The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 285 King’s Power vs. Prime Minister’s Power
March is the season of mid-spring in mainland China. “The time is full of wood and yang, and the spring awns are green and lush; the spring earth is pulsating and oily and melting.” This means a new beginning and all things are flourishing. , and recovery and hope.

In the Hanzhou continent, it is the autumn harvest, which symbolizes harvest and harvest. It is a time when farmers are happy and grateful for the fruits of their labor. By this time, the heat of summer has passed, and the coolness of autumn has brought with it breezes and golden colors.

In this autumn season, Qi's science and technology community is also ushering in the harvest moment of its annual achievements, and the annual Royal Science Award will be announced one after another.

The predecessor of the Royal Science Award was the Industrial Achievement Invention Award established in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The government gave heavy rewards to various inventions and improvements that emerged in the industrial field, in order to promote the progress and development of the country's industrial technology.

Later, Emperor Taizu made several subdivisions and expansions of this invention award, including machinery (including mechanical inventions, new industrial designs and improvements), physics, chemistry, medicine, biology, geology, and agricultural production, etc. In many fields, those who have brought significant industrial, agricultural and scientific and technological benefits to Qi in the past year will be given high bonuses as a sign of encouragement.

After Emperor Taizu ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in the 1670th year of Qianwu (), he established the Royal Science Foundation and renamed the Achievement and Invention Award the Royal Science Highest Award. The amount of the award was also changed from the original yuan. Increased to NT$.

Every year, institutions such as the Royal Academy of Sciences, Chang'an Academy of Natural Sciences, Montenegro Industrial Research Institute, and the Royal Foundation Committee evaluate and review the scientific and technological achievements or scientific discoveries that have appeared in various fields in the past year, and finally establish each award list one by one.

Since the capital was moved to Chang'an, the Chang'an Royal Grand Theater has been the venue for awarding the Royal Science Award. Moreover, continuing the practice during Emperor Taizu's time, His Majesty the Emperor will personally appear to award honorary medals and bonuses to many winners, and set up a state banquet to entertain these most outstanding talents in the empire.

If a certain award-winning scientific achievement, industrial invention or agricultural improvement is proven to be enough to subvert the current status quo and create huge social and economic benefits, then His Majesty the Emperor will also confer a knighthood on the winner, making it In one fell swoop, he entered the imperial aristocracy.

In the fifth year of Shaoning (1690), in order to absorb and introduce the best scientific and technological achievements in the world, the selection scope of the Royal Science Award was no longer limited to Qi State, but accepted the recommendation of scientific and technological achievements from all over the world. After evaluation by many experts and scholars, once it is determined that it meets the award conditions, it will still be awarded an honorary medal and bonus, as well as the corresponding imperial title.

If foreign winners are willing to immigrate to Qi, they will automatically obtain national status. The Royal Academy of Sciences will also recruit them as academicians and give them a large amount of scientific research funds to fund their subsequent research and exploration.

As for houses, money, and cars, the Royal Academy of Sciences will naturally give them generously, which is enough to ensure that the imported foreign scholars can achieve their scientific research goals without any distractions.

In Qi State, as long as one can win the Royal Science Award, it will definitely bring fame and fortune to an individual. It will also allow an unknown person to easily achieve a class leap and reach the pinnacle of life.

It is said that this year's bonus may be increased from the original 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.

The reason for the increase, in addition to taking into account price inflation, is that the Royal Science Fund received a large amount of funding.

A "rich man" from Qin State donated a huge sum of 200,000 yuan to the royal fund at one time, which greatly enriched the financial resources of the selection committee and allowed the prize amount to be significantly increased after maintaining it for fifty years.

Yes, the funding sources of the Royal Science Foundation are no longer limited to royal grants and financial donations from the Royal Commercial Society, but have become increasingly diversified and begun to accept donations from private groups and individuals.

After all, the royal family's expenses are also increasing, and the royal family cannot bear all the expenditures on such scientific and public welfare projects.

It is true that the Royal Trading Company invests and holds shares in almost all profitable industries in the country. The scale of the industry is huge, and the profits earned every year are millions of yuan, which is comparable to the fiscal revenue of a medium-sized country.

However, the daily expenses of the royal family are also increasing day by day, including the support of royal family members, the construction and maintenance of palaces and estates, the maintenance and improvement of private welfare, the continuous investment of charity funds and scientific funds, and various rewards and sponsorships from the royal family.

During the period of Emperor Taiping, in order to avoid the bad reputation of "competing with the people" and "bullying others", the Royal Trading Company successively sold off its many industries such as textiles, clothing, grain and oil, food, sugar, wood processing, and hardware manufacturing. Instead, they entered mineral development, plantation economy, ocean shipping, shipbuilding, heavy steel industry, new technology development, railway and highway construction and other such industries.

The characteristics of these industries are very obvious, that is, the initial investment is large, but the recovery of funds is slow, and there may even be no profit, or very little profit.

It can be said that, to some extent, the Royal Trading Company has assumed part of the social and economic responsibilities that should have been invested by the government.

However, according to the traditional "family world", this empire belongs to the emperor after all, and the money is spent on his own family, which is natural.

