prosperous age

Chapter 1059 1150 Nanjing Officialdom

"Master, someone from the palace came to inform me that there is an urgent letter from Yunnan. Please go back after the office is over."

Wei Guangde was handling official business in the duty room when the clerk Lu Bu tiptoed in and whispered in his ear.

"understood."

Wei Guangde didn't even raise his head, but just said it casually.

Seeing that the teacup beside him was almost empty, Lu Bu tactfully picked up the teacup and left the duty room.

Soon, the teacup with a new refill of water was brought back and placed on the side of the desk.

That was where Wei Guangde usually placed his tea when handling official business.

After finishing all this, Lu Bu carefully left the duty room. Wei Guangde was the only one left in the room, with only the occasional sound of flipping papers being heard.

An unknown amount of time had passed, but Lu Bu, who was waiting at the door, was looking around bored when he saw a servant from the Zhang residence walking quickly towards the Prime Minister's duty room.

When Zhang Juzheng was on duty, in addition to the secretaries and clerks arranged by the court, he also brought a family member to serve him.

Wei Guangde naturally didn't need it, so he let the clerk take on the job.

When the man came closer, he pointed inside the house.

Lu Bu nodded and whispered, "The master is busy inside."

"There is something going on today. The Prime Minister asked Lord Wei to come over early to discuss it."

The man also lowered his voice and whispered.

"okay, I get it."

Lu Bu nodded. Although he didn't know whether the Prime Minister had any appropriate need to convene cabinet ministers for discussion, he also knew that these matters were not something he could ask.

The man bowed to Lu Bu again, then turned and walked towards Lu Diaoyang's duty room.

Lu Bu watched the people leave, and waited for a while, then he heard Wei Guangde shouting from inside the room, "Lu Bu, come in and move this pile of memorials out."

Wei Guangde has already dealt with the memorials in hand, and his work for today is considered completed.

Lu Bu immediately stepped into the room and saw Wei Guangde sitting behind the desk.

At this time, there were two piles of processed memorials on one side of his desk, but there was another one placed in front of him. It seemed that it had been processed, but it had not been put aside.

Lu Bu quickly stepped forward and simply arranged the two piles of memorials. He glanced at the one in front of Wei Guangde and asked hesitantly, "Master, do you want to send this one away as well?"

"Just take those two piles out and ask the secretary to deal with them."

Wei Guangde said calmly.

After saying that, he picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip.

"Master, someone just came from the Prime Minister's office and said that the Prime Minister seems to have something for you to discuss, so you should go there early."

Lu Bu remembered the previous message and whispered to Wei Guangde.

"understood."

Wei Guangde nodded.

Lu Bu skillfully picked up a pile of memorials with one hand, slowly retreated to the door, and then turned around and walked out.

Wei Guangde closed his eyes slightly and rested for a while. Then he stood up, picked up the memorial in front of him and put it into his sleeve. He slowly walked out of the duty room and walked towards Zhang Juzheng.

"Brother Heqing, you are done with your work."

On the way, Wei Guangde met Lu Diaoyang who had just finished his official business, and hurriedly bowed and smiled.

"Yeah, it's been fine these past few days, there isn't much to deal with, hehe."

Lu Diaoyang smiled and bowed to Wei Guangde in return, and the two of them walked into Zhang Juzheng's duty room together.

The beginning and end of each year are the busiest times for cabinet affairs, while during the middle of the year, there are fewer things to do.

The sound of the two people talking and laughing outside the door had long been heard by Zhang Juzheng in the room. When they entered the room, Zhang Juzheng had already won.

After a brief greeting, Zhang Juzheng invited the two to sit down, asked someone to bring tea, and then said: "I invited you two here today because I have two things to discuss."

Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang did not say anything, both waiting for Zhang Juzheng's next words.

Then I heard Zhang Juzheng say, "At the beginning of the founding of the country, there were officials who served the emperor every day and recorded his speech and activities. This is actually the ancient system of the left historian recording events and the right historian recording words.

After the official system was finalized, officials such as compiler, editor, and reviewer were established in the Hanlin Academy. This was because the matters to be recorded were important, so more officials were appointed, and nothing was originally abolished.

Since the title of the position was changed, the practice of recording and annotating every day has been lost, resulting in omissions in historical documents throughout the dynasties.

Recently, we have been compiling the "Veritable Records", and we are the chief executive. All we have edited is just a collection of memorials from various departments, with some minor deletions, revisions and polishing, and then cut into a book.

As for the words in the previous column, those that are not fully included in the chapters and annotations, even if I have my own insights, I will not add any of them.

As for the unofficial history books circulating in the country, we want to collect them, but we are afraid of distortion. Therefore, many major classics and major laws are not complete, all of which is caused by the fact that the historians have neglected their duties and have not explained them.

Now it is appropriate to clarify the duties of the historian and restore the old system, with one lecturer taking turns every day to record the emperor's daily life, as well as his edicts, pardons, imperial edicts, and cabinet drafts."

