According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the highest position was the Governor's Office of the Five Armies at the central level, some of which were similar to military sub-divisions; Then there is the commander-in-chief (commander-in-chief) similar to the provincial military region; Then there are the guards equivalent to the local military divisions. There were 5,600 guards in the Ming Dynasty, divided into 5,000 households in front, back, left, middle and right. There are 1 120 people in each household. It is divided into 100 households, each with 1 12 people, including 2 military flags, small flags 10 and foot soldiers 100.
In the Ming Dynasty, Royal Guards ranked first among the pro-military guards. Twenty-two pro-military guards, such as Jinwu Qianwei, Jinwu Weiwei, Yulin Zuo Wei, Yulin Youwei, Fujun Weiwei and Wei Jinyi, were established by Zhu Yuanzhang in Hongwu period, and Jinwu Zuo Wei (formerly the guards of Beiping Zuo Wei and Yan Wang Mi), Jinwu Youwei, Yanshan Zuo Wei and Jiyang Wei were added by Ming Chengzu in Yongle period. In addition, there are "four defenses against horses" such as Teng Youwei and Wu Youwei. These pro-military guards are not subordinate to the governor's office of the Fifth Army, but directly obey the emperor, and their status is generally higher than other guards. In the Ming Dynasty, the duty of guarding the imperial city and Miyagi was to use the pro-army 22 Guards, especially Wu Jin and Yu Lin. The Royal Guards are not in charge of the outer guards of the imperial city, but are in charge of staying behind in the palace, which is equivalent to the emperor's personal guards.
According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, there were only 5,000 households under Wei, and because of its special status, there were 14,000 households (up to 17 households at most), including 5,000 households in front of Jinyi, Jinyi in the back, Jinyi in the left and Jinyi in the right, and 1,000 households in front, back, left, middle, right, back, elephant tamer and flag bearer.
Royal Guards, like other guards, are nominally the highest officials, called commanders, and can be inherited. The descendants of many ministers in the Ming dynasty were awarded official positions, which was actually an empty title of doing nothing. Due to the particularity of the Royal Guards, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty often put military attaché s such as the viceroy, the viceroy and the commander in charge of the Royal Guards. In Ming History, we can see such names as "Lu Bing, the left commander of the Royal Guards", "Zhu Ning, the commander of the Royal Guards" and "Bin Yuan, the minister of the Royal Guards", all of whom were trusted by the emperor.
Under the command of Royal Guards, there are commanders Tongzhi (from the third grade), Commanders (from the fourth grade), Wei (from the fifth grade), Zhengqianhu (from the fifth grade), Deputy Qianhu (from the fifth grade), Baihu (from the sixth grade), Baihu (from the seventh grade) and General Flag (from the seventh grade). But the Royal Guards are different from other guards in that there are three special personnel under the general's banner: general, captain and lux.
The "general" of the Royal Guards is not a real general, but the honorary title of the bodyguard officer in charge of the emperor's personal bodyguard. It was originally called General Tianwu, and later renamed General Dahan. Full 1500 people, thousands of households, hundreds of households, general flags and other seven officials 1507 people, forming an army of its own, under the command of Marquis, Count or Xu. Whenever he meets the celebration of Chaohe, General Han will wear a phoenix-winged crown, a chain mail, a gold medal and an embroidered spring knife, and guard the left and right sides of the throne in the Fengtian Temple (renamed the Imperial Palace in Jiajing period, now the Hall of Supreme Harmony), as well as the doors, corners and Danyong outside the temple.
General Han's job is similar to that of a ceremonial soldier. This is a very hard job. He often stands still from three or four o'clock in the morning until noon. General Han, the bodyguard in the temple, is not allowed to scratch, yawn, cough or fart, and he is not allowed to smell. Ming Xizong once went to court for the first time and saw the big fellow standing beside him, his armor was tattered, his clothes and shoes were dirty, and he also scolded the relevant leader Wei. General Han, standing outside the temple in the open air, has to endure the wind, frost and rain. After the ceremony, he will scrub and maintain his shining armor, and then he can give it to the "shining armor library" in the south third corridor of Zuoquemen (southeast corner of Wumen) for safekeeping.
When the emperor was in power, General Dahan must also guard the Fengtian Gate (Imperial Gate, now the Taihe Gate). During the emperor's tour, thousands of officials in charge of the generals hung gold medals with the word "Li" written on them and held golden incense burners as a guide to etiquette. General Han was selected from civilian families, demanding that his trunk should be vigorous, he should be more than five feet three inches long, brave and strong, and he should not be sick. Each person receives two stone rations every month, and each person is given a red silk (satin) dress, a red gauze dress and a red silk dress every year. Once every five years, it can be promoted to general flag, hundred households, thousand households and other official positions.
