Song Gexing

Chapter 157: The house full of wives and concubines talks about the official system

It was already evening when he came back from the court the next day. When Zhao Fang saw his wives and concubines stretching their necks to look at him, he knew that they had all read the material.

"Yin Zhang, come here and change your husband's clothes!"

The grinning Zhao Fang opened his mouth to say hello, Song Yinzhang agreed to come over, but Zhao Pan'er grabbed him.

Angrily said: "Sister Yinzhang, ignore him, what are you doing? Isn't there someone changing clothes, how can we do it? You know how to bully Yinzhang."

Only then did Song Yinzhang realize that it was not her job to wait on Zhao Fang to change clothes and wash up. Since he was crowned the crown prince, everything was in order. That was what the maids around Zhao Fang did.

After rolling his eyes angrily, Song Yinzhang hid in Zhao Paner's arms and ignored him.

Zhao Fang laughed happily, took the maid to the back room to wash and change clothes, then came out and said, "Let's eat first. Let's eat together tonight. We will discuss it after eating."

Today's dinner was tasteless. Everyone ate it in a hurry, and then looked at him eagerly, who was still chewing slowly.

No matter how good the appetite was, it was lost by these eyes, so Zhao Fang had to finish in a hurry without complaining.

"Let's all share our opinions, one by one, with Xin'er starting first."

This is the reason why the girls are abnormal today. After being imprisoned for too long, they suddenly have the right to talk about political affairs. Although this is only at home, it is enough to make them excited.

Upon hearing this, Meng Xin started to say with excitement: "Abolish the three provinces and expand the rights and establishment of the six ministries. Your Highness's change is to concentrate the monarch's power and weaken the ministerial power, right?"

"Also, I agree most with the restoration of the rights of admonishers and censors. The current censorship has completely exceeded its authority, and it is getting worse. If it does not change, it will be even more annoying in the future... wuwu, fuck Why don't you cover my mouth, Sister Minghui hates it!"

Cao Minghui looked at the princess helplessly, sighing in her heart that this little girl is just a little girl. Can you say this? How can it be spread out.

Zhao Fang laughed and said, "Xin'er is right, but I have to say it more tactfully and don't say it's annoying, otherwise I'll be sprayed like a pig."

The censor of the Song Dynasty did exceed his authority. The original system stipulated that the admonition official was the admonishment court, and the admonition court existed as an institution for admonishing the emperor. The duty of the censor was supervision, not persuasion.

But starting from Song Taizong, Yushitai gradually robbed the function of Jianyuan, and became an admonisher just like Jianyuan.

But the problem is that he has not let go of his supervisory function. He wears two hats in one position. It looks like they are doing a lot of work, but in fact they are exceeding their authority.

Starting from the Han Dynasty, the purpose of establishing the Yushitai was to supervise officials. It was most perfect in the Tang Dynasty. The admonishment officer was an admonisher and the censor was the censor, and they were not related to each other.

But this changed in the Song Dynasty. It was because the status of civil servants was getting higher and higher, which made them want to supervise the emperor and show their integrity.

This is different from the Ming Dynasty. The Metropolitan Procuratorate of the Ming Dynasty combined the functions of the censor and the admonisher, but there was a cabinet above them.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was not the Metropolitan Procuratorate that supervised the cabinet, but the Six Sections of the Ministry of Education. The so-called Ke Dao Yan Guan refers to the Six Sections and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and their functions were separate.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate supervised hundreds of officials and advised the emperor but was suppressed by the cabinet. The six departments were directly under the emperor and responsible for supervising the cabinet, forming a triangular mutually restrictive relationship.But the Song Dynasty was different. The censors of the Song Dynasty were not under the jurisdiction of the Political Affairs Hall, but directly subordinate to the emperor. But now they have become the emperor's direct subordinates and are staring at the emperor. Isn't this funny?

And the Jianyuan, which is under the jurisdiction of the Zhengshitang, also supervises the emperor. It is no wonder that the emperor of the Song Dynasty was supervised everywhere like his grandson.

The original separation of three powers has become a confrontation between two powers. This is not a mutual restriction, but a confrontation, and it has become a confrontation between the monarch's power and the prime minister's power.

The separation of powers is not a Western creation. The Chinese had already perfected this system more than 1000 years ago during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. This is the origin of the three provinces and six ministries system.

To put it bluntly, Westerners learned it from the East during the Renaissance, but later generations of lickers believed it was a symbol of the progress of Western civilization.

I don’t know how in the [-]th century, when missionaries brought these Eastern ideas back to the West, they shocked Westerners. It turned out that the power of the Pope could be restricted, and this was how the turbulent Protestant Reformation came about.

The governments of the vassal states also began to reform, and then the Western-style parliaments came into being. As for the so-called Roman Presbyterian Church, there is no historical evidence to prove it. It was just created by Westerners themselves and did not admit that they learned the three things from the East. Just separation of powers.

There are no historical records in Europe. This is a common understanding among people who have awakened in later generations. In Europe, which was very poor, papermaking and printing were not introduced until the Yuan Dynasty.

Do we need to use clay tablets to record historical materials? But can clay tablets be preserved for thousands of years? As for the early European papermaking technology, its quality was broken within a few years, so how could the records be preserved?

"Your Highness has expanded the six parts into eight parts. I feel that it is a little inappropriate."

Meng Xin's shyness was interrupted by Han Xue, Zhao Fang looked at her and nodded, "Continue to explain the reason."

Han Xue nodded slightly and said seriously: "The six departments of rites, officials, households, workers, soldiers, and punishments have matured since the Sui Dynasty. However, the two departments of commerce and agriculture are included in the highest administrative departments of the imperial court, which makes it difficult for people to ascend. It’s too elegance, after all, the senior officials in the ministry are scholar-bureaucrats, who would be willing to lower his status to manage this department?”

Zhao Fang sighed and said: "This is also my biggest headache. I can't let laymen manage the insiders, but the status of the insiders is too low. Although the Song Dynasty can't prohibit businessmen, there are no businessmen who can ascend the court. The situation, not to mention the farmers.”

It's not that Zhao Fang never thought about it. It is feasible to train professional talents by running professional schools like later generations, but it is difficult to let these talents enter the officialdom.

Even reforms can only allow these talents to become minor officials. Reality does not allow such people to enter the court unless these people learn professional knowledge and then take the scientific examination.

But if there are only a few people who have that energy, the class of scholars, farmers, industrialists and merchants cannot be broken in this era, not even if the emperor imposes it forcefully.

If you dare to do it, others will dare to rebel. I really think that the emperor is omnipotent. The overthrow of many dynasties was not caused by the stupidity and ignorance learned in the history books of future generations.

Is King Zhou of Shang really unprincipled?Is Emperor Yang of Sui really unprincipled?Take the recent example of Meng Chang from the Later Shu Dynasty. Is he really stupid and incompetent?
If that were the case, there would be no way that when he was escorted to Bianjing by the Song army, thousands of people in Shu cried and knelt to see him off. To put it bluntly, he was overthrown after offending the interest class.

These interest groups can shamelessly collude with foreign enemies. As long as the foreign enemies can guarantee their interests, they dare to kill you.

Don't say that if you are the emperor, the army will not betray you. That is a joke.

Don't forget that the largest number of soldiers are the sons of ordinary people, and ordinary people are the easiest to be deceived and bewitched.

(End of this chapter)