Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 167 Is the Donglin Party a crony or a political party?

After the episode in the Zizhengyuan passed, Zhu Youjian asked the ministers to nominate a bachelor.

The first step is to identify candidates and determine who is qualified to serve as Grand Master.

According to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, officials who are not members of the Hanlin Academy cannot be admitted to the cabinet, and officials who have no experience in the Hanlin Academy cannot become bachelors.

Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Rites in the Chaotang were first proposed as candidates for bachelor's degrees.

Yang Jingchen, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who was promoted by the special supervisor, said:

"The minister of the Ministry of Rites comes to Zongdao, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites Meng Shaoyu, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites Wang Zuoyuan, the minister of Taichang Temple, and the right minister of the Ministry of Rites Li Biao."

"Chen He is the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Dong Qichang, the minister of household affairs is Qian Fa, the minister of Xu Guangqi, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs is the right minister of Kong Zhenyun, and the Ministry of Works is the minister of great work, Wen Tiren."

"They are all from the Hanlin Academy and can be candidates for bachelor's degrees."

So many officials have Hanlin experience, which shows the status of the Qinggui family in the court.

It can be said that even without a cabinet, they still hold high positions in the court and occupy many official positions.

Although Zhu Youjian felt that these officials had not experienced local experience and were not suitable to serve as prime ministers. But now he is weakening the status of the cabinet, and he does not regard the bachelor as a prime minister.

Therefore, he had no intention of changing his candidacy for bachelor's degree, and still followed the usual practice of selecting from officials from the Hanlin Academy.

Because he had already said before that he should select from ministers and ministers who are qualified to serve as ministers, Zhu Youjian said:
"Lai Zongdao, the Minister of Rites, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Yang Jingchen, the right minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Dong Qichang, Xu Guangqi, the minister of Qian Fa, the special supervisor of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Wen Tiren, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry, are among the candidates recommended by the court."

"What officials in Nanjing can be included as candidates?"

When his name was included, Yang Jingchen felt excited and responded:

"Han Rizuan, the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, and Lin Yuji, the Minister of the Civil Service in Nanjing, both came from the Hanlin Academy."

Zhu Youjian said immediately:

"South Korea and Japan are among the candidates."

"Who else can be reinstated and included as candidates for the bachelor's degree?
The emperor's requirements were too high, and all he chose were ministers, or officials who could serve as ministers.

The ministers made the selection for a long time, and proposed that Sun Shenxing, Wang Tu, Li Tengfang, and Sheng Yihong, the former ministers of the Ministry of Rites, He Ruchong, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, Cheng Jiming and Zhang Nai, the right ministers of the Ministry of Rites, Qian Longxi, the right minister of the Nanjing Official Affairs Bureau, etc., all belonged to the East. Lin Dang.

There were only a few people who were not from the Donglin Party, including Xue Sansheng, the Minister of Rites, Qian Xiangkun, the Minister of Rites of Nanjing, and Zheng Yiwei, the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Personnel.

It can be said that the current officials of the Ming Dynasty are either eunuchs or Donglin parties. Under the strife between these two parties, there are few neutral officials and it is difficult for them to reach high positions.

Seeing so many people belonging to the Donglin Party, Zhu Youjian did not rehabilitate them all, but inspected them one by one.

After what happened today, he has made up his mind to divide the civil servant group and prevent them from forming an overall will. The Donglin Party, which had a high reputation among scholars and had the potential to integrate the civil service group, was naturally on his guard.

Zhu Youjian, a member of the Donglin Party, only planned to retaliate individually, so that they could threaten the retained eunuchs, but they would not be able to control the court.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian plans to retaliate against Donglin Party members who can do things. He does not intend to retaliate against Donglin Party cadres who actively participate in party struggles and those core members of the Donglin Party.

With this idea in mind, Zhu Youjian first eliminated Sun Shenxing, who was recommended by many Donglin Party members. Because this person is the initiator of the Red Pill case, he is now relegated to the Ningxia border guard.

Although Zhu Youjian plans to overturn the case of moving the palace, he has not yet decided how to deal with the Hongwan case and the assault case. Before the red pill case is reclassified, such a person is not suitable for resumption.

On the grounds that Sun Shenxing was being questioned, Zhu Youjian could not retaliate against him. However, in order to show his magnanimity, Zhu Youjian pardoned Sun Shenxing's deportation and asked him to return to Beijing to await trial.

Then there is Wang Tu, who, like Ye Xianggao, has passed away at home. But the news has not yet reached the court, and many officials do not know.

How can a person who has died be resurrected? Therefore, this person's name is also crossed out.

