In feudal society, the officials of the DPRK and the CHINESE society all served the emperor, and how to get the favor of the emperor and hold important positions in the court was also a problem they pondered. During the Ming Dynasty, Shoufu was the honorific title of chief scholar, and he assumed many duties, almost equivalent to the former prime minister of the dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, in order to better centralize power, he abolished the post of prime minister. After the concentration of power, the emperor had to deal with a lot of things, and he was a little weak, so he first set up four auxiliary officials, and later, they became cabinet scholars, who were responsible for secretarial work as the emperor's advisers. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the power of university scholars gradually expanded, and they were gradually called auxiliary ministers, and the chief university scholars became the first assistants.
Figure 1
Especially in the Ming Dynasty Jiajing Longqing and Wanli periods, the first assistant had the heaviest authority, huge power, and the competition in the cabinet was quite fierce. In a short period of time, the first auxiliary officials changed many times, the most representative of which were Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.
During the Jiajing period, Xu Jie became the first assistant
Xu Jie was born in 1503 AD, and Jiaqing participated in the imperial examination in the second year and became a tanhua of that year. After entering the dynasty, he first served as an editor at the Hanlin Academy. Later, he was also reprimanded for offending shangguan, and after this setback, he became more cautious and cautious in the official arena. He himself was elegant, powerful, and never revealed the words of others, so he had a high reputation among scholars. Twenty-one years after Jiajing, Yan Song entered the cabinet and became the first assistant of the dynasty. During Yan Song's tenure as first assistant, Xu Jie was his deputy, the second assistant of the cabinet.
At that time, Yan Song had great power, and Xu Jie did not want to be attached to him at first, but Yan Song was valued by the emperor and repeatedly rumored in front of the emperor, and Xu Jie's situation in the court was also somewhat dangerous. So he adjusted his attitude. Since then, he has no longer argued with Yan Song, and even in order to gain the trust of the other party, he also married his granddaughter to Yan Song's family. On the surface, he was also very respectful to Yan Song, and privately Xu Jie began to move closer to the emperor again, because he was good at qingzi and gradually became favored by the emperor. After entering the cabinet, he first helped the emperor to remove the threat, gained his trust, promoted his official position, and further improved his status, second only to Yan Song in the court.
Figure 2
In this year, there was a fire in the Yongshou Palace where the Jiajing Emperor lived, although the emperor was not injured, but the palace where he lived was damaged by the fire, and he could only live in another palace, when the emperor felt that this palace was too small and wanted to build a new palace, Yan Song did not agree at that time. Jiajing was also a little unhappy, and later told Xu Jie about this, Xu Jie was good at guessing the holy will, and he suggested that the emperor collect the remaining materials of the burned Yongshou Palace and use these materials to build a new palace, and later he personally presided over the construction of this palace. After this incident, Xu Jie was given the title of Young Master.
Yan Song was gradually left out in the cold. Forty-one years after Jiaqing, Yan Song was impeached and stepped down, and Xu Jie became the new first assistant. After that, in the position of first assistant, he worked for six years, and Long Qing left the official field in the second year.
Professor Gao Gong Longqing became the new first assistant
Gao Gong was born in 1513 AD, his ancestral home was in the Shanxi region, and later his ancestors migrated to Xinzheng, Henan to escape the war. His father was a jinshi during the Zhengde period, and later the official worshiped the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, Gao Gong was strictly educated by his father since he was a child, he could recite the pair at the age of five, he could recite the article at the age of eight, and he was 17 years old, but then he encountered setbacks on the road of the imperial examination, and only after 13 years did he pass the entrance examination to become a Shu Jishi.
Jiajing was appointed editor of Hanlin in the twenty-first year. Nine years later, he was promoted to the rank of Attendant of Hanlin Academy. In this year, Jiajing's son Yu Wang was allowed to open a mansion, and Gao Gong was sent to the Yu King's mansion to give lectures to the crown prince. At that time, Jiajing had already made the crown prince, but the crown prince died of illness.
