The basic operation of the government of the Ming Dynasty was in the hands of the officials, especially the Qian Gu, which was most closely related to the people, and was often in the hands of the officials.

These officials have no hope of rising, so they naturally rely on the power in their hands to wantonly seek rent, and the people may face the consequences of ruining their families if they do not obey the slightest.

Therefore, the looted people's fat and ointment, in fact, the first layer advanced into the pockets of the officials, and many bookstores and officials could make a lot of money.

Although the officials can be powerful and beneficial to the ordinary people, they are like an ant in front of their top bosses and state and county officials.

Leave your own share, and the bigger one will be dedicated to the lord of Zhizhou County.

Advancing layer by layer, an increasingly corrupt officialdom has been formed.

Yan Tiannan used to watch "Ming Dynasty 1566", and he felt that it was a rare good drama, and even a good drama that could be watched again.

The play reflects the various forms of officialdom in the Ming Dynasty, vivid and vivid, the words and actions of the characters in the play, there are many puzzles at first glance, and then I taste it carefully, only to find that there are reasons everywhere, and I have to admire the ingenious arrangement of the screenwriter.

Now that Wei Bao is in the real Ming Dynasty, his understanding of Ming officialdom has deepened, which is something that cannot be fully explained in the TV series.

As Hai Rui said, the reason why the Ming Dynasty controlled the government and officials were greedy for ink was the concentration of imperial power.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was quite serious in centralizing power, Zhu Yuanzhang removed the prime minister, and the eunuchs were in power in the later period. In the Jiajing Dynasty, even the "cultivators" who had not been in court for more than 20 years were able to hold the power in their own hands, and the emperor controlled the officials, the court and the royal family.

So in this drama, what are the main characters suitable to do in addition to their existing official positions?

Hu Zongxian, a doer, is the person who is most in line with his own work, a proper doer.

Hu Zongxian was a jinshi in the seventeenth year of Jiajing (1538), and in the nineteenth year of Jiajing (1540), he was awarded the title of county commander of Yidu County, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong, and in the second year of Jiajing (1523), Hu Zongxian served as the governor of Zhejiang.

At that time, Yan Song's righteous son Zhao Wenhua was sent to Jiangnan to supervise coastal military affairs, and found that Hu Zongxian was a rare doer, so he strongly recommended it.

Emperor Jiajing promoted Hu Zongxian to the position of the left squire of the military department and the imperial history of the left capital of the Imperial Court of the Imperial Court, and added the governor of Zhejiang, the governor of Zhejiang, Nanzhili and Fujian.

From then on, Hu Zongxian officially appeared in the government and the opposition in the name of Yan Song's student.

He is capable, but Hu Zongxian in the play benefited from Yan Song's power and was able to be promoted to a first-class member, but he was also trapped by Yan Song's teacher-student relationship, and the final ending was sad.

Hu Zongxian actually had a deep understanding of the situation in the imperial court, and knew that the imperial court's policy of "changing rice to mulberry" was to cut off the flesh and mend the sores, but he did not say a word.

In his consciousness, this suggestion was made by his teacher Yan Song, how could he say that this policy could not be implemented.

He is the person recommended by Yan Song, as he said, "In the history books of future dynasties, it will be said that I am the person of Yan Gelao."

Since he is Yan Song's person, even if he is dissatisfied with the policy, he silently accepts the order and desperately tries to find a way to implement it.

When Yan Song and others formulated policies, they would not have thought that there would be various difficulties in the actual implementation, which Hu Zongxian had to think of; When his subordinates carried it out, they didn't take the suffering of the people to heart, and would rather destroy the embankment and flood the fields, which Hu Zongxian had to think about, otherwise it would be Hu Zongxian's crime to rebel against the people in the locality.

Later generations spoke highly of Hu Zongxian, and some people said that Hu Zongxian was responsible for the safety of the people of Zhejiang, loyal to the country, and a clean official.

And Hu Zongxian was confined to Yan Song's relationship, refused to point out the shortcomings, knew that it was corrupt, and tried his best to be a good official in the system rules of the Ming Dynasty, and his adaptability was really strong, but he did not have the desire and spirit of innovation.

The image of Hu Zongxian on the TV series is actually more illustrative that even such a doer understands the situation and does things, but it is difficult to move an inch.

Not to mention the greed of other officials in the Ming Dynasty, how could the Ming Dynasty not decline.

Xu Jie also became the first assistant of the cabinet after Yan Song, but the style is very different.

Xu Jie has the talent that the emperor likes - Qingzi is well written, his personality is forbearant and deep, and he is diligent and cautious.

