Zhang Siwei acted as Prime Minister when Zhang Juzheng was seriously ill, and was officially appointed after his death for a term of two and a half years. In the past two and a half years, Zhu Yijun had not been able to get along well with him. This is the latest example of someone who left just after half of his statutory term.
root cause.
Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Siwei to resign in a conflicting mood. According to his plan, it is best for the prime minister's term to be ten years, so as to ensure the full continuity of policies.
Although maintaining policy continuity is not an urgent issue when you are fully in power, it is also very necessary to leave a well-functioning political tradition - God knows whether your descendants will be virtuous or unworthy.
However, he didn't have much time to wait for Zhang Siwei's health to improve or to get along well with him. After all, at this time in the original time and space, Zhang Siwei had already been laid to rest. Rather than letting him recuperate while serving as a general, it would be better to let him return home.
As for my family - maybe I can live a few more years because of it.
After Zhang Siwei left, the new prime minister must be carefully chosen. Zhu Yijun made up his mind that this term of prime minister should serve two full terms - or at least one term.
As a result, Pan Sheng, who is already 70 years old, and Wang Guoguang, who is about to retire, are naturally eliminated. The reform edict stipulates that cabinet ministers must retire at the age of 75, and the same applies to the prime minister.
What's more, according to Zhu Yijun's observation, although Pan Sheng is an extremely staunch reformist, he can be followed by a big politician like Zhang Juzheng to implement it. If he is allowed to take the lead in the work of the political hall, he will probably be able to sell it and help count the money.
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Among the remaining cabinet ministers, Xu Guo and Liang Menglong are sixty years old, Shen Shixing is fifty-two years old, and Luo Wanhua is fifty-one years old. They all meet the age requirements.
Among these four people, Xu Guo had a bad temper and was almost incompatible with his opinions. He was often criticized by officials. Although he had political ability, he was not as ambitious as the other three. This person was eliminated first by Zhu Yijun.
After Zhang Siwei died of illness in the original time and space, he was succeeded by Shen Shixing. Shen Shixing's life experience is very interesting: he was born in the 14th year of Jiajing, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, and was the son of Suzhou businessman Xu Shizhang. However, his grandfather's surname was not Xu, but Shen Qian.
Because he was raised by his uncle Xu Pu, and Xu Pu had no children, Shen Shixing's grandfather adoptively changed his name to Xu Qian, so Shen Shixing and his son both adopted the surname Xu, and Shen Shixing's original name was Xu Shixing.
When Xu Shixing became the number one scholar, his father had passed away, and he and his stepmother were dependent on each other. As a disciple of Confucianism, he was somewhat resentful of the fact that his grandfather changed his surname. After passing the Jinshi examination, he wanted to return to the ancestral surname Shen.
Of course, the old Xu family is not happy: why should the number one scholar be returned to the old Shen family? Wouldn't it look good if the big archway for the number one scholar was placed in the Xu family? Of course, even if the old Xu family was happy, Shen Shixing would not dare to change it because of the change
In modern times, changing your name is a simple matter of going to the police station, but in the Ming Dynasty, changing your name and surname violated the criminal law, and in serious cases, you might even lose your head.
In the 19th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to prevent military families from refusing to perform military service, strictly restricted name changes - if the name was changed three times, he would be directly executed, his family property would be confiscated, and the whole family would be sent to the frontier. He also encouraged reporting on those who changed their names and confiscated them.
All the family property belongs to the whistleblower.
For example, Li Ben, a cabinet scholar during the Jiajing period, was originally supposed to be named Lu. His ancestor Lu Deyu was registered as "Li" in the early years of Hongwu because the pronunciations of "Lu" and "Li" were too similar, so the registration officer wrote it as "Li" -
- This mistake is due to the strict system of changing surnames for more than 200 years. Hundreds of people in Li's family have not been able to restore their original surnames for more than ten generations.
In the fifth year of Longqing's reign, Shen Shixing became the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and found out about this. So this guy persuaded Li Ben to ask for a decree to restore his surname. He also suggested that Emperor Longqing issue a pardon - senior officials and ministers in the imperial court who had errors in their names could pass this.
Amnesty was changed.
Emperor Longqing considered that Li Ben was a senior official in the Jiajing court, so he had to give him some face. In addition, Shen Shixing followed the advice and actually issued a special order for this matter. Shen Shixing got what he wanted - the senior officials of the imperial court at that time were all
Thirty-one people followed Zhan Guang and were able to change their surnames back to their ancestors.
Lord Gong Xian, who conquered Burma, was not eligible to enjoy the amnesty at that time, because this amnesty was specifically for civil servants and important ministers. He was able to restore the surname Gong later because of the special reward decree given by Zhu Yijun, otherwise his descendants would still have to follow.
