As one of the most powerful dynasties in Chinese history, the Tang Dynasty's system also had a great impact on later generations, of which the political system of the Tang Dynasty had a very great influence, so what did the political system of the Tang Dynasty look like? The politics of the Tang Dynasty was inherited from the Sui Dynasty, and after the Beginning of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system in the Wei and Jin Dynasties began to collapse, and gradually the three provinces and six ministries system began to take shape.
The so-called three provinces are Shangshu Province, Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province, originally Shangshu Province was an independent institution, specifically responsible for domestic government affairs, Zhongshu, Menxia Province are the inner court institutions in the court, and later they were also separated.
<h1>The political system of the Tang Dynasty</h1>
Three provinces
During the Sui Dynasty, the responsibilities of the three provinces were gradually perfected, and by the Tang Dynasty, the three provinces and six ministries had formally matured, and the functions and powers of various institutions were perfected, and they complemented each other to handle the affairs of the state. The dispersion of power has a certain help for the centralization of the monarch's power, and the emergence of this system has made a special phenomenon appear in the middle and early period of the Tang Dynasty, that is, the group phase system. Generally speaking, there is only one such a large member as the prime minister, and during the Qin and Han dynasties, one person held such an official position, but during the Tang Dynasty, the position of the prime minister was not fixed.
According to the Old Book of Tang, zhongshu ling, shizhong, and shangshu ling of the three provinces jointly discussed state affairs, and this chancellor also held the post of prime minister.
The meaning of this sentence is very obvious, the chiefs of the three provinces are all holding the position of a prime minister, they are all prime ministers, and the prime ministers collectively deliberate in the government affairs hall set up in Menxia Province; the combined powers of the three provinces constitute the complete power of the prime minister, the Zhongshu Province has the right to issue orders and the right to investigate, and the Menxia Province is in the process of issuing edicts and rulings, of which Menxia Province is in a pivotal position in the process of handling daily government affairs. In today's terms: Zhongshu Province is responsible for decision-making, Menxia Province is responsible for deliberation, and Shangshu Province is responsible for implementation. The three provinces are subject to a strict system of subordination, and each province is governed by its own governor.
The group phase system has achieved the glory of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and this system of clear division of labor and strict regulations has greatly helped the development of the country. The three provinces together with the emperor formed the highest decision-making level of the empire, the emperor held the final ruling power, and the three provincial prime ministers at the bottom came to discuss the major affairs of the country themselves, and after discussion, they determined a suitable plan, and then handed it to the emperor to make the final ruling.
Although the three provinces were independent of the emperor and were not vassals of the emperor to survive, the group phase system made it difficult for the foreign court to appear as vassals, and the power was greatly dispersed, so in the early Tang Dynasty, people like Changsun Wuji, who held great power in the dynasty, it was really difficult for them to threaten the emperor, and Li Zhi said that he would take him down. However, with the development of the Tang Dynasty, the group phase system was ended during the Xuanzong period, and in the eleventh year of the new century, Li Longji changed the government affairs hall to Zhongshu Menxia, Zhongshu Province began to occupy the dominant position in the three provinces, and the governors of the two provinces under Zhongshu Men began to hold more important positions in the six ministries.
The government affairs hall is the representative of the group phase system, and its change also marks a great change in the tang dynasty's prime minister system. Although the three provinces still existed after the Xuanzong Dynasty, the governors of Zhongshu Province had become closer to the first person in the outer court, and while they were prime ministers, they were still holding more positions and holding more and more power. The power of Shangshu Province gradually disappeared and became a decoration, like Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong, these powers, all of them have a very large power, the outer court enjoys absolute control, they and the emperor cooperate with each other, but also contain each other, the power of the prime minister is getting bigger and bigger, and it also begins to threaten the power of the emperor.
However, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the control of the imperial court was limited, and the emperor and the eunuchs formed another three-way balance in the dynasty, and the chancellor cooperated with the external feudal lords and emissaries to balance each other, and later in the Song and Ming dynasties, the balance of the three provinces was further destroyed, and the power of the phase was weakened.
