During the Qin and Han dynasties, the county system and bureaucracy were established as the basic system of the centralized dynasty, the rules of kings and hereditary nobles ruling the country together in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period were broken, the rules of the supreme emperor and the head of the hundred officials ruled the world together were formed, and imperial power and xiang power became two levels of dynastic power operation.
After the fall of the Western Han Dynasty, the situation changed, and the four dynasties of the Eastern Han, Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties all came to a similar conclusion when summarizing the lessons of the demise of the previous dynasties: the imperial power was too weak and the xiang power was too strong.
Therefore, the history of the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties became a process of continuous strengthening of imperial power and continuous weakening of relative power.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was not happy with how to look at Xiang Xiang and Xiang Quan, so in the first month of the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang first executed Hu Weiyong, the left chancellor of Zhongshu Province, on charges of "intending to rebel, perverting the law and slandering the sages, and harming politics", and then took this as an opportunity to "dismiss Xiang Xiang and reform Zhongshu Province", and wrote "the successor king shall not establish another Xiang Xiang" in the "Imperial Ming Ancestral Training".
After "deposing Xiang Xiang and Ge Zhongshu Province", Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang incorporated most of Xiang Quan into the imperial power, and the rest was scattered into the six ministries, and the rules of the emperor and the xiang who had been implemented for more than a thousand years were broken, and the imperial power was monopolized in the power operation of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with this result, and he and his successors finally no longer had to worry about the emergence of powerful ministers and the instability of the imperial throne, but Zhu Yuanzhang ignored a point, and any rule breaking was bound to be accompanied by the evil consequences of blurring the boundaries of power.
For Zhu Yuanzhang's successor monarchs, this evil consequence was that while pursuing the restoration of xiang power, the civilian official clique also wanted to annex the imperial power and finally realize the "rule of the Holy Heavenly Son".
When "the Holy Heavenly Son's rule by arch" became the purpose of the civilian official clique, the history of the Ming Dynasty also became the history of the power struggle between the civilian official clique and the emperor who wanted the emperor to rule with the arch and the emperor who did not want to rule from the arch.
The image of the Myōjin Sect in history is closely related to the history of this long power struggle, so let's take a look.
In order to win the power struggle, the civil bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty took the approach of first emptying the emperor and then gradually encroaching on the imperial power.
In the specific operation of the overhead emperor, the Ming Dynasty civil official group was divided into two steps:
1. Restore phase power;
2. Moving the two major stumbling blocks of the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's seizure of the world, the Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's rise to fight and the difficulty of creating the military general Xun Gui and the eunuch force supported by Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji.
The first step was that the civil-official clique went very smoothly, the cabinet was established during the Yongle period, the cabinet in the Hongxi period obtained the right to vote, the cabinet university scholars could concurrently serve as the six shangshu, the cabinet had the foundation to become Zhongshu Province, and the cabinet university scholars had the foundation to become the prime minister.
In the second step, the civilian-official clique began to go smoothly, and in the fourteen years of orthodoxy, the change of Tumu Fort occurred, so that the eunuchs were labeled as deceitful of the monarch and the country, and the military general Xun Gui was labeled as stupid and incompetent, and the two stumbling blocks were basically removed.
During the Jingtai period, the second step of the civilian-official clique was marked by Yu Qian's abolition of the three major battalions, the formation of the twelve regimental battalions, and the sending of eunuch forces out of the Beijing camp, and the Jingying, the cabinet, the six ministries, and the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan were all decided by civilian officials, marked by the transfer of inspectors to the Metropolitan Inspection Yuan, and the civilian officials became the highest military and political chiefs in various places.
Next, with a small step forward in establishing a subordination between the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, and the Metropolitan Court, the civilian bureaucracy could take over the emperor.
In the eighth year of Jingtai, the change of the door occurred, and the remnants of the military general Xun Gui and the eunuch forces united to give the civilian official clique a stick, and the dizzy civilian official clique lost the best opportunity to take a small step forward.
During the Tianshun period, Ming Yingzong, who had once again ascended the throne, was sufficiently vigilant against the aims of the civilian official clique, and he began to support the military general Xun Gui forces represented by Shi Heng and the eunuch forces represented by Cao Jixiang, with the intention of forming a situation in the imperial court in which the military general Xun Gui, the eunuchs, and the civilian official clique balanced each other, resulting in a Cao Shi rebellion that frustrated Ming Yingzong's intentions, and at the same time, due to Ming Yingzong's vigilance, the civilian official clique could not take another small step forward.
During the period from Chenghua to Jiajing, the power struggle between the civilian official clique and the emperor fell into a tug-of-war.
