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preface
Jinyiwei, a name that once frightened civil and military officials, disappeared quietly when the Ming Dynasty fell.
They used to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and bravely resisted the enemy, but when the Ming Dynasty needed the 150,000 Jinyi guards, they were nowhere to be seen.
Do you put down the butcher's knife and return to the mountains and forests, or take refuge in the Qing Dynasty and take the initiative to offer advice?
Their ending has become a historical mystery.
The origin of Jinyiwei
Originally named "Gongwei Division", Jinyiwei was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect the safety of King Di and be responsible for the royal guard of honor.
The Gong Wei Division stipulates that the members must have handsome faces and superb martial arts, and can protect the emperor's own safety at any time.
With the gradual establishment and operation of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that relying on the strength of Gong Weisi alone was not enough to achieve his goal of ruling the world.
So in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Ming Taizu decided to merge the Gongwei Division and the Honor Guard Division to create a stronger and larger spy agency, which is the well-known Jinyi Guard.
The status of this institution is extraordinary, it only works for the emperor alone, and is not bound by any other officials.
In order to make the members of Jinyiwei more eye-catching when they go out, Zhu Yuanzhang also specially designed a special costume as their uniform, which is the unique "flying fish suit" in history.
The weapon held by everyone in the organization is a specially modified embroidered spring knife, which is extremely sharp, and you can tell at a glance that it should not be underestimated.
With the strong support of Zhu Yuanzhang, this institution grew rapidly and became an important eye, eye and confidant of the emperor.
The members of this mysterious agency are all over the place, monitoring every small movement of civil and military officials, and they are also well aware of the country's military situation.
The information they obtained went straight to the emperor's ears, allowing Zhu Yuanzhang to detect any unfavorable matters in time and resolve them decisively.
It can be said that the establishment of this institution stabilized the power of the emperor, so that the emperor, who was born in poverty, could rule this fledgling empire in peace.
Jinyiwei: The double-edged sword of imperial power
Jinyiwei's procedures are very strict, and he must pass the written examination and martial arts assessment, and most of his members are Zhu Yuanzhang's valued cronies.
Dressed in uniform and special costumes, these brocade guards received direct orders from the emperor to carry out secret missions against the government and the opposition, and collect important information for the emperor.
Swift and brutal, the Jinyiwei won the emperor's trust and dependence, and they were able to investigate and handle various criminal cases independently, without the need to accept the restrictions of other institutions, and had great power.
But the good times did not last long, and the unique privileges of this institution also led to the abuse of its power and misdeeds, and some Jinyi guards often abused their power to wronged good people for their own interests.
In order to collect confessions from prisoners, Jinyiwei often used torture to extract confessions, whether it was to the common people or the ministers of the court, they could be tortured wantonly, which also made the government and the opposition extremely afraid of Jinyiwei, and everyone was in danger and cautious.
During this period, many officials were secretly killed by Jinyiwei on trumped-up charges, and some members of Jinyiwei even colluded with the powerful people in the DPRK and China to conspire to eradicate political opponents in order to expand their own power.
In the later period, the power of Jinyiwei was completely out of control, and many Jinyiwei members relied on their privileges to do whatever they wanted, embezzled and accepted bribes, and unjust, false and wrongful cases also occurred from time to time.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang relied on Jinyiwei, he gradually became dissatisfied with its shortcomings, and after reigning for 20 years, he made up his mind to personally rectify Jinyiwei and abolished it for a time.
Zhu Yuanzhang created Jinyiwei to strengthen his power and use this powerful force to serve himself.
However, this force, which was originally controlled by the imperial power, eventually lost control like a monster, and in turn bound the imperial power and became a stumbling block to the imperial power.
After Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, due to various reasons, this institution was established by him again, but this time, Zhu Di also set up a new institution called Dongchang separately to disperse the power of Jinyiwei.
Since then, the decline of Jinyiwei, the rise of the East Factory has gradually replaced the status of Jinyiwei in the imperial court, directly controlling the personnel power of Jinyiwei, under the restrictions of the East Factory, Jinyiwei only has the name left, and most of the real power has been hollowed.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of Jinyi guards had grown to about 150,000, which was almost comparable to the regular army, but in fact it had already existed in name only, and was no longer the emperor's right-hand man.
During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor was surrounded by tens of thousands of Jinyi guards, but he was still unable to resist the offensive of Li Zicheng's rebel army, which eventually led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Jinyiwei: The Praetorian Guard from decline to destruction
The Jinyi Guard was the Praetorian Guard of the Ming Dynasty emperor and served as an important force to ensure imperial power for a long time. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established more than 100,000 Jinyi guards, holding heavy troops, making the Sifang Domain invincible.
In Hongwu's later years, the case of Hu Weiyong, the chief military officer of Jinyiwei, was widely implicated, which also showed the strong influence of Jinyiwei; During the Jianwen period, part of the Jinyi guards fell to Zhu Di, the king of Yan, during the Battle of Jingjing, which led to the defeat of Ming Chengzu and fully exposed the threat of the Praetorian Guard to the imperial power.
Since then, Ming Chengzu has adopted military reforms against Jinyiwei and vigorously reduced the power of the forbidden army, and the status of Jinyiwei has been declining day by day.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the decline of imperial power and the rise of Dongchang, Jinyiwei was gradually weakened.
During the period of Ming Xiaozong, eunuchs and relatives were in power, Jinyiwei was transferred, and the emperor's safety depended on the protection of Dongchang.
After the strength of the East Factory increased greatly, the power of Jinyiwei was restricted many times, although there were still as many as 100,000 Jinyiwei at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but there was a false report in the establishment, and the emperor had no actual control over Jinyiwei.
The Donglin party struggle led to the formation of factions in the imperial court, and Jinyiwei was also divided into various factional forces, and the suppression of Dongchang made Jinyiwei lose trust and prestige.
When Li Zicheng captured Beijing, a team led by Luo Yangxing opened the city gate and surrendered to the enemy, and the other resisted bravely under the leadership of Li Ruolian, but was still defeated and died.
In the face of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, most of the Jinyi guards fled and were defeated, firstly, because of the inflated establishment of the Jinyi Guards, which led to the slackness of discipline of the Jinyi Guards, and secondly, the reduction of financial revenues, and the unsustainable salaries of many Jinyi Guards, and their morale was low.
It can be seen that there are very few Jinyi guards who are truly loyal to the royal family and effectively organized by the end of the Ming Dynasty.
The weakening of imperial power also led to the unsustainable strength of Jinyiwei and the loss of prestige, and the instability of imperial power also led to the change of Jinyiwei's allegiance, which was difficult to maintain, and the collapse of imperial power led to the fall of Jinyiwei and could not save the Ming Dynasty.
The eventual decline of Jinyiwei was one of the landmark events of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and its demise heralded the complete collapse of the rule of the Ming Dynasty, a vast empire, and was intrinsically linked to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
The fall of Jinyiwei also reflects the inevitable law of an empire from its peak to its decline.
epilogue
The trajectory of the rise and fall of Jinyiwei reminds us that if power is not checked, it will inevitably lead to defeat in the end.
We must establish a sound system of rule of law and form a mechanism to check power to prevent history from repeating itself.
The wheels of history are rolling forward, and the road is long.
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