From the fourth year of Ming Dynasty to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the cabinet of Ming Dynasty was the advisory body of the emperor. Since then, its power has gradually increased and it has become the administrative center of the Ming Dynasty. The number of ministers varies from one to seven. A minister is called a cabinet minister. At first, the students of Cabinet College were only consultants. The emperor has the final say, but college students rarely have the opportunity to participate in decision-making. By the time of Renzong and Xuanzong in Ming Dynasty, their status was more and more respected. Since then, the power of the cabinet has increased day by day. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Yan, Yan Song and others were in charge of the cabinet, occupying the real power position of the prime minister and being able to level six ministries. Therefore, the Cabinet was the highest authority in the Ming Dynasty. Officials in the cabinet are called cabinet masters, and their status is greatly respected. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, the Cabinet was not a great institution, just like a chicken rib. How did the cabinet reach the peak of power? What is its function?
From the unification of China by Qin Shihuang to the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, and then to the organizational form of the central government, the post of Prime Minister came into being. Although the names of the later dynasties were different, they all held the position of prime minister and were granted great power. In the Ming Dynasty, when Ming Taizu established the Ming Dynasty, there was also a prime minister at the beginning. After the powerful prime minister Hu, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system. The six ministers were only responsible to the emperor, which strengthened his power. However, this also led to a sharp increase in the workload of the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang is a diligent emperor, and he can bear it. The successor behind him is not so diligent. This inevitably requires an organization to assume the responsibility of the post of prime minister. Cabinet system was born under this background.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it inherited the bureaucratic system of the Yuan Dynasty, and set up three supreme organs of power in the central government: Zhongshu Province, Dudufu and Yushitai. Zhongshu Province is the highest administrative institution. The Prime Minister is in charge of the whole country and has six departments. The main officials are the left prime minister and the right prime minister who are respected as the highest officials. The Governor's Office is the highest military institution and is responsible to the national army. It has the power to command and mobilize the army. The Royal Observatory is the highest supervisory body, which is responsible for picketing, impeaching officials and enforcing laws and regulations. These three supreme authorities and their subordinate units took over all the affairs of the country. As the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang can basically make the country run smoothly as long as he chooses the right person and coordinates the relationship between these three institutions.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was a very suspicious emperor. He was mean to his ministers, so he thought they must be dissatisfied with him. As a result, he often hits the minister. Ministers make mistakes, and those who can be severely punished will never choose leniency. During the 3 1 year of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, thousands of officials and their families were executed, most of which were wrongly sentenced.
In the thirteenth year of Wu, Zhu Yuanzhang suspected that Hu, the left prime minister, was up to no good, and ordered Hu to be implicated in Jiuzu. Because Zhu Yuanzhang was dissatisfied with the separation of powers for a long time, he took the "Hu case" as an opportunity to abolish the three highest authorities of the Central Secretariat, the Governor's Office and the Yushitai, and he presided over the state's administrative, military and supervisory powers by himself. But as a result, what Zhu Yuanzhang did was what a group of people had to do, and he was naturally as busy as a bee. Zhu Yuanzhang is a famous "model worker emperor" in the history of China, but this mountain of work still makes him feel a little overwhelmed. In order to improve efficiency, Zhu Yuanzhang called a group of junior officials from imperial academy at 1382 to help him deal with government affairs. These officials were assigned to the six halls of the palace to help the emperor with paperwork. Their positions correspond to their workplaces. They are: Gaihua University, Wuying University, Wenyuange University, Dongge University, Cultural Point University and Jinshen University. This is the embryonic form of Cabinet University. However, there is still a big difference between the university degree at this time and the university degree in the late Ming Dynasty. At that time, these college students were only level 5 department-level cadres. Their work is similar to that of modern secretaries. They have no real power.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Prince Judy successfully seized the throne through the battle of Emperor Yongle. Although Yongle was also regarded as a generation leader, he could not be as busy with state affairs as his father Zhu Yuanzhang, so he established a new organization: Cabinet. All cabinet members are college students. Their power is much greater than that in Hongwu period. They can make suggestions to the emperor and accept the tasks assigned by the emperor alone. However, the cabinet still has no authority at this time.
1424, Hong ascended the throne, and the cabinet college students began to become the highest-ranking real power officials in the imperial court, enjoying high titles and generous salaries. In many cases, students from Cabinet College also serve as six ministers. They also take precedence over other civil servants in etiquette, and their colleagues regard them as "cabinet elders." At the same time, the emperor gave the cabinet the power to draft bills. The so-called "draft" means that the students of Cabinet College "use receipts and ink books" to write their own suggestions on paper, stick them on the back of the paper for the emperor's reference, and then submit them to the emperor for instructions. Many times, these suggestions often become the final decision of the emperor. Since then, the cabinet has become the central authority of the Ming Dynasty.
What is the formation and function of cabinet system in Ming Dynasty? "What is the formation and function of the cabinet system in Ming Dynasty?" /
The function of cabinet system: since the middle of Ming dynasty, the power of cabinet has been continuously strengthened, and the six powers have been concentrated in the cabinet, which has improved the administrative efficiency of the central government; In the middle and late Ming dynasty, most emperors ignored government affairs and turned a blind eye. With the establishment of the cabinet system, the whole national machinery operates normally and healthily, making the whole country no longer feel the need to rely on the emperor. This is also conducive to limiting the imperial power, preventing the emperor from running amok and disrupting the normal operation of the country.
As far as the cabinet system itself is concerned, it has no clear scope of power and everything depends on the emperor. When you meet an emperor who doesn't like to rule, such as Qin Long, the power of the cabinet will naturally be great. Catch the emperor when you meet the son of heaven, such as Chongzhen. During the seventeen years of Chongzhen, there were more than a dozen records in the cabinet, which were basically furnishings. Therefore, this extremely unstable power makes the cabinet just an "illegal" advisory body.