The rule of officials plays a central role in national politics, and the stability of the people's hearts and the strength of the country are inseparable from the perfect and optimized rule of officials. The root cause of corruption lies in the imperfect administration of officials and the imperfect system.
In China's feudal society, corruption caused by imperfect government abounds, but in Zhu Yuanzhang's idea of clean government, there is a relatively mature concept of official governance, including the idea of selecting and employing people and the idea of supervision.
First, the idea of selecting and employing people
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of officials amassed property and bribed officials by selling their official positions, and officials from the central to the local authorities openly accepted bribes, resulting in the division of the ruling class, political corruption, social turmoil, and the common people suffering from various forms of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and their lives were very difficult.
To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the management of officials, starting with the selection, evaluation, recusal, and supervision system of officials, and made detailed regulations to minimize the corruption of officials.
(1) Establish a system for the selection of officials
Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, civil and military generals who were transformed from high-ranking rebel generals and Confucian scholars who came to surrender to Cheng during the war have become important positions in various departments of the central government.
However, as far as the country as a whole is concerned, from the six ministries of Zhongshu Province to the prefectures, prefectures, and counties, there is still a need for a large number of officials at all levels of political power.
Although there are many generals under his command, Zhu Yuanzhang knows very well that although they have experienced a hundred battles, they are not familiar with the way of governing the country, and not all of them are suitable for serving in state office.
Therefore, in addition to appointing some officials of the Yuan Dynasty who had surrendered, he also paid great attention to broadening the channels and selecting officials from all aspects.
Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly summed up the experience of the change of dynasties, put forward the view that "the way to rule lies in the virtuous", and pointed out that "the affairs of the world are not governed by the virtuous".
Only by vigorously tapping talented people and selecting talented people can we achieve long-term peace and stability in the country; in the selection and promotion of officials, he attaches great importance to the conduct of officials and to the moral education of officials.
When selecting officials, the "virtue" of officials is taken as the primary criterion for selection, regardless of the method.
In order to promote the construction of the ranks of officials, Zhu Yuanzhang broadened the ways of selecting officials, mainly including imperial examinations and examinations.
Zhu Yuanzhang has four criteria for the selection of talents, that is, "to observe their words and deeds to observe their virtues, to examine their skills to observe their careers, to test the books to count riding and archery to observe their abilities, and to plan to judge their political affairs through history and current affairs", emphasizing that the recommendation of talents should be both moral and beautiful, based on virtue, good conduct, and loyalty to the imperial court as the first priority in the selection of talents.
(2) Improve the evaluation system for officials
Although the appraisal system is not directly aimed at corruption, it is an effective way to detect corruption and achieve a clean government.
In order to implement the duties of officials, whether it is the form of assessment or the content of assessment, compared with other dynasties, the Ming Dynasty has a more comprehensive assessment of officials.
In order to restore the social economy as soon as possible, rectify the rule of officials, and punish corruption, Zhu Yuanzhang established a strict and perfect evaluation system, which was divided into the evaluation of military attaches and civilian officials.
The evaluation of military attachés is called "military administration" and is the responsibility of the Ministry of Military Affairs, once every five years.
As far as the assessment methods of civil officials are concerned, Zhu Yuanzhang divides them into two types, namely the completion of the examination and the inspection, and there is a difference between the two, and the Ministry of Officials is responsible for the examination of merit.
The completion of the examination is mainly carried out for officials whose term of office has expired, and rewards and punishments are determined after passing the examination. Officials are scored for their performance during their tenure of office, and the grades are divided into three categories: competent, ordinary, and incompetent.
The assessment is conducted every three years, a total of three times, three years for the initial examination, six years for the re-examination, and nine years for the general examination.
After the assessment and examination, those who are promoted according to the specific official titles, those who are ordinary are reinstated or transferred, and those who are incompetent are demoted, and the officials who have been dismissed in the examination still have the opportunity to become officials again.
The inspection is to conduct regular or irregular evaluations of all officials, and to deal with officials who are not qualified for their posts or to punish officials who violate the law.
The inspection can be divided into Beijing inspection and external inspection, which is the assessment of Beijing officials, which is held once every six years, and the external inspection is the assessment of hundreds of officials outside Beijing, which is held once every three years.
