In the early years of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, also adopted the prime minister system after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, inheriting the old system of the Yuan Dynasty to establish Zhongshu Province, and the prime minister of Zhongshu Province was a high-ranking official with high authority, overseeing all government affairs in the world, and the existence of the prime minister could assist the emperor in handling daily affairs, so that the emperor had the energy to coordinate internal and external. However, the excessive centralization of power has led to a skewed political ecology. caused Zhu Yuanzhang to be dissatisfied. From 1376 onwards, Zhu Yuanzhang began to adjust the power of Zhongshu Province to oversee the world's government affairs, cutting off the Pingzhang political affairs and the governor's political affairs in Zhongshu Province, leaving only the left and right sides of the same while abolishing the Xingzhongshu Province that overlooked local government affairs, and dividing its power into three, that is, the administrative and military, and the supervision of the political envoys, the criminal envoys, and the commanders.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, after Zhu Yuanzhang experienced the Hu Weiyong case, he dismissed the prime minister and abolished Zhongshu Province, and split the rights of Zhongshu Province, so that the six-part system was born, and the six-part system appeared on the historical stage. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Zhongshu Province and the Six Ministries were still in a state of symbiosis, and the Six Ministries were in charge of their respective fields and could report directly to the emperor. At this time, the Zhongshu Province was mainly responsible for the integration of the resources of the six ministries, so that the power of the Zhongshu Province was greatly weakened, and the system of the six ministries adhered to the principle of mutual restraint and supervision, which greatly guaranteed the political security of the central government.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prototype of the cabinet - the secretary system collapsed
There were many problems in the establishment of the original Zhongshu Province, which was also an important reason why the Zhongshu Province was later abolished. First, the power of Zhongshu Province was too large, and Zhongshu Province adhered to the attitude of being responsible to the emperor and vigorously developed its own forces, and the Ming Dynasty once fell into a corrupt bureaucracy. Second, most of the provinces of Zhongshu existed in the form of a secretary, and in the process of their development, they had a certain inhibitory effect on the judgment of imperial power and affected the authority of the emperor. The combination of the two divided the rights of the emperor, and the people even called Zhongshu Province the emperor's cover, which shows that in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhongshu Province was a monstrous right.
1. Strengthen the centralization of six departments - the division of powers, and the emergence of a cabinet
According to historical records, the prototype of the cabinet system originated in the early Ming Dynasty. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the centralized system, won the political struggle with the powerful minister Hu Weiyong, abolished the official position of prime minister, and changed to the emperor to directly govern the six ministries. The prototype of the six-ministry system was also established during the Ming Taizu period, which divided the rights in an orderly manner, so that the central government greatly strengthened the degree of control over various civil affairs under this system, thereby reducing the threat of the bureaucracy to the imperial power.
He once issued an edict: "In the future, the heir will not have to negotiate the prime minister." "Although Zhu Yuanzhang used political means to monopolize power and stabilize his dominant position, he alone has limited energy, and the world is still unstable, and state affairs are complicated, he has no ability to do everything himself, so he imitated the system of the Song Dynasty and set up Huagai Palace, Wuying Palace, Wenyuan Pavilion, East Pavilion and other institutions in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, and the positions were held by university scholars. However, the departments and personnel he set up were similar to the current Secretariat, and they were not really Cabinet.
2. The cabinet system is becoming more and more perfect
In the early days, the leaders of the six departments were mainly composed of the four scholars, who sorted out the various matters of the six departments as a whole, and finally submitted the sorted out notes to the emperor, which greatly strengthened the efficiency of work, which could not only integrate events, but also allow the four scholars to supervise each other, which was a nearly perfect political system at that time. The six ministries were declared as a political system during the period of Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, who promoted the rights of the six ministries and divided them more systematically, and the prestige and power of the six ministries reached a new height at this time.
