In many dramas and literary works, there are often "Eight Governors" and "Chincha Ministers", who ask for the people's lives and eradicate adultery, are the embodiment of justice in the eyes of the common people, the representatives of imperial power, and the nemesis of corrupt officials.
Recently, some readers have also written to me privately, asking what kind of official was the Qing Dynasty Minister of Chincha? How much power is there? Is it possible to mobilize troops? The author believes that these issues are very representative and involve some aspects of the official system of the Qing Dynasty, so I will discuss this topic with you.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > first tell me what kind of official the Minister of Chincha is. </h1>
There were two kinds of officials in the Qing Dynasty, one was "official", that is, a compilation official with clear grades and responsibilities. For example, Shangshu, Waiter, Governor, Inspector, etc. all belong to this category; the other is "poor", such as military ministers, provincial scholars, townships, examination examiners, etc.
The Chancellor of Chincha is of course an official (because of his original rank), but it is precisely a "poor". The distinguishing feature of the difference is that it is time-sensitive, and the emperor temporarily sends an official to handle a special matter. The Chancellor of Chincha was hand-picked by the Emperor, similar to the Ming Dynasty Patrol, and had the nature of a Heavenly Patrol. To put it bluntly, Chincha is the emperor's spokesman.
The chancellor must first be an official, and generally not of a low rank. According to the Qing system, the chancellor of Chincha had always been a senior officer above the three pins in Beijing, who was hand-picked by the emperor to be sent to the local government or to supervise the army, or to criminal cases, or to money and grain, or to provide relief.
Generally speaking, mid-level officials have no chance to become Chincha ministers, first, low-ranking officials are not the emperor's confidants, and it is obviously not enough to let him serve as Chincha; second, Chincha's rank is too low to deter small groups, and when they arrive at the locality, they are often despised by governors, inspectors and other feudal officials.
Judging from the general situation in the Qing Dynasty, the ministers of Chincha were all senior officials above the rank of waiter, and if it was a major matter, they were the first choice of military ministers, university scholars, and Shangshu, and even appointed princes and princes of the clan.
After completing the task entrusted to him by the emperor, the minister of Chincha first had to report to the emperor and then asked him to return to the capital division. After the emperor agreed, he set off for Beijing to make an errand and completed such a procedure, and he would remove the post of Chincha and return where he came from.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > secondly, how much power does the Chancellor of Chincha have? </h1>
The imperial power of the Ming and Qing dynasties was highly concentrated, especially in the Qing Dynasty. In many literary, film and television works, we often see that Minister Chincha holds the sword of Shangfang and exercises the right to cut first and play later. In fact, this is not in line with historical facts, the Qing Dynasty's Chincha ministers had limited power and were under the supervision of the emperor at all times.
Compared with previous dynasties, the Qing Dynasty has a significant feature, that is, since the Kangxi Dynasty, it has been implementing the folding system. In the Ming Dynasty, the ministers wrote to the emperor, and it was necessary to go through the Department of Communications and The Cabinet to reach the emperor, and there was a lack of secrecy here. That is to say, when the emperor did not see the song, the cabinet already knew the content.
The fold is a single line between the emperor and the minister, no third person knows the inside story, this way of information communication, is conducive to confidentiality, and the speed of transmission of the fold is fast, according to the degree of urgency divided into four hundred miles, six hundred miles, eight hundred miles, that is, the so-called immediate delivery.
The information was transmitted in a timely and confidential manner, which made the emperor of the Qing Dynasty do not need to delegate power to the maximum extent, and the minister of Chincha almost always plays a request for instructions and reports, so the minister of Chincha cannot do many things, nor can he talk about cutting first and playing later.
Another point that needs to be explained is that there is often more than one candidate for the Minister of Chincha in the Qing Dynasty, and the official title is called "Chincha Zheng envoy", "Qincha deputy envoy", and sometimes there are more than two. Such an arrangement was also a precautionary measure made by the emperor in order to put an end to Qin's deception and favoritism.
Finally, can the Chancellor of Chincha mobilize the army?
The Qing Dynasty was more strict in the management of the army than the Ming Dynasty, and the Bingbu was nominally in charge of the world's soldiers and horses, but in fact, the Bingbu did not have the power to mobilize the army, and the military aircraft department, which was also the center, had no power, and the only one who could mobilize the army was the emperor.
There are many kinds of situations of mobilizing troops, such as in the event of war, the emperor's tour, local bandits, etc., all of which require the mobilization of troops. The use of troops at home and abroad is a major national affair, and the emperor needs to consult with the minister of military aircraft to decide how many troops to use, and prepare ordnance and food, which is a huge systematic project, and after the regulations are finally decided, the emperor will eventually send generals to lead the army.
In some major military operations, sometimes the progress on the front line is not good or there are problems with logistics, and at this time, the Minister of Chincha is often sent to coordinate and command. In this case, the rank of Chincha was very high, such as the Qianlong Dynasty, who had ordered the chief military minister Ne Qin to go to the front of the army for Chincha, and He yan had also gone to the front as a commander in the front as Chincha.
The Chincha ministers sent in the form of overseers were in fact the supreme commanders of the front-line armies, and it was clear that the emperor had given them the power to mobilize the army, and could even carry out the power to kill and decide according to military law.
If it is to go to a certain place to handle criminal cases or disaster relief, there is no power to mobilize the army. According to the procedure, when the minister of Chincha left the capital, the emperor sent several large internal guards, and the military department sent a different number of soldiers to escort them. These people are responsible for the personal safety of the Minister of Chincha and cannot participate in specific affairs, but are nothing more than miscellaneous tasks such as announcing errands.
Minister Chincha will encounter many accidents when running errands in the local area, if it is necessary to mobilize the local garrison of the Eight Banners or the Green Camp army, then first of all, please ask for instructions, the mobilization of the Eight Banners needs to be coordinated with the garrison of the Eight Banners General, the unification; the transfer of the Green Camp requires the coordination of the Governor and the Inspector, and the local army does not directly obey the chincha Minister.
From the above three aspects, it can be seen that the Qing Dynasty's Qincha ministers actually did not have much power, and they were always doing things under the eyes of the emperor, and without permission, they could not cut first and then play, nor could they mobilize the army, which was also an important embodiment of the supremacy of imperial power in the Qing Dynasty.