The cabinet government is naturally happy to see this result, which will not only reduce the national financial investment, but also directly consume the financial resources of the royal family.

You said, faced with a royal family that cannot control its finances, how can the cabinet government stand firm in front of the emperor?

In the political system of ancient China, the emperor has always been the core of state power. After the Qin Dynasty, the emperor has also been controlling the political operations of the ancient bureaucratic empire. The emergence and establishment of the emperor's status represented the development of the ancient system in a new direction. In addition to the emperor, in such a system, there is another main executor of power, that is, the prime minister. It is a representative of the power centers different from the emperor, who together form the country's political system and power structure.

Throughout the history of China for more than a thousand years, the history of the evolution of central institutions with the prime minister as the core is a history of friction and struggle between monarchy and prime ministerial power.

The monarch and the prime minister have different existence values ​​​​in such a power organization. Although the monarch and the prime minister have always been regarded as a unified existence, during the operation of the specific institution, there are changes in the system of the specific system. Inside, the struggle for power was fierce.

Han Feizi once said, "If a minister is too noble, his position will change."

This shows that many politicians have realized the threat to the emperor due to the existence of ministers, and also reveals that there must be a contradiction between the power of the king and the power of the prime minister. Although the power of the prime minister comes from the emperor and is dependent on the monarch's power, it is closely related to the monarch. However, the prime minister is also independent, and there are still conflicts and struggles between the two.

For the emperor, the existence of the prime minister and other ministers is just a derivative of his power. However, monarchs are jealous and are very vigilant about the use of their power, so a huge struggle with the prime minister for power is inevitable. In the past dynasties, the establishment and implementation of the central government system inevitably revealed the contradiction between monarch power and prime minister power, which was taken extremely seriously, and the struggle between the two was also very fierce.

In the traditional political system, the monarch and his ministers together formed the core of the central official system. When the system was first born, these two elements were interdependent and influenced each other. In the most ideal situation, that is, the monarch has the highest power, and as long as the ministers obey the monarch's arrangements, they can maintain a stable order and allow this institution to operate.

The purpose of the emperor setting up prime ministers in the first place was to help him manage his officials and share his affairs. The essence of this arrangement is that the emperor hopes that all power will still be in his own hands, and the prime minister is just a tool in his hands. However, the emperor's energy is limited. Even if he is as wise as Qin Shi Huang and as wise as Tang Taizong, he still cannot control all affairs.

During the pre-Ming Dynasty, after Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang deposed Hu Weiyong, he had no prime minister to help him handle government affairs. He had to deal with more than 996 memorials and more than state affairs every day, so that Zhu Yuanzhang worked overtime hours a day, every day. Black, I can’t be busy at all. For this reason, Lao Zhu also complained and wrote a poem, "I got up before hundreds of officials got up, and I didn't sleep when hundreds of officials fell asleep. I am not as good as the rich man in the south of the Yangtze River. The sun is five feet high and I am still surrounded by quilts."

Having no choice but to do so, Lao Zhu established the Grand Master of the Imperial Palace as a political advisor to help him handle complex government affairs. This also became the prototype of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet system.

Later, the chief minister of the cabinet gradually became the prime minister with real power, but his power was granted by the emperor and determined by the cabinet system, which to some extent restricted and regulated the monarchy.

The central power structure of Qi State is different from the structure of the Tang and Song Dynasties in which the king and the prime minister coexisted and restricted each other. It is also different from the monolithic monarchy in the pre-Ming Dynasty (of course, with the growth of cabinet power in the later period, it gradually began to restrict the imperial power). It is not a model of weak power, but rather a combination of various power checks and balances.

The nomination of the cabinet prime minister is not made by the emperor, but by the imperial court (legislative body) and the Senate (transformed from the earliest Dengzhou Senate, which is currently mainly made up of members of the royal family, retired high-level government officials, retired military generals, and Composed of prominent figures in society) and then appointed by the emperor.

After the cabinet prime minister is recognized and appointed by the emperor, he will form a cabinet government, formulate relevant governance policies and routes, and then implement effective governance of the entire empire within the specified term of office.

Of course, if a candidate for cabinet prime minister selected by the Imperial Council and the Senate is not recognized by the emperor, the emperor can refuse the appointment and ask the two houses to re-elect. Until a candidate who meets the emperor's wishes is submitted, the emperor can finally successfully form the cabinet. Cabinet Government.

In order to prevent future generations from being too willful, nepotistic and arbitrarily vetoing the election results of the two chambers, Emperor Taizu set a limit on the number of times the emperor could veto nominations. He could only reject the nomination of a candidate for prime minister five times at most, and this regulation was recorded. Entered the Imperial Charter (Constitution).

Otherwise, the delay in appointing a cabinet prime minister will inevitably lead to a shutdown of the central government and plunge the empire into a huge political crisis.

If the candidate for prime minister elected for the fifth time is still not liked by the emperor, he can only hold his nose and admit it, and then during the term of the cabinet, find its faults, issue an emergency edict, dissolve or order the cabinet to resign, and appoint a new prime minister. Interim Prime Minister, forming an interim cabinet government.

