Lung Period Pavilion Relationship

Ming dynasty is a period that despotism and centralized authority were highly developed and unprecedented intensified in Ancient China. At the beginning of Ming dynasty, the sectors of ZhongSHu and prime minister were abolished. A high-level auxiliary political institute that never existed——cabinet, which directly served for the royal authority, was finallyestablished. This is a great reform in ancient China's official system. Cabinet played an important role in the political life of Ming dynasty, with extensive political activities and profound political influence. The rise and fall of cabinet was closely related to the national fate of Ming dynasty. This paper, taking the cabinet of the period of Emperor Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli as research object, systematically studies the cabinet's power operation under the special political situation of Emperor Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli.The three Emperors: Emperor Jiajing indulged himself in Taoism; Emperor Longqing was enslaved to voluptuous pleasures; Emperor Wanli came to throne when he was still a child. All this resulted in an abnormal political structure. During this period, comparing with the six ministries cabinet won more trust, consequently cabinet occupied a higher position and grabbed greater power. Particularly the chairman of cabinet took enormous power in his hand, which was even stronger than prime minister. Having achieved an advantage over six ministries, cabinet began to press the six ministries and trespass upon the six ministries' power by the way of being concurrently in charge of the six ministries' affairs and organizing survey, or even directly intervening. Facing with cabinet's intervention, the six ministries counterattacked with the progenitor principle.Generally, cabinet gained the upper hand over the six ministries in the power contention, in the period of Emperor Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli. But in the end, cabinet did not break through the progenitor principle to transform into a institute of prime minister. Studying the power operation between cabinet and the six ministries, we can objectively appraise cabinet's historical role played in the political life of Ming dynasty. Besides, it is a helpful supplement to the study of the central political structure in ancient China.