In feudal society, the emperor directed state affairs by issuing imperial edicts and verbal orders. All the founding emperors, masters of ZTE or promising kings are trying to strengthen the imperial power. No matter big or small, we should take a look and make our own decisions. For example, Qin Shihuang ordered local governments at all levels to report everything step by step, stipulating that the writing matters were extremely complicated. Eighteen Kinds of Qin Law and Field Law clearly stipulates that any timely rain, ear of grain, drought, waterlogging, insect pests, etc. must be reported in writing, so that "there is no rest day and night" (Historical Records of Qin Shihuang), and he personally reviews bamboo slips every day. Another example is that Ming, who is smart and capable, once reprimanded the General Political Department of the Secretariat for not reporting what he thought was unimportant, and said earnestly to the secretaries: "If you want to know the people's feelings, you can't ignore the details. If it is covered, it will be Thailand. If you don't pay, you won't pay. Since ancient times, you have been confused, and there are as many people who don't know civil affairs as there are countries. " The General Political Department expressly stipulates that "whoever plays a book about the people, although small things will be heard, I will suffer tirelessly" ("Ming History"), so as to firmly control the political power. The imperial power was very strong in this period.
However, as a result, the official documents of the court surged. For example, during the period of Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty, only criminal documents were "more than a few pavilions, and the compilers should not be biased" (Hanshu Criminal Records), and the official documents were piled up in the room, even criminal officials had no time to read them, resulting in a large backlog. For another example, in order to strengthen the imperial power, Zhu Yuanzhang cancelled the province of Zhongshu and abolished the post of prime minister. He directly commanded six ministries and handled state affairs as emperor and prime minister, which led to numerous affairs. He set up an morning show and an afternoon show every day, but he was still too busy. He tries to ask questions about everything. Objectively, he can't read every official document by himself, no matter in terms of personal energy, ability and time. To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a cabinet, six ministries, the General Political Department and many other secretarial agencies to help him deal with official documents.
At first, these emperors just handed a large number of documents to the secretariat for initial reading, sorted out important and urgent official documents and submitted them to the emperor for examination and approval. The increase of important urgent official documents forced the emperor to authorize the secretary to put forward preliminary opinions on it, such as the "draft ticket" right of cabinet university students in Ming Dynasty. Later, it was approved by the secretary, read by the emperor and published in the name of the emperor. For example, during the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, China calligrapher Scheeren almost took the responsibility of drafting and approving the imperial edict. In this way, the emperor objectively granted the decision-making power to the secretariat step by step, and the role of directing state affairs through official documents was relatively weakened, gradually becoming a noble and sacred idol. All government orders are drafted by the secretariat controlled by powerful ministers, stamped with the emperor's decree and issued. At this point, the emperor became a complete idol and the imperial power was completely symbolized.
With the weakening of imperial power, the worship of imperial power from the poor to the government officials is also weakening. For example, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, some secretaries in Zhongshu Province publicly pointed out: "As for the monarch, although he can make ministers, he should not act rashly against reason. Although you are a monarch, you must not succumb to the Tao. " (Luo Dajing's Record of He Lin Yu) "The so-called monarch must have four eyes and two beaks, scales and feathers, and looks the same as people, so his wife can be solid." (Deng Mu's "Jundao Chapter") "Politics is governed by Chinese books, not by Chinese books, and it is chaotic. What happens in the world should be managed by the world, and what is not a human master is a private matter. " (Liu Fuchuan, History of Song Dynasty) These remarks boldly declared that the emperor was not a god, but a man, and ministers and officials did not have to obey the emperor's wrong orders. All government affairs should be discussed by officials of Zhongshu Province, and the emperor should not have the final say. This is the representative will of secretarial officials to expand their functions and powers during the period of weak imperial power. Therefore, the imperial power periodically changes from strong to weak in commanding state affairs and ideas, which creates conditions for the expansion of the power of secretariat.
Second, the practical secretariat periodically changes from weak to strong.
Since Qin Shihuang established a unified centralized feudal autocratic monarchy system, in order to manage a large country with a vast territory and a large population, rulers of past dynasties must greatly strengthen vertical communication, that is, the rulers issued instructions, which were communicated to the imperial court and local officials at all levels through communication channels and put into practice, and then the imperial court and local officials at all levels fed back the implementation to the rulers through communication channels. The function of the communication channel is to compile the instructions of the rulers into various official documents in words, or convey them to the recipients in spoken language, and compile the instructions into official documents through investigation or feedback them to the rulers in spoken language. The form of communication channel is the Central Secretariat. Therefore, the Central Secretariat is an indispensable auxiliary institution in the feudal dynasty regime. Dynasties can be changed, emperors can be abolished, but they always exist, keeping the feudal state machine running. Engaged in official document drafting, processing, issuing orders, investigation and research, situation reporting and other specific affairs. Compared with the symbolic imperial power, it is a down-to-earth and practical official position. Practicality has become an important feature of the Secretariat.
This nature determines that members of the Secretariat must be doers, not empty talkers. The members absorbed by the Central Secretariat in past dynasties were either hereditary secretaries who inherited their father's career and accumulated experience from generation to generation, or outstanding talents selected in the form of imperial examinations to ensure their professional quality. These secretarial officials have been engaged in a lot of practical affairs for a long time, which has improved their professional level and enriched their experience. More importantly, they are familiar with the rulers' decision-making intentions and methods, as well as the execution methods and skills of the executive organs, and cultivate their ability to participate in and discuss state affairs, so that the Central Secretariat of each dynasty is always from weak to strong.