Hearing that two Donglin Party ministers had passed away one after another made Zhu Youjian lament that the core of the Donglin Party was really almost dead. This prestigious party is far less prestigious than before.

As the main force in the party struggle during the Wanli Tianqi period, some people in later generations believed that the Donglin Party was not a party. They even proposed the "Donglin Non-Party Theory", believing that it did not have a strict organizational system and could not be called a modern political party.

But in Zhu Youjian's view, regardless of whether the Donglin Party is a political party as defined by later generations, it is obviously a party. It not only has a relatively unified political philosophy, but also has political behaviors that exclude dissidents. The slogan of this party is very upright and has attracted many scholars to join. They have done a lot of things to unite the party and combat those who are different. It is completely a political group, with both light and darkness.

Even after carefully analyzing the Donglin Party, Zhu Youjian found that its ideas and organization were very close to those of later political parties. This is a party in transition between a crony and a political party.

Most of the current Donglin Party members are like-minded backbones of the Donglin Party who are connected through personal relationships. It is very similar to traditional cronyism, but through common ideas, it transcends regional concepts.

Therefore, the Donglin Party is much stronger than the traditional crony party. It uses common ideas to transcend regional concepts and unite more people. The Qi Party, Chu Party, and Zhejiang Party, which were divided by region, were defeated, forcing some people to attach themselves to Wei Zhongxian and form an eunuch Party that also transcended regions. They used unruly and abnormal means to overthrow the Donglin Party.

In the course of this party struggle, the Donglin Party suffered heavy losses. Zhao Nanxing and Sun Chengzong from North Zhili; Gao Panlong, Zuo Guangdou, Miao Changqi, Gu Dazhang, Sun Shenxing, and Qian Qianyi from South Zhili; Zhu Guozhen, Wei Dazhong, and Huang Zunsu from Zhejiang; Zou Yuanbiao, Liu Yisui, and Li Banghua from Jiangxi; and Fujian. Ye Xianggao, Qiao Yunsheng from Henan, Liu Ce from Shandong, Han Xu from Shanxi, Feng Congwu, Wang Zhicai, Wang Tu from Shaanxi, Zhou Jiamo and Yang Lian from Huguang...

These people were either killed, questioned, dismissed from their posts, or demoted, which directly interrupted the development of the Donglin Party in various places. The Donglin Party, which had the possibility of developing a local branch, was beaten to pieces.

Moreover, in the atmosphere of terror created by the Eunuch Party, few new people joined the Donglin Party. It can be said that the development momentum of the Donglin Party has been cut off in the middle. It is no longer the Donglin Party that responded to a hundred responses and had people echoing throughout the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, after the death of these backbones, the Donglin Party's shortcomings of being born out of cronies and having an imperfect organization were also reflected.

In particular, the deaths of core members of the Donglin Party such as Gu Xiancheng, Gao Panlong, and Ye Xianggao have caused many of the relationships formed through them to no longer form a system. The Donglin Party has become loose and no one can integrate it.

That's why Zhu Youjian dared to use Donglin Party members, intending to recall some scattered Donglin Party members to balance the situation in the government. Lest the eunuchs he retains in office grow again after the review is over, leaving no one to check them.

Zhu Youjian has always been tolerant of the dead. After learning that Wang Tu had passed away, Zhu Youjian immediately restored the deposed Wang Tu to his original official position. When news of his death came, the court would show mercy.

This made Donglin Party officials feel that the emperor was benevolent, and some people tried to propose that Zhao Nanxing should be reinstated or returned to Beijing to await trial.

I am very cautious about Zhao Nanxing and Zhu Youjian, because this person can be regarded as one of the core members of the Donglin Party and may integrate the Donglin Party——

It can even be said that after the deaths of Gu Xiancheng, Gao Panlong, Li Sancai, Ye Xianggao, and Zou Yuanbiao, Zhao Nanxing was the only person who could integrate the Donglin Party.

Liu Yishui, Han Xu, and Sun Chengzong, the three great bachelors, all had lower status in the Donglin Party than Zhao Nanxing.

Zhu Youjian was naturally very wary of such people.

He was unwilling to relapse in his heart, but Zhu Youjian was very kind on the outside. I asked about Zhao Nanxing and learned that he was sent to Daizhou and was seventy-eight years old.

This made Zhu Youjian immediately realize that Zhao Nanxing did not have long to live. It is impossible for such an old man to last long in Daizhou.

In order to prevent Zhao Nanxing from dying in the garrison and himself being criticized, Zhu Youjian immediately ordered:
"Zhao Nanxing is pardoned and returned to Beijing. His case must be retried as soon as possible."

