| After the prime minister was abolished in the early Ming Dynasty, the Grand Secretariat was established as the development of the central government. It was a special organ that served the emperor directly and assisted him in governing the Ming Empire. As a special group, the grand secretaries played an important role in the political development of the Ming Dynasty. And it was also a special phenomenon reflecting the vicissitudes of politics.The Chongzhen Emperor was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and there were altogether fifty officials worked in the Grand Secretariat during his reign, and they were known as “The Chongzhen Emperor’s fifty grand secretaries”. Taking office against internal turmoil and external threat, these secretaries served the autocratic emperor. Following and improving the fenpiao system since the reign of the Tianqi Emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor made adjustments in the selection of the grand secretaries, their way of serving the emperor and the Grand Secretaries’ duty.Generally speaking, it was rare to appoint so many Grand Secretariat members during one emperor’s reign. What’s more, only very few of them could took office successively.Although these grand secretaries held different political views, their way of governing was constant. Some of them shared the same fate with the Ming Dynasty, while others had a turn in their political careers and personal life in the wake of the Ming Dynasty’s doom. The features defined by political situations, the emperor’s behaviors and the Grand Secretariat itself mainly reflected two political requirements: firstly, competent grand secretaries to deal with the increasing urgent political situation; secondly, these secretaries’ certain political qualities in the face of a more autocratic emperor. And their political careers were both a reflection of these two requirements and were also influenced by them.The average number of Emperor Chongzhen’s grand secretaries was smaller that of the Tianqi Emperor. In terms of personnel changes and the diachronical features of these secretaries, generally speaking, the year of 1630 and the year of 1637 were two watersheds.Before 1630, there were dramatic personnel changes, and grand secretaries could only take office for a very short time. And the way of selecting them shifted from officals’ recommendations to the emperor’s direct appointment. But most of these secretaries had worked in hanlin or the Ministry of Rites. From 1630 to 1637, when Wen Tiren joined in thisorgan, personnel fluctuation was not so frequent as before, and there were fewer grand secretaries. In 1633, Wen Tiren became the head of the Grand Secretariat, faction coexisting with collusion. After 1637, more officials were recruited, and there were fewer requirements for their recruitment. Although officials still made recommendations, the emperor usually ignored these suggestions and made appointment according to the results of imperial examinations and the candidates’ performance in the face of the emperor’s consultation.Officials not from hanlin but from the Six Ministries and the Three Central Judicial Organs mainly entered into the Grand Secretariat during this period. And the last grand secretaries’ fates intertwined with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty and met their doom together.Elaborating on the formation of the Grand Secretariat and its diachronical features, the author tries to answer the following questions in this dissertation: What features did the Grand Secretariat possess in its duty? What kind of political situation were the Grand Secretariat members in? And what was the difference between the real situation and the intellectuals’ perspective on the Grand Secretariat’s function? How to evaluate the role played by the Grand Secretariat in the relation between the scholar-officials and the emperor? What about the development of the scholar-official politics in the late Ming Dynasty and its fate after the collapse of this dynasty?Firstly, the Grand Secretariat’s duty was not in line with its authority, and this was the most distinctive feature of this organ. Although grand secretaries had the power of drafting suggested rescripts for the emperor and assisting him in governing the empire, they didn’t possess the authority of the prime minister. The compatibility between one organ’s authority and its duty was a nature of its self-improvement. The emperor’s support was key to the Grand Secretariat’s authority. The difference between the Grand Secretariat and other departments was that its authority was not granted by certain laws and regulations but by the emperor’s attitude and support. And this was the root cause of the wax and wane of this organ,and it also provided flexibility for its members’ political behaviors.Secondly, the Grand Secretariat’s duty and authority boundaries in the central political system was defined by the relationship between the Grand Secretariat and the emperor, the eunuchs, the watchdog agencies and other department. the emperor’s attitude was the decisive factor of the ups and