After a conversation, Zhao Bing had basically understood the evolution of the political system in history through Wang Yinglin's explanation and what he knew. He also understood that the change of the system was actually a change in the relationship between the royal family and the court. To put it simply, the root cause is the result of the continuous struggle between the imperial power and the prime minister's power, that is, is the royal family considered the government? If the royal family and the court are separated, how can the powers of the two sides be divided?

This can be seen from the changes in the name of the prime minister. The names of official positions in different eras are different, but they actually have the same effect. When the prime minister's power is too great and the emperor feels that his authority is threatened, he will set up a new secretariat with a lower status, or a new name, or use the existing position name. Then this secretariat replaces the original prime minister's agency to become a real power institution, and then becomes a legitimate prime minister's agency.

This is the so-called dereliction of duty of the prime minister. Because of the prime minister's power, he should have led the government and ruled the whole country, but the emperor felt unsafe and took away this power. He also used their secretary like the minister of the Central Secretariat to act as the prime minister of the government. Most of them were in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties after the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The earliest secrets in the Han Dynasty were the Shangshu, and then the Zhongshu, which came from the secretariat of Cao Cao's prime minister's office. After Cao Pi usurped the throne, he became the Zhongshu Province, and then the Menxia Province. This institution was very important in the Western Jin Dynasty and the Northern Dynasties, with two levels: Shizhong and Huangshu. Huangshu was a combination of Huangmen Shilang and Sanqi Changshu. At this time, the Southern Dynasties corresponded to Zhongshu Tongshisheren.

However, the people who hold people are in high positions and power, and the emperor feels unable to trust them, he will set up a new secretariat, and history will enter a new cycle. Once they do nothing serious, the emperor cannot trust them, then the Privy Council of the Tang Dynasty and the Military Affairs Office of the Qing Dynasty. The difference is that the Tang Dynasty is no longer the old style of the Han Dynasty, and the old system has been replaced with a brand new set.

The government power in the Tang Dynasty was already divided by the government and the royal family. As for the government, there were great changes. The Han prime minister adopted the leadership system. The most important thing in the government was the power of the prime minister. If the power of the prime minister changed, all systems would have to change accordingly. The prime minister in the Tang Dynasty adopted the member system, which formally allocated the power of the prime minister to the three provinces. In other words, it was to return part of the power of the royal family to the government.

The system of three provinces and six ministries is highly praised and praised for its many advantages. For example, it is conducive to brainstorming and improving administrative efficiency; it is conducive to strengthening the rights of the monarch and maintaining feudal rule; it is conducive to improving the cultural quality of officials and promoting the development of culture. Zhao Bing also felt the same:

From the perspective of system inheritance. The three provinces and six ministries and the three provinces and six ministries in the Sui and Tang dynasties were the development of the three ministers and nine ministers since the Qin and Han dynasties. The three provinces of the Secretariat, the Menxia Province, and the Shangshu Province were established together, which dispersed the minister's power, strengthened the imperial power, and made the autocratic centralized system more perfect; from the perspective of functional transformation, the officials of the three provinces and six ministries handled government affairs, and the court's internal affairs were handled by special institutions and personnel. Its establishment shows that the complete separation and transformation of royal affairs and state affairs was a major progress in the political system; from the perspective of checks and balances of rights, the balance between imperial power and minister's power was achieved to a certain extent.

According to the functions of the three provinces and six ministries, the Secretary of the Central Committee made decisions, the subordinates reviewed and approved or rejected, the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty executed, and then distributed the six ministries to execute. According to the modern political science system, the Secretary of the Central Committee and the Secretary of the School of the Central Committee actually played the decision-making department of the legislative body and the highest executive body; the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty and the Six ministries were actually the non-decision-making executive bodies of the State Council.

As for the current departments of the six ministries, because the classification structure of the ancient official system system is complicated and completely different from that of modern times, it is difficult to accurately correspond one by one. It is roughly said:

The Ministry of Personnel is equivalent to the current organization and cadre department, including the Four Clean Offices of the Selection of Literature, Examination of Examination, Test of the Trial and Trial, and Audit of the Four Clean Offices; the Ministry of Revenue is equivalent to the current Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and is divided into departments and bureaus in charge of each province; the Ministry of Rites is equivalent to the current Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.; the Ministry of War is equivalent to the current Ministry of National Defense and the Four Headquarters; the Ministry of Justice is related to the current judicial organs such as the current Public Security Bureau, the Ministry of Procuratorate and the Justice Bureau; the Ministry of Works is related to the current Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau.

What responsibilities do the six ministries have? Although the ministers of each ministries have the same rank, they still have their importance in order. Generally, they are sorted by wealth, honor, power, martial arts, poverty, and lowly.

Rich refers to the Ministry of Revenue, which manages money and grain, so the Ministry of Revenue symbolizes wealth; noble refers to the Ministry of Personnel, which manages all kinds of officials in and outside the Beijing, so the Ministry of Personnel has the word "Nui"; Wei refers to the Ministry of Justice, which calls it powerful and powerful when the Ministry of Justice is tried in court, so the Ministry of Justice is indeed powerful; Wu refers to the Ministry of War, which is in charge of war, swords, guns, grain and fodder, which is also considered true; poverty refers to the Ministry of Rites, which is disciplined and clean yamen, and it is normal to poor; and cheap refers to the Ministry of Works. Since the people who deal with each other are all craftsmen, they are engaged in cheap careers, so the Ministry of Works has the word "Nui".