Figure 3
For more than two years, the emperor did not make a new crown prince. At that time, it was Yu Wang and Jing Wang who had the ability to compete for the position of prince, according to the order of old and young, Yu Wang should be the crown prince, but Jia Jing preferred Jing Wang, if Jing Wang ascended the throne, Yu Wang's fate could be imagined. At that time, Yu Wang was also very anxious, but Gao Gong did not give up on Yu Wang, but instead comforted him many times. Yu Wang also valued him more.
At that time, in the court, Yan Song and Xu Jie had a fierce struggle, the Korean and Chinese officials had to take sides, the whole court was smoky and miasma, but Gao Gong did not rush to either side at this time, but wandered between the two, and neither side could be offended, because of his special status.
Yan Song and Xu Jie did not dare to be too contemptuous of him, worried that if one day King Yu really ascended the throne, he would be able to soar. Neither side suppressed the high arch, and even recommended him to an official position in the court, and in the face of the temptation of the two sides, the high arch did not bow down and bend the knee, but instead retreated in a measured manner, which was very orderly. In the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing, Gao Gong was appointed as a lecturer of the Hanlin Academy, and thereafter he also had the opportunity to enter the cabinet as the first assistant.
In the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, the contender for the crown prince's throne, King Jing, died of illness, and the position of prince of Yu was officially established, and Gao Gong was also added to the rank of knight. After Xu Jie succeeded him as the first assistant, he successively recommended Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng and others.
Figure 4
Jiajing served as a scholar of Wenyuange University for forty-five years. In the same year, Emperor Ming died, King Yu became the new emperor, and Gao Gong successfully entered the cabinet. At this time, the first assistant of the cabinet was Xu Jie, and the two were officials of the same dynasty, and they should have watched over each other, but at this time, Gao Gong had a greater desire.
In the court, he and Xu Jie attacked each other, and finally Gao Gongqi was forced to return to his hometown with a trick. In the second year of Longqing, the first assistant Xu Jie returned to his hometown. In the third year of Longqing, Zhang Juzheng played the emperor's request to appoint Gao Gong again. In December of that year, Gao Gong, who was far away in his hometown, finally received an edict from the emperor, and he returned to the capital day and night in spite of the severe winter cold, and once again appeared on the political stage as a university scholar, and Longqing finally became the first assistant to the cabinet in the fifth year.
"History of Ming": "And Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin both went, arch as the first auxiliary, ju zheng shoulder followed." The arch is straight and proud, the same official Yin Shi Dan generation can not be overwhelmed, Ju Zheng retreated alone, and the arch did not look at it. ”
Gao Gong himself was very talented, and after he ascended to the throne, he worked hard to govern and made certain achievements in politics, but he was arrogant and arrogant, his temperament was urgent, and he did not tolerate people. After his power grew, he also became more and more arrogant in the court, and he did not get along well with his colleagues in the DPRK and China. Chen Yiqin, a university scholar who had served with him in the yu king, was suspicious of him, and after seeing that Gao Gong was invincible in the cabinet, he finally chose to retire in a hurry, saying that he was sick and old.
Figure 5
Another former chancellor of the Yu Dynasty, Yin Shidan, was not promoted because he did not want to meet gao gong for a long time. Later, when he received the emperor's will to enter the cabinet, Gao Gong learned that he was very unhappy, and instructed the officials in the court to attack the other party, Yin Shidan could not bear it, and reprimanded Gao Gong in front of the cabinet ministers: You first expelled Lord Chen, and then expelled Lord Zhao, and now even I have to drive away, do you want to sit in the position of first assistant forever? After saying that, he actually swung his fist at the court to attack the high arch.
But even so, he was expelled from the cabinet by the high arch. In the fifth year of Longqing, among the cabinet assistants, except for Zhang Juzheng, all the other old assistants were squeezed clean by the high arch.