The meaning of Zhang Juzheng's words was very clear. He wanted to re-establish the official who recorded the emperor's daily life, and have him take turns on duty every day. When on duty, he would be responsible for recording the emperor's daily life, words and deeds, and handling government affairs.

Qijuzhu is a record of the words and deeds of emperors in ancient China. This style of historical writing was created by Empress Mingde of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Gu Yanwu said in "Rizhilu": "In ancient times, the emperor had a left historian to record events and a right historian to record words, so as to prevent mistakes and serve as a warning to future kings. The duty of recording and annotating is still very old."

Since the Han Dynasty, almost every emperor had a daily record, but very few have been handed down, mainly because they were generally not passed on to outsiders and were only used as one of the basic materials for compiling national history.

It can be seen that the real significance of the daily records lies in the compilation of the "Veritable Records" as Zhang Juzheng just mentioned.

The previous emperors did not reinstate the official in charge of recording daily records, so Zhang Juzheng said that the compilation of the "Veritable Records" was a summary of memorials from various ministries. It is more accurate to say that it is a collection of memorials from the court rather than a "Veritable Records".

The so-called emperor's words, that is, the emperor's comments on memorials, are definitely inappropriate.

"Qijuzhu" is a record of the words and deeds of emperors in ancient times. Many people think that the historian would follow the emperor closely and record his every word and action in detail, especially the private matters of the harem.

However, in real history, it is impossible for emperors of various dynasties to really let their subjects write such gossipy and explosive diaries.

The emperor's life in the harem was probably not recorded by the daily record official, but in the "Inner Daily Records" recorded by the eunuchs.

Therefore, there should be two books recording the emperor’s daily life: "Qi Ju Zhu" and "Nei Qi Ju Zhu".

The emperor is young now, so there is naturally no mention of "The Imperial Daily Records". Otherwise, Zhang Juzheng should be in charge of it, as there is still the empress dowager in the palace.

But now when Zhang Juzheng mentioned "Qijuzhu" again, Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang looked at each other.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty, or most of the emperors in Chinese history, actually did not pay much attention to the "Qijuzhu".

The daily records originated in the Zhou Dynasty. As the concept of recording history matured in the Spring and Autumn Period, the records of the emperor's words and deeds began to expand from ritual and music activities to his political activities.

During the Han Dynasty, relevant archives and records began to be compiled into independent documents, namely "Han Zhuji".

It was not until the late Eastern Han Dynasty that the term "Qijuzhu" officially appeared in history.

The main reason why "Qijuzhu" developed so slowly was that after the Western Zhou Dynasty, emperors generally did not pay attention to it.

First, with the "collapse of rituals and music" and "reasoning with fists", the constraints of ritual and music norms on the dynasty and society became weaker and weaker. The corresponding educational effect of the king's related activities also became less and less, and the motivation to maintain relevant records was naturally insufficient.

Secondly, ancient emperors rarely met with their subjects and did not express their opinions directly to them.

The main purpose is to create a sense of mystery by making it difficult to approach and understand, thereby enhancing the majesty of imperial power.

However, recording the emperor's words and deeds would to some extent destroy this sense of mystery, so emperors were generally not enthusiastic about or resisted this.

The situation changed again during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties as imperial power began to decline.

“The emperor comes and goes, but the family remains forever” means that the emperors are no longer high and mighty, nor are they mysterious.

In order to maintain imperial power, emperors had to make excuses for themselves in every aspect.

Therefore, the "Qijuzhu", which had been neglected before, was taken out by the emperors to squeeze out its value.

By making one's words and deeds a classic, one can demonstrate and emphasize one's status.

During this period, the importance of "Qijuzhu" was increased, and the records of the emperor's "great glory" in sacrifices, filial piety, and state affairs were passed down to the world, which meant that the emperor set an example.

However, just when the "Qijuzhu" might have made significant developments, history entered the Tang Dynasty. A major event broke out in the early days of the Tang Dynasty. This was the scandal of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, killing his brother, forcing his father to usurp the throne.

In order to explain his unforgivable crimes, he helped his father reorganize and revise the "diary" to find reasons for his actions. Li Shimin also took great pains to create a situation where he was forced to protect himself.

Of course, for scholars, Li Shimin was a wise ruler, but the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" was a stain that he could not wash away.

The emperors after that also disliked the "Qijuzhu" because Li Shimin made the "Qijuzhu" famous, but ended up being despised by scholars.

During the Song Dynasty, although the "Daily Records" of each emperor were still compiled by dedicated officials, the records had to be submitted to the emperor for "revision" before they could be sent to the National History Museum for archiving.

Moreover, it became a common practice for a new emperor to check and revise the previous emperor's daily records after he ascended the throne.

The Ming Dynasty inherited the past of the previous dynasties and had established a daily record before the founding of the country, which was responsible for recording the emperor's words and deeds as well as important court affairs.

However, in the ninth year of Hongwu, the rank of the Qijuzhu was downgraded twice in just six months, which may indicate that the Ming Taizu was already dissatisfied with the position of Qijuzhu at that time and was considering whether to abolish it.

