In the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing Inspection Bureau was divided into Northern Inspection and Southern Inspection, and it was also divided into two categories: self-examination for those above the fourth rank and court examination for those below the fifth rank. In other words, the inspection methods for officials of different grades are also different. Therefore, people at that time said: "The ministers are different from the minor ministers, and they have their own rules for advancement and retreat."
This rule is that "the fourth rank and above and the Hanlin Academy bachelor's degree should be reported by themselves; the remaining officials of the fifth rank and the subordinate fifth rank of the other yamen halls, according to the annual events, the headquarters, together with the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the officials of the yamen hall Investigate and report separately to make a decision."
Officials of the fourth rank and above and Hanlin bachelors completed the Beijing inspection process by submitting their reports to the emperor and waiting for the emperor's decision; while officials of the fifth rank and below were jointly held by the Ministry of Personnel and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. be inspected.
Yang Wei was in charge of the Northern Inspection Service and Hai Rui was in charge of the Southern Inspection Service. In essence, they were conducting "departure and stay inspections" for officials below the fifth rank of the Chief Secretary (province) under the control of the two capitals. The reason why Wang Xijue was worried about Hai Rui was not He was worried that Hai Rui would directly do something to him, but was worried about being implicated.
As mentioned many times before, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was characterized by not only teacher-student relationships, but also township-party relationships, and now there are even factional relationships. Wang Xijue was one of the pillars of the Xin School, so it was normal for many of his disciples to be assigned to the yamen in Nanjing.
If a large number of Wang Xijue's disciples are deposed in the capital inspection, it will inevitably attract the attention of both the government and the public. At this point, the Practical School will most likely strike while the iron is hot and begin to violently impeach Wang Xijue himself, and things will get out of hand.
However, the inspection of officials below the fifth rank is always more complicated, and there are still many procedures to go through, so I will not go into details at this time. Let's talk about the most convenient "minister" self-report, especially the first "battle" between Dinghai and Jingcha triggered by Bei Cha's self-report.
The so-called self-reporting means that "officials from the two capitals meet for inspection every six years, and all officials with grades four or above are ordered to self-report (dismissal of their duties). Those who are professional will be retained, and those who are not will be dismissed."
All officials' self-reports were "not reviewed by the subordinates, but reported to the superiors", that is, the officials submitted their self-reports directly to the emperor.
There is a certain order for self-reporting. The officials in charge of self-reporting before the court hearing should proceed in the order of "first the headquarters, then the main hall of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and then the left and right halls." Other officials mostly report themselves after the court review is completed, which is the so-called "self-report after the inspection, first the cabinet, then the second-grade hall officials of each yamen, then the third-grade, and then the fourth-grade".
But it must be said here that the rules are rules. In fact, starting from the Wanli period, some cabinet ministers and other ministers in the Ming Dynasty did not strictly follow the rule of "self-reporting after inspection", but submitted their own reports before the inspection.
For example, in the original historical inspection of Beijing in February of the 21st year of Wanli, as early as the 23rd of the first lunar month, Wang Xijue, the assistant minister of the cabinet, submitted a self-report. Another example is the Beijing inspection in February of the third year of Tianqi. The assistant minister of the cabinet, Ye Xianggaogen, submitted his own statement as early as the eighth day of the first lunar month.
This year is particularly different. The inspections in Beijing, which usually take place in February, have been postponed to nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival due to the rebellion in the northwest. Many things have to be done early, so senior officials have to make their presentations in advance.
The reason why the Ming dynasty ordered officials of fourth rank and above and bachelors of the Hanlin Academy to self-examine and obtain official reports from the superior officials in the imperial censorship was because almost all officials of fourth rank and above were officials of the nine ministers, big and small, and could be established in the court at ordinary times. The emperor met with the emperor to discuss government affairs, so the emperor had a preliminary understanding of each official.
In addition, in order to show respect for high-ranking officials, officials of the fourth rank and above are not allowed to be tried in the same court as lower-ranking officials below the fifth rank. The academicians of the Hanlin Academy are themselves "selected by Tsinghua University", and "officials are academicians, and their duties are to discuss thoughts", so they do not need to participate too much in the handling of government affairs; in addition, academicians are closely associated with the emperor, and their performance will inevitably be affected. The emperor knew it, so there was no need to be inspected by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Of course, in fact, the self-statements of officials above the fourth rank and Hanlin bachelors are not always the same, but are customized after a period of repetition.