During the Chenghua period, Emperor Mingxianzong abolished the Twelve Regiment Battalions and established the Ten Regiment Battalions, squeezing out the civilian official clique forces from the Jingying and restoring it during the Hongzhi period.
During the Zhengde period, Emperor Mingwuzong first supported Liu Jin in fighting against the civilian official clique, and then instructed Liu Jin to propose a plan to recall the local inspectors, and then Liu Jin was executed because he was framed by the civilian clique.
After Liu Jin was executed, Emperor Mingwuzong attempted to support the forces of the military generals Xun Gui through the exchange of the border troops in Jingying and the favor of the generals Jiang Bin and Channing, but as a result, Emperor Mingwuzong died mysteriously after an accidental fall into the water, and Jiang Bin and Channing were executed by Yang Tinghe, a cabinet scholar, for plotting after the death of Emperor Mingwuzong.
During the Jiajing period, the occurrence of the Gengji Revolution made the civilian officials completely control the Jingying, the inspector and the governor became the official official positions of the imperial court, and the civilian official clique finally consolidated the achievements of the Jingtai period.
During the Longqing period, the civilian-official clique collectively fell into reflection, why after so many years of hard work, it has never been able to elevate the emperor? In the end, the cabinet chief assistant Gao Gong thought he had found the answer.
In the sixth year of Longqing, taking advantage of the death of Emperor Mingmuzong and the imminent succession of Emperor Mingshenzong to the throne at the age of ten, Gao Gong decided to force Empress Li and Mingshenzong's orphans and widows to the palace at the succession ceremony of Emperor Mingshenzong, in order to force them to agree to hand over the power of the celebrant to the cabinet.
Approving the red and holding the power of the seal is an important part of the imperial power, the celebrant is only in charge, but Gao Gong wants to forcibly seize it by forcing the palace, which is different from rebellion, so the answer found by Gao Gong is only his own thought.
On the day of the succession ceremony of Emperor Myeongshinzong, Zhang Juzheng, the second assistant of the cabinet, and Feng Bao, the eunuch of the Ceremonial Supervisor, tripped and stumbled over the high arch, which shows that the civilian official group did not agree with the answer of the high arch.
In order to repay Zhang Juzheng's contribution to tripping over the high arch, Emperor Mingshenzong immediately appointed Zhang Juzheng as the first assistant of the cabinet after succeeding to the throne, and Empress Li and Feng Bao both maintained full trust in him, and Daming ushered in the era of Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Juzheng's reform officially began, and the first step in the reform was to implement the examination method.
Regardless of the purpose of Zhang Juzheng's implementation of the Kaocheng Law, the Kaocheng Law established in fact a subordination relationship between the Cabinet, the Six Ministries, and the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau, and the civilian-official clique finally completed a small step that should have been completed during the Jingtai period.
After taking this small step, the purpose of the civilian official clique of "the holy heavenly son descending from the arch" was realized, but after the purpose was achieved, the civilian official clique soon fell into infighting because of its interests.
When Zhang Juzheng was implementing the Examination Law, the civilian-official clique unanimously supported it, and when Zhang Juzheng was implementing a whip law, a large number of civilian officials who felt that their own interests had been damaged began to attack Zhang Juzheng in groups.
Ten years after the Wanli Calendar, zhang Juzheng, who was exhausted, passed away.
In the same year, the twenty-year-old Ming Shen Sect deeply realized the harm of the Examination Law to the imperial power, and the next performance of the Ming Shen Sect explained what was not ming was already a blockbuster.
On the third day of Zhang Juzheng's death, Emperor Mingshenzong first led the officials of the Imperial Court to impeach Pan Sheng, a successor supported by Feng Bao and recommended by Zhang Juzheng, causing Pan Sheng to resign, and then with the help of cabinet assistants Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing, he drove away Feng Bao, and then instigated hundreds of officials to attack Zhang Ju as a traitor, and finally with the help of the civilian official clique blinded by interests, Ming Shenzong successfully abolished the Examination Law.
Not only that, but the cabinet also became the target of public criticism, so at the same time that the Myojin Sect abolished the Examination Law, the status of the cabinet regressed overnight to the time when Yongle was established.
After the abolition of the Kaocheng Law and the regression of the cabinet status, the civilian bureaucracy finally calmed down from the anger of its own interests being damaged.
This calmness, the civilian official group can be considered to understand, it turned out that they were shot by the Ming Shen Sect as a gun. Under such circumstances, the civil servant can neither cover the wound and cry out in pain, nor can he shyly ask for the reinstatement of the examination method.