In this way, when the imperial power was strong and the emperor directly directed the government affairs, the central secretariat institutions in previous dynasties generally only engaged in the work of receiving and dispatching official documents, ordering and announcing orders. , the affiliation is obvious, the obedience is strong, and the authority is weak; When the emperor could not handle all government affairs and entrusted more and more official documents to him for drafting, reading, handling and handing over, his authority began to expand, his organization expanded, his personnel increased, and his status and role improved. When the imperial power weakened, its subordination and obedience weakened and its independence increased, so it gradually replaced the decision-making and executive functions in the ruling group with its own ability and intervened in government affairs, leading to the expansion of its authority.
Symbolic imperial power always turns from strong to weak, and practical secretarial institutions always turn from weak to strong, which is inversely proportional to the simultaneous development of both contradictory parties. When the imperial power was weakened and the authority of the secretariat was expanded, the ruling group elected the leader of ZTE or started a new dynasty after fierce internal disputes or wars, strengthened the imperial power again, transformed the expanded secretariat into an administrative center or dissolved it, and re-established a highly subordinate and obedient secretariat. So, the next cycle began. This cycle forms a conventional "expansion and regression" cycle. Although the feudal rulers tried to draw lessons from the previous dynasties and took various measures to stop the expansion of the functions and powers of the secretariat and eliminate this strange circle. However, because they can't solve this contradiction, as a result, they can only extend a certain period at most, but they can't stop the cycle in which this strange circle keeps spinning.
Third, unclear authority has contributed to the expansion of the secretariat's power.
The unclear definition of the functions and powers of the Central Secretariat in past dynasties is another reason for the strange circle of "expanding and returning". As mentioned above, in the feudal dynasty, the Central Secretariat was the communication channel between decision makers and executors, and played the role of bridge and link. If the feudal rulers always limited their authority to the scope of drafting, processing official documents, conveying orders and other communication affairs, so that they had no decision-making power and no execution power, then it would always be a highly subordinate auxiliary institution, and its authority could not be expanded.
However, because the feudal emperors did not understand this, they only regarded the order of the Secretariat as a handy tool for individuals, and often granted some decision-making power and execution power at will. The most typical example is the countersignature in the Southern Dynasties, Song Dynasty and Qi Dynasty. The pawnbroker is a small official who handles documents in the Central Secretariat. Because he was often close to the emperor and was rewarded, he was often sent to various places to supervise the secretariat of Fangzhen and Imperial Clans. He called it "going to the pawnshop", in fact, in order to control the local administrative power and military power, so that they can seize the power of one side and give everything they have. This is the so-called "signing handsome".
If the power of signing and approving is only the emperor's special appointment to individual secretarial officials, then the feudal emperor allowed the officials of Shangshutai to make a ruling on the memorial, and the cabinet university's "quasi-vote" is to give the Central Secretariat the decision-making power from the system. According to the General Affairs Department of Ming Dynasty, the General Affairs Department has six responsibilities, the first five of which can be summarized as "receiving and processing official documents from all parties", which is a typical secretarial business; The sixth regulation can participate in the deliberation and decision of major policies, prisons and "court appointments" (that is, discussing and appointing important court officials), allowing them to participate in decision-making and handling major cases, and having certain personnel rights, that is, being granted decision-making power and execution power.
When the imperial power is gradually symbolized, the more decision-making power and executive power the emperor grants to the Central Secretariat, the greater it will be. Therefore, from a historical point of view, the expansion and expansion of the functions and powers of the Central Secretariat in past dynasties is not that it is seizing power and infringing, but that the emperor is decentralizing and authorizing. It is precisely because these powers were expressly granted by the emperor and appeared in the rules and regulations that they became legal. Therefore, the expansion and expansion of the functions and powers of the central secretariat of the past dynasties have not been criticized or stopped by official groups, but have been carried out imperceptibly. When the imperial power is weak, it can confidently assume the decision-making and executive functions in the ruling group, so that its authority expands to the peak.
Looking at the responsibilities of the former Secretariat, we can clearly see that when the Central Secretariat was weak, its functions were basically limited to secretarial affairs such as documents and archives. When it expanded, it added some decision-making power and execution power, and it was no longer a simple secretariat; When it expanded, it actually became a government center. It can be seen that the unclear definition of functions and powers has laid the groundwork for the expansion of the Central Secretariat in previous dynasties and played a role in fueling the situation. On the contrary, due to the relatively clear definition of responsibilities, the secretarial institutions of local officials in past dynasties rarely appear the phenomenon of "expanding and returning", and the names of their institutions and secretaries tend to be stable for a long time. For example, the archives room in the county yamen, which was produced in the Qin Dynasty, was responsible for drafting and processing documents and records, which was equivalent to the modern secretarial section. It existed in feudal society for more than 1000 years. Another example is the position of the main book of the county government, which was produced in the Qin Dynasty. This job is responsible for paperwork, dealing with the daily affairs of the official yamen, equivalent to a modern office director. This position continued until the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
Exploring the laws of imperial power and relative power in past dynasties is helpful to make the past serve the present, learn lessons and get enlightenment, and has certain reference function for further clarifying the nature of modern secretarial institutions in China, defining the scope of responsibilities, formulating rules and regulations, and even streamlining institutions, improving efficiency and preventing red tape.