown prince leaves the cabinet, most of the emperor, concubines, nursing mothers and other insiders in the palace enlighten and educate them; After the crown prince left the cabinet, he entered the formal education stage, and the age at which the Ming prince came out of the cabinet was roughly between 8 and 15 years old.
Ming Xuanzong
Han Yue said: "Teachers, so preach, teach, and solve confusion." Good teachers have a direct impact on students. The Ming Dynasty paid special attention to two aspects in the selection of the prince's teacher: first, moral cultivation, the master of the East Palace must be a righteous gentleman with high morality, able to take responsibility by example, and deeds speak louder than words; The second is outstanding learning, and only a profound scholar can teach the prince. In the middle and late Ming dynasties, the "problem emperor" was often surrounded by villains or courtiers, once again proving the importance of good teachers.
In terms of educational content, the Ming Dynasty consecrated Zhu Lixue, and the education of the crown prince was naturally based on science, and the teaching materials were often Confucian classics, and Zhu Zi's "Notes on the Four Books" was particularly respected. In addition, the princes of previous dynasties will study some history books and political books, and the Ming Dynasty is no exception, and the imperial successors increase their cultivation in their studies and increase their experience in the practice of governing the country.
As the successor of the future empire, the main role of the officials around the prince is to serve the prince's life, and the second is to educate and train the prince. Therefore, the entire official system of the Crown Prince East Palace is also composed of these two aspects. The Ming Dynasty followed the old system of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and built a set of crown prince training institutions with Zhan Shifu as the core and the cabinet and Hanlin Yuan jointly responsible for the cultivation of crown princes. In the 22nd year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Zhan Shi Yuan, which was later changed to the Zhan Shi Mansion, which was mainly responsible for commanding the officials of the Eastern Palace and assisting the crown prince, and this institution remained in use until the fall of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there were also three princes and three majors, and later these official positions became fictitious titles.
Ming uniforms
3. What went wrong with the imperial succession system of the Ming Dynasty?
There were many "problem emperors" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the problem emperor here refers not to the lack of ability, but to the emperor who did not seek government in his reign, refused to fulfill the obligations of the emperor and behaved contrary to his role, representing the Jiajing Emperor of Ming Shizong, the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Shenzong, the Emperor of the Tianqi of the Ming Xizong, etc. The emergence of these emperors was caused by many reasons, but one of the most important reasons was that the training system of the Ming imperial successor was faulty.
As mentioned earlier, the education of the crown prince is divided into two stages: before leaving the cabinet and after leaving the cabinet, and the education after leaving the cabinet is more formal, and the prince master at this stage is mostly erudite and Confucian. Education before leaving the court was less formal, and was mostly carried out by the people close to the prince within the court. This leads to several undesirable endings:
First, because the education of people around them is often carried out through ears and deeds, a bad example will have an extremely bad impact on the education of the crown prince. For example, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have mostly believed in Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism since Taizu, and one generation has influenced the next, eventually causing many emperors to ignore ethics and morality and national affairs due to excessive religious belief, and completely lose the authority of the emperor.
Akito autumn scenery cargo lang picture
Second, the "close people" of the crown prince often gain the trust of the crown prince by accompanying him to receive enlightenment education, or being responsible for enlightenment education for the prince. When the crown prince succeeded to the throne as emperor, these people often followed suit and became hot celebrities around the emperor. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the regime was turbulent, and in addition to institutional reasons, the emperor's personal favor was one of the important reasons.
These chaotic politicians either grew up with the emperor and were deeply favored by the emperor, thus daring to influence the decisions of the imperial court (such as Feng Bao); Either the character is poor, seducing the emperor, blindly indulging the emperor's hedonistic behavior, causing bad influence (such as Liu Jin, Jiang Bin, Wang Zhen); Some use the emperor's "close people" to gradually gain the emperor's trust in order to achieve their ulterior goals (such as Wei Zhongxian and Hak, Wan Guifei).
The Ariake generation strictly followed the traditional primogeniture system to appoint the imperial successor. The advantage of this system is to ensure that the imperial power can be smoothly changed without too many palace coups, the Ming Dynasty generally established the crown prince earlier, which can not only stabilize people's hearts, but also give the crown prince more time to develop himself, and the positive role of the primogeniture system in the early Ming Dynasty is obvious.
However, the primogeniture system also means that it is generally not possible to appoint a prince other than the eldest son as the crown prince, and the range of candidates for the crown prince is extremely limited, and if the crown prince does not pay attention to his own cultivation or has mediocre ability, it will have a negative impact on the country. In addition, the princes other than the crown prince did not have the possibility of becoming emperors, so they lost their life goals and ideals early, and were willing to be mediocre and idle, which made the emperor forced to "pluck generals from the short" when re-selecting the crown prince.
The emperor goes on tour
epilogue
The system of royal succession is essentially only an appendage of imperial power. With the strengthening of centralized power, the decline of this system was an inevitable trend, and by the time the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty established a secret reserve system, the East Palace system that pre-established the crown prince eventually died out completely. The Ming Dynasty's East Palace system was first established by Taizu and played a very positive role in the early Ming Dynasty, but with the strengthening of centralized power and the development of society, many systems established by Zhu Yuanzhang could not adapt to the development of society and gradually distorted, so they lost their original role.
By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the cultivation of imperial successors became more and more arbitrary and lacked systematic, which led to the continuous decline in the comprehensive quality of Ming imperial successors. Coupled with the negative impact of successive problem emperors on the country and society, the Ming Dynasty eventually accumulated difficulties and collapsed amid the wails of the Chongzhen Emperor.
The emperor traveled
bibliography
Book of Han
History of Ming
《Daimyo Kaisen》