Studies In The Cabinet Minister Group Of The Ming Dynasty

The Cabinet minister group was a high central bureaucratic group that served the emperor directly and assisted him in governing the Ming Empire. It was formed after the Zhongshusheng and the prime minister was abolished in the early Ming dynasty. It was a new kind of bureaucratic group with typical characteristics of the age after the development of the absolute monarchy for more than a thousand years in China. This group played a very crucial role in the central government. The ministers participated extensively in the political decisions and influenced the Ming Empire greatly. Their role was closely connected with the the fate of the Ming dynasty. Therefore, we should pay much more attention to them. This dissertation, based on the original evidence and the modern research, is only a preliminary investigation and tries to deal with the subject in five parts:A. The Formation and the Chief Characteristics of the Cabinet Minister Group.This section tries to define the nature of the minister group and the numbers of them in each periods, focusing on the qualification to acquire the appointement of the cabinet ministers and maintainence of their status, distinguising them according to their origin of birth, their careers in the government before becoming the ministers, the age structure of the ministers, time serving in the cabinet and their relationship to the other ministers. The object of this section is to show the ministers careers and the complex political connections in it. It is an important prerequisite to evaluate the cabinet ministers as a group.B. The Political Roles of the Minister GroupThis section mainly deals with the roles the minister group played in the political affairs in different periods. They helped the emperors deal with daily administration, spoke on behalf of the emperor, put critical proposals to the emperor, and solved the current difficulties. In all these fields, they participated in the key military and political decisions, which means that they played positive, specific and practical parts in the governing of the Ming Empire. Numerous facts show that the minister group was always a part in the operation of the emperor's power. Their role clearly parallels the rise and decline of the Ming Empire. Their assisstance in the administration of the empire was an intergral part of the state government complex. It was their active political roles that successfully remedied the disappearance of the prime minister which should have caused the political anarchy. They helped the absolute monarchy to solve the difficult problems one after another. It was their service that maintained the Ming Empire for 276 years. All these are very important for us to evaluate the roles of the cabinet minister group.C. The Personalities of the Cabinet MinistersThe ministers' personalities depended largely on their complicated political position, the contradiction of the ministers' position and the instinct of the political survival. Their political status were much weaker than that of the former prime minister, but they had to play the roles of the prime minister. In their mind, they appreciated the roles of the prime minister very much and sometimes they even claimed that they had been the prime ministers in practice. But the cabinet depended absolutely on the will of the emperor, therefore, they had to curry favor with the emperors and served any personal needs of the latter. The inherent shortcoming of the bureaucratic system and the specific political circumstances compelled them to do much immoral. It is absolutely necessary to analyse the cabinet ministers' personalities in order to evaluate their roles all round.D. The Power of the Cabinet and the Roles of the Cabinet MinistersBecause of the complicatedness of the political circumstance, the effectiveness of the administration was closely connected with the power of the cabinet. The cabinet ministers played their roles very differently in different periods since the emperor devolved different power in different times, even the same emperor could confer the different power on the cabinet in different stages of his rule. Therefore, the roles of the cabinet ministers were limited in many ways. It depended on the ministers' political qualifications and their views of the specific political circumstances. These investigations will help us to distinguish the specialities of the cabinet ministers in different periods and it will make us to discern the relationship between the cabinet minister group and the politics of the Ming dynasty.E. The Roles of the Cabinet Minister Group in the Ming DynasteThe cabinet ministers were the most special central bureaucratic group in the Ming dynasty. They were a necessary part in the service of the emperor. The Ming Empire was not so great, and the emperors were rarely talented and prominent. But the administration frequently well balanced and stable, the Ming Empire endured for 276 years. It can only be explained persuasively when we appreciate the roles played by the cabinet ministers in detail. B and C of this dissertation deal with these problems in some detail. In the conclusion, I try to demonstrate the reasons why the emperors established the cabinet to help them in daily administration after the abolition of the prime minister, the relationship between the cabinet ministers and the emperor, the relationship between the ministers and the eunuchs, the achievements of the cabinet service and their potential influence on the politics. I tend to emphasize the positive influence of the cabinet ministers in the government and to show their roles in the history of the Ming Empire.In sum, this dissertation tries to deal with the cabinet ministers as a group and draw a true picture of them. What I hope to emphasize is the characteristics of the cabinet ministers collectively. I hope it will be helpful for the advance of the studies of the cabinet ministers. Needless to say, this is a new and difficult subject. It is very complicated since it is related to evaluating the roles of the individuals, discerning personal relationship in the government. The evidence is rich and various. It is really a hard work. This dissertation is only the first stage of the project. For the other important subject related to this field, I expect to go on in the future.