Study On The System Of Government Affairs Secrecy In Ming Dynasty

The idea and system of secrecy since the early Pre-qin period laid a solid foundation for the formation of the Ming Dynasty government secrecy system,which,together with the unique socio-historical background of the Ming Dynasty,gave birth to the Ming Dynasty government secrecy system.In the process of development,the secrecy system of the Ming Dynasty was mainly influenced by the strict laws and regulations,the decision making and the political situation of the declining world,and the idea of ruling the country by the heavy code made the relevant legal system more stringent than the previous dynasty,and the participation of the cabinet ministers and internal supervisors made the secrecy system in the operation of the government to add and improve,while the emergence of the declining world situation made the secrecy system focus on the military,and at the same time there were hidden dangers such as mishandling.The rulers of the Ming Dynasty,in order to achieve secrecy in government affairs,mainly from the three aspects of the law,the person involved in the secrecy and the tools of secrecy to limit and maintain the secrecy system of government affairs.The secrecy by law can be divided into three aspects,namely military affairs,confidential documents and officials’ behavior,and the secrecy of different aspects can be kept respectively.The secrecy by people,mainly to restrict the secrecy of the personnel involved in the secrecy to achieve secrecy,from the selection and management of those involved in the secrecy of the whole process of restriction,and even in the ideological level to persuade them,in order to achieve full secrecy at the level of those involved in the secrecy;secrecy by documents,mainly for the secrecy of the political affairs of the confidential tool-the high level of secrecy of the machine documents,to its The whole process of writing,transmission and arrival are multiform secrecy.The content of the secrecy of government affairs involved the secret documents,confidential cases,military affairs,court secrets and the exchange of rulers and ministers,etc.The enrichment and expansion of its content reflected the characteristics of political rule in the Ming Dynasty.The secrecy of the confidential documents mainly includes the two major aspects of the upstream and downstream documents,the ministers,secret documents and the emperor’s secret instructions,secret orders are related to the secrets of government affairs,need to be strictly confidential.The secrecy of confidential cases can be divided into two aspects:special cases and regular cases.As a special judicial department of the Ming Dynasty,the factory guards were often involved in the detection and examination of special cases;at the same time,the Ministry of Justice,the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Da Lisi,which were exclusively responsible for handling regular cases,were also in effect.Military intelligence mainly refers to the enemy’s military intelligence and its own military decisions,the content of war secrets,involving national security,and therefore also belongs to the political secrecy.Palace secrets mainly cover two aspects of the imperial family secrets and rebellion of the clan,the emperor’s life and death and the tomb after death,the crown prince and the empress abolished all belong to the royal secrets;clan princes rebellion and crime is the clan secrets,in order to maintain their own rule and majesty,are required to be kept secret.The official documents were written communication between rulers and ministers,while non-written communication between rulers and ministers was mainly achieved through verbal orders and face-to-face meetings,which were not written,but their contents were still related to political affairs and needed to be kept strictly confidential.In order to achieve the purpose of secrecy of government affairs,the imperial court imposed various types of penal,administrative and economic punishments on those who leaked secrets of government affairs,including legal penalties,deportation,expatriation and confiscation of family property.In addition,under the political situation of the Ming dynasty,the system of secrecy of government affairs was characterized by complex procedures,various ways and harsh punishments,which still had some drawbacks,but also further showed the value of ensuring the security of confidential matters,balancing the order of power and special handling of government affairs.