downs of the Grand Secretariat. And its relation with the emperor defined its relationship with other departments. The Chongzhen Emperor came tothe throne as a prince and cemented his power through the elimination of Wei zhongxian and his affiliations. This way of securing power and the emperor’s paranoia and suspicion made it impossible to obtain support from the emperor. In the evolvement of the political situation,more authority was grasped by eunuchs and watchdog agencies, while the Grand Secretariat was more vulnerable. Most of the time, this organ kept silence on the departments’ administrative affairs, but its members kept touch with other officials privately.Thirdly, the urgent political situation required a more effective and cohesive central government. The inaction of the Grand Secretariat, the emperor’s mistrust of its members and the vulnerability of itself stimulated the rethinking of its political role. Public opinions towards the Grand Secretariat shifted from limitations on its authority during the reign of the Wanli Emperor to the reinforcement of its power under the reign of the Chongzhen Emperor.The political view that the Grand Secretariat should perform the duty of the prime minister was held by many people. Their major views were that the Grand Secretariat should have more power in assisting the emperor and recommend more competent officials to him. The proposal of reinforcing the power of the Grand Secretariat showed the incompatibility between this organ’s duty and its authority.Given to the incompatibility between its authority and duty, there was a debate about the Grand Secretariat’s political role. Although this debate didn’t change the organ, it did deeply influence both the political behaviors of the grand secretaries as well as other officials and the political atmosphere. The public hoped that the Grand Secretariat could play certain role of the prime minister, but not a real prime minister. Besides, as the emperor’s close servants,members in the Grand Secretariat often had to share public condemnations on the emperor.The public firstly focused on the incompatibility between this organ’s authority and duty, then their debate went beyond its administrative duty. Gradually, issues about the Grand Secretariat became the public’s top concern of politics. The incompatibility between the Grand Secretariat’s authority and duty fuelled the public’s condemnations on it.Fourthly, given to the reinforcement of the emperor’s power and the abolishment of the prime minister in the early Ming Dynasty, the establishment of the Grand Secretariat could be seen as a small recovery of the vulnerable scholar-official politics. The grand secretaries belonged to the scholar-officials. While assisting the emperor, they also played a coordinatingrole between the emperor and the scholar-officials. Therefore, the Grand Secretariat was often the representative for the two sides respectively. The conflicts between the emperor and the scholar-officials were increasing fierce since the mid-term of the Ming Dynasty. But their requirements on the Grand Secretariat were totally opposite. From the emperor’s perspective,the Grand Secretariat should be his tool to manipulate all officials. From the scholar-officials’ perspective, this organ should be their top representative and the advocator of their political beliefs. From the Great Rites Controversy, with the evolvement of conflicts between the emperor and the scholar-officials, the Grand Secretariat separated itself from the scholar-officials and became the emperor’s affiliation in the early reign of the Emperor Jiajing and the Emperor Wanli.The Grand Secretariat was a sort of the scholar-officials’ representative in the early reign of the Chongzhen Emperor. But after Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren entered into this organ, the Grand Secretariat broke away from the scholar-officials and complied with the emperor again.The Grand Secretariat served as a tool for the emperor’s reign, assisting him in confronting the scholar-officials. Besides, it was also one factor for the decline of the scholar-official politics and the doom of the Ming Dynasty.Finally, although the establishment of the Grand Secretariat was a positive attempt to coordinate the central government’s different departments, it was still the emperor’s affiliation. Therefore, the Grand Secretariat served more as the autocratic emperor’s tool to manipulate scholar-officials. Either the emperor’s absence from daily court meeting or the eunuchs involvement in politics, by its very nature, they were just the emperor’s different way of reign. And the Grand Secretariat’s piaoni system guaranteed the emperor’s ruling.After the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, its adherents’ debate was around two issues: the evaluation of the Chongzhen Emperor and his grand secretaries; the reflection on the Grand Secretariat system. Actually, these two issues shared similarity: condemnations on the emperor’s reign which was carried on by the Grand Secretariat system. |
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