Chapter 287 Prime Minister (10) 'Cleaning Up' of the Cabinet
Gao Pragmatic bid farewell to the emperor and returned to the cabinet. Just as he was about to enter the main room, he saw an official in his thirties, wearing a green robe and embroidered with white pheasants, standing at the gate with his hands solemnly raised. Gao Pragmatically noticed what he saw and thought.
When I wanted to take a closer look, I saw that the green-robed official had already taken the initiative to come forward and said, "Your Majesty, Li Zhizao, has been ordered to come and wash Yuan Fu's pen."
Only then did Gao Pragmatic remember that because Xiong Tingbi, the Jinshi of Guanzheng around him, had been sent abroad and there was no one around him, Chen Yubi, the Minister of Personnel, had already asked him in private and asked him which young man he wanted to have around him.
Official, Gao Pragmatic took the initiative to name Li Zhizao at that time.
But there is a new word here, which is what Li Zhizao just called "washing pens for Yuan Fu". How new is the word "washing pens"? The answer is that it only appeared after Gao Pragmatic became the first assistant.
Or in other words, Li Zhizao was the first person in the Ming Dynasty who was officially called "wash the pen". However, please note that "washing the pen" is not a formal official position, just like the chief minister of the cabinet is not the official prime minister."
The term "washing pens" was passively coined by today's capital officialdom due to its pragmatic habits.
This book has made some descriptions of "what is a prime minister" a long time ago, and adopted the mainstream definition of later generations: "According to the history of prime ministers in our country for more than two thousand years, it must meet two conditions, one of which is indispensable. That is, it must have
to discuss political power and must have the power to supervise the execution of officials."
Why start here? Because in the late Ming Dynasty, several chief ministers of the cabinet were so powerful that they gave people the illusion that the chief ministers were really variations of the prime minister, but this conclusion is actually untrue.
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According to the above definition, in short, in addition to having the power to discuss and make decisions, the prime minister must also have the power to supervise the execution of officials. The first point goes without saying, because the issue of voting has been emphasized many times in this book. The focus is here
Let’s talk about the second point, which is the so-called power to supervise the execution of officials.
This qualification is very important. If there is no second limiting standard, then almost anyone who can influence the emperor's decision-making and have the power to make suggestions on military and state affairs can be called a prime minister. This is obviously not consistent with the facts.
To sort out the history, the prime ministerial institutions before the Tang Dynasty were roughly the Prime Minister's Office in the Western Han Dynasty, the Sangong's Office in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Shangshutai in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. They all have a common feature. Both the Prime Minister's Office and the Sangong can open offices and appoint officials and subordinates.
There are many departments and officials (all of which belong to the formal establishment of the country) below. Whether it is the Prime Minister, the Sangongfu or the Shangshutai, it is a huge administrative agency in itself, and the Prime Minister is the head of the administrative agency.
Talking about the prime minister should not just be limited to the prime minister himself, but also need to focus on the administrative agency where the prime minister is located. The so-called "power to supervise the execution of officials" under the Shangshu Province system is to direct and supervise local areas through Shangshufu; under the Zhongshumenxia system
Next, it is through the ultimatum that the world is commanded to observe Jiedu and other state capitals.
During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shuo changed the Zhengshi Hall to the Zhongshu Gate. Five rooms were built under the Zhongshu Gate: the first is the official room, the second is the cardinal room, the third is the military room, the fourth is the household room, and the fifth is the punishment room.
The system of Zhongshumenxia lasted from the Kaiyuan Dynasty to the reform of Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty.
After the Yuanfeng restructuring, the three-province system was restored, and after the Southern Song Dynasty, the one-province system was restored. Whether it was the Shangshu Province in the Jin Dynasty or the Zhongshu Province in the Yuan Dynasty, the prime ministerial institutions of the feudal dynasty relied on the government, and the three provinces (Zhongshu Menxia system can be seen in
It is a special "one-province system"). These government offices and the three provinces all have a large number of Cao Si (or so-and-so rooms) and other agencies that specifically deal with general affairs, and in later generations, the so-and-so department under the Imperial Court was
Same reason.
But here comes the key. The relationship between the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty and the six ministries is not the relationship between the provinces and the six ministries under the ministerial system, because the cabinet does not have any relevant functional departments that can interface with the six ministries. The so-called "
"The Cabinet Leads Six Ministries" has always been an unfair name.
Moreover, the cabinet cannot direct the local government through edicts like the minister of ministers, and the subordinates of Zhongshu can command the local government through edicts. This has been mentioned many times before. The chief minister often needs to rely on private letters, that is, letters to tell local officials what to do.
.This involves a problem, that is, if the local official does not listen, at least in theory, the chief minister cannot convict him for it - you are just communicating with me in private, and it is not an administrative order, why should I listen?
?
It can be seen that the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet looks more like the other than the prime minister. His "power" lacks institutional confirmation and corresponding administrative agencies. He is just a lame prime minister. However, the problem is that even from the development of later generations,
Look, the function of "administrative head" cannot be absent. No matter how powerful your imperial power is, the emperor himself cannot do this job well. There must be a top leader in the bureaucracy.
Gao Jingshi was determined to change this, but he knew very well that such a major event could not be accomplished overnight, otherwise if Liubu or others jumped out to use Zhu Yuanzhang's words to criticize him, Gao Yuanfu's face would not look good.
His train of thought was consistent, proceeding step by step, with smaller movements at first, and then gradually increasing the firepower like boiling a frog in warm water.
He first used Xiong Tingbi as the first step to test. Before Gao Pingshi became the first assistant, Guanzheng Jinshi's work in the cabinet... To express his feelings directly was to serve tea and water, literally.