Although he is the second assistant of the cabinet, he is not obvious, Yan Song and Yan Song got along peacefully on the surface when he was in power, but in fact, when he arrived at Yuwangfu, he would also participate in the discussion of how to bring down Yan Song, but his opinions were more cautious and not radical.

In the matter of changing rice to mulberry, it is also mainly in accordance with Yan Song's meaning. When discussing things with the emperor, he was able to keenly know the emperor's thoughts and deal with them very skillfully.

On the day when it was necessary to pronounce the sentence on whether Hai Jui would be beheaded, the emperor was angry and executed Hai Jui as soon as he remembered Hai Jui's recital.

In order to save Hai Rui's life, Xu Jie Chen played the matter that Hai Rui's wife and fetus were dead, which made the emperor feel pity for a while, and simply executed Hai Rui on the surface and actually spared Hai Rui's life.

But his shortcomings are also very obvious, he is trying his best to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but he is unable to solve any sharp contradictions, and can only maintain the status quo like a whack-a-mole.

As said at the end, he is also a daughter-in-law, and his children and grandchildren have to take care of the requirements of his in-laws.

He may still be the most suitable master to be the crown prince.

Zhao Zhenji stood on the pillar of shame of a refined and self-interested scholar of clear flow science.

He is greedy for fame and fortune, and he is bent on seizing every opportunity to climb up.

The needs of the emperor must be met regardless of the conditions created, or they must be oversatisfied.

is indifferent to the people's livelihood and suffering, and does not borrow food for fear of standing in the wrong line, and how many people die is a number. For disobedient subordinates, he is narrow-minded and cannot tolerate different voices.

No matter how much he learns and how rich he is, he will not solve the problem at all, but will only make some superficial statements after observing the situation.

Jiajing promoted him to the cabinet, but in fact, he also knew in his heart that Zhao Zhenji was selfish and unsuitable for taking on big responsibilities, so in the end, there was no name of Zhao Zhenji in the list of first assistants left to King Yu.

Although he is selfish, he should not become a powerful minister like Yan Song, which is too inconsistent with Qingliu's reputation.

Maybe he is suitable to do something in name but without real power, or directly as he said, "officialdom is nothing more than the word advance and retreat", then it is better to follow his mind and go back to study his mind.

Gao Hanwen is not suitable to be an official, and Hu Zongxian has already woken him up in the play. But when he was in business later, he still wanted to be able to do something for the imperial court, which shows that he is still very eager to be recognized by the imperial court bureaucracy.

Even if he is not an official, he has to be a red-top businessman.

The plan he proposed was not grounded, on the one hand, because of his own scholar background and ignorance of the people's suffering, and on the other hand, because he had stayed in the Hanlin Academy for a long time, he very much hoped to be able to glorify his ancestors for the official glory sect, so he put forward the bill before thinking about the feasibility.

These reasons directly limit him from being a think tank related to the practicality of the economy, and perhaps he is suitable for studying music and rhythm, even if he writes books and lectures for leisure and entertainment, it is not in vain to waste his talents.

Hai Jui is an innovator, not a revolutionary. Although he spoke outright, he punished corruption.

But his starting point was to hope that the emperor would maintain his rule.

If there is an uprising at this time, it is estimated that he will also suppress the uprising and maintain his rule.

The most valuable thing about him is that he has been able to point out that the root cause of the ills of the Ming Dynasty lies in the concentration of imperial power, and the emperor regards the people as mustard that can be scavenged, and the officials as slaves.

The country of Nuoda is governed by the joy and anger of the emperor alone, and the country has no peace.

Later, after Jiajing's death, Hai Rui served as the governor of Yingtian during the Longqing period, and he strictly abided by the law, punished corrupt officials, and revolutionized many people's lives.

Sympathetic to the people, people send the title of "Hai Qingtian".

Hai Rui, a direct minister, is not only courageous, but also a hero who can see the institutional flaws of the Ming Dynasty.

But his flaws are also obvious, and he simply uses a dichotomy to look at people, good or evil, clean officials or corrupt officials, as long as they violate the law, they must be severely punished.

Except for killing corrupt officials, he did not have any outstanding credit.

Therefore, he can be called a revolutionary, but he is not a builder.

He is also the most suitable criminal department to manage corruption.

From the day it descended on the Central Plains, the autocratic imperial power became the source of authority for the entire bureaucratic apparatus based on its monopoly on violence.

It should be supreme and inviolable in nature, otherwise it would not be stable enough to be a vast empire.

In order to ensure the imperial power under his control, the emperor naturally had to control the personnel power and the power of life and death in the government.

If the emperor is a puppet or cannot exercise imperial power, there will be people who will come out to exercise imperial power on his behalf, and it will be difficult to come up with another system.