Is it true that the civilian-official clique wants to be dumb and eat Huang Lian? Of course not, so, under the joint action of the regrets that he once had and emulating Zhang Juzheng to once again elevate the emperor, the power struggle between the civilian official clique and the Mingshen Sect was unprecedentedly fierce, which was the main reason why the Mingshen Sect had a different image in history.
In the fourteenth year of the Wanli Dynasty, the head of the cabinet, Shen Shixing, proposed to Emperor Myeongjinzong that his eldest son Zhu Changluo be made crown prince, and the first round of the power struggle began.
At that time, Emperor Mingshenzong was only twenty-four years old, and the empress was only twenty years old, and once the empress gave birth to a concubine, would it be necessary to abolish Zhu Changluo and establish a concubine instead, so the clique of civil officials represented by Shen Shixing proposed to establish a prince at this time not for the sake of the country, but to create a framework for Emperor Mingshenzong to rule from an arch.
After the battle between the country and the capital was opened, the civilian official group found that it was not easy to let the Ming Shen Sect enter this framework, and the Ming Shen Sect could always catch the weakness of the civilian official group, so in the case that the first round had not yet decided the winner or loser, the civilian official group began the second round of competition with the Ming Shen Sect.
In the second round, the move of the civilian-official clique was to form a friend party, as long as the members of the friend party controlled the cabinet, the six ministries, and the metropolitan procuratorate, the leader of the partisan party could set up the emperor like Zhang Juzheng.
Also because of interests, the civilian-official clique was divided into the three parties of Qichu and Zhejiang and the Donglin party, and unfortunately, this weakness was seized by the Ming Shen Sect.
In order to crack the strategy of the Mingshen Sect, the three parties of Qichu and Zhejiang and the Donglin Party wanted to defeat each other, unify the civilian official clique, and then lead the entire clique of civil officials to fight with the Ming Shenzong, and the result was that no one could help anyone (this was one of the important reasons for the fierce party strife in the Wanli Dynasty).
In the case that it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat in the first and second rounds of the competition, the Myōshin Sect took the initiative to launch the third and fourth rounds of the competition.
In the third round of the contest, Emperor Myōshinzong intended to use the victory of the three major conquests to re-support the powerful warlord Xungui forces represented by Li Rusong and Ma Gui, and then use the military general Xungui forces to balance the civilian official clique.
In this round of the contest, Myeongshinjong almost succeeded, marked by Li Rusong's courage to sit on an equal footing with civilian officials when he was the commander-in-chief of Datong, and Li Rusong and Ma Gui gained the dominance of the war at the Battle of Ningxia and the Battle of the Eastern Crusade, but with the death of Li Rusong in the battle and the fiasco at the Battle of Salhu, Myeongshinjong eventually failed.
The fourth round of the contest began when Emperor Myeongjin sent eunuchs to various places in the 24th year of the Wanli calendar to act as mining tax envoys.
Why did the Myōjin Sect send a mining tax collector? The answer can be found in the eighth year of the Wanli Calendar.
In the eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, the eight-year-old Ming Shenzong, in order to get revenge on Feng Bao, who often made small reports to Empress Li, deliberately used a brush to throw Feng Bao's ink while practicing writing.
The mining supervision tax envoy is actually the ink that the MingShen Sect threw at the civilian official clique, in order to alleviate the pressure exerted on itself by the civilian clique through the dispute over the foundation of the country and the formation of friends.
In the end of the Wanli Dynasty, in addition to the third round of the contest to divide the victory and defeat, the other three rounds were until the death of the Ming Shen Sect and did not distinguish the victory and defeat, which led to the purpose of the civilian official group "Saint Heavenly Son hanging down and ruling", so the Ming Shen Sect became the eye nail of the civilian official group, and the evaluation of the Ming Shen Sect in the "History of Ming" was "the death of the Ming Dynasty, the actual death of wanli".
However, whether passive or active, in the power struggle between the Myeongjin Sect and the civilian official clique around whether they want to rule or not, the participants are not only the Myeongjin Sect and the civilian official clique.
Ming Shen Sect supported the military general Xun Gui forces, the martial generals will not have the feeling of meeting the Ming Lord in their hearts, ming Shen Sect sent mining supervisors to collect a large amount of silver from the landlord bureaucratic class, these silver two were used for military expenses, relief to disaster victims, etc., the people will not have the feeling of a good emperor in the hearts of the people, so through this power struggle, the Ming Shen Sect should have three images in history: a good emperor in the hearts of the people, a bright lord in the hearts of the military generals, and a thorn in the eyes of the civilian and official cliques.
[The Sixty-seventh Lecture on the History of the Late Ming Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, References: Records of the Ming Dynasty," "History of the Ming Dynasty," "Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty," "Notes on Dingling," etc. 】