The guy Gong Xian pretended to join the army was named Liu. In that case, Marshal Gong, who had already been granted the title of Duke, would be depressed to death. This also shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's original strict regulations were necessary.
After Shen Shixing changed his surname and returned to his clan in accordance with the special decree, he made a large plaque with the words "Entong Reconstruction", which was connected with the big sign of "No. 1 Scholar" and sent it to the old Xu family in Suzhou, expressing his intention to take care of the old Xu family's education.
Seed - what he really did later. So, both Shen and Xu families were very happy.
The handling of this matter showed Shen Shixing's high political skills, which earned him very high praise from people at the time: He did things carefully, did not use force to pressure others, and took care of the interests of many parties, making a relatively complicated matter
It is the prime minister's talent to make everyone happy.
But compared to Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua, Shen Shixing's political stance is more conservative. He has repeatedly advised Zhu Yijun on matters related to the Hanlin Academy. Although he did not dare to obstruct the reform policy, he always encountered more complex problems when governing.
I always think about my nephew lighting lanterns - as usual. Zhu Yijun hopes to have such an "opposition" in the cabinet, but it is obviously inappropriate for him to be the prime minister.
That leaves only Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua. One of them is a representative of the "local faction" and the other is the leader of the "returnee faction". They are equally capable and skillful, and both are relatively firm reformists.
Luo Wanhua's character is somewhat arrogant, but after being tempered by his tenure as Governor-General of Myanmar, he is no longer the same. His ability to quickly take advantage of the Manila incident is evidence of this - Zhu Yijun has not yet thought that Luo Wanhua might be in the political affairs hall of Xiao and Xie.
Did some tricks.
But from Zhu Yijun's perspective, choosing one of them meant that the emperor was leaning towards the "dispute between sea power and land power" to some extent, and Zhu Yijun did not want to make this choice.
Later geopolitical scientists such as Mackinder and Mahan proposed the concepts of land power and sea power respectively, which were used to guide the political map throughout the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. A universal
The view is that continental countries naturally tend to land power, such as France's Napoleon and Germany's Mustache, who all take expansion of their territories as their own mission; while a maritime country, such as the Empire of England, where the sun never sets, naturally tends to sea power - they are on the world island.
In addition, offshore balancing hands must be used to create a balance of power among land-based countries.
But Zhu Yijun in the 21st century does not believe in this theory. It may be a seemingly reasonable rule that strategists summarized when summarizing the history of the original time and space. But after the end of the Cold War, far outside the world island
In North America, there is a hegemony that pays equal attention to both sea and land - it not only uses offshore balancing hands, but also deeply intervenes in the situation on the mainland, and deploys heavy troops in the heart of the world, thereby geographically controlling the whole world.
Now the Ming Dynasty has occupied a corner of the World Island - also the most fertile and geographically advantageous corner. To dominate the world and then do kingly things all over the world, it is natural to advance by sea and land. Therefore, Zhu Yijun is not willing to tie his own hands and feet.
The naturally formed "Sea Power Faction" and "Land Power Faction" choose sides that are not in their favor.
Is it necessary to use tingtui? Zhu Yijun fell into deep confusion. Although the tingtui system was a method used by successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty to consolidate power by using internal conflicts within the civil service group to divide and disintegrate, its existence itself meant a compromise between imperial power and ministerial power.
——After the cabinet becomes powerful, no one can enter the cabinet without being recommended by the imperial court. This is evidenced by the fact that the ministers who are special ministers have no appearance and are proud of their rank.
During the drafting and promulgation of the reform edict, Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun agreed that it was extremely necessary for the prime minister to be nominated by the emperor. This design broke the old practice of seniority ranking in the past and was beneficial to the cabinet.
The balance with imperial power can also eliminate political disputes to a certain extent.
At the same time, Zhang Juzheng believed that after the emperor nominated the prime minister, it was necessary to select the prime minister through court recommendation. This design avoided the problem of later emperors acting recklessly and directly appointing traitors, so that the imperial power would not get out of control - the cabinet prime minister could smoothly pass through the court officials
It is unlikely that the vote will be dissatisfied by a secret ballot.
Therefore, the original text of the imperial edict stipulates this about the prime minister: "Strengthen the powers of the cabinet and establish a system of prime ministers nominated by the emperor and recommended by the court, and then appointed and removed by the emperor."
But at the beginning of the design of the imperial edict, neither Zhu Yijun nor Zhang Juzheng expected that in the process of nominating the emperor, there would be candidates who were difficult for the emperor to decide. Is it possible to nominate two this time and really leave the choice to the courtiers? Is this considered
What? The Ming Dynasty’s version of the “Pan Bo system”?