There are no relevant records of the self-statements of the relevant officials in the capital inspection before the fourth year of Chenghua. It was only in the fourth year of Chenghua that there was a record of "the ministers of the two capitals Xu Ling from Chen Xiuzhi". However, this was not a custom made by Chen Chen. It was only done occasionally under the advice of Yan Guan. Moreover, it is unclear who the so-called "ministers" are. Not expressly stated.
"In February of the tenth year of Hongzhi, the Ministry of Personnel inspected the officials in the capital, and asked the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect the officials below the fifth rank in Beijing as usual... The superiors followed. In addition, the imperial censor Zheng Weiheng and others reported that if you want to examine the ministers at the same time, please visit the two capitals. For officials of the fourth rank or above, they are ordered to present themselves. The Shang said: "The superior officials of the two capital halls do not need to present themselves."
It can be seen that until the 10th year of Hongzhi, ministers were still outside the capital. Self-reporting was still not a fixed procedure for the capital. Even if officials petitioned, the emperor would not accept it. It was not until the fourth year of Zhengde that there was a clear stipulation in the imperial edict issued by the imperial inspectors: "Officials above the fourth rank in the hall will present their orders themselves." Since then, officials of fourth rank and above have made self-examinations at the Beijing Inspection Center.
Unlike officials of the fourth rank and above who went from not reporting themselves to reporting themselves according to regulations, the Hanlin Academy bachelor's degree went through a process of changing from an officer under inspection to an official reporting himself. As early as the fourth year of Chenghua’s imperial inspection, Ke Qian, then in charge of the Hanlin Academy, requested that only the subordinate officials of the academy be inspected together with the cabinet on the grounds that the academy’s subordinate officials “had no performance records to examine”, and obtained the constitutional Zong approved it, but during the inspection this year, none of the officials of the Hanlin Academy were demoted.
The thirteenth year of Chenghua also followed the old rules of the fourth year of Chenghua. However, perhaps because the Beijing inspections hosted by the Hanlin Academy in conjunction with the cabinet were not very effective, in the first year of Hongzhi, the Ministry of Civil Affairs began to participate in inspections of Hanlin Academy officials. However, this move aroused objections from the Hanlin Academy scholars. During the tenth year of Hongzhi's imperial inspection, Yang Shouzi, the Hanlin Academy scholar in charge, wrote to Xiaozong:
Both the minister and Wang Kuo, the scholar in charge of Zhanshi Mansion, should listen to the ministry's inspection. However, ministers and other ministers each have their own subordinates. When they go to meet with the Ministry of Civil Affairs to examine their subordinates, they will sit in the hall. When I came to the imperial court to be a fake bachelor, I served a banquet to celebrate my success. I was in the fourth grade of my class. I drove to Yong in my chariot and sat in the Yilun Hall. I was in the third grade. This is the story. If the current four grades are not involved in the inspection, then the bachelor should not be involved either. Officials such as ministers lecture, read and write, whether they are praised or not is in the holy mirror, it is not yet to be investigated.
Xiaozong felt that what he said was true, so he followed Yang Shouzhi's advice. From then on, "all officials and scholars will report it when they encounter inspections." "History of the Ming Dynasty" also said: "A scholar does not participate in inspections and only keeps his shame (site)."
Since the senior officials are the first to report themselves this year, then according to the remaining rules, that is, "the cabinet comes first, the second-rank officials of each yamen, the third-rank, and the fourth-rank officials". It's all the same: self-deprecating. The emperor's approval was also very routine, all "warm words of comfort, no words".
When "the second-ranking official of each yamen" came to report himself, Gao Pragmatic also reported that he was not responsible for his duties.
"The Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs is pragmatic and sincerely writes:
Because he has shown himself unworthy of his duties, he begs to be dismissed from his post so that he can observe the affairs of the state. Consultation with the Ministry of Officials, and consultation with the Ministry of Officials. This headquarters follows the old regulations and conducts strict inspections to encourage common officials. The internal inspections for officials of the fourth rank and above should be reported by themselves. The headquarters of all government officials will inspect together with the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Nanjing still conducts unified inspections and implements them.
Because the title is entrusted to the emperor, and the ministers are prepared for consultation, except for the officials in Beijing who should inspect the officials, and the imperial minister should report the regulations together with the inspection, the minister's regulations should be reported by himself.
The minister was an official from Xinzheng, Henan Province, and was admitted as a Jinshi in the eighth year of Wanli. He first compiled for the Hanlin Academy and was the chief author of the conference. Because he was not careful at first, he was sent to Guangxi to patrol. He returned to his post to quell the chieftain rebellion and pacify Pinnan. He was sent to Tumote as an envoy, and thanks to the emperor Hongfu, he wrote the map. We captured Xin Ai and promoted the army in southern Liaoning; with the great victory in southern Liaoning, he was promoted to governor of eastern Liaoning; later in the year, he returned to Beijing and served as Minister of Rongzheng; at the beginning of this year, due to the incident of the Northwest War, he was appointed as the manager of seven towns and the military governor; North Korea, changed to this position.
I've been hit by a traitor like this before. I don't know what I'll get in return. I've been attached to him for many years, and I want to kill Weichen. Bi Zhi Sang Yu, holding simple loyalty in vain, and looking down on short and long, is the result of a crooked scholar, and faith is not worthy of receiving greatness.
If Chen Li can't do it, the banquet should be stopped. The magistrate is only twenty-five years old. He is in charge of the country's wealth and the world is suspicious of him. People in the past sighed and didn't know what to do. The burden will be deepened day by day, so we need to be very vigilant.
The minister is young, has weak morals, and has little talent and experience. Therefore, he was impeached when he first took office. Kuang Chen's thinking is that today's wealth and wealth are all related to farmers. This is not the original intention of the two ancestors. Only by paying commercial taxes to light farmers' taxes can we emphasize agriculture. This heart and thought are never easy, so it is difficult to be of the same mind as my colleagues.
If the superiors cannot resolve the concerns of the saints and the superiors, and if the subordinates cannot gain the forgiveness of their colleagues, then those who pay more attention to them today will no longer be called such. I will ask you to depose me first.
Fu Qi Chen has given up the gift, so that China and foreign countries can know the Ming Dynasty's laws and regulations, and he can ignore punishments. The work he has done to sharpen his ministers should be no less than fresh. I have no responsibility to wait for the crime to come, so I have a plan for this. I sent a special official, He Chenlian, to hear the memorial and Fuhou's edict. "
Gao Pragmatic's "Self-statement of Inadequacy of Responsibilities" is very typical in terms of format.
The first sentence of "Zi Chen Shu" begins with self-statement of name and official title. This is not much different from general memorials, so I won't go into details. From the second sentence onwards, the characteristics of Jingcha begin to show.
Take Gao Pingshi's article as an example. The second sentence is "To report that I have failed in my duties, I beg for dismissal so that I can observe the affairs of the officials." This sentence begins to show differences depending on the official's status.
Because Gao Jingshi himself is already a senior official in the Hubu Hall and has the right to fill in the testimonials for the department in the censorship, so his memorial is called "Begging for Dismissal" in order to review the censorship code - because if even the censorship official is Yidu was demoted for self-reporting, which obviously can play the role of re-inspecting the code system.
This is different from the previous self-declarations of incompetence by cabinet ministers. The reasons why cabinet ministers "begged for dismissal" were usually written as "Qing Zhengben".
For example, yesterday the Chief Assistant to the Cabinet, Shen Shixing, said in his statement: "In order to follow the rules, I begged to be dismissed and to be able to clean up the government." Wang Jiaping and others are also in the same situation.
The reason for this is that the cabinet is the "base of politics", and cabinet members must mention in their self-reports that they are begging to be deposed because of their incompetence in their duties. Therefore, once they are really reprimanded, it will naturally have the effect of " The role of "the foundation of Qing government".
The reasons why officials like Gao Jingshi and others were dismissed were "strict inspection", "strict planning", "public inspection" and so on. Because such officials themselves are high-ranking officials in the court, if a high-ranking official is deposed, they can naturally achieve the purpose of inspiring the subordinate ministers and setting an example to others.
The above is the normal pattern starting from Chen Shu, but if there is a Beijing inspection held due to the new emperor's accession to the throne, it will start with "begging for removal to light new political affairs", "to strictly enforce new political affairs", etc., to highlight the reason. The feeling of renewal brought about by the new emperor's accession to the throne.
The next few sentences tell the reason why Shang Zichen was so sad.
Because the Ming dynasty had relatively strict regulations on self-reporting to the imperial police, officials had to wait until the emperor issued an imperial decree regarding the imperial police before they could report themselves. If they self-reported casually, it would be considered disrespectful and disrespectful. Therefore, in the original history, when Ye Xianggao was the Prime Minister, he once said: "The officials, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the ministers all waited for this decree before they dared to express themselves."
Therefore, after stating his official name, name and description, Gao pragmatically began to explain the background of his self-presentation.
Since this year is the year of regular inspections of the capital, Gao Pragmatic quoted the official message and the emperor's imperial edict on holding the inspections in full. Firstly, to highlight his respect for the emperor and avoid any etiquette offense; secondly, to show that he was It is not presumptuous to report oneself only after receiving the edict.
If it is not the year of Beijing Cha, such as when the new emperor ascends the throne, another "template" will be used to explain the reasons for self-reporting. For example, the inspection of the capital in the first year of Longqing was carried out because of the new emperor's accession to the throne. The beginning of Gao Gong's autobiography at that time was: "There is a paragraph in the imperial edict, which was written by officials of the fourth rank and above in the six departments of the two capitals and other yamen. , taken from Shangcai, I admire this. I sincerely admire and obey the one who said it myself."
The third step in self-reporting is to introduce relevant information about yourself in detail. Because the high officials, especially those far away in Nanjing, were not well known to the emperor, and some old ministers from the previous dynasty had never even met the emperor, the emperor knew very little about the situation of the officials.
Self-reporting does not require several months of preparation in advance like court hearings, so each official can only report his place of origin, time of accession and official resume to the emperor in self-reporting, so that the emperor can have a preliminary understanding of himself. learn. But because the emperor was familiar with Gao Pragmatic, his "resume" was very simple, and he finished his legendary seven-eight-year career in just a few sentences.
This is him. When someone else gets so much credit, why should he write a big book about it, for fear that the emperor will forget it?
After you have submitted your resume, the preparations for your self-presentation have been completed. Officials can then enter into the core content of their self-statements based on their actual situation and their different political demands.
The core of self-reporting generally revolves around the sequence of "talking about favors - talking about responsibilities - complaining about incompetence - discussing meaning".
There is no exception to this pragmatic routine. It first explains the emperor's "great kindness to me, which I never know how to repay", and then talks about himself, "I am only twenty-five years old, and I am in charge of the national wealth"; Then he told that he was "young and of poor moral character, with little talent and little experience, so he was impeached when he first took office"; then he made a self-explanation, saying that the significance of his removal was to "let China and foreign countries know about the Ming Dynasty's laws and regulations, the careless punishments, and the hard work." The work of the minister should be very fresh." At this point, the core content of the self-report has been completed.
However, Gao Pragmatic's self-statement caused trouble.
The reason lies elsewhere. It lies in the fact that he clearly mentioned the current political situation in this autobiography:
"Kuang Chen's thoughts are that today's wealth and wealth are all tied to farmers. This is not the original intention of the two ancestors. Only by paying commercial taxes to light farmers' taxes can we pay more attention to agriculture. This is what I think. Breaking up is not easy, so it is difficult to be of one mind with your colleagues.
If the superiors cannot resolve the concerns of the saints and the superiors, and if the subordinates cannot gain the forgiveness of their colleagues, then those who pay more attention to them today will no longer be called such. I will ask you to depose me first. "
Good guy, you just claimed that you are not responsible for your duties, but you want to link this "disrespect" with your policy of insisting on collecting commercial taxes. You also said that you can't reach an agreement with your colleagues, so you asked the emperor to depose you. ?
what does it mean? Are you blackmailing the emperor to make a choice between you and your "colleagues"?
Therefore, as soon as Gao Pragmatic Chen Shu arrived at the General Affairs Department, officials of the Waitingxin School were immediately in an uproar when they learned about it.
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PS: It was common in history at that time for civil servants' political disputes to start from articles. However, I am not sure whether such "realism" would be a bit "too deep". Let me give it a try.