This point has not changed in general except for the gate valve political period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and within the dynasty, it is often because some emperors are stronger, and his personal imperial power is stronger.

The long-term trend of strengthening the so-called absolute monarchy in Chinese history can actually be understood as the emperor's direct involvement in administrative affairs has been better guaranteed in the system.

Those that were once seen as necessary measures to protect imperial power, such as the auxiliary government of foreign relatives in the Han Dynasty and the imperial prince's obedience, which was very popular in the Middle Ages.

Although in fact the succession system still has an impact, the political role of the crown prince has been weakened as much as possible, and even the prime minister system has gradually disappeared from the political arena.

This is probably not only because they hinder the stability of the political structure during the maintenance period, but also because they can also be administratively "optimized".

After learning the lessons of its predecessors, the Qing Dynasty successfully implemented a period of fairly efficient absolute monarchy, exercising direct rule over two or three billion people for the first time in human history.

Some people often attribute the absolute monarchy of the Qing Dynasty to the "national character" of Manchuria, but in fact, it can be said that foreign rule needs to strengthen administrative efficiency, and it can be said that it is its own national character.

After Nurhachi's two failed to establish a prince, what he left behind in his later years was a set of aristocratic republics in which the four and shubeyles took turns to listen to the government, and the eight and shuobel took charge of each banner and discussed the government together.

It is a pity that the selfishness of the Dai Shan family is too heavy, otherwise the Aixin Republic would have stood in the east in the early 17th century, and the east and west of the United Provincial Republic.

If there is a clear explanation for this outright absolute monarchy, it is that in an era of steady development, with the help of a mature bureaucratic system and laws and regulations, it was not necessary for any "genius" to be the head of the administration.

As long as the emperor is willing to make the effort to familiarize himself with government affairs.

The role of an absolute monarch is not up to everyone's task.

Later scholars often used the emperors of the Song Dynasty to illustrate the inaccuracy of the "absolute monarchy theory", but when they gave examples, they often singled out those emperors who either suffered a stroke or were mentally ill, and it would be hellish if they could still play the role of autocratic monarchs when they were sick.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty was the same, because of the abolition of the prime minister, the emperor himself became the head of the administration, and he had to take care of everything, and he could not entrust the province of Zhongshu like those Jiumengzi Great Khan in the former Yuan Dynasty. The task of the cabinet is to be "adjudicated" by the side, and generally speaking, it does not bear any administrative responsibility. If a prime minister is suspected of hunting/monastic/sleeping all day, will no one criticize him openly and secretly? Officials in the past could privately express their opinions to the prime minister as the head of the administration, but now the emperor, as the head of the executive, can neither step down nor write private letters, and it is not normal for officials in the Ming Dynasty to reflect their opinions to him in the form of a recital...... What's more, some emperors did not do a good job of decision-making. Moreover, the emperors of the middle and late Ming Dynasty (except for Yizong) turned the early dynasty into a purely ceremonial occasion, did not speak, held a feast to meet a few Hanlin, and usually summoned a few cronies and important ministers at most, and the general officials did not have the opportunity to meet the emperor like the "wheel" and "Majesty" in the Song Dynasty, so they could only try to express their opinions in the text of the song, and some people took the sensational route, so it looked very "intense", in fact, it can be understood as a title party-style eye-catching means. This is not only a matter of seeking fame from officials, but also a system problem of poor communication, there is no way ~ To be fair, in fact, the normal phenomena in some administrative systems are prioritized in the framework of power struggles, and they are regarded as "checks and balances" and written about them, which does not only happen on the Internet, but also does the same by some scholars. I don't dare to say that this cannot be used as a research idea, but I am afraid that I still have a biased view that does not understand the reasons for this, and it is not enough to fully understand these phenomena. Why would they do this? This is probably a question of political value, "the separation of powers and checks and balances is good, and the absolute monarchy is bad". As for how this value judgment came about, I don't want to discuss it (and I can't do it). I myself am a person with no feelings, and if I am substituted, as a yeoman farmer or tenant farmer in the Ming Dynasty, I think it makes little difference whether it is ten masters or five hundred masters who decide how to rule me. After all, one of the most fundamental problems in China is that there are too few high-level wars, and there is not enough stimulation for the development of military technology and the financial industry...... It can only be said that when we talk about Chinese history in terms of Chinese history, the Song and Huizong dynasties, in which the monarch exercised dictatorship with power, the national power was "prosperous and prosperous", and the Song and Huizong dynasties actively expanded their territory externally and continuously deepened their internal reforms, were the harbingers of a long-term trend in the past thousand years.