Emperor Zhu Jianyan of the Ming Dynasty stayed in the palace for a few days. Together with his father, the Supreme Emperor Zhu Zhongliang, they analyzed and discussed the direction of subsequent reforms based on Zhu Jingyuan's suggestions.
Although Zhu Jingyuan is special, Zhu Jingyuan's suggestions are still just suggestions, and the final decision must be made by Zhu Jianyan.
Many of Zhu Jingyuan's idealistic ideas were actually often pushed into practical plans by Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang.
For example, Zhu Jingyuan believes that the actual grade of Jiuqing can be given to the first rank first, or directly to the first rank, and it is recommended to directly give the first rank.
This is Zhu Jingyuan's habitual generosity, while Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang are habitually generous.
"Stingy". Zhu Jianyan's natural choice is to first confer Jiuqing with the first rank of Cong. After three or six years, or even when he is ready to retire, he will be promoted to the first rank.
"Retired with honor". At the same time, as the people who knew the Ming Dynasty's political system best, Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang considered more details.
For example, after establishing the Great Region and taking charge of Jiuqing, how to ensure that the actual status of the local provinces directly under the jurisdiction is higher than that of the Great Region?
If Jiu Qing is in charge of the central government offices of several courts and is also the corresponding head of a large domain, will Jiu Qing be biased towards the large domain he is in charge of when dealing with daily affairs?
If no targeted adjustments are made, the affairs of the so-called provinces directly under the central government will still be sent to the corresponding competent department after the Jiuqing in charge is established, and then transferred to the Jiuqing in charge of the corresponding affairs.
Provinces directly under the central government need to contact all departments, and it is all Jiuqing who ultimately handles their own affairs.
On the other hand, the affairs of the large domain that Jiuqing is in charge of are directly sent to the designated Jiuqing in charge through six classified officials in charge of the governor, governor, punishment officer, and censor determined locally in the large domain.
In this case, Zhu Jianyan felt that if it was Jiu Qing, even if he did not intentionally favor the region he was in charge of, he would definitely be more familiar with the officials in the region he was directly in charge of, and would have direct decision-making power on affairs without the need to go to them. Others, as a matter of course, prioritize these matters.
This will also allow Jiuqing in charge to obtain information corresponding to the large domain.
"Phase power". Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang prohibited the establishment of prime ministers, and his original intention was to merge the power of prime ministers into the hands of the emperor. The essence of the power of the prime minister is that there is another power outside the monarch and within the bureaucracy.
"Universal decision-making authority." Decision-making power is important, but
"General" is more important, that's another bureaucracy
"core". The bureaucracy has its own core and can handle most things without the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang transferred the power of prime minister to the emperor, merged the general decision-making power of the entire court, and concentrated it all on the emperor.
Except for the emperor, no individual in the court had the power to make decisions on most government affairs.
All officials are only decision-makers under certain limited conditions, within a certain category.
All the affairs of the entire country and the entire court have the ultimate goal of gathering together, the emperor is the only core of the Ming Dynasty.
Prior to this, the imperial bureaucracy of China's traditional feudal dynasties usually had at least two decision-making cores.
At least there is a main core emperor, and one or more secondary cores are prime ministers. The imperial court is missing a main core, or the main core is irresponsible. When other secondary cores operate, they can still maintain the basic integrity of the system and maintain the normal operation of the system.
But since Zhu Yuanzhang, the core of the central court bureaucracy has only been the emperor.
Without the core of the emperor, the system is directly divided into several parts, and normal interaction between them cannot be completed.
The court and bureaucracy would no longer be able to function normally, at least not legally and continuously.
Zhu Yuanzhang used a complete set of top-level structures to block the possibility of the emergence of a second core and truly pushed centralization to the limit.
Since Zhu Yuanzhang, there has been no de facto powerful minister. Even if the emperor is completely indifferent, it is an indispensable part of maintaining the operation of the court.
Even if the existing emperor is killed, another emperor must be established, otherwise the entire system will still not be able to function.
In the era before the Renwu Dynasty, there were many great scholars.
"Biao plan", the emperor's direct decree is called
"The purpose" may not be implemented. But this does not mean
"Zhongzhi" is an illegal document in the modern sense. The draft is not a necessary condition for the legality of the imperial edict. The imperial edict and the emperor's will are the law.
Officials who refuse to comply are effectively resisting the order. At that time, the bachelors were equivalent to the representatives and leaders of the bureaucracy. Their refusal to vote showed that the bureaucracy did not support the emperor's decision.