Subsequently, the Qijuzhu was abolished. However, it is worth noting that the abolition of the Qijuzhu was not long. Four years later, in the 14th year of Hongwu, the Qijuzhu was restored, but was abolished again soon after.

However, for a long time afterwards, the Ming Dynasty never re-established the official in charge of recording daily lives, and naturally there was no "Daily Records" of the Ming Dynasty emperors.

Later, in the late Hongzhi period, Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty agreed to re-establish the official in charge of recording the daily records.

However, soon after the death of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, the position of Emperor Zhengde was abolished.

In the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign, Hanlin scholar Liao Daonan requested to reinstate the daily records and let Hanlin scholars take on the job part-time, and Emperor Jiajing agreed.

But not long after, Emperor Jiajing hid in the harem and began to practice Taoism. Naturally, the Hanlin officials did not dare to go to the harem to see Emperor Jiajing, and naturally they could not record his daily life and his conversations on government affairs.

At this time, although the Hanlin Academy was nominally responsible for compiling the Emperor's "Daily Records", it was actually in name only and could only collect memorials from various departments to compile the so-called "Daily Records".

"Brother Uncle, is this the palace's intention or..."

Wei Guangde stared at Zhang Juzheng for a moment before asking.

"That's what I meant."

Zhang Juzheng was a bachelor, and he answered directly, "When your majesty visited the Imperial Ancestral Temple at the beginning of the year, I noticed that there was no Hanlin to serve as the recorder of your majesty's daily life."

Since Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun ascended the throne on the tenth day of the sixth month in the sixth year of the Longqing reign, he had been sending officials to offer sacrifices to his ancestors on his behalf for more than two years.

It was not until the seventh day of the first lunar month in the third year of the Wanli reign, when he was thirteen years old, that he visited the Taimiao in person for the first time. However, from then on until his death, he rarely visited the Taimiao in person.

Perhaps it was fate, Zhang Juzheng was already worried about this matter at this time.

However, when Wei Guangde heard it, he was quite dissatisfied.

As the emperor was young, he naturally seldom went to worship in person. But when he grew up, he would go every year.

"You can petition for this matter, but let the palace decide."

Wei Guangde knew that the daily records were not favored by the emperor, and Zhu Yijun was still young and did not understand many things.

When you grow up and know the truth, you will probably have a different attitude towards it.

"I'm here today to ask you two to correct the rules I drafted."

What Zhang Juzheng meant by "correcting" was actually to let them sign their names as well.

Since all the cabinet ministers agreed, it was naturally difficult for the palace to firmly oppose it.

It can't be considered as forcing abdication, but this attitude has been revealed, and naturally people in the palace will have to think carefully about it.

Wei Guangde glanced at Lü Diaoyang who was still thinking, and said with a smile: "But, I wonder if Uncle Brother has anything else to say?"

If Zhang Juzheng denied the first thing, he would probably look bad.

Since it was a request, Wei Guangde didn't think it was a big deal and was too lazy to care about it.

Zhang Juzheng did not ask for Lu Diaoyang's opinion because after Wei Guangde spoke, Lu Diaoyang just glanced at him and said nothing.

"The second thing is the matter of Nanjing. You two should know that the six ministries in Nanjing are idle, and the previous dynasty often appointed one person to take charge of the ministry.

The Ministry of Personnel said that there are many vacancies for the six ministers and assistant ministers in Nanjing. How should they be filled? "

Zhang Juzheng said again.

Wei Guangde glanced at Zhang Juzheng. In fact, he had already made his attitude clear. He would first follow the old rules. What else could he say?

However, the six ministries in Nanjing did not have much to do, and the real important matters were all reported to the capital.

The government office in Nanjing has a Shangshu or Shilang who can handle official business.

"Brother Uncle, what you mean is that if Nanjing is short of staff, there is no need to fill the position unless it is urgent?"

Wei Guangde asked tentatively.

Zhang Juzheng nodded, expressing his opinion.

Wei Guangde thought about it and understood that Zhang Juzheng was leaving places for some people in Nanjing.

Well, if there are people in the court who oppose him, they can go directly to Nanjing, where there are many vacant positions and they can get promoted.

If the seats are filled up early, there may not be room for them.

"What do you think, brother Heqing?"

Wei Guangde did not express his opinion this time, but looked at Lu Diaoyang and asked for his opinion.

This is him as the second assistant. There is Zhang Juzheng above him and Lu Diaoyang below him. He has to take care of both ends in the middle.

He should not discuss big and small matters with Zhang Juzheng and treat others as nothing.

"Nanjing's job duties are simple, so it's nothing, but if this system is established, I wonder how people outside will comment on it."

Lu Diaoyang was obviously a little hesitant. He thought it was not a big deal, but he did not dare to make up his mind for fear of being criticized.

The officialdom in Nanjing was actually much more troublesome than people in later generations imagined, and it was also the place most prone to trouble.