At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, in the entire imperial court, the power of the chancellor was very large, so that the emperor had to consult with the chancellor when making decisions, and the contradiction between the "emperor" was a very important problem in the Western Han Dynasty, such as the ruling style, different personality characteristics, etc., the power of the chancellor was too large, and even threatened the imperial power, therefore, the emperor in order to get rid of the shackles of the chancellor, "Chinese and foreign dynasties" also came into being, "Chinese and foreign dynasties" is the product of the historical development of the Western Han Dynasty, is the emperor in order to weaken the rights of the chancellor, Further strengthen the imperial rule of the central government.
Why is there a distinction between "Chinese and foreign dynasties"
The political characteristics of ancient China are based on blood relations or nepotism derived from it, as can be seen from the "inner and outer dynasties", the "outer dynasties" are the place where the "Hundred Officials Dynasty" headed by the Xiang Xiang, and the "Inner Dynasty" is the place where the emperor lives, and in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Chinese and foreign dynasty system" was derived, and the "Chinese and foreign dynasty" system was set up by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in order to disperse and restrict the rights of the Chancellor, and specially selected from the personnel under the position of not having any blood relations.
And hold very important positions or senior positions in the state bureaucracy, have the right to enter the palace to participate in the administration and discussion of politics, such as the Great Sima General Wei Qing, the Hussar General Huo Zhiyi, etc., these great generals have made outstanding military achievements, and their power has exceeded that of the Chancellor, "Zhongchao" is also known as "Inner Dynasty", which is composed of the emperor's cronies or close subjects, and when encountering important matters, the "Zhongchao" first discusses and makes decisions, such as "Shangshu" is a senior official who is in charge of the documents around the emperor.
As a result, the "Middle Dynasty" had decision-making bodies such as Shang Shu Ling, Shi Zhong, and Chang Shi, and was called the "Three Gongs", and the "Outer Dynasty" had bureaucratic executive bodies composed of Xiang Xiang, Yu Shi Dafu, Tai Wei, jiu qing, etc. The "Foreign Dynasty" and "Zhong dynasty" were formed, and with the consolidation of the "Zhong dynasty" forces, the political position of the Western Han Dynasty was also increasingly strong, and the formation of the "Chinese and foreign dynasty system" made the emperor's absolute monarchy further strengthened.
The formation process of "Chinese and foreign dynasties" in the Western Han Dynasty
1. When to establish the "Chinese and foreign dynastic system"
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty accumulated a lot of wealth after more than seventy years of recuperation and development, and in 124 BC, the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty "internally reformed the system" and appointed Wei Qing, who served in the "Middle Dynasty" and had meritorious service against the Xiongnu, as a great general, ranking "the head of the three dukes", and at the same time, advocating the idea of "great unification".
Advocating Dong Zhongshu's idea of "deposing a hundred families and respecting Confucianism alone", and putting this idea of "great unification" into action, the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" system was established, and as the power of the chancellor was continuously weakened, the absolute status of the emperor was established, the centralized power was further strengthened, the contradiction between the emperor and the "phase power" was resolved, the power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor alone, and a bureaucracy completely controlled by the emperor was established.
2. The "Chinese and foreign dynastic system" is the product of the redistribution of power in the ruling class
When the Western Han Dynasty was just established, in order to consolidate the state power, the emperor gave the emperor a lot of power, the emperor assisted the emperor, in charge of all government affairs, and participated in the important decisions and strategies of the country, among the civil and military officials, the power was the largest, the prestige was extremely high, but it was also a threat to the emperor's imperial power, and many decisions the emperor could not make decisions personally, and had to obtain the consent of the minister.
For example, during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, Empress Dou wanted to make Wang Xin a marquis. Zhou Yafu disagreed, and said: "Although the empress brother of the present letter, no merit, Hou Zhi, non-covenant also", in the end this matter will not be resolved, not only that, the minister can even be cut first and then played, Chao Wrong because people are straight, do not know how to be flexible, offended The Emperor Shen Tu Jia in the court, Xiang Xiang Shen Tu Jia caught Chao Wrong's fault of opening two small doors on the outer wall of the Taishang Temple, and he wanted to kill him, and later Chao Mistaken heard the sound of the wind, so he entered the palace to face the saint and seek asylum.
According to the "History of Chao's Misrepresentation", The Emperor shen Tu Jia was furious: "I should first cut off the news, but first ask, sell for the son, and make a mistake", from which it can be seen that the power of the minister is very large, which inevitably makes the emperor suspicious, so the emperor recruits the world's outstanding and capable people, who serve as important positions in the imperial court or senior generals, in order to divide the rights of the minister, so the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" are formed, and the establishment of the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" system is not accidental, but the product of the redistribution of the power of the ruling class.
3. The establishment of the "Chinese and foreign dynastic system" is the product of contradictions within the ruling class
At the beginning of the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Han Gaozu Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty after countless hardships, giving Xiao He a great deal of political power, and the prestige of Xiao He was extremely high in the imperial court, but at the same time, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, also had doubts about Xiao He, and this kind of innate suspicion of the emperor was the representative of the contradictions within the ruling class.