This situation shows that the imperial power and the civil servant group did not reach an agreement, and the emperor wanted to forcefully promote what he wanted to do.
As the bureaucracy and civil service groups continued to expand, the bureaucracy was resisting imperial power by refusing to execute.
Not voting is a signal sent by the leader of the bureaucracy to the outside world, which is equivalent to shouting to all officials: "No one is allowed to act according to the emperor's instructions. Whoever works for the emperor will be rewarded by you in the future!" Subordinates The reason why officials did not implement it was actually because they were worried that they would be squeezed out by the bureaucracy in the future, rather than because the imperial edict was illegal.
If the emperor has subordinates that he can fully control, and if the emperor's controller has the executive power to independently implement his own will, he will not care at all whether the imperial edict is drafted or not.
The process of Emperor Shizu coming to power was the process of re-establishing his own team, which also directly broke the so-called voting convention.
Zhu Jianyan, as the emperor, and Zhu Zhongliang, who had been the emperor, were both more sensitive to the power of the prime minister than the ministers.
So after realizing this problem, they made a decision quickly. While establishing a central court in charge of the Nine Ministers, the decision-making scope of the Nine Ministers must be adjusted and clarified.
Jiu Qing can still only be the decision-maker within a certain range, and is not the final decision-maker. Zongbo is equivalent to the former Minister of Rites before the Renwu Dynasty, responsible for culture, etiquette, and education. Zhongzai is equivalent to the former Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, responsible for the construction of the bureaucracy. Sima is equivalent to the former Minister of War, responsible for the military budget, and military construction is placed in the Dudu Mansion. .
Situ is in charge of finance and taxation, Sikong is in charge of industry and construction, Sikou is in charge of legal construction, etc. In the end, the distribution was basically based on Zhu Zhongliang's ideas and the traditional responsibilities of the nine ministers.
At the same time, adjustments were made based on the actual situation, such as removing the civil affairs from Situ, who was in charge of finance, and assigning it to the Tai Cui.
At the same time, Jiu Qing cannot be the true chief official of a large domain, and cannot have the authority to be in charge of the large domain.
"Universal decision-making authority." Before the Renwu Dynasty and after Zhu Yuanzhang, although the general decision-making power of the central government office was completely obtained, local decision-making power was often unified in the hands of the officials in charge.
Governors and governors were some form of local general decision-makers. After the Renwu Dynasty, local decision-making powers were once again separated. The governors and governors, who had been basically fixed, gradually returned to the original mode of assigning special tasks and canceling them.
Independent judicial and supervisory agencies have also been established at both the prefecture and county levels, so that the prefect and county magistrates no longer dominate.
Now, of course, it is impossible to hand over the general decision-making power of a large domain to the nine ministers in charge. Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang were not even prepared to give Jiuqing the direct decision-making power on any large-area affairs.
The main duties of the Nine Ministers, which are also the official first duties, are determined to be the affairs of several central government offices to which they are assigned jurisdiction.
They would become members of the highest decision-making group of the central court under the emperor. But he is not the chief officer in charge of a large area.
The chief officials of large regions are still the governors, governors, criminal officials, and censors. Most of the local routine affairs should be decided directly by them locally, reducing the proportion of matters involving the central court.
Otherwise, the purpose of reducing the work pressure of the central government offices will not be achieved. Among the remaining affairs that still need to be specially reported to the central court, most of the routine affairs still have to be handed over to the corresponding central government office for processing according to the procedures, and cannot be sent directly to the Jiuqing in charge.
After the establishment of the governor, protector, criminal officer, and censor of a large region, for various departments of the imperial court, it was equivalent to merging several or even dozens of provinces in this large region into a larger province.
The number of personnel that the corresponding department needs to contact has been directly reduced by an order of magnitude. Although Dayu has six chief officials, as
If the emperor who controls the "universal decision-making power" wants to directly manage a large domain, he will certainly be familiar with the situation of all fifty-four chief officials in all large domains.
However, every department of the imperial court has no general decision-making power and is only responsible for specific types of affairs.
The people they actually need to contact are only the corresponding ones among the six chief officials in each region. The Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for civil affairs. It only needs to contact the governor in charge. Those who often deliver official documents must be the clerks under the governor. There is no need to care about who the governor is. It is impossible to know how many staff there are under the governor.
The Ministry of War is responsible for the military budget. It only needs to contact the governor and does not need to care who the governor is. The Ministry of Punishment and the Metropolitan Procuratorate only need to contact the sentencing officer, and do not need to worry about government and military affairs.
For each department, the nine major domains are nine more contacts, and the increase is completely acceptable.
On the other hand, the supervisors of Dayu are only in charge of a certain stall, and there are still only a few departments that need to be contacted.
Therefore, there will be no problem in sending large-scale affairs directly to the department in charge. After these matters reach the corresponding department, those that require Jiu Qing to make a decision will be sent to the corresponding Jiu Qing.
Jiuqing is also in charge of several departments. They mainly deal with the ministers of only five or six departments, plus at most a dozen ministers, and a few clerical staff who often come to deliver documents.
They can also cope with it relatively easily. Finally, only the special matters specifically listed by Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan that the emperor believed should and were necessary to be directly informed by the emperor, and that needed to be handed over directly for decision-making, could be sent directly to the emperor through the nine ministers in charge of the great domain.
The decision-making power of these matters remained in the hands of the emperor, rather than being left to the nine ministers in charge.
Jiuqing, who was in charge of the great domain, was the direct communication bridge between the emperor and the great domain, and the intermediary between the emperor and the great domain.
There were too many officials in the large domain. They went to the emperor directly, but the emperor couldn't handle them, so he asked Jiuqing, who was in charge of them, to act as a relay.
In the end, Zhu Jianyan characterized the direct relationship between Jiuqing and the people in charge of the great domain as the role of conveyance, coordination, and comfort.
In most cases, there will be no direct contact between the two parties. Only under very special circumstances will the relationship truly manifest itself.
This relationship is not important in normal times, but it is very important in special times. They were the channels for officials from large regions to skip the central functional departments and go directly to the emperor.
For the emperor, this was a means of checking and balancing between the chief officials of the large regions and the bureaucrats of the central ministries. It was also a means of checking and balancing between the nine ministers who had great real power.
If the central department corresponding to the responsibilities is not responsible, and the Jiuqing in charge of the corresponding department is not responsible, the officials in the large region can bring the matter to the emperor through the Jiuqing in charge of their own large region.
The person in charge of Jiu Qing and the affairs department corresponding to Jiu Qing will not be the same person in most cases. After Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang considered the positioning of the actual establishment of Jiuqing, they continued to consider the positioning of the local directly-governed provinces.
The overall goal is to improve their status and ensure that they have a true direct status. The simplest and most straightforward solution is to upgrade officials' grades.
The local provincial chief envoys, capital commanders, inspectors, and patrol censors were all promoted to the second rank. They are on the same level as the chief officials such as the governor, protector, and punishment officer of the large region, as well as the ministers of the central government office.
The grades of middle- and lower-level bureaucrats in other directly governed provinces are also one level higher than those of large-region bureaucrats. The chief official of a large domain can send specific matters directly to the emperor by taking charge of the nine ministers.
The chief envoys, capital commanders, inspectors, and patrol censors of the directly governed provinces can also directly deliver similar matters to the cabinet and convey them to the emperor through specific cabinet bachelors.
Each cabinet grandma is responsible for receiving special reports from two or three home provinces. Of course, all decision-making power remained in the hands of the emperor.
This strategy is also a natural idea. The outer dynasty has increased the number of powerful bureaucrats who may even become first-class officials. The status of the academicians who are the emperor's personal staff should also be improved accordingly.
Therefore, Zhu Jianyan and Zhu Zhongliang also considered the adjustment of the status and responsibilities of the cabinet. Before the Renwu Dynasty, the rank of the cabinet bachelor was only the fifth rank, but under normal circumstances, he would be promoted to the second rank with the titles of Minister and Minister, and he might even be promoted to the first rank with the titles of San Gong and San Gu.
After the Renwu Dynasty, cabinet academicians were no longer given the official title of foreign dynasties, but their own grades were all mentioned as the second grade. Before retirement, they were given honorary titles according to the situation, from the first grade or the first grade.
In the future, based on the actual situation, people will be promoted to the first rank after taking office. Before retirement, they will be selectively promoted to the first rank, and they may even be given a title.
Decentralization of staff power is a reality that everyone tries to avoid, but no one can completely avoid. Although Emperor Shizu restored the cabinet's academic status to the role of aides and maintained it for decades, he did not leave behind the ancestral system that prohibited the power of the academicians.
Among the many reforms that violate the ancestral system, adding the responsibility of conveying special messages to the bachelors is not a big deal at all. There are too many bigger things than this.
If the emperor is the chairman and president, then Jiuqing will have to be established, which is equivalent to a vice president in charge of several departments.
If the former cabinet bachelor was considered the president's secretary, he might become the president's assistant in the future.
