Recently, there have been private letters from readers, the emperor has a holy will, the empress dowager has a will, which of them is more authoritative? This is an interesting question, and it is also a problem that often occurred in the ancient imperial autocratic society. Taking the Qing Dynasty as an example, Yushi briefly talked about this topic.
As the name suggests, the "Holy Will" is a decree issued by the emperor in the form of an edict. There are many kinds of written orders of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, including edicts, edicts, and holy wills. The form of the edict is the most formal and standardized, and is generally used on occasions such as the emperor's ascension to the throne, the great wedding, and the national celebration.
The Edict is the embodiment of the emperor's own personal will and is the most common one in the Qing Dynasty. The emperor made arbitrary decisions through the way of the emperor and handled the affairs of the state, and the ministers basically had no say. The Holy Will is a written document issued by the minister to the emperor after making a proposal to the emperor and then issuing it with the consent, which mainly reflects the will of the ministers. Generally, such as canonization and reward, most of them use the method of holy will.
"Yi Zhi" refers to the order issued by the empress dowager and empress. In the Qing Dynasty, the ancestral harem was not allowed to interfere in politics, so neither the empress dowager nor the empress issued the edict, which could not involve the major government affairs of the country, and most of them were about some affairs of the harem.
The harem's prohibition of government affairs was relatively well implemented in the Qing Dynasty, and there was basically no situation of harem chaos and great foreign relations. However, in some special periods, the empress dowager was forced to go to the political front, such as when Kangxi succeeded to the throne, and it was Empress Xiaozhuang who actually held power. This is because of Kangxi's young age, and it was not until Kangxi was pro-government that Xiaozhuang retired to the background.
The other was Empress Dowager Cixi, whose nature was completely different from that of Xiaozhuang. Although Xiaozhuang was in power, the system still practiced the four ministers to assist the government and the emperor to listen to the government. However, Cixi broke the ancestral system and pioneered the curtain to listen to the government, which was to blatantly usurp the emperor's power. However, Xiaozhuang and Cixi both came to the political front when the emperor was too young to take charge, and strictly speaking, they were not harem officials, and the orders they issued must be in the name of the emperor's holy will, not in the name of Yi Will.
The empress dowager's status was noble, and the emperors of the Qing Dynasty flaunted "ruling the world with filial piety", so the emperor still had great respect for the empress dowager. As for the empress, her status is much lower, and she has no say in state affairs or even domestic affairs.
In fact, the empress dowager still has a certain say in the affairs of the country. There is such a bridge section in the "Yongzheng Dynasty", after the death of Kangxi, Yongzheng ordered the fourteen brothers to return to Beijing for mourning. After Yin Yu returned to the capital, he went straight to the Kangxi Lingtang and refused to submit to Yongzheng.
At this time, Yin Yu's birth mother, Wu Yashi, persuaded Yin Yu to perform a great gift to Yongzheng, and Yin Yu looked at Wu Yashi and said that she was just an imperial concubine, and according to the state system, the imperial concubine could not manage the great general king, which meant that the harem was not allowed to interfere in politics. Subsequently, Yongzheng immediately honored Wu Yashi as the Empress Dowager, and Yin Yu knelt down to salute Wu Yashi. Here a message is revealed, although the harem can not interfere in politics, but the empress dowager seems to have the right to deal with state affairs.
Will the empress dowager be able to intervene in politics? The answer is between what is possible and what is not, or limited interference. According to the Great Qing Family Law, all harems that use soldiers, money, grain, personnel, justice, and other major state affairs are not allowed to participate in the preparation, and in layman's terms, the empress dowager of foreign dynastic affairs cannot interfere. However, in the affairs of the inner dynasty, the empress dowager still has the right to speak.
Most of the affairs of the Inner Dynasty were the emperor's family affairs and private affairs, including the internal affairs of the imperial family. Since it is the emperor's family affair, the empress dowager as the elder naturally has the right to ask questions, and the orderly growth and childhood are traditional Virtues in China, and the emperor who pursues filial piety must also obey the empress dowager.
However, some things are between state affairs and family affairs, such as the selection of empresses, crown princes, princesses and so on. After the election, the emperor still had to obey the orders of his parents, and the ancient system of the words of the concubine. Many empresses of the Qing Dynasty, especially their successors, acted at the behest of the empress dowager.
For example, when the Shunzhi Emperor abolished the empress, Xiaozhuang made a decree to choose a second empress for him; for example, after the death of the Fucha clan after Qianlong's concubine, the empress dowager issued a decree to let Qianlong Li Nala clan be the queen. The same is true of Daoguang, several of whom were elected by the empress dowager.
In addition, the affairs of the harem and the internal affairs of the clan were often also decided by the empress dowager. In short, the imperial household affairs of the empress dowager have the right to intervene, which also restricts the power of the emperor to a certain extent, but this constraint is very limited.
Yi Zhi can only be regarded as the supreme power in special circumstances, which often occur during the power vacuum. For example, the Jiaqing Emperor died violently at Rehe, and the accompanying military ministers did not find a succession edict, and later the empress dowager issued a decree to inherit the throne with the Prince of Zhi, Min Ning, the later Daoguang Emperor. Just like after the death of Emperor Zhi, Cixi Yi's will: "Pass on the will of Yi, the above succeeded Emperor Wenzong as a son, entered the unification, and became the emperor of the heir." That is, the later Guangxu Emperor.