The development of the six departments mainly stems from Zhu Di's warlike and more like to drive the imperial conquest, so that there is no one in charge of the government, and the six departments have become the eyes of the emperor, and the major and minor affairs in the court are sent to Zhu Di's hands for the first time, which strengthens the efficiency of information circulation, which is another major role of the six departments of the Ming Dynasty during the Zhu Di period. The emergence of the cabinet is also derived from the Zhu Di period, and Zhu Di's desire for imperial power is higher than that of any Ming emperor, so he attaches more importance to cultivating cronies, that is, the early cabinet. In the early days of the existence of the cabinet, it was mainly to integrate and advise the political twists and turns during the emperor's personal expedition, and after its development matured, it could directly lead the six ministries, and the power directly reached the central government. At this time, the cabinet was similar to the emperor's secretary team, dedicated to serving the emperor and helping the emperor to make scientific decisions.
The real "cabinet" was established by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. After Ming Chengzu ascended the throne, he appointed officials such as the editors and reviewers of the Hanlin Academy to participate in the work of the Wenyuan Pavilion in the Wumen, which was called the "Cabinet". These editors, reviewers, lectures, and other officials do not have exclusive office locations, are not subordinate to any department, and do not have the right to express opinions and decisions on the six reports.
Therefore, the "cabinet" at that time was only a secretarial body that drafted edicts for the emperor and provided advice to court officials. After the middle of Yongle, the cabinet gradually developed to have the power to control the six ministries, and became the emperor's highest staff and decision-making body. By the time of Jiajing of Ming Shizong, the power of the cabinet had developed to the same level as the previous prime minister, and Yan Song, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, was good at government politics for more than 20 years.
The most prominent figures in the "cabinet" of the Ming Dynasty were Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu, who served as cabinet members from Hong Xi and Xuande to the orthodox period, and were called "Three Yangs" at the time. During their tenure as auxiliary ministers, they were distinguished by their outstanding achievements and amazing political talents, not only to stabilize the border defense, but also to rectify the rule of officials, so that the economy was well developed, so that the Ming Dynasty moved towards the road of peak development, and made the cabinet, which was originally only a private advisory body of the emperor, into an institution with the power of the prime minister. The prime ministers of the previous dynasties before the Ming Dynasty had very great power, and often adopted a group system to disperse the power of the prime minister. It can be seen that sometimes the prime minister has a monopoly on power, which directly involves the power of the monarch, and such examples abound. The rights possessed by the prime minister mainly include decision-making power, political participation and administrative power, that is, people often say that "under one person, above ten thousand" refers to the prime minister.
The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the decision-making power of court affairs must be the emperor himself, the main power of the cabinet can only be to participate in the political power, the six ministries are mainly administrative power, and the local government is responsible for the political envoys, etc., in charge of administration, justice and military, the three powers check each other, and the cabinet system has also reached a very perfect point.
▲ Ming Dynasty Inner Formation
In the Jiajing and Wanli years, there were powerful cabinet chiefs like Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng. Even if the emperor did not go to court for many years, the cabinet system acted according to the prescribed process, and these two emperors hid behind the scenes, only dealing with the major affairs of the court, which seemed to be "slacking off government", and the actual power was always under their control.
Cabinet drawbacks are revealed
1. It leads to the dictatorship of eunuchs
After the formation of the cabinet system, the emperor was worried that the power of the cabinet was too large, so he established the celebrant supervisor to check and balance the cabinet. In the beginning, the power of the celebrant was not large, and it was strictly limited by the emperor, but in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the power of the cabinet expanded sharply, and the emperor was worried that the power of the cabinet was too large, so he gave the power of the celebrant and eunuch to restrain each other in order to achieve balance. The specific administrative process is: the cabinet of ministers on the country's politics to deal with the opinions, is to participate in politics and discuss the power in the form of "vote to draft", and then handed over to the emperor for approval, the late Ming Dynasty emperor neglected the government, and the right to approve was assigned by the emperor to the hands of the eunuchs, which is equivalent to a share of the imperial power, and the power of the eunuchs swelled sharply, and there were powerful eunuchs such as Wang Zhen and Liu Jin.
