() Many people ask why the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty can operate without the emperor in the later period.

At the beginning of China's cabinet, according to the data, it should have been in the Tang Dynasty Tang Xuanzong period to set up Hanlin scholars in the palace Yan cabinet, which was originally sent outside the general administrative system, regardless of official rank, and there was no official office, but only in the palace in the academy, waiting for the emperor to call from time to time, on behalf of the emperor to draft the text jiàn.

At that time, due to the recommendation of the chaste Taoist priest Wu Yun, Li Bai was summoned to Chang'an to worship Hanlin, and he actually held this official title. It was not until after Tang Dezong that the position of Hanlin bachelor became more and more important, because of the identity of both advisers, curtain guests, and Qing guests, he never left the emperor's side all day long, and often had the opportunity to speak, and hoped to participate in government affairs until he was promoted to prime minister, so he was envied by people on the way. Later, it was customary to take the Hanlin bachelor as the important choice. Hardly anyone who is not from Hanlin can officially worship as prime minister.

After arriving in the Song Dynasty, it followed the system of the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, there were Hanlin scholars and intellectuals, who were officials of the emperor's cronies and advisers, and their status was very important. In the Song Dynasty, he specified his seniority and became a kind of clean and noble official. In the Song Dynasty, those who could enter the Hanlin Academy were all literary scholars. The oldest of the bachelors is called the Hanlin Bachelor, and it is hereinafter referred to as the Hanlin Bachelor and the Zhizhi Decree. The undertaking is not permanent, and there is no fixed number of other bachelors. The Academy's functions and powers were to draft the imperial court's edicts, pardons, letters of state, and documents used in the court, and to serve the emperor on patrols and serve as advisors. In fact, it was the emperor's secretariat and staff officer. The status was further elevated, and later it was on an equal footing with the Privy Council, which was actually in power. The Hanlin scholars knew that the system was to write proclamations on behalf of the emperor as a full-time job, and some called "Chengzhi". Those who do not belong to the academy in the name of Hanlin have Hanlin attendants and lecturers. These so-called banquet officials are responsible for lecturing the history of the emperor around him. The emperor was in great need of accepting this group of well-educated people as "think tanks", so he was doubly favored. Since then, all the ruling ministers have conferred the honorary title of scholar of such and such a temple as a sign of respect.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, in view of the fact that the power of the prime ministers of previous dynasties was too heavy and it was easy to pose a certain threat to the emperor's rule, decided to abolish the prime minister's official forever, and abolished the Zhongshu Province and Shangshu Province, and replaced it with six Shangshu provinces to share state affairs and directly obey the emperor, in order to have a high degree of centralization of power. According to statistics, after the abolition of the prime minister system, Zhu Yuanzhang had to read an average of 200 copies of the text every day, dealing with 400 things, Zhu Yuanzhang had a poor background, and dealt with so many twists and turns every day, the text was still a little unbearable, once, the household Shangshu Ru Taisu gave Zhu Yuanzhang a fold, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered someone to read it to him, and it took nearly three hours to read it halfway through, what are the three emperors and five emperors, Benevolence, righteousness, morality and other clichés, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately made a decision, told his subordinates not to read it, counted the numbers, and there were already 10,000 words.

Zhu Yuanzhang was angry and ordered the guards to arrest Ru Taisu and beat him hard.

In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the abolition of the prime minister brought all kinds of disadvantages to the emperor, after careful consideration, imitated the old system of the Tang and Song dynasties, set up the Huagai Palace, the Wuying Palace, the Wenhua Palace, the Wenyuan Pavilion, and the East Pavilion scholars, with their frequent meals in the "Great Interior" (in the palace of the Son of Heaven), and often served the emperor under the "Palace", playing the role of slaughtering and auxiliary, in order to avoid the name of the prime minister, so it was named "Cabinet" (see "History of the Ming Dynasty• Career Official Chronicles").

Since then, the cabinet has been officially settled in the Ming Dynasty, but the power of the cabinet was not great at the beginning, a bit like the Hanlin bachelors of the Tang Dynasty, and the rank is the fifth grade, and its main power is only advisors.