When the power of the chancellor was already large enough to threaten the imperial power, the contradiction between the imperial power and the princely power became increasingly prominent, the emperor was too worried about the power of the chancellor, suspecting that the chancellor or the prince had a bad heart, in Jia Yi's "Public Security Policy" recorded, "in ten years, there were nine incidents", in the "Book of Han Jia Yi Biography" also recorded: "The husband holds the fire house under the accumulated salary and sleeps on it", how to solve the contradiction between the imperial power and the prince has become one of the important issues that the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty should first solve, Jia Yi once suggested" The ruler can only consolidate the imperial power of the emperor by weakening the power of the princes.
The role and influence of "Chinese and foreign dynasties" on the Western Han Dynasty
The formation of the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" system is actually a balance of rights between "China and the DPRK" and the "foreign dynasty", which centralizes and unifies the political power of the state to the imperial power, and is also a manifestation of the power struggle between all parties.
1. Strengthened the autocratic imperial power
Due to the formation of the "Chinese and foreign dynastic system" and the strengthening of the central government's control over the subordinate organs, during the Western Han Dynasty, the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty arranged for their own cronies or close subjects to serve as important posts or senior generals in the "Middle Dynasty", and also selected a group of able people from the "Middle Dynasty" officials to serve as officials of the "Foreign Dynasty".
For example, the great generals Wei Qing and Huo Zhiyi, who had made great achievements in battle, were both attendants of the "Middle Dynasty" and officials of the "Foreign Dynasty", holding many duties, some of them inspected various counties and prefectures in place of the emperor, and some of them implemented equal losses and reformed the currency system in the economy, especially in the salt and iron official camps, which not only struck at the forces of local merchants.
At the same time, it also weakened the local powerful forces, the emperor gave advice and issued orders, and the "Chinese Dynasty" gradually evolved into a decision-making body, fundamentally weakening the power of the "foreign dynasty", thus strengthening the control of the centralized power over all parts of the country, making the sense of imperial power deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and further strengthening the autocratic imperial power.
2. Weakens the power of the Prime Minister
In the Western Han Dynasty, the formation of the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" system marked the differentiation of the power of the emperor, the minister had a great scope of authority to a certain extent, the emperor could not be autocratic and dictatorial, and the establishment of the "Chinese dynasty system" was born for the emperor's political power, and all the documents, decrees, and folds were controlled by the emperor's close officials.
Directly commanded by the emperor," the "Zhongchao officials" were under the direct command of the "Zhongchao officials," and compared with the fact that before the establishment of the "Zhongchao Dynasty," the rights of the chancellor were weakened a lot, and the "Zhongchao" officials directly obeyed the emperor, and even in the late Western Han Dynasty, the chancellor was only a pseudonym, just a fictitious name, according to the historical records, "The nine secretaries are more useful, things are not related to Qing, Qing is drunk and prudent, reigned for nine years, and is incapable of saying anything."
It can be seen that when Shi Qing was the prime minister. After the establishment of the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" system, the contrast between the front and the back is huge, and the change in the power and status of the chancellor indicates that the emperor in the Western Han Dynasty held the real power of the state politics, deprived the central decision-making mechanism headed by the chancellor, and fundamentally weakened the political power of the chancellor.
It balanced political power in the imperial court
In the Western Han Dynasty, after the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu", in order to strengthen the centralized power of the central government and avoid the recurrence of reactionary forces, the emperor continuously transferred power to the central government, and the emperor alone had the final say, and also cancelled the independent status of the princely kingdoms, such as: "The princes and kings shall not restore the country, and the son of heaven shall be the official", dispersing the political forces of various princes and nobles.
With the continuous development of the "China Dynasty", its political power and power have been continuously enhanced, and the emperor has relied on and used the political power of the "Middle Dynasty" for his own use, not only that, but also reflected in the talent policy of the Western Han Dynasty, such as continuing to follow the system of "Renzi" and "Kai Xuan", so that many able people and heroes have ascended the road of career, and also institutionalized "filial piety", according to the historical records: "Let the county and the country raise filial piety and send the beijing master to hire."
All these reflect that the emperor will be all kinds of outstanding talents of the landlord class, in the rule of the "Middle Dynasty", which makes more capable people participate in the deliberations of the regime, when these talents make meritorious achievements, they will be rewarded, and in this way to balance the forces of all sides, which also reflects the emperor's right to speak more and more important, strengthen the feudal ruling class within the centralized power, improve the emperor's absolute power, and grasp the actual power.
To sum up, the formation of the "Chinese and foreign dynasties" in the Western Han Dynasty was a product of historical development, which further promoted the historical development of the Western Han Dynasty, played a certain positive role in the centralized power of the emperor and the political stability of the country.
bibliography
1. Su Chengjian, "On the Formation and Role of the "Chinese and Foreign Dynasties" in the Western Han Dynasty"
2. Xing Jinyuan, "On the Evolution of foreign relations politics in the Western Han Dynasty"
3. Li Zhen's Research on Cultural Policy in the Western Han Dynasty