There are two types of inspections: inspection and Hajj. The purpose of the inspection is to assess the merits of officials, with the focus on punishing unjust officials, and officials who have been dismissed during the inspection will not be reused.
The two methods of inspection and examination have their own emphasis, complement each other, and have played an important role in punishing corruption and eliminating the rule of officials.
(3) Optimize the system for recusal of appointed officials
The recusal system is an important system created to prevent corruption, which has sprouted as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and has matured by the Ming Dynasty.
First of all, the recusal system of the Ming Dynasty was manifested in the selection of officials.
If there is a blood relationship between officials in a certain department, it is very easy for the phenomenon of cronyism and abuse of power to occur.
In order to prevent bending the law for personal gain and corruption between officials and their relatives, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated:
Relatives who are related by blood are not allowed to serve in the same department, and the family members of ministers cannot be appointed as science and technology officials.
For relatives in the same department who have a relationship between superiors and subordinates, such as fathers and sons, brothers, uncles and nephews, officials of lower rank should be transferred to other departments to avoid relatives and clans.
In this way, the occurrence of false imprisonment, failure to supervise, and undermining the state's legal system has been greatly reduced, and officials have objectively been promoted to perform their duties and powers in accordance with the law and fairly.
Zhu Yuanzhang formulated a strict system of "northerners in the south, southerners in the north, and southerners in the north", so that southerners are in the north and northerners are in the south, and they are not allowed to serve in this province, avoid their own province, and transfer between the north and the south.
Officials are appointed for a term of three years, at the end of which they are rotated, and those in important positions, such as the Treasurer, are transferred more frequently.
In this way, it effectively prevented the emergence of the phenomenon of local officials perverting the law for bribes due to excessive power, and then threatening the regime.
Third, judicial, supervision, and examination officials are the key targets of avoidance.
Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that during the judicial trial, all officials who have an interest in the case must recuse themselves and must not participate in the whole process.
In the process of supervision, the inspector must also avoid the province and those with whom he has a holiday.
In the course of the imperial examination, officials who have an interest in the candidates should recuse themselves to avoid personal malpractice and fraud.
2. Supervision of ideology
In order to ensure political integrity and the effective operation of the system, Zhu Yuanzhang improved the supervision system on the basis of the previous dynasty and strengthened the supervision and control over the corruption of officials.
First of all, the Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office was established.
The strict assessment of officials did not make Zhu Yuanzhang feel at ease, so he strengthened the supervision of hundreds of officials through supervision.
As early as the first year of Wu, he set up the Imperial History Tower.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, he dismissed the imperial history platform, and two years later set up the Imperial Procuratorate, set up the left and right imperial history, and the left and right imperial history, and gave it greater powers, "All ministers are treacherous, villains form the party, and those who are powerful and chaotic will be impeached." Those who are not academically correct, who have written and made statements into a constitution, and who wish to use them, will be impeached. ”
Secondly, set up six subjects for the matter.
In addition to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Zhu Yuanzhang also founded the Six Divisions with independent supervision powers, which have great power.
In order to better supervise the performance of the duties of the six departments, Zhu Yuanzhang set up six sections corresponding to the six departments of the central government, and each section was assigned to one person in the middle of the matter and one person to the left and right in the matter.
The authority of the institution is more specialized, specifically responsible for supervising the government affairs of the six ministries, not subordinate to any department, with a clear division of labor, not interfering with each other, and directly responsible to the emperor, so the six departments have an important position in the state power.
The six departments are in charge of the affairs of the six departments, including attendants, regulations, supplements, relics, and inspections, and their primary authority is to supervise the six departments.
Zhu Yuanzhang relied on the two sets of supervision systems of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Justice, and strengthened the supervision and management of hundreds of officials.
In order to ensure that the imperial history and the affairs can be loyal and conscientious, strict and disciplined, and effectively supervise the ministers, Zhu Yuanzhang is particularly strict in the management of the supervision officials.
As long as they are found to have violated the law or endangered the regime and other acts, they will be severely punished, and the intensity is much greater than that of ordinary officials. As a provincial-level supervisory organ, it is highly valued by the emperor and is directly responsible to the emperor, and is known as the "outer platform".