In the administrative process of the three provinces and six ministries, the Secretariat is responsible for drafting edicts, the Menxia Province is responsible for sealing and refuting edicts, and the Secretariat is responsible for executing edicts. The Secretariat is responsible for executing edicts. The edicts drafted by the Secretariat represent the emperor's will. Isn't the review and refuting of these edicts reviewing the emperor's will? Does it mean that the imperial power will actually be restricted by the three provinces?

To be precise, Zhao Bing believes that there is one. Although the emperor system or the title of emperor has determined that imperial power is supreme, no one can restrict or restrict imperial power. However, because the emperor needs to use certain personnel and institutions to exercise power in accordance with certain procedures and methods. The three provinces and six ministries system provides the subjects with the possibility of restraining the emperor's behavior from a system so that they do not abuse the imperial power.

What Zhao Bing suffered deeply was the refutation. The decree he issued required to be drafted by the Secretary of the Central Committee, and the subordinates were responsible for review. If the Ministry of Menxia felt that there was a problem with the edict, he would change the edict and then return it. This behavior has a special title, called Tu Gui. Menxia not only reviews the emperor's edict, but also the memorials submitted by local and departments to the emperor must be reviewed first.

If the matter mentioned in this memorial is reasonable, the Menxia Province will sign the review opinion and submit it to the Secretariat for discussion and submit it to the Emperor for the Emperor's imperial examination. If the Menxia Province thinks it is unreasonable, the Opposition Opinion Opposition will be signed and returned. This shows that the Secretariat and Menxia Province will interfere with the emperor's words and deeds to a certain extent, trying to make the emperor's actions within the institutional framework so that the emperor cannot be authoritarian.

At the beginning, Zhao Bing felt that his rights were restricted, and later, in the name of improving administrative efficiency, he impersonated the subordinates of the Secretariat and turned them into a nameless unit. Major matters were organized by the left and right ministers, the chief and deputy envoy of the Privy Council, or added six ministers to discuss matters together. Once they were passed, he would stamp the seal on his decision and issue the decree directly to the six ministers or the army for execution.

As long as Zhao Bing's "private decree" does not involve state affairs, he can only sign the left, right prime minister or the on-duty minister's affairs and send it to six departments or local authorities for execution. The establishment of the Military Affairs Office was also aimed at squeezing the power of the prime minister. Later, the drafting of edicts and review memorials were handed over to the imperial prefecture office for handling, so that some people called the imperial prefect the chief official "internal prime minister", which tended to replace the external dynasty.

Therefore, although Zhao Bing established the Royal Front Office at the time just to reduce his work pressure, assist him in sorting documents, collecting information and keeping important documents, connecting with the work of the central and local departments, and establishing a secretariat. In fact, the current Royal Front Office has some functions of the Secretariat and the Menxia Province, and participates in the preliminary decision-making of major events, which to a certain extent affected the operation procedures and event direction of the court.

Of course, Zhao Bing knew that doing this in wartime and handling emergencies was barely reasonable as a temporary institution, and his purpose was to be influenced by his own ideas through the work in the imperial front and trained as a reserve cadre. However, as an aide to the emperor, these people were far from the qualifications and political experience and could not assume the role of a counselor of the military.

The current situation is getting better, the territory has stabilized along the Huaihe River, the area has expanded by more than a hundred times than in Qiongzhou, the population has reached about 40 million, and the number of things has increased to the point of being dazzled. Zhao Bing thought that the current imperial institutions were not able to keep pace with the times. Not only did he find it difficult to deal with complicated matters in a timely manner, but the imperial court was also overwhelmed.

Therefore, it is urgent to adjust the court institutions, clarify the operation procedures and improve the deliberation and decision-making functions. Therefore, Zhao Bing thought about gradually improving the relevant institutions. However, he only had a detailed plan for the addition of departments and how to determine the functions of the functions existed in the imagination. So today I mentioned this matter with Wang Yinglin, hoping to have a look before returning to Beijing.

Judging from the advantages of the three provinces and six ministries system, it is indeed a good system. Does it necessarily lead to long-term promotion if there are many advantages? Zhao Bing's answer is no. After the establishment of the Zhongshu system, the institutions of the three provinces still existed, and the division of labor between the three provinces and the orders of the three provinces became more stringent and perfect in form. However, the three provinces were separated from the prime minister, and the subordinates of the Zhongshu became the office of the Prime Minister, independent of the institutions of the three provinces.

Under this system, the minister of the Central Secretariat directly commanded the envoys, counties and troops to execute government orders. The minister's intervention in administrative affairs became stronger and stronger, and even went directly to the affairs handled by the six ministries of the Shangshu in the past. The prime minister and the monarch were more of the government officials who were "in charge of the general affairs" and were no longer consultants who "sitted and discussed the truth".
Chapter completed!