Since ancient times, feudal dynasties in China have devoted themselves to strengthening centralization, because feudal rulers clearly know that only centralized dynasties can achieve real long-term stability, otherwise it will bring endless disasters to the country. Whether it is the county system implemented in the Qin Dynasty, the decrees of the Han Dynasty, the provincial system in the Yuan Dynasty, or the three-province system in the Ming Dynasty, it is the embodiment of this idea. However, the strengthening of centralization will inevitably lead to the slow operation of local management. In order to solve this problem, the governor system appeared in Ming Dynasty.
The change of governor from temporary appointment to permanent position
Governor is a general term for governor and governor. It first appeared in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Biao, the crown prince of Zhu Yuanzhang, was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi. At this time, the governor only sent people to work temporarily.
During the reign of Hong, the position of governor in Ming Dynasty became the norm.
At the beginning of Hong's accession to the throne, he ordered Guangxi envoys to inspect Jiangnan and Zhejiang. Xiong, the judge of Guangxi, served as the secretary of Dali Temple, and participated in politics in Sichuan Province and the governors of Jiangnan and Zhejiang provinces. Bell lived in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for about six years. Unlike previous courtiers and governors, he was reinstated at the end of the day. The bear is still behind. In less than half a year, it was reported that the governor sent six assistant ministers to Jiangnan and other places. Since then, the governor of Jiangnan has not changed. "
Judging from the setting time of the governor, the setting of the governor has experienced a process from unconventional to normal. During this period, there is usually a governor, and the establishment of the governor is mainly divided into two categories:
First of all, the court considered courtiers and local governors as temporary measures to solve local affairs, so they were handed over to the court after the work was completed.
Second, eunuchs acted as political leaders, bewitched the emperor and removed the governor.
During Tianshun and Zhengde years, the governor was often dismissed, but because of his irreplaceable role in contacting the central government and local governments, he eventually became a permanent position in Jiajing.
In March of the thirty-third year of Jiajing, local governors were ordered to stay behind, and those who were promoted and worried about leaving were all in one place, and were not allowed to leave their posts without permission.
Judging from the fields established by the governor, the fields involved are expanding rapidly. Xuande had only six princes in five years. Since then, they have been added one by one. During the orthodox period, the chief secretary of 13, two capitals and nine countries established governors.
The term "governor" began in the orthodox six years, when Wang Ji, a senior official of the Ministry of War, was in charge of the military affairs of the governor, controlled all the generals and went to Luchuan to handle affairs. Jingtai established the director of grain transportation in 2002. Since then, Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiubian provinces have continued to set up governors, and Jiajing years have become the norm.
We can see that the local governor at this time is no longer an ordinary position to solve emergencies, but has officially become a normal position in the political structure of the Ming Dynasty.
Second, the characteristics of the governor system and the hierarchical relationship between them.
Governor qualification and promotion system
In the Ming dynasty, the governor was only an official position, and his rank and salary were determined according to the original rank and salary of the incumbent.
Judging from the composition of the president's team, they are qualified for this position.
According to the statistics of Chronology of Wu Dynasty, courtiers were the main officials from Xuande to Tianshun. During the orthodox years, some local officials began to hold this position one after another. After the establishment of the government, except for the apocalypse and Chongzhen years in the late Ming Dynasty, local officials occupied most of the governors. According to the official data of Ming dynasty, local officials accounted for 52%, courtiers accounted for 48%, and officials appointed as governors accounted for about 34%, ranking first among all official positions.
Because the highest officials in the Ming Dynasty were political envoys.
Since the governor's main duty is to mobilize the local government with the will of the central government, in order to release the governor from the outside and better deter the local government, from Jingtai four years ago, the Ming Dynasty stipulated that all governors who held the post of governor should be awarded official titles on the basis of the original official titles. During the Jiajing period, the governor was even awarded the title of Minister of War, usually the right assistant minister.
Selection and evaluation of governors
According to the Selected System of Ming History, princes and ministers were promoted to "nine ministers, hundreds of officials and ministers". Every three years, the official department inspects the governor. Go to Beijing every six years.
A subordinate of the governor
At first, the rulers of the Ming dynasty did not stipulate that there should be two officials, but only a few officials and cannons to assist in their daily work. From Jiajing to Qin Long, most governors have pacesetters directly under them, mainly because of the benefits of increasing the rank of the Ministry of War. His subordinates gradually began to have guerrilla generals, battalion officers, commanders and other military commanders to manage the pacesetters and spread orders.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, rulers could even set up their own shogunate. For example, in the thirty-third year of Jiajing, Zhang Jing, the minister of Nanjing Ministry of War, the governor of Zhejiang, the governor of Fuzhou and the governor of Nanji all presided over military affairs. Jiajing "issued decrees to control half the world, work cheaply, open the government, set up screens, and provide support and assistance."
