Recently, I suddenly looked at the history of the Ming Dynasty, and there is such a description, Zhu Yuanzhang on the throne slapped the armrest of the dragon chair hard, and said without questioning: "What prime minister?" Take it off, and it won't be set up in the future. Whoever dares to ask for the reinstatement of the prime minister, I directly cut off his head. ”
The four grades and above the four ranks, the real power bosses are all earth-colored and silent. And several officials below the fifth grade and idle officials, although their faces were expressionless, their eyes were shining.
What the hell is going on? More than 1,000 years of the prime minister system will be abolished? After the Hu Weiyong case, some people were worried, and some people were happy.
Not long after, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a cabinet and found a few low-grade, five- or six-grade officials to work in the cabinet to help him.
For this, I couldn't figure it out at the time, so I put it down for the time being.
Later, as I read more historical materials, some experts gave reasons, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang was a power controller, and he couldn't rub sand in his eyes, and he wanted to centralize power, how could he let the prime minister's system monopolize so much state power? So, I made a cabinet innovatively.
The office scene in the cabinet in the early years of the Ming Dynasty
Then, when reading the history of the Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng was also energetic, he didn't like his father Kangxi's prime minister system, so he found another way and set up a military aircraft department.
You said that Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, you can do whatever you want, anyway, he is the father of the founding of the country, what does not keep pace with the times, and it is nothing to innovate.
But if you look at Uncle Yongzheng, Daddy Kangxi's left and right prime ministers use it like an arm, and they just use it themselves, why do you have to build a military aircraft department?
What's more interesting is that the Military Aircraft Department is a small house next to the main hall where Yongzheng often works. He also learned from Zhu Yuanzhang and found a few low-grade officials to come to this small house to discuss state affairs secretly.
Qing Dynasty Military Aircraft Department
To sum up, it means that Yongzheng does not need the institution that has been operating normally for a long time in the imperial court.
Why is that?
Recently, I read a cow man's interpretation, and that really woke me up as a confused person.
This bull man said that in the long history of the evolution of China's political system, there is such a rule, that is, the emperor will constantly use the secretary team around him to replace the power of the prime minister of the foreign dynasty.
As for the reason, don't look at the supremacy of the emperor, but he is also a lonely person, he is alone in the deep palace, and he will always be worried about the courtiers of the foreign court.
Why not worry?
The cattle man said, let you think from the emperor's point of view, you see, the country is mine, not the ministers. As soon as they come to power, they may think that the country has something to do with me, and they will rely on corruption and bribery to make more money, maybe they will think of ways to hollow out my country, and even think of replacing me. How can I, who stays in the deep palace, know who is like this?
Son of Heaven, Outer Vassals, Outer Tribes
Therefore, the emperor was born to be the prime minister of the foreign dynasty and to those high-ranking officials, and he has always been wary.
That's why they will be impulsive, and they will innovatively set up new small institutions, and use these people around them to slowly replace those people from outside the court.
Reading this, I instantly understood the motives of Zhu Yuanzhang and Yongzheng to set up a new organization.
Aren't they just suspicious of the courtiers of the foreign court, and they are impulsively eager to replace the courtiers of the foreign court with the people around them?
Aren't the cabinet and the military aircraft department the secretarial team next to these two people? Aren't the people who are active in it the service staff around you? Intimate, familiar, and well-handled.
The final result was that there was no prime minister in the outer courts, and they directly obeyed the emperor.
The cabinet became the new prime minister of the Ming Dynasty; The Military Aircraft Department became the new prime minister of the Qing Dynasty.
Final words
A capable emperor must replace the people of foreign dynasties with his own people, for example, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that the prince's palace was hidden, and the staffing of the palace was like a small court. As soon as the crown prince ascended the throne, he directly used the people of his own submarine.
That's why there is a saying that "once a son of heaven is a courtier", so there are officials with small ranks, who go to the prince when the old emperor is not a few days old. There is a classic picture in the TV series "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", Qianlong's intimate person, and Shen went to give gifts to the fifteenth elder brother.
If the emperor wants to live a relaxed and happy life, he does not blindly toss around foreign institutions; If the emperor wants to work hard to make some achievements, he usually opens up new small institutions.
As for the relationship between the prime minister and the emperor, a more in-depth interpretation will start with the system of the Han Dynasty, and I will elaborate on it in the next article.