However, if Long Qing was unwilling to further expand the power of the cabinet, how could he explain that he allowed Gao Gong to concurrently serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel as a bachelor of Wuyingdian? You must know that the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is known as the "Heavenly Official" and is in charge of personnel power.
Li Chunfang, the chief assistant in the cabinet who was ranked before Gao Gong, did not dare to compete with Gao Gong, and Gao Gong was equivalent to mastering the administrative power.
It stands to reason that this power itself is already very huge, but Emperor Longqing was still dissatisfied. He even let someone recommended by Gao Gong hold the seal of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. To a certain extent, this was equivalent to giving up the final review power.
Gave high arches too!
In the original history, everyone must admit that during the reign of Emperor Longqing, anyone who opposed Gao Gong would bow down and step down without exception.
Why is it always said that Gao Gong is the only minister who can be completely trusted in Long Qing's mind? This is the reason: Long Qing is not only able to completely and completely delegate power to Gao Gong, but also supports Gao Gong so strongly that "to go against Mr. Gao is to go against me."
To the extent of "being against".
So, Gao Pragmatic guessed that Long Qing's unwillingness to continue to increase the power of the cabinet formed a paradox with this kind of trust? He thought not. The reason is that Long Qing did not trust the cabinet system, and he did not want to violate Taizu at all.
He did not have the original intention of becoming prime minister, he only trusted Gao Gong!
There is a big difference. If Long Qing really trusts the cabinet system itself and subconsciously believes that having a real prime minister is a good thing, then he should not care who is the powerful "prime minister". However,
The fact is that before Xu Jie was "unprecedented by people at home" and had some signs of having power, Long Qing decisively asked him to go home and retire. It can be seen that in his heart, Gao Gong could have power, but the cabinet itself could not have such power.
Conventionally, the power of the position of chief assistant should still be limited to "auxiliary" and not "chief".
Therefore, he would rather let Gao Gong concurrently serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and would rather appoint the chief minister of rites recommended by Gao Gong, and use these actions to greatly strengthen Gao Gong's power and prestige, rather than directly hand over these powers to the cabinet. Because as long as these are
The powers are separated, so if there is no such person as Gao Gong in the future, the powers will still be dispersed and will not form a stand-off against the emperor. But if these powers evolve into the powers of the cabinet, then the person in charge of the cabinet, such as the chief minister, will
Maybe he really became the prime minister.
You must know that the current cabinet already has power to discuss matters. Some people regard the cabinet as the "Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" and call cabinet ministers "prime ministers". This is mainly because of this point. The power of the cabinet to discuss power is mainly reflected in the drafting of votes.
, its document operation mechanism basically has three aspects.
First of all, for all political matters requested and approved by the six ministries, although the cabinet has not been "cleared" in advance in the system, it does not prepare advisers afterwards, nor does it mean that it may not be consulted. Instead, all must be drafted by the cabinet, and all of them must be approved by the cabinet.
It can be "refuted and corrected". Except for the above-mentioned six chapters, all the memorials in the country are submitted to the cabinet for approval and voting.
Secondly, the various ministers reported their affairs and closed the cabinet. In December of the third year of Jingtai, Emperor Jing ordered the Ministry of Personnel to appoint officials such as those in charge. The Ministry of Personnel "put two books at a time, sealed with the Ministry's seal...one of them was sent to the Bureau of Ceremonies"
"A briefing sheet was sent to the cabinet to prepare advisors", which broke the old rule that "the cabinet should not shut down the affairs of the departments". With the formation of the cabinet system, the departments generally had to discuss with the cabinet on the handling of major issues before going to the cabinet.
An understanding was reached. For example, in Zhengde and Jiajing, Wang Qiong, the Minister of Civil Affairs, said: "The power of the cabinet is getting heavier, which is no different from the design of the prime minister. The power of the six ministries is getting lighter, and everything is done according to the decree of the cabinet."
Thirdly, the governors, governors, commander-in-chief, and patrol censors directly wrote to the cabinet to ask for instructions. Especially since Zhengde, governors have written to the cabinet in the form of unveiling posts to ask for instructions on military, political, financial, and fiscal matters.
It is customary to teach strategies from a distance. Therefore, whenever civil unrest subsides and border affairs are stable, without exception, all ministers in the cabinet must be rewarded for their hard work in strategizing.
All the emperor's decisions are made through the above three documents. Since all of them must be voted on by the cabinet, unlike the "preparatory advisors" such as Hanlin bachelors in the past, the cabinet's deliberation power is proactive and relatively stable.
of.
In addition, the cabinet vote also has a certain restrictive effect on the imperial power. First of all, in the vote, the emperor's right to approve the red vote cannot in principle go beyond the cabinet vote and act independently, and the vote becomes an administrative order after approval. Secondly,
, if the emperor takes the initiative to issue an edict to handle political affairs, as a rule, he must send it to the cabinet to "discuss whether it is confirmed or not."
An imperial edict means "returning" and "executing" the decree, which means rejecting the drafted decree.
Xu Pu, a great scholar, once said: "Since taking the throne, there has never been an internal surrender. Fortunately, once the door was opened, I was in peace. The ministers did not dare to obey the imperial edict." In the early years of Jiajing, the great scholar Yang Tinghe "featured four people who were returned to the imperial court.
"Play dozens or thirty chapters."
Thirdly, secret disclosures by cabinet ministers showed the views and positions of the cabinet, and the emperor had to pay attention to them. Secret disclosures were one of the ways in which the cabinet made recommendations and acted on matters.
Every door has its own number book, but the cabinet alone has access to secrets... A thousand words from the outer court are not as good as a few forbidden words."
By passing votes and refuting corrections, the cabinet can not only make suggestions for the emperor, handle national government affairs, and relieve the emperor of the heavy burden; it can also cooperate with the six ministries with executive power to check and balance, and improve the quality and efficiency of governance. This is the "prime ministerization" of the cabinet.
The development trend and the main reason why the cabinet bachelor is regarded as the "prime minister".
Of course, if the emperor does not care about face at all, he can still bypass the cabinet. For example, Jiajing always did this during the Great Rites Conference. But correspondingly, there are civil servants like Hai Rui who dare to scold the emperor and say, "No one in the world can do this."
Your Majesty has been your Majesty for a long time, and your internal and external ministers know everything about it." Therefore, Jiajing, a very capable emperor, became the representative of a foolish emperor in later generations.
Of course, Long Qing had seen and understood his father's skills. He certainly didn't want to be known as a faint emperor in the future, so his actions were very cautious: Gao Jingshi, the crown prince's companion, was newly established by me as the emperor, but
Although this position is listed in the Hanlin Academy, it has no rank. According to convention, it is the so-called "unpopular". For such a trivial and unpopular thing, you can't say that I am messing around, can you?
As for his merit in dedicating books, although I gave him a bachelor's degree, it was a "fake bachelor's degree" - the "fake" here is not true or false, it is equivalent to "honorary bachelor's degree" - not the actual one.
Taking up the position of Bachelor of Attendant is purely for the sake of the prince's reputation. You can't say that I'm acting recklessly, can you?
It was precisely because Gao Jingshi understood this that he felt that not only some people in the historians of later generations had underestimated Long Qing, but he might have underestimated this kind king before - his kindness may not be fake, but
Kindness does not mean lack of means.
Look how well he did today. By setting up a new unworthy official, he not only regained face for the prince, but also showed his favor to Gao Gong. At the same time, he tested the bottom line and attitude of the civil servants towards the expansion of imperial power, and even
He showed his prominence as an emperor in a small way.