Zhang Juzheng replaced Gao Gong and served as the first assistant for ten years
Zhang Juzheng was born in 1525 AD, he was in the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing examination, when the official who presided over the examination was Xu Jie, so the two still had a master-apprentice relationship. In 1560, when Xu Jie was serving as the second assistant of the imperial court, although the struggle with Yan Song was fierce, he also discovered that Zhang Juzheng was very talented and promoted him from the Hanlin Academy to the Guozijian. During Xu Jie's first assistantship, he paid more attention to Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong had served in the GuoziJian at the same time, so they met. Both were very talented, like-minded, and also expected to join the cabinet together in the future, KuangFu Sheji, but later when the Jiajing Emperor died, Xu Jie summoned Zhang Juzheng to write a will for the Jiajing Emperor with him, and did not inform the opponent at that time, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, so Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng gradually became suspicious.
Figure 6
Long Qing served as the first assistant for six years, and no one in the court could match him. He was even more tyrannical, and his men were full of foxes and tigers, and the Officials of the DPRK and China were very disgusted with them. Gao Gong gradually liked luxury things in the high position, and even said to the people around him: What should I do if my daily necessities are not enough? When the disciples around them heard about this, they went around looking for rare treasures to offer to Gao Gong, and later attracted criticism, and the imperial history of the court wrote to the emperor, but gao gong scolded the imperial history in the court.
Later, a number of officials impeached Gao Gong, but the emperor refused to listen, but instead denigrated those who impeached Gao Gong. In May of that year, emperor Longqing was critically ill, and before his death, he summoned Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng and appointed them as ministers of gu order. In order to seize the power in his hands, Gao Gong made a plan to expel the grand eunuch Feng Bao, who had already made an alliance with Zhang Juzheng before, and the decisive battle between the two sides began.
"Records of the MingShen Sect": "When he was ordered by the Lord to be suspicious of the country, he took the lead in the first assistant, took charge of the great politics, and persuaded the upper party to abide by the ancestral law, and the upper body also listened carefully." ”
After the MingShen Sect ascended the throne, because of his young age. At that time, the two empresses were very worried, afraid that the officials would have a disobedient heart, at this time Zhang Juzheng came to the two palace empresses to report Gao Gong, saying that he had said a sentence in the cabinet: How can a ten-year-old child be a king? Claiming that Gao Gong wanted to support other princes of the domain, the empress dowager of the two palaces was shocked when she heard about it, and in the early dynasty, she summoned cabinet officials to reprimand Gao Gong for using his power to see no king, and expelled him back to his hometown to live, and was not allowed to stay in the capital.
Figure 7
Gao Gong heard that his face was like dead ash, and it was difficult to get up on his knees, but later Zhang Juzheng helped him up and sent him away from the court, after which Gao Gong did not have the opportunity to enter the center. Zhang Juzheng also became one of the most famous first assistants of the Ming Dynasty in June of that year. Because the Wanli Emperor was young, at that time, almost all matters in the dprk and China were decided by him, and most of the cabinet assistants were also recommended by him.
Even in the sixth year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhang Juzheng returned to his hometown to bury his father, and Emperor Myeongshinzong ordered Sub-Fu and others that if there was a major matter in the dynasty that needed to be dealt with, they must send someone to the Gangneung area to listen to Mr. Wang's arrangement. Zhang Juzheng stayed in the position of first assistant for ten years until Wanli died of illness in the tenth year of Wanli.
Conclusion: Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister to establish a cabinet, originally wanted to better hold the power in the hands of the emperor, but during the Longqing and Wanli years, the first auxiliary power was huge, and the competition for the position of the first assistant was increasingly fierce among the courtiers. Xu Jiedou overthrew Yan Song as the first assistant, and six years later zhishi returned to his hometown; Gao Gong and the Longqing Emperor were highly valued, Longqing became the first assistant in five years, and when the Longqing Emperor died in June of the following year, he was also deposed; Zhang Juzheng replaced Gao Gong as the new first assistant until his death in the tenth year of the Wanli Dynasty. The relationship between the three people is delicate, and there have been times when they have fought with each other, and the evaluation of them by future generations is also different.
References: "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty", "The End of the Ming Chronicle", "The History of the Ming Dynasty"