The power of the governor and its relationship
The jurisdiction of the governor is not necessarily the same as that of the Ming Dynasty.
Some provinces have governors, while others have more than one governor. In the Ming Dynasty, few governors were in charge of two or more provinces. There are only two cases under the jurisdiction of the two provinces, one is Yu Qian, governor of Jinsui in Xuande period, and the other is Ye Sheng, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in Tianshun period.
The governor's jurisdiction is much larger than that of the governor, usually two or more provinces. Generally speaking, the provisional governor governs three or four provinces, which will change with the change of military situation. In the late Ming Dynasty, in order to cope with the peasant uprising, the governor's jurisdiction became larger and larger. To the greatest extent, he even ruled more than half of the administrative areas of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, there will inevitably be governors coexisting, so the Ming Dynasty also stipulated the levels of these two positions. Where princes coexist, princes are lower than princes and obey the constraints of princes. For example, the governors of Qiliao, Xuanda and Shanxi all control the governors of these three regions, the governor of Shaanxi Province and the governors of Ningxia, Gansu, Yanshui and Yunyang provinces.
Three. Duties and powers of the Governor
The power of the governor belongs to the emperor, and his scope of authority is stipulated in the charter. Including administration, military and supervision.
Among them, the governor is mainly responsible for civil relief, relief, water conservancy and taxation, and has certain autonomy in handling these matters, as well as the power to handle local civil litigation.
The governor pays more attention to military control, and rarely involves specific local affairs management except those who concurrently serve as the governor.
Another important function of the governor is supervision.
During the reign of Xuande, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered local governors, assistant ministers and inspectors to inspect local county officials together. This is the beginning of the governor's power to inspect local officials. Since the prospect of Thailand in four years, the inspector group has been awarded the title of constitution and become the eyes and ears of the Supreme Court. They have the right to supervise local officials.
Among them, the supervision of the captaincy is also one of the functions and powers of the governor. If the governor fails to report the governor's illegal behavior in time and truthfully, it will be regarded as dereliction of duty. For example, in the third year of orthodoxy, Zheng Wu, the governor of Huguang, concealed Liao Wang's illegal behavior and was directly imprisoned by the Royal Guards. At the same time, checking military commanders is also one of the powers of the governor.
"The title of the governor is Feng Xian. This is not only the pros and cons of the place, that is to say, the major policies of the court cannot be reported. "
this
The actual power of the governor to lead the troops may begin with Chenghua. At that time, the rulers of Wang Yue, Datong and Fu Xuan repelled the Mongols' three invasions of Hetao. Commented, "At first, civil servants looked at the teacher, led the army to give orders and rewarded the teacher. The more you start, the more you choose dancers as the focus. You must fight the robbers, and fight them. If you are tired, you want to grab it, otherwise you will be rewarded if you cut it. "
Judging from the military command of the governor, the governor is the highest military and political official in the garrison. Therefore, both the governor and the company commanders obey temperance. Ten years later, Shaanxi established a trilateral general system. "Company commanders and governors should come down and listen to the golden mean." This is the first time to clearly define the relationship between the governor, the governor and the company commander. The governor can control the deputy commander-in-chief and generals below, which is equivalent to the position of company commander. Later, it became the rule in other places.
In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing, in order to effectively prevent Japanese invaders from invading the southeast coast, the governor, commander-in-chief and local authorities separated.
"The so-called officers and men of the Governor refer to the general plan; The governor is in charge of the military, food and salary. The commander-in-chief tried his best to guide and approach the battle formation. As for the competent department, it is responsible for guarding this place and sticking to the theme. "
Four. Advantages and disadvantages of supervision system
We can see that the establishment of the governor system in the Ming Dynasty actually played two roles in the feudal dynasty.
First of all, the establishment of the governor increased the empty documents of the state administrative agencies in the Ming Dynasty, which effectively improved the government's ability to deal with emergencies.
As far as government affairs are concerned, the highest level of local administrative divisions in Ming Dynasty is the Government Council, which is usually called the province.