After the Jingjing, Zhu Di seized the country from his nephew, although he did not have the same eloquence and grandeur as Zhu Yuanzhang, but the repeated imperial conquests made him unable to take charge of political affairs in the real sense (imagine the absurdity of transporting documents from Beijing to Mobei), so a "assistant" agency to help the emperor - the cabinet came into being. After Ming Chengzu ascended the throne, Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Rong and others were specially sent to the Wenyuan Pavilion at the noon gate to participate in the maintenance of the machine, which was called the cabinet. The cabinet system was thus established.

Under the control of Ming Chengzu, the cabinet and the six ministries performed their duties, and the highest executive order of the state was issued from the Forbidden City, which passed through 1,936 post stations across the country, with a total length of 143,700 kilometers, and distributed to every corner of the empire.

However, "the advance affairs of the cabinet began from this time, and at that time, all those who entered the cabinet were officials who compiled, examined, and lectured, and were not allowed to be subordinate to officials, and they were not allowed to be in the first office." The ministers should not be related to the matter. That is: the cabinet at this time was still only the emperor's private secretary, not an organ of power.

The cabinet really entered the center of power from Mingrenzong Zhu Gaochi, Mingrenzong Zhu Gaochi, because Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and others were the old ministers of the East Palace, Yang Shiqi was promoted to the Ministry of Rites and Huagai Hall Scholar, Yang Rong was Taichangqing and Jinshen Hall Scholar, and then Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and others all had the position of Shangshu, although they were in the cabinet, their titles were respected by Shangshu. Since then, the power of the cabinet has increased and gradually gained attention.

By the time of his son Ming Xuanzong, the power of the cabinet began to rise, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu (three Yang auxiliary officials) formed a more complete government affairs process: the whole country's large and small chapters, and even the common people to the emperor proposed to the emperor, were summarized by the general political envoys, and the master of ceremonies submitted to the emperor for inspection, and then handed over to the cabinet, the cabinet was responsible for drafting the handling opinions, and then the opinions were submitted to the emperor for approval, and finally issued by the six proofreadings, so far, the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty was regarded as entering the center of power.

During the Jingtai period of Zhu Qiyu of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Wen entered the cabinet after entering the Ministry of Shangshu with the imperial history of the left capital.

During this period, although there were repetitions in the last years of orthodoxy of Zhu Qizhen, by the time of Chenghua and Hongzhi, the cabinet had become a representative of the civilian government that was enough to resist the imperial power.

During the Zhengde period, what Zhu Houzhao did was considered absurd. But there are also capable ministers such as Yang Tinghe who control the cabinet, so there was no major chaos in the Ming Dynasty during the Zhengde period.

During the Jiajing reign of Zhu Houxuan of Ming Shizong, the Huagai Hall was changed to the Middle Pole Palace, and the Jinshen Hall was built to the Pole Palace, and the court rank of the university scholars was listed before the six Shangshu, and the status was greatly improved. Although the cabinet scholars of the Ming Dynasty did not have the name of the prime minister, they actually had the power of the prime minister. By the twenty-first year of Jiajing, after Yan Song, a powerful minister, was appointed as a scholar of Wuyingdian University, he had been specializing in government affairs for more than 20 years, and the power of the cabinet was completely the same as that of the former prime minister.

After arriving at the Wanli Emperor, because the Wanli Emperor was only ten years old when he ascended the throne, he relied on Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, to assist the government, and Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, actually became the de facto decision-maker of the Ming Dynasty.

He instructed others to write his opinions, wrote them into a recital, and then "voted" for them. To the young emperor's approval of red, he is the emperor's teacher, and there is naturally no problem with the approval of red, so that the minister's "chapter", the minister's "vote", and the emperor's "red" are controlled by Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet, to achieve unprecedented unanimity, and he is also the most powerful cabinet minister in the Ming Dynasty cabinet.

After Wanli, most of the emperors ignored the government and politics, but the cabinet was full of talents, as long as the cabinet was given power, it didn't matter how chic the emperor was (such as Emperor Longqing); And the power of the cabinet is blurred and deprived (such as the 52nd cabinet in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty), that is, no matter how diligent the government is, it will also mislead the country! During the Ming Dynasty, even if the emperor was not in charge of the government, the state could rely on a group of ministers and a set of government affairs processes to maintain normal operation. The Qing Dynasty was different from the Ming Dynasty, the ministers were only ordered to do things, and the emperor often held all the power in his own hands, so ** became the characteristic of most Qing Dynasty emperors.