"In the future, officials over the age of seventy must be deployed carefully and cannot be assigned at will."

These older officials will not have the strength to do anything when they arrive at the garrison. Instead, they need someone to look after them to prevent them from dying suddenly. After arriving at the garrison, it was completely a burden.

So Zhu Youjian issued this order to show that he treated his veterans favorably.

All the ministers praised him and thought that the emperor was benevolent.

There were some Donglin Party officials who wanted the emperor to resurrect Zhou Jiamo and others, but Zhu Youjian had already ignored this matter and asked about the next candidate Li Tengfang.

This person said he was a member of the Donglin Party, but actually he had his own Li Party, and was friendly to Gu Tiancheng's Gu Party, also known as the Kun Party. Many Donglin Party members did not like to see him and were unwilling to recommend this person.

The one they recommended more was the kind-hearted Cheng Jiming. This person was Ye Xianggao's disciple and Yang Lian's classmate, and was related to many Donglin Party members.

However, Cheng Jiming was only the right minister of the Ministry of Rites before, and his official position was a bit low. Zhu Youjian brought him back together with Zhang Nai and Qian Longxi, but he was not included as a candidate. After restoring Han Xu, a member of the Donglin Party, as a bachelor, Zhu Youjian was not willing to use the Donglin Party as the new cabinet bachelor, and wanted to use a neutral faction.

However, Zhu Youjian does not reject candidates from the Donglin Party. After inquiry, it was learned that Sheng Yihong was a senior official of the Wei Institute, and his family had the rank of Tongguan Guard Commander. Zhu Youjian was very satisfied with him, but he knew that this man was not deeply involved with the Donglin Party. Guys" was included once.

He Ruchong's situation is similar to Sheng Yihong's, and his involvement with the Donglin Party is not deep. Just because he was Zuo Guangdou's hometown friend, he was considered to be a Donglin Party member by the eunuchs.

Zhu Youjian reinstated these two people and listed them as candidates for bachelor's degree together with Li Tengfang of the Donglin Party.

Then there are Xue Sansheng, Qian Xiangkun, Zheng Yiwei and others. They can be said to be neutrals.

Xue Sansheng was seventy years old, so Zhu Youjian kicked him out. He only sent officials to express condolences and asked him if he was willing to come to Beijing to serve as senior minister.

Qian Xiangkun was not biased in the dispute between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party. He once had hopes of joining the cabinet after Ye Xianggao became an official in the fourth year of Tianqi. However, he was slandered by the Donglin Party and had to resign from his position. Later, in the sixth year of Tianqi's reign, he was promoted by the court to be the Minister of Rites in Nanjing. Because he refused to rely on Wei Zhongxian, he was accused by the eunuch party of being a member of the Miao Changqi party, so he had to resign and live idle.

It can be said that in the partisan struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party, there is no room for the centrists to survive. The experiences of Qian Xiangkun, Yuan Keli, Huang Kezuan and others all illustrate this point.

As for Zheng Yiwei, he gained his reputation and qualifications in the Hanlin Academy. The only thing he has done that is worthy of mentioning is the Guangzong Temple——

When Emperor Guangzong Taichang entered the Ancestral Temple, he became Emperor Xianzong Chenghua. However, some officials were still unwilling to accept the matter of the Great Ceremony. They believed that Ruizhong, the father of Emperor Jiajing of Emperor Sejong, had never been an emperor and should not enter the temple. Xianzong should be kept and Ruizhong should be excommunicated first. Zheng Yiwei thought it was impossible and stopped the matter.

Public opinion criticized him a lot, but Zhu Youjian agreed very much, thinking that Zheng Yiwei could be used, and this person prevented the Dali discussion from causing further trouble.

In addition, Zheng Yiwei's age and resume were very suitable, and he was reinstated by Zhu Youjian, and together with the previous ten people, he was listed as a candidate for a bachelor's degree.

In this way, there are eleven candidates for this time's promotion of Grand Bachelor. These people, some in the government and some in the opposition, took care of the eunuchs, Donglin parties, and neutralists, and the ministers were very satisfied.

They all know that the current emperor attaches great importance to candidates. As long as these eleven people are included as candidates, even if they cannot be selected, they will most likely be appointed to other positions. Therefore, the ministers were very enthusiastic before and actively recommended candidates.

According to the previous practice, the University Scholars introduced two people, or three or four people.

Zhu Youjian was worried that his favorite candidate would not be selected, so he asked them to recommend four people. When the time comes, you will see who you choose to join the cabinet based on your needs.