At the provincial level, there are three departments, namely the Chief Secretary, the Ministry of Justice and the City Command, which are responsible for administration, supervision, justice and military affairs. These three departments are independent of each other and are managed vertically by a free central government. In the event of a major local accident, the three departments must hold a joint meeting and seek the opinions of the central government before taking corresponding actions.
This way of administrative decision-making and execution, under the communication conditions at that time, is difficult to solve the affairs with low restrictions. However, military issues that require high timeliness will bring serious information lag crisis and easily lead to the expansion of negative effects.
The most prominent example is the peasant uprising between Tingzhou and Ganzhou in Chenghua, Fujian-Jiangxi border. At first, it was just a small-scale riot and resistance. Later, due to the mutual prevarication of the local authorities in the two provinces and three provinces, the problem was not solved in the bud, which eventually led to great turmoil affecting the four provinces.
Militarily, the Ming Dynasty set up 15 command and dispatch departments throughout the country to handle local military affairs and manage local health institutions. Together with the central government of the five armies, it formed a military system of commander-in-chief, commander-in-chief, general flag and small flag.
The function of this system is to store soldiers, including training soldiers, managing wasteland and personnel management, and it is also a medical care system. Under this system, the guards have no right to direct the army to carry out military operations.
But only the commander-in-chief, deputy commander-in-chief, generals participating in the war, guerrilla commanders and commander-in-chief can carry out unified actions. Only when the stationed generals have the title of commander-in-chief can they have the power to lead troops to fight, and this power must be granted by the emperor through the Ministry of War.
In Ming dynasty, garrison towns were usually set up in some important military areas, and the military structure was relatively perfect, which could handle local military affairs in time. However, due to the reasons of cost and evasion, this military garrison was not established in the whole country in the late Tang Dynasty. Therefore, in provinces without garrison towns, if there is a major military situation, the local three departments must ask the court for instructions, and then wait for the court to come to S.
For example, during Zheng De's reign, Wang Shouren, the governor of Gannan, relied on his cheap power and outstanding talent to suppress the large-scale Wang Ning rebellion in just 35 days. The counter-insurgency led by Zheng called himself a general and did not reach Nanchang until the rebellion was put down. If we rely on the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty to suppress the rebellion, then in these thirty days, Wang Ning's rebellion is estimated to have spread to the south of the Yangtze River, instead of being strangled by Wang Shouren in Jiangxi.
This is also because there is a hierarchical relationship between provinces and towns, and no one has the right to control who. Therefore, all affairs involving two provinces, two towns or several provinces and towns often need to cooperate with each other and cooperate in time. Otherwise, due to local interests and other reasons, this problem may not be solved smoothly, thus delaying the occurrence of major events.
For example, the establishment of the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi is the product of a case. During the Jingtai period, the company commanders Dong Hang and Wu Yi shirked their responsibilities. Yu Qian, the minister of the Ministry of War, invited Weng Xin and Chen to be the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, and set up a governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to take charge of Han Yong. Later, Han Yong and Ding Youyou were dismissed from their posts as governors of Guangdong and Guangxi. But in the second year, civil strife broke out again in Guangdong and Guangxi, so the Ming Dynasty appointed Han Yong as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi again and then ruled.
As far as the management level is concerned, the governor and the governor's power are above the three divisions and generals. In this way, the governor can override the local government, coordinate the relationship between various departments and local governments, make them work step by step, reduce mutual friction and wrangling, and handle local affairs with higher efficiency.
Because the governor was appointed by the emperor, he was appointed by the emperor and could be hired cheaply. At the same time, he was given a flag token, giving him the right to kill and seize things. In local affairs, because the governor has more decision-making power than the officials of the three departments, he can carry out some political innovations. Zhou Zhen, for example, was opposed by some officials in the south of the Yangtze River in order to promote the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages. Relying on the support of imperial power and resisting the pressure of local forces in Jiangnan, he worked for more than 20 years. Zhou Zhen's predecessor, Xiong Shu, was also impeached, accused of exceeding his authority and rescued under the protection of imperial power.
Although the position of governor is very high, it is also restricted by various factors. Therefore, it will not lead to the opposition between the governor and the central government, just like the chaos in the buffer zone in the late Tang Dynasty.