It can be said that Guanzheng Jinshi simply "takes a look" around the elders. In rare cases-for example, the elder you are with likes you, then maybe they will pay attention to some less important things.
The exam school usually asks you to go through the details, which is basically the extreme.
Therefore, the "Guanzheng Jinshi" of "Guanzheng Jinshi" is more about your qualifications, which proves that the cabinet has certain recognition of you, and you are considered one of the "preserver prime ministers".
Gao Pragmatic's use of Xiong Tingbi obviously broke this norm. When Xiong Tingbi was "Gao Yuanfu's political scholar", he often represented Gao Yuanfu to the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other yamen to convey Yuanfu's intentions.
Quan explained and supplemented Gao Yuanfu's order to a certain extent. This is very unusual, far beyond the comparison of the past Guanzheng Jinshi.
Obviously, Xiong Tingbi, as a highly pragmatic Jinshi Observer, had the characteristics of a "chief assistant secretary" to a certain extent. Soon after, Xiong Tingbi's term as a Jinshi Guanzheng ended, and Gao Tingbi arranged for him to enter the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and then directly
Sent to patrol Gansu Province - this section is also very important, because it also sets a precedent.
There is no need to elaborate on the power of the patrol commissioner. Xiong Tingbi immediately took up the post of patrol commissioner after observing the administration. This kind of "high reuse" only happened to one person before him, that is, Gao Pragmatic himself.
The outside world has already made some speculations about this, and the fact is that their speculations are not wrong. Gao Pragmatic's purpose in doing this is to deliberately improve the status of "chief assistant secretary", which is not an actual position, in the minds of outsiders.
With this foreshadowing, the next step is for Gao Pragmatic to no longer select people as his "secretaries" from new scholars with no actual positions, but to select low-level officials who have recently served as his "secretaries" - such as Li Zhizao this time.
Li Zhizao and Xiong Tingbi were actually in the same year. Both of them were Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli, and Li Zhizao's joint examination results were far better than Xiong Tingbi: Xiong Tingbi was the 115th and 115th grader in the top three, while Li Zhizao was the second grader.
The fifth person was born as a Jinshi.
Because of this, Xiong Tingbi could only rely on his good performance in the imperial examination to become a common scholar, while Li Zhizao directly transferred his official position to other places: he was awarded the post of Wailang, a member of the maintenance department of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry.
This time, Li Zhizao returned to the capital with high pragmatism and directly named him, but in the officialdom, there must be some high-sounding reasons. Li Zhizao was a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli, and now it is just the 28th year of Wanli, "three years passed"
I haven't achieved it yet. How can I be transferred without any reason?
However, now that Gao Yuanfu had spoken, the official Chen Tianguan had to find some reason to come up with it. In the end, Li Zhizao's order became like this: "...it was found that this person has excelled in his job after two years of examination, and he was also found to be good at calculus.
He studied counting and other studies, and with the talent that Yuan Fu sought, he was transferred back to the capital and served as a member of the household department, Wailang, and served as an errand in Wenyuan Pavilion."
This paragraph is the most useful paragraph in the official letter of the Ministry of Personnel. It explains several things: first, Li Zhizao performed well during his tenure; but Li Zhizao is good at calendar and mathematics; third, he named Gao Pragmatic and proactively proposed to be talented in calendar and mathematics;
The fourth is that Li Zhizao's position level has not changed, but he has returned from the Nanjing Ministry of Industry to the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs; the fifth is the most critical: "Serving as an errand in Wenyuan Pavilion".
Among the cabinet bachelors, there is a "Wenyuan Pavilion bachelor", but it is only ranked fifth among the usual palace bachelors. The "Wenyuan Pavilion servant" here is because the cabinet is located in
Wenyuan Pavilion actually means entering the cabinet as a servant.
It should be noted that serving officials, especially those in the Six Ministries, entered the Wenyuan Pavilion to "attend", which was unprecedented in the Ming Dynasty. The reason was just mentioned, the Ming Dynasty's cabinet did not have subordinate divisions and subordinate officials, and theoretically -
- Even under the order of Zhu Yuanzhang to dismiss the prime minister - there should not be!
Now Gao pragmatic has set a precedent. He first transferred Li Zhizao to the household department, which he also controlled, and then ordered him to serve as a servant in the cabinet. He was obviously deliberately breaking some conventions. Considering Gao pragmatic's many past performances, the officialdom of the capital will never
Indifferent to this, they would naturally try to figure out Gao Yuanfu's intentions. From this, he somehow gave the "officer" around Yuanfu a very nice nickname: "Wash the Pen".
Why is it "washing the pen"? Probably because the cabinet has the power to draft the vote, and the cabinet elder who is responsible for drafting the vote that day will call it "writing the pen", and Gao Pragmatic is the chief assistant, and there is currently no minister in Beijing.
To be on par with Gao Pragmatic in terms of power, it would be acquiesced that the power of "writing" in the cabinet rests entirely with Gao Pragmatic, and he is the only true "writing" person.
Since Gao Pragmatic is the one who writes the pen, aren't the officials who help him just "wash the pen"? After Yuan Fu writes the draft, you come to help wash the pen. Are you really just the one who helps him?
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Thank you to the book friend "Single Rider Zhao Bixin" for your support of 8 monthly tickets, thank you!
Thanks to book friend "doni" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I caught a cold two days ago. I thought it was because I got cold while sleeping while typing that night, but later I found out something was wrong. I went to the health room for a checkup and found out that it was mycoplasma infection... Now my head still hurts a little, or maybe it doesn’t hurt, but I feel dizzy and swollen anyway.
Wow. This chapter is from yesterday, 3K, and I will see if I can work overtime in the next chapter for the chapter that should be updated tonight.
