Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 156 Unqualified Idle Official (Part [-])
Why did Shen Shixing insist that the new position of the prince's servant must go through the cabinet, and why did Longqing insist on not going to the cabinet and directly establishing it?The little prince Zhu Yijun definitely couldn't understand the reason, even Li Guifei didn't fully understand it, but Gao Wushi thought he could see one or two key points.

Shen Shixing's insistence was the opposite of Long Qingzhi's insistence, to a large extent, because both of them guessed that once the matter was reported to the cabinet, Gao Gong, the cabinet's second assistant, would definitely oppose it, and might act on behalf of Gao Gong. Sparse refusal.

It's not that Gao Gong didn't want to see his nephew promising something, he was only a few years old, and he became an official without passing a serious scientific examination, and he was the most noble official in the Imperial Academy.But the atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty was like this, Gao Gong, as Gao Yushi's elder relatives and third uncle, had to resign modestly under such circumstances, and Gao Yushi could only resign later.

You know, these days, even if the cabinet ministers are inexplicably impeached by the officials, they must submit a form to resign, and when the form is submitted, they will start to "self-suspend" and wait at home for the emperor's next words.Although generally speaking, the emperor issued an order to keep the official in nine out of ten, and sometimes even issued an order to scold the official at the same time, and what is even worse, he would directly demote, dismiss, or even exile the official, etc., but This posture of the cabinet ministers still has to be done. Although this cannot be said to be a system, it is an unspoken rule that no one will violate.

The civil servants of Ming Dynasty are so obsessed with fame, and even formed the tacit rules of civil servants all over the world.

Therefore, when Shen Shixing found that he could not persuade the emperor to give up his idea, he thought of this general method of "saving the country with a curve". However, Emperor Longqing was not a young king after all, and he could see Shen Shixing's idea, so he directly rejected this Instead, they found another way and specially set up a new one.

Gao Yushi believes that this should be the most direct and main reason, but there is another possibility that cannot be ignored, that is, Long Qing may completely trust Gao Gong personally, but he may not be vigilant about the cabinet system itself.

This kind of vigilance is inevitable for a mature emperor, and the source of vigilance is whether the cabinet minister has really become a prime minister.

As we all know, in the Ming Dynasty, there was no prime minister after the Hu Weiyong case.Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang abolished Zhongshu Province in the 13th year of Hongwu on the grounds that the prime ministers of the past dynasties took power for granted.He also ordered the world: "In the future, the successor will not be allowed to establish a prime minister. If the ministers dare to request the establishment, the civil and military officials will immediately impeach and punish them severely."

However, the prime minister may not be set up, but someone has to do what the prime minister does. Zhu Yuanzhang himself is a workaholic, and he can arrange the prime minister's affairs by himself, but it is impossible for all subsequent emperors to do this.So at the beginning of Yongle, Chengzu Zhu Dijian Ren Xie Jin, Huang Huai and other seven people entered the Wenyuan Pavilion to prepare for consultants and participate in maintenance, and the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty took shape.

After Renxuan, the development of the cabinet continued to show that it was inextricably linked with the prime minister system. This connection is not only reflected in people's title of "prime minister" for cabinet scholars, or the cabinet ministers' awareness of prime ministers , and more importantly, the power of the prime minister, as an indispensable force in the Ming Dynasty regime, can be seen in the cabinet in various manifestations of reviving the dead.

In fact, in Gao Pragmatism's view, generally speaking, the so-called prime minister should have two requirements: must have the right to discuss power, and must have the power to supervise the execution of officials.The former includes entering the palace to discuss state affairs with the emperor and making suggestions.The latter refers to the prime minister overseeing the implementation of the decision after the decision is made, as well as the examination, dismissal, rewards and punishments after the implementation.

In addition, the prime minister should open the mansion and equip his subordinates.Under the autocratic monarchy, there is no office to collect and master materials, not only can't supervise the implementation of hundreds of officials, but also can only talk empty words when discussing politics with the emperor, and it is impossible to put forward wise political opinions.Therefore, discussing the power of government, supervising the executive power of hundreds of officials, and opening the government by the prime minister are the three basic prerequisites for discussing the prime ministerization of the cabinet system in the Ming Dynasty.