The rulers of the Ming Dynasty learned from the past historical experience and adopted a series of checks and balances in establishing power institutions and official positions. The principle of checks and balances is not only reflected in the establishment of institutions and official positions, but also in the appointment of officials. If the evasion system requires officials to leave their hometown, fathers, sons and brothers are not allowed to work in the same yamen. The buffer zone in the Tang Dynasty greatly avoided the death of brothers and sons, followed by the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, the division of power between rulers and officials of other institutions shows that the power of rulers is limited. Every activity of the inspector is supervised and restricted by the inspector. In addition, the governor, the governor and the company commanders also restrict each other militarily. The governor's duty is to command and dispatch, the governor's duty is to provide administrative management and logistical support, and the company commander's duty is to lead troops to fight. Everyone has his own responsibility, which can avoid one-person monopoly to some extent.
On the economic front, the Governor and the Chief Secretary also check and balance each other. The governor does not have the sole power to collect taxes in a province. The Tang Military Region "has land, people, soldiers and wealth." In addition, they also serve as prosecutors, such as special envoys for observation and disposal, and often serve as county magistrates, holding local administrative power. However, they don't have enough supervisory power to check and balance them.
In addition, in the Tang Dynasty, there was only 15 inspe.
For a unified centralized country, how to effectively control military commanders is a crucial issue, which is related to the stability of the country. The Tang dynasty not only had a large number of troops, but also had local financial power and administrative power, which eventually led to the separation of military regions and the disintegration of the country.
Although the Song Dynasty learned the lessons from the Tang Dynasty, it still divided the powers of our military envoys and implemented the policy of separating the military from the land. Although it avoided repeating the mistakes of the Tang dynasty's separatist regime and the collapse of the dynasty, it also greatly sacrificed the country's military strength and was finally destroyed by Meng Yuan.
After Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, considering that the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty had not been completely destroyed and was a threat to the Ming Dynasty, he divided the northern border into nine military fortress areas, known as "Jiubian Town" in history, and took Gong and others as generals to guard the border with Serbian princes.
The same is true of other military sites. Although the military commanders there were far away from the buffer zone of the Tang Dynasty, they still had a very important influence and often used their power to undermine the normal system of the Ming Dynasty. For example, the military vehicle system in the early Ming Dynasty was the basis of the military system and the national defense system. China officers and men guarding the whole country destroyed the foundation of Wei system established by Zhu Yuanzhang by means of private soldiers and land occupation.
During the reign of Xuande and Zheng Tong, the main task of local governors was to deal with the private soldiers of military commanders and occupy land. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong, diesel locomotives were subordinate to the military affairs of Gansu Province by the assistant minister of the Ministry of War. This is "an audit of those who occupy wasteland and find that it occupies more than 600 hectares of land."
As for the problem of land annexation, which troubled successive dynasties, it was also the most important work of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty. Unlike military commanders who occupy wasteland, they face the bureaucratic class represented by civil servants. However, as a vested interest group, this work is not carried out satisfactorily most of the time. Until the Wanli period, Zhang Cai began to whip. Relevant supervisors did practical things and included 280 million mu of hidden tax-paying cultivated land in the inventory of Ming production.
Third, the establishment of princes is closely related to the centralization of monarchy.
The governor system is a measure taken by the Ming Dynasty to adjust the relationship between the central and local governments under the highly centralized monarchy system. Therefore, the governor system will inevitably have some inevitable drawbacks of the feudal system.
Because the power of the governor belongs to the imperial power. Therefore, the power of the governor and even the safety of his life depend on the likes and dislikes of the emperor. When the emperor trusts their officials, ministers can give full play to their talents and make some achievements. For example, Zhou Zhen, a financial expert in the Ming Dynasty, was trusted by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and served as the governor of Jiangnan for more than 20 years.
However, once the emperor's favor is lost, some people will leave their jobs and some people may be doomed. During the Jin and Jia dynasties, he served as the governor of Shaanxi Trilateral. At first, Sejong believed that in order to repay his kindness, he proposed a plan to expel prisoners. At first, Sejong appreciated Zeng's plan very much, but later, in order to crack down on his political enemies, Yan Song framed Zeng for lying about his military service and embezzling his pay, which made Sejong directly change his attitude towards Zeng. Governor Zeng finally made great achievements.
conclusion
The establishment of the governor system in Ming dynasty can be said to be an attempt in Ming dynasty. At that time, it was the heyday of feudal society, and the original three-point local management system could not adapt to the development of the times. But after this attempt undoubtedly filled the political system between the central and local governments, Zhu Yuanzhang strengthened centralization.
Although influenced by the feudal system, the subjectivity of the empire also has some disadvantages. But generally speaking, the governor system under the local administrative system of the three provinces has changed the disadvantages of decentralized and non-unified power, strengthened the administrative system and improved the adaptability of local administrative agencies in handling local affairs.