Analysis Of The Causes Of The Mid And Late Ming Dynasty’s Eunuch Dictatorship From The Perspective Of Political Interest

As a special political phenomenon in ancient China, the eunuchs’ dictatorship is thecombination of the original concept of patriarchal clan relationship andautocratic-centralized politics. Throughout different dynasties in China, the MingDynasty eunuchs’ dictatorship has reached the highest, and the resulting politicalcorruption and failure of the rule of law have also reached an unprecedentedlevel.Especially when Long Qing and Wan Li, the auxiliary administrative system"cabinet ruled in consort with a eunuch", which centered on the imperial power wasbecoming mature. On the basis of the conflict between the cabinet and the eunuch,anew phenomenon appeared,the two combined to interference politics,thus seriouslycorroding the imperial power.The eunuchs’ dictatorship was formed under the political environment of "cabinetruled in consort with a eunuch" and fights between cliques. The fights werecharacterized as "Pi Hong"、"Jiao Zhao" and " Liu Zhong "，representing the emperorto perform his final decisions. Meanwhile, the eunuchs also tried to make a clique fortheir own private interests，rid the dissidents so as to monopolize power andinterference politics. As a indispensable part of the central decision-making system, theeunuch group was a link between the emperor and his courtiers. From the point of viewof the imperial power, the Mid and Late Ming Dynasty emperor tried to keep a mutualbalance between eunuchs、 the cabinet minister and the word officer to bolsterauthoritarian rule. As the derivative of imperial power, however, the eunuch had theirown political interests besides dependence on imperial power itself. The physicalincompleteness made the eunuchs’ ego distorted, so their desire for political power wasincreasingly strong. Once seized power, the eunuch would step up expansion of power.Simultaneously, the cabinet power was also growing, thus becoming a threat to theimperial power. In order to safeguard their own interests, the cabinet minister on onehand, tried to strengthen links with the eunuch, and on the other hand, maintained imperial power. With the development of the cabinet power, even above the sixministries, contradictions between the cabinet and ministry deepened, which providedfavorable conditions for the eunuchs’ dictatorship. The word officer also played animportant role in the conflict of the cabinet minister,who acted as a tool of both sidestrapped in recrimination and circumvention. Moreover, influenced by the complexinterest relationship, the eunuch and word officer gradually went from the opposition tothe confluence, therefore fanned the flames of the eunuch’dictatorship.Politics is a kind of power relation in essence,and the realization of the politicalinterests is the purpose and end-result of political power. In political science analysis,interest analysis is the fundamental perspective. According to the different politicalinterests, it gradually formed a different representation of the interests. The relevantreference in Mr Pengcheng Gao’s book “Political Interest Analysis” explains, thesecomplex interests mainly presents the four state: identity, complementarity,confrontational, and alternative. The emperor had the nominally highestdecision-making authority, but generally represented by the eunuch, which led to thepotential or real conflicts between the emperor and the eunuch, which is defined as theconfrontational interest relation. In the fierce power struggle, the cabinet and sixministries had tried to win over the eunuch to enhance power, so they all formed thecomplementary interest relation with the eunuch. With the help of the eunuch, thecabinet and six ministries came into power and played it safe, seeking self-preservationduring the chaotic political situation. In addition, the cabinet also differentiated intoparts in resistance to the eunuch, which often appeared as the alternative interest relation.Based on different political interest, there could be interest of the antagonistic relation inthe process of power expansion between the cabinet and the emperor. In the Mid andLate Ming Dynasty, the eunuchs’ dictatorship was the result of the interaction betweenthese intricate interest relations.Taking political interest and the interest relations as the breakthrough point toanalyze the reasons of the Mid and Late Ming Dynasty eunuchs’ dictatorship, it couldgive us not only a more comprehensive and objective understanding of politicalphenomenon in history, but some useful experience and lessons for our contemporarypolitical construction. During administrative management, the eunuch had achievedremarkable achievements, especially the highest authority of imperial power. Though,many problems exposed, lack of restraint mechanism gave the eunuch opportunities. The setting up of cabinet was primarily for the purpose of helping the emperor to dealwith affairs, but lack of edge permissions control resulted in power expansion; uncleardivision power indirectly led to the cabinet’s excessive. Meanwhile, omission or abusescaused by courtier failure played a direct or indirect catalytic role in eunuch’sdictatorship,which brought severe disaster to the Ming Dynasty. We can obtain a bettertheoretical reference for our current administrative management from the authoritarianreason analysis on Mid and Late Ming Dynasty eunuch’s dictatorship, especially poweroperation mechanism.