Although the cabinet during the Yongle period "did not only use calligraphy and ink as meritorious service", in the end of Yongle, the cabinet "had no official positions, no autocratic divisions, and no related affairs between divisions", and the rank of cabinet ministers was no more than five ranks.Therefore, the Yongle Dynasty basically maintained the pattern of "separation of six ministers" since the 13th year of Hongwu in the central auxiliary government system.

During the Renxuan period, the cabinet ministers were promoted to Sangu, ranking from the first rank, and the official rank surpassed the Liuqing; Renzong first promoted the scholar Yang Rong to be the Minister of the Ministry of Industry.Since then, all those who entered the cabinet have been promoted to Shangshu one after another, so "the cabinet position is gradually respected".

Next came the Yingzong Dynasty, "The scholars of the Jin Dynasty, Shangshu, Bao, and Fu, had respected grades, lived close to each other, and Lunyan commented, and the timing of the ruling was drafted by the vote. He is not the prime minister's name."

The plan for voting began with Renzong, but the system had not yet formed at that time, and ministers were still ordered to discuss major political events.Yingzong was only nine years old when he succeeded to the throne, and it was inconvenient for the Empress Dowager, who was actually in charge, to discuss with the ministers in person, so the cabinet drafting system was basically formed. "For all Chinese and foreign memorials, Xu (cabinet) writes in ink (drawing out opinions on handling) with small notes, and pastes each side to advance, which is called the article." decision making.The so-called "the position of the cabinet is the same as that of the ancient prime minister, and it is based on its master vote."

At the same time, the emperor continued to increase officials and ranks to his trusted cabinet ministers. "In the age of Tianshun, the virtuous are the first and assistant, and Lu Yuan and Peng Shi are the assistants, but the virtuous are the most special appointments."During the Hongzhi period, Qiu Jun entered the cabinet as the Minister of Rites. In the shift of the court, Xiaozong Ding Qiujun was above Wang Shu, the Minister of Li.The cabinet at this time has begun to surpass the six ministries in terms of status.

In the history of Gao Yushi's previous life, from Jiajing to the beginning of Wanli, it was a period of consolidation and comprehensive development of the cabinet.Not only did the cabinet ministers "rank the ranks above the six departments", but there also appeared a group of chief assistants with power in the court, such as Zhang Cong, Xia Yan, Yan Song, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng. They could all say "although there is no The name, the real job."

For example, if Zhang Cong "resides in the cabinet, he will arrange the six ministers and become the prime minister".Before Jiajing, the chief minister of the cabinet took the lead in drawing up votes, and all government affairs were jointly discussed by the cabinet ministers. The chief minister was only the chief writer. By".

Yan Song served in the cabinet for 21 years. "Stealing the joy and anger of the master is a blessing." There is Your Majesty".

The above are all things that have happened in the Ming Dynasty where Gao Yushi is now, but in the original history, it was even more exaggerated in the early years of Wanli: the first assistant Zhang Juzheng, who served as the cabinet for 16 years, "the power of the handle is almost as good as the master of the earthquake" ", "The six ministers are waiting for the color to find out the purpose. If the six Cao officials are inferior, they will also be wary and hold their breath, and dare not have similarities and differences." and also".At this time, the cabinet had completely surpassed the six ministries in terms of power and status, just like the ancient prime minister system.

Gao Yushi used to think that history books underestimated Emperor Longqing, but after these two simple encounters, especially Longqing's performance today, Gao Yushi suddenly felt: Maybe even I underestimated Longqing!He insisted so much that he refused to hand over the small matter of newly setting up the crown prince to accompany him to the cabinet. Not to mention that it was impossible because he valued my high practical ability, and it was probably not just because he wanted to save face for the crown prince, but because Yes...he refuses to let the power of the cabinet further expand in his hands!
(End of this chapter)