However, if Longqing was unwilling to further expand the power of the cabinet, how could he explain why he allowed Gao Gong to concurrently serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel as a bachelor of Wuyingdian? You must know that the Minister of Civil Affairs is known as the "Heavenly Official" and is in charge of personnel power. However, Li Chunfang, the chief assistant in the cabinet who is ranked before Gao Gong, dare not compete with Gao Gong, and Gao Gong is equivalent to mastering administrative power.
It stands to reason that this power itself is already very huge, but Emperor Longqing was still dissatisfied. He even let someone recommended by Gao Gong hold the seal of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. To a certain extent, this was equivalent to giving up the final review power. Gave high arches too!
In the original history, everyone must admit that during the reign of Emperor Longqing, anyone who opposed Gao Gong would bow down and step down without exception.
Why is it always said that Gao Gong is the only minister in Long Qing's mind who can be completely trusted? This is the reason: Long Qing was not only able to completely and completely delegate power to Gao Gong, but also supported Gao Gong to the extent that "anyone who opposes Mr. Gao is one who opposes me."
So, does Gao Pragmatic's speculation that Long Qing is unwilling to continue to increase the power of the cabinet form a paradox with this kind of trust? He thinks not. The reason is that Long Qing does not trust the system of the cabinet, and he does not want to violate Taizu's original intention of not having a prime minister. What he trusts is Gao Gong, and only Gao Gong!
There is a big difference. If Long Qing really trusts the cabinet system itself and subconsciously believes that having a prime minister in a practical sense is a good thing, then he should not care who will be the powerful "prime minister." However, the fact is that before Xu Jie "disrespected the people at home" and showed signs of gaining power, Long Qing decisively asked him to go home and retire. It can be seen that in his mind, Gao Gong can hold great power, but the cabinet itself cannot have such a practice. The power of the position of chief assistant must still be limited to "auxiliary" and not "chief".
Therefore, he would rather let Gao Gong concurrently serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and would rather appoint the chief minister of rites recommended by Gao Gong, and use these actions to greatly strengthen Gao Gong's power and prestige, rather than directly handing these powers to the cabinet. Because as long as these powers are separated, if there is no such person as Gao Gong in the future, the powers will still be dispersed and there will be no interference with the emperor. But if these powers evolve into the power of the cabinet, then the person in charge of the cabinet, such as the chief minister, may truly become the prime minister.
You must know that the current cabinet already has power to discuss. Some people regard the cabinet as "Zhongshu Province" and call cabinet ministers "prime ministers". This is mainly because of this. The power of the cabinet is mainly reflected in the draft, and its document operation mechanism basically has three aspects.
First of all, for all political matters requested and approved by the six ministries, although the cabinet has not been "cleared" in advance in the system, it does not prepare advisers afterwards, nor does it mean that it may not be consulted. Instead, all must be drafted by the cabinet, and all It can be "refuted". In addition to the above-mentioned six titles, all the memorials in the country were submitted to the cabinet for approval and voting.
Secondly, the various departments report matters and close the cabinet. In December of the third year of Jingtai's reign, Emperor Jing ordered the Ministry of Personnel to appoint officials of various disciplines. The Ministry of Personnel "put two books at a time, sealed with the Ministry's seal... one is sent to the Director of Ceremonies for a brief note, and the other is sent to the Cabinet for advisors." This broke the situation. There is an old rule that "the ministers should not shut down the cabinet when they report it". With the formation of the cabinet system, departments generally have to discuss with the cabinet to reach an understanding before handling major issues. For example, Wang Qiong, the official secretary of the Ministry of Personnel during the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, said: "The power of the cabinet is gradually getting heavier, which is no different from the design of the prime minister. The power of the six ministries is gradually getting lighter, and everything is done according to the decree of the cabinet."
Thirdly, the governors, governors, general soldiers, and patrol censors outside the country directly wrote to the cabinet to ask for instructions. Especially since Zhengde, governors have written to the cabinet one after another in the form of unsealed posts, asking for instructions on military, political, financial, and financial planning. Therefore, whenever the civil unrest subsides and border affairs become stable, without exception, the ministers in the cabinet must be rewarded for their strategizing efforts.
All the emperor's decisions are made through the above three documents. Since everything must be voted on by the cabinet, unlike the "preparatory advisers" such as Hanlin bachelors in the past, the cabinet's deliberation power is proactive and relatively stable.
In addition, cabinet votes also have a certain restrictive effect on imperial power. First of all, in terms of votes, the emperor's right to approve red votes cannot in principle go beyond the cabinet votes and act independently. The votes are approved and become administrative orders. Secondly, if the emperor takes the initiative to issue an edict or decree to deal with political affairs, as a rule, he must send it to the cabinet to "discuss whether it is possible or not." If the cabinet does not agree, theoretically it can "seal" and "execute" the edict and the edict, that is, reject the draft edict.
Xu Pu, a great scholar, once said: "Since taking the throne, there has never been any internal surrender. Fortunately, once the door is opened, there will be no escape. The ministers dare not obey the imperial edict." In the early years of Jiajing, the great scholar Yang Tinghe "featured four people who were returned to the imperial court. Play dozens and dozens of chapters."
Once again, the cabinet ministers revealed the secrets to express the cabinet's views and positions, and the emperor had to pay attention to them. Disclosure of secrets is one of the ways in which the cabinet reports on matters. “The ministers at home and abroad work together to seal matters. Outside there is the General Affairs Department, and internally there is the Huijimen. They all have registers, but the cabinet alone can reveal secrets. ... The outer court has a thousand words. , it is better to ban secret phrases."
Through voting and refutation, the cabinet can not only provide advice to the emperor, handle national government affairs, and relieve the emperor of the heavy burden; it can also cooperate with the six ministries with executive power to check and balance, improving the quality and efficiency of governance. This is the main reason why the cabinet has a trend of becoming "prime minister" and the cabinet bachelor is regarded as a "prime minister".
Of course, if the emperor does not care about face at all, he can still bypass the cabinet. For example, Jiajing always did this during the Great Rites Conference. But correspondingly, there are civil servants like Hai Rui who dare to scold the emperor and say, "No one in the world can do this." Your Majesty has been your Majesty for a long time, and all the internal and external ministers know it." Therefore, Jiajing, a very capable emperor, became the representative of a foolish emperor in later generations.
Of course, Long Qing had seen and understood his father's skills. He certainly didn't want to be known as a faint emperor in the future, so his actions were very cautious: Gao Jingshi, the crown prince's companion, was newly established by me as the emperor, but Although this position is listed in the Hanlin Academy, it has no rank. According to convention, it is the so-called "not in the mainstream". For such a trivial matter, you can't accuse me of messing around, right?
As for his merit in dedicating books, although I gave him a bachelor's degree, it was a "fake bachelor's degree" - the "fake" here is not true or false, it is equivalent to "honorary bachelor's degree" - not the actual one. Taking up the position of Bachelor of Attendance is purely for the sake of the prince's reputation. You can't say that I'm messing around, can you?
It was precisely because Gao Jingshi understood this that he felt that not only some people in the historical field of later generations had underestimated Long Qing, but he might have underestimated this kind king before - his kindness may not be fake, but Kindness does not mean lack of means.
Look how well he did today. By setting up a new unworthy official, he not only regained the prince's face, but also showed his favor to Gao Gong. By the way, he tested the bottom line and attitude of the civil servants towards the expansion of imperial power, and even He showed his prominence as an emperor in a small way.
awesome.