Most of these eleven people he has no prejudices about, but the one he likes the most should be Xu Guangqi. This man was famous in later generations, and Zhu Youjian was the most familiar with him. Rather than letting an ignorant minister become a bachelor, it would be better to use Xu Guangqi.

However, Xu Guangqi's qualifications were a bit low, and his enthusiasm for Western learning made some traditional Confucian officials uncomfortable. Zhu Youjian was not sure whether he could be pushed up by Ting.

The addition of a bachelor today was a bit sudden. Zhu Youjian did not prepare in advance and could only let nature take its course. Let’s see where the officials rank Xu Guangqi and whether he can be included as a final candidate. As long as he can rank in the top four, Zhu Youjian plans to add a few more bachelors. Anyway, the emperor has the final say regarding quotas.

With this in mind, Zhu Youjian asked the ministers to make selections according to the previously formulated vote counting method. Yang Jingchen hurriedly ordered someone to write a ballot and let the officials who were qualified to be recommended by the court check. The votes are then counted, and the person with the most votes comes first.

Most of the eunuch party officials recommended Lai Zongdao, and many also recommended Yang Jingchen. After all, Yang Jingchen was the emperor's confidant, and this fact was almost universally known. Many people believe that choosing him to join the cabinet is in line with the emperor's wishes.

But Zhu Youjian actually didn't want Yang Jingchen to join the cabinet, but wanted to keep him in the staff department. After all, Fang Zhuangwei has decided to leave office next year, and Yang Jingchen, the left minister, is qualified to take over. He needs a confidant in the staff department to control the appointment of officials.

Yang Jingchen hesitated for a while after he was listed as a candidate. He not only wanted to join the cabinet as a bachelor, but also thought that it would be good to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the head of the six departments. With the current structure of the court, the power of the official minister is not weaker than that of the bachelor.

In the end, he figured out the emperor's wishes and decided to stay in the Ministry of Personnel. Signaling Lu Tunan and others to push Xu Guangqi together. He knew that this man was highly valued by the emperor and had been resurrected by the emperor a long time ago. He planned to recommend him to the cabinet to please the emperor.

As for the Donglin Party and officials who lean towards the Donglin Party, most of them are unwilling to elect Li Tengfang. Many people choose others based on their hometown and place of origin.

However, the Donglin Party does not have much influence on the matter of Tingti. According to convention, bachelors are recommended by officials of fifth rank and above. Nowadays, most of the officials at this level in the court are eunuchs. They would rather elect the neutral party than the Donglin party.

Other neutral officials such as Yuan Keli were sympathetic to the Donglin Party, but they were not completely obedient. Let them elect Donglin Party officials without any principles, which these people are unwilling to do.

Under such a situation, the final result of the court recommendation was of course that Lai Zongdao was the positive recommendation, and Zheng Yiwei, Xu Guangqi, and He Ruchong were ranked behind Lai Zongdao.

This result made Zhu Youjian, who discovered Yang Jingchen's little move, very satisfied. He thought that Yang Jingchen understood his intentions and pushed Xu Guangqi forward.

The next step is to find a way to veto Lai Zongdao and let Xu Guangqi come up.

Just as Zhu Youjian was thinking about what reasons to use, Donglin Party officials had already begun to attack. They were unwilling to bring Zongdao, an eunuch minister, into the cabinet, so five of the six cabinet ministers were eunuchs.

Someone immediately pointed out that when the mother of Cui Chengxiu, who was designated as a co-conspirator in the rebellion, died, the Minister of Rites came to Zongdao to write a reply to the ceremony, saying "the spirit in heaven". The late emperor suddenly changed his color when he saw it, and circled these four characters with his imperial pen.

A rebellious official like Lai Zongdao should not become a bachelor.

Zhu Youjian also changed his color when he heard this. He stared at Lai Zongdao closely and asked him if he had this matter.

Lai Zongdao couldn't deny it, so he had to admit it.

Zhu Youjian did not want a person like him who flattered Wei Zhongxian to enter the cabinet, so he immediately ordered:

"Lai Zongdao designated Psalm Mei as the sixth grade. In consideration of his achievements in reaching the highest level, he was allowed to serve in his original position and become a senior minister."

This official who has long been displeased should be dismissed directly.

I didn't expect that I would be punished so severely, even being demoted from my original position as an agent. Lai Zongdao really stole the chicken but lost the rice. Not only did he not become a bachelor, but he also ended up in disgrace.

Finally, the emperor thought that he had made great achievements in assisting him, and allowed him to take up his original post and be transferred to the position of senior minister. This made Lai Zongdao feel better, knowing that he would not be held accountable further and that his official benefits were guaranteed, so he immediately asked the emperor for an official position and withdrew from the court.

After coming to Zongdao to serve as an official, naturally you cannot serve as a bachelor. Seeing that Zheng Yiwei and Xu Guangqi had almost the same number of votes, Zhu Youjian was interested in letting Xu Guangqi serve as a bachelor, and said:

"Zheng Yiwei and Xu Guangqi had the same number of votes. They both served as bachelors of the East Pavilion. They were given the title of minister of the second rank and were directly involved in machine affairs in the cabinet."

"The post of Minister of Rites is recommended from among the candidates just now."

Both of them are bachelors, and there is an additional position of Minister of Rites that needs to be recommended by the court. None of the ministers raised any objections, saying that it was wrong for the emperor to increase the number of cabinet ministers——

It was they who proposed the addition of cabinet ministers. How could they say no to the emperor temporarily adding one more minister?

Therefore, the ministers quickly turned to compete for the Minister of Rites and launched the new Minister of Rites.

The ministers who had previously recommended Xu Guangqi now understood the emperor's thoughts better, and most of them chose Wen Tiren, who, like Xu Guangqi, had long been resurrected by the emperor. Moreover, as a fellow countryman of Zhu Guozhen, Wen Tiren was also favored by some officials who tended to the Donglin Party.

Therefore, Wen Tiren was promoted as the positive recommendation, and He Ruchong, who had just been ranked fourth in the bachelor's election, became the supporting recommendation again.

Zhu Youjian immediately appointed Wen Tiren as Minister of Rites, and kept the positions of minister vacated by Wen Tiren and Xu Guangqi for now. Because today's candidates are all ministers and are not suitable for positions in the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works. Previously, Zhu Youjian allowed Xu Guangqi and Wen Tiren to serve in these two positions in order to allow them to return to the court.

In fact, after the previous promotion by the minister, Zhu Youjian was reminded by the Chief of Ceremonies that Xu Guangqi was from Songjiang and could not be appointed as an official in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Therefore, he had long wanted to change Xu Guangqi's position. Now that Xu Guangqi has entered the cabinet, this problem has been solved.

Now, Zhu Youjian found that there were too many noble officials in the court, so he kept the ministers vacated by Wen Tiren and Xu Guangqi and asked the Ministry of Civil Affairs to select a few officials with local governorship experience to be promoted to the court another day. The vacant ministers and ministers in Nanjing must also be recommended.

　"History of Ming Dynasty":
　　The fifth year of Chongzhen:

　　In May, Zheng Yiwei was promoted to be the Minister of Rites and a bachelor of Dongge University. In October, Prince Shaobao of Jin Dynasty.

　　In May, Xu Guangqi was promoted to be the Minister of Rites and a bachelor of Dongge University. In October, Prince Shaobao will be added.

　　(Zheng Yiwei was a Jinshi in the 29th year of Wanli, and Xu Guangqi was a Jinshi in the 32nd year of Wanli. Zheng Yiwei has more seniority and has more people supporting him, and his name has been recommended many times)
　　"Chongzhen Changbian" in December of the seventh year of the Apocalypse: Mei Bu cabinet ministers, court officials Meng Shaoyu, Qian Longxi, Yang Jingchen, Xue Sansheng, Lai Zongdao, Li Biao, Wang Zuoyuan, Xiao Mingguan, Zhou Daodeng, Liu Hongxun, Fang Zhuangwei, Cao Sicheng, Twelve people in total.

　　(Meng Shaoyu, Qian Longxi, Xue Sansheng, Li Biao and others were directly excluded from the protagonist. Fang Zhuangwei and Cao Sicheng did not have Hanlin experience, so it was just a make-up, because Emperor Chongzhen in history did not break the rule of not joining the cabinet unless he was Hanlin. The breaking of this rule is related to Zheng Yiwei. It was him who used "He Kuo" as a personal name, which caused Chongzhen to despise the Ci minister)

　　"History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zhou Yanru": In November (the first year of Chongzhen), the great scholar Liu Hong finished his training and ordered the meeting to be promoted. The court officials ignored it because of the hope of Yan Confucianism, and listed them as Ji Ming, Qian Qianyi, Zheng Yiwei, Li Tengfang, Sun Shenxing, Eleven names are listed: He Ruchong, Xue Sansheng, Sheng Yihong, Luo Yuyi, Wang Yongguang, and Cao Yubian.

　　"History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zheng Yiwei": There are two words "what's more" in the chapter. He mistakenly thought it was a person's name. Since the Ci minister was a junior to the emperor, there were librarians who had to go through and deduce the edicts, but the cabinet ministers did not have exclusive use of the Imperial Academy.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)