2. It led to constant fighting in the imperial court
However, the important position of the first assistant to the cabinet was not decided by the emperor himself, but was recommended by court officials, and the emperor finally exercised the decision-making power. This gave rise to competition between different parties in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. In order to compete for the power of the first assistant, they fought to the death, and originally wanted to use this system to make the court politics clearer, but it turned out to be a miasma and chaos, which made the Ming Dynasty social crisis everywhere.
For example, Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, in order to compete for the position of first assistant, used all kinds of means to drive away the original first assistant Gao Gong and sat on the throne of the first assistant.
During several eras of the cabinet system
1. The era of consultants
Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister, and he had to personally handle a large number of government affairs in the DPRK and China. It's not a bad thing for the emperor to do everything, but the huge amount of work can't be done by one person. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang used a few scribes as advisers for himself, these people are all officials above the fifth rank and play a very important role as staff officers.
2. The cabinet enters the decision-making mechanism
It can be said that the cabinet members were just helping the emperor write manuscripts and come up with ideas at the beginning, and by the time of Renzong, they had been promoted to the rank of Shangshu Shilang, and they were all by the emperor's side, so naturally their power increased a lot. By the time the young lord of Yingzong ascended the throne, the "right to vote" of the scholars was particularly important, and the cabinet contradictions naturally became more and more intense.
After the fifteenth year of Wanli, the Wanli Emperor did not go to court for many years, but the country was still functioning normally, during which there were three wars, the most famous being the war against the Japanese invaders to reinforce Korea, which was victorious, and the cabinet played an indispensable role in it. However, there were 19 cabinet chiefs and assistants, which also made it impossible to continue the implementation of the policy, and finally led to its demise.
The emperor gave the power in his hands to the eunuchs, the cabinet, the six ministries, the Dongchang, the Jinyiwei, etc., so the fact that the cabinet power of the Ming Dynasty depended on the imperial power is undoubted, and it is impossible to become a cabinet political system in the modern sense, let alone a British and Japanese cabinet system.
There are exceptions, after Shen Shixing served as the first assistant, he was very clear about the emperor's demands, and he was very reasonable to correct his position, and he was already one of the few first assistants. Especially after Chongzhen ascended the throne, the cabinet turned out to be an inconsequential department, and the cabinet members were responsible for handling the emperor's documents. The cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty was a subordinate model derived from the imperial examination system, which was a political system in the Ming Dynasty in order to strengthen the centralization of power and gain rule. The emergence and development of the cabinet system is quite different from the earlier imperial examination system, which is more like a system of promotion of positions, a way for the government to elect natural persons from the grassroots level and centralize power as much as possible.
Summary:
The cabinet system facilitated systematic management from top to bottom in the Ming Dynasty, and the development of Jinyiwei and Dongxi Factory were all products of the cabinet system in the Ming Dynasty. In short, the cabinet system not only centralizes the management of imperial power, but also shows the decentralization system of the Ming Dynasty. In the process of development, the cabinet was squeezed out by Jinyiwei and the East and West Factory. In the early stage of the development of Jinyiwei, it was the cabinet that single-handedly pushed the power of Jinyiwei to the peak, and after the development of Jinyiwei, a large number of cabinet personnel were arrested to suppress the power of the cabinet.
The development of the cabinet hindered the vital interests of Jinyiwei and the East and West Factory, so in the process of internal institutional development, in order to limit the development of the cabinet to the greatest extent, Jinyiwei and other internal institutions used intimidation, inducement and other means to disintegrate most of the cabinet personnel, and the relationship between the two in the later period also reached the point of dire straits, until they both perished in the end. This article will systematically show the development process of the cabinet system from multiple perspectives of Ming Dynasty politics.
Bibliography:
"Ming History"
Analysis of the Development of the Cabinet System in the Ming Dynasty
Analysis of the Emergence and Development of the Cabinet System