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At first, captain was the proper name of marshal. Later, it was incorporated into the Royal Guards System, which belonged to the front, middle and right five places of the Royal Guards. Each place has ten departments: sedan chair department, cover department, hand fan department, festival department, construction department, sword department, axe department, halberd department, bow and arrow department and horse training department. The captains in charge of these tasks rotate every three days.
In addition to the emperor's halogen book, a security captain is also responsible for the ceremonial ceremony of the Crown Prince and the Prince. For example, on the Millennium Festival (the birthday of the Crown Prince), New Year's Day, the winter solstice and other festivals, a Royal Guards captain 4 19 will be used inside and outside the Wenhua Hall, holding an umbrella, a cover, a fan, a halberd, a man, a spirit and a sword. When the prince leaves Beijing for a fief, he should also be accompanied by 300 royal guards as attendants. After the fief, 300 captains should be selected from the guards of Wang Fu or the chief of the shepherd's house. After the king of the county sealed the marquis, he gave thirty governors, the princess went out of the house and gave three governors of the Royal Guards. The captain is usually a private person, and he is required to be strong and can't make mistakes. When the captain dies, his son or nephew will take his place. Mi Lu can be dismissed, and his family can also be relieved of his post as an officer. Therefore, in order to escape the corvee, many people who have no military status have entered the palace as a captain.
Lux originally referred to soldiers carrying flags, and later belonged to the Royal Guards system, ranking lower than generals and a captain. During the Wanli period, it was stipulated that thousands of households, hundreds of households and son of the general of the Royal Guards, who had been employed for more than 30 years, could be awarded the rank of general of the Royal Guards; if they had been employed for more than 20 years, their sons could be employed as a captain; if they had been employed for less than 20 years, their sons could only be Lux. And only one generation is allowed to attack, and hereditary is not allowed. The organization that manages Lux is six pro-officer posts of Royal Guards, namely, front, back, left, middle, right and middle.
The name "Jinyi" reflects the particularity of Wei Jinyi clothing. The Ming dynasty had strict restrictions on the clothing grades of the royal family and officials, and it was not allowed to exceed them. In the early Ming Dynasty, many founding dukes and marquises were sentenced to death for "exceeding the color of clothes" and "arrogating dragon and phoenix patterns". According to the system of Ming Dynasty, officials of Wei Jinyi Zhengsanpintang can wear red silk flying clothes and embroidered spring knives. The so-called "flying fish" is actually a four-legged dragon with a fishtail, the "bullfight" is a right-angled four-legged dragon, and the "Kirin" is an animal with a cow's hoof and dragon's feet (it should be noted that both the Earl of the Ming Dynasty and the Xu family wore red uniforms and had Kirin supplements on their chests and backs, among which Kirin was a common animal image, which was different from the dragon-shaped "Kirin clothing"). A dragon with four claws and no other deformation is called a python. The robes embroidered with these four patterns are called python clothes, flying fish clothes, bullfighting clothes and unicorn clothes. They are not in the official clothing system of the product officer, but belong to dresses, which are of very high grade and can only be worn after the emperor gives them a reward or asks for approval.
Gifts are usually made of high-grade fabrics such as satin, glossy satin, silk, yarn and silk, with red as the background color (there are also colors such as cyan, blue, purple and agarwood), and complicated techniques such as gold wire weaving and makeup are adopted. The faucet and claws are on the chest, the dragon body bypasses the shoulders, and the dragon tail is left behind. Generally speaking, python clothing is the highest level of gift clothing, followed by flying fish clothing, bullfighting clothing and Kirin clothing.
It is worth mentioning that not all members of the Royal Guards are wearing flight suits. Those who can wear flight suits are basically officers of the Royal Guards. As for generals, a captain and lux, they can't wear flight suits at all. In addition, flying fish patterns can be used in T-shirts, straight bodies, robes, stickers, trailers and other clothing; The flying fish pattern can be made into a chest patch or a "over-the-shoulder robe" over the shoulder; Flying fish can have wings or not ... Generally speaking, there are no fixed rules. In fact, even people in the Ming Dynasty could not easily distinguish these differences. Although the Ming emperor repeatedly banned flying fish and bullfighting clothes, the emperor himself often gave them at will, leading to more and more chaos.
The so-called "Embroidered Spring Knife" has not been handed down in kind, but many researchers have made textual research on it according to Paintings of Ming Dynasty. It is generally believed that the style of embroidered spring Dao is similar to that of ordinary waist Dao in Ming Dynasty, but the body of the sword is shorter than that of ordinary waist Dao, and the whole body has radian, which is convenient for pulling out and protecting the Dao. The biggest feature of embroidered spring knife is that there is a sheath skirt on the scabbard and rows of spikes are woven at the bottom of the skirt. In addition, the embroidered spring knife is not a patent of the Royal Guards, but can also be worn by guards, flag bearers and other pro-troops, and ministers of civil and military affairs will also receive embroidered spring knives when they ride with the emperor.