"Do you all understand?"
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the officials.
"After the advanced version of the examination law is implemented, all promotions and demotions of officials will be based on political performance!"
"In addition to the Three Law Departments, the other seven departments of the court will gradually move into the local areas and be delegated to the provincial level. For example, the Education Bureau of the Faculty of Education, and the Personnel Bureau of the Ministry of Personnel will all gradually promote the decentralization of power!"
As soon as these words came out, the whole court was in an uproar.
All the courtiers were surprised and shocked beyond measure.
At first they thought that Emperor Takeru's decision to let the Sanfa Si stationed in the local area was a sharp counterattack against the local gentry!
But as soon as these words came out, they finally understood that it turned out that their situation was too small!
It’s smaller, the layout is really smaller!
This Emperor Wude wanted to completely extend his imperial power to all the prefectures and counties!
It turns out that this is the true purpose of Emperor Wude!
He wanted to take this opportunity to truly declare war on the local gentry!
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the trembling civil and military officials with solemn eyes.
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "imperial power does not go to the countryside."
To explain it with a pithy saying, "State power does not extend to counties, but only to clans. All clans are self-governing. Autonomy depends on ethics, and ethics depends on squires."
The reason why the imperial power cannot control the counties, counties and countryside is because there are clans and gentry hidden in the counties and countryside!
After the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, it began to continuously strengthen the centralization of power, abandoned the feudal system, and established the system of prefectures, counties, townships, li, and pavilions.
However, whether it was the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, or even the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the officials appointed by the imperial power ended at the county level and could not reach the countryside.
The reason lies in these gentry and these clans.
Why does Zhu Gaoxu hate Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism?
First, Cheng Zhu imprisoned people's thoughts, and second, Cheng Zhu had too many shortcomings!
In the view of those Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianists, the unity and stability of clans bound by patriarchal blood ties are crucial to the security of the country. Only when the clans of public ministers and officials are united can the concept of loyalty be established, and loyalty is the foundation of the court. , if the clan is unstable, the country will be uneasy.
Even the Su Shi family wrote to Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, saying highly of the benefits of clan unity: "Today, if we want to teach the people to be harmonious, the way must start from the clan."
In addition to Cheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism's strong advocacy, the demise of the aristocratic families in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, as well as the development and improvement of the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty, also allowed more and more common people to change their destiny through hard study in the cold window, and even shouted "Become a farmer in the morning, ascend in the evening" "Tianzitang", thus forming batches of gentry!
The scholar-bureaucrats disappeared along with the wealthy families, but the gentry came into being to fill this gap.
These local gentry are either officials who have retired from old age and returned to their hometowns, or they are highly respected elders in the official family, or they are talented people who have read books about sages and gained fame. To put it bluntly, they all have a common identity, that is, they are landlords and rich people!
These people are the gentry!
Although China gradually implemented a centralized system of power during its imperial period, due to China's vast territory and large population, the emperor would be powerless even if he wanted to fully dominate specific local affairs.
Therefore, among the lowest rural areas, specific local affairs were often dominated by the gentry class, thus forming a local clan autonomy system in which "the imperial power did not extend to the county, but only the clans under the county."
But these clans’ autonomy relies on ethics and morals, not Ming laws and regulations!
And their ethics and morals are all decided by the gentry!
In other words, the real master of the countryside of the Ming Dynasty was not Zhu Gaoxu, the Ming Emperor, but the clans and gentry!
Clan gentry successfully filled the power vacuum below the county level.
However, their power is firstly "informal power" and secondly "relative" autonomy. In the face of large-scale national policies, they still have to be under the jurisdiction of county-level officials.
In other words, the power of the gentry was not recognized by the court!
However, the imperial court had to rely on them to maintain local security, which was a disguised recognition of their existence.
For example, the county magistrates of the Ming Dynasty all took office in other places, but when they arrived in the local county, they were alone and had to rely on the local gentry clan to cooperate with him, the county magistrate, to implement the court's policies and complete the tasks assigned by the superior officials!
I have to admit that this is a very sad thing, but he is the true portrayal of Daming County Magistrate!
As a result, a large number of local county officials either chose to collude with the local gentry, or they pretended to be aloof and were completely ignored by the local gentry. They could only be a mascot who was deaf to what was going on outside the window and watched indifferently!
In addition, by annexing fields, these clan gentry controlled the voice of local people and the lifeblood of local people!
In other words, the local gentry is the local emperor, their local fields are their territory, and their local people are their subjects!
Zhu Gaoxu wanted to implement the idea of dividing the land into acres, wanted to get rid of the clan gentry, and wanted to equalize land taxes and levies. These clan gentry were insurmountable difficulties!
The best solution to this is to let the imperial power go to the counties or even the countryside!
Local clan gentry can collude with local officials to cover up each other!
However, officials from central to local levels will not do this.
They have a bright future and will not ruin their lives just because of some interests!
Furthermore, the Third Law Department will take the lead in stationing in the local area to build a local supervision system. After all this is completed, the court will send other agencies to station in the area. This can also greatly reduce official corruption and bribery.
The Three Law Divisions were stationed in local areas to build a supervisory system, followed closely by the Seven Ministries of the Imperial Court, extending their power to the state level!
When Yang Shiqi successfully pilots the new policy in the five Jiangnan provinces, he can officially implement the new policy nationwide. At that time, these central departments and agencies stationed in local areas will become the most powerful weapons for the implementation of the new policy. Yang Shiqi will not be like now. We have to abduct some scholars from Jiangnan!
All in all, Zhu Gaoxu did all this with only one target in mind, and that was the local gentry!
After all, things like clan are based on bloodline, so they can exist, but they can't be too big, and they can't have too many!
As for the gentry, it’s better to clean up a batch first!
If there are too many gentry and too few fields, the people's lives will be very difficult and the corvee and tax burden will be too heavy!
Cleaning up a group from time to time, dividing the fields they occupied and returning them to the people is an effective way to extend the life of the dynasty.
Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that after his reforms, it would not be long before Zhu Zhanhe or his grandson came to the throne, and tomorrow there would be batches of gentry and gentry appearing everywhere in the world!
This is something that no one can stop. As long as the imperial examination is still there and the court is still there, there will always be gentry!
Even though Zhu Gaoxu now abolished the academic privileges of scholars, he tried his best to make the gentry and gentry bear the same burden of corvee and taxes as the common people.
But the problem is that power is a good thing, it can make people become superiors!
At that time, we can only hope that the Ming Emperor is a wise emperor and will follow his example as a martial emperor and launch another great purge to extend the life of the Ming Dynasty!