Six
Under the three provinces are the institutions responsible for handling specific affairs, and the most familiar ones are the six departments of Shangshu (吏部, Household Department, Ceremonial Department, Bingbu, Punishment Department, and Engineering Ministry), all of which are in charge of other affairs; in addition, at the same level as the six ministries, there are also the secretarial provinces, the temple provinces, and the internal servants province, as well as the supervision agencies such as the Imperial Observatory to supervise the six ministries and other institutions.
Different institutions have different powers and roles, but the main body is still around the six ministries, the chief of the six ministries is Shangshu, but generally Shangshu is concurrently held by other senior officials, specific things are done by deputies, and deputy waiters are specially used to deal with various affairs within the ministry. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the chiefs of the six ministries also began to participate more in the decision-making of major affairs in the DPRK, and worked with the governors of the three provinces to deal with major state affairs, and the power of the three provinces was concentrated, and the power of the officials of the six ministries began to increase. The six places where the offices are handled are called the capital halls, and each has four divisions, and the chief is Langzhong, to handle specific affairs.
The six departments are actually similar in grade, but because the functions and powers of the six parts are different, there are still some differences in rank, such as the official department, the military department is the highest status of the six departments, followed by the household department and the punishment department, and finally the work department and the ceremonial department. Among the six ministries, the official department can be said to be the most important, his chief has a very large authority, and it is also a famous oil and water gate here.
The bureaucracy is mainly responsible for the selection and promotion of officials, and personnel power is of course very important. The chiefs of the six ministries were all senior officials in the dprk, but they still had to be restrained by the prime ministers, and many ambitious prime ministers took advantage of the opportunity to concurrently hold the position of six shangshu to increase their power.
Nine temples and five prisons
The three provinces and six ministries are the core of the political system of the Tang Dynasty, although there have been some changes in the system from the early Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, but there are still not many changes, and the Tang Dynasty has always used this system. Under the six ministries, there are also nine temples and five supervisors (nine temples: Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Weiwei Temple, Zongzheng Temple, Taibu Temple, Dali Temple, Hongxu Temple, Sinong Temple, and Taifu Temple; the Five Supervisors: Guozi Supervisor, Shaofu Supervisor, General Supervisor, Ordnance Supervisor and Dushui Supervisor), who are specifically responsible for other specific affairs and are also important organs of the central government.
The establishment of this complete political system made the Tang Dynasty begin to become stronger. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, not only was the country in turmoil, but the political system also collapsed in the war, which directly led to the decline of the monarchy, and with the improvement of the political system of the three provinces and six departments of the Tang Dynasty, the monarchy began to strengthen continuously, laying a solid foundation for the future centralization of power. It had a complete political system, and the Tang Dynasty also had a strict system of electing officials.
Starting from the various examinations of the officials, it is indeed difficult to be an official in the imperial court, which also ensures that the overall quality of officials in the Tang Dynasty is very high. However, with the later rise of Li Linfu and others to power, these cumbersome systems were destroyed, the election of officials became more and more arbitrary, and the rise of the imperial examination also allowed more local han disciples to enter the imperial court, but the Tang Dynasty as a whole was not a period dominated by the imperial examination scholars.
In the final Tang Dynasty, the phenomenon of the door valve clan controlling the government has always existed, which did not change until the fall of the Tang Dynasty, indeed, these door valve clans have very good political capital, but also have a very excellent ability, the Han men want to get ahead is indeed very difficult, the Tang Dynasty relied on the door valve to prosper, and eventually destroyed in the hands of the door valve.
bibliography:
Old Book of Tang
Zizhi Tongjian
【Text/Feather Comment County Lord, the picture comes from the Internet, such as infringement and deletion!】 Plagiarism must be investigated, welcome to follow, comment, like, forward, update wonderful and interesting historical knowledge every day, your recognition is my greatest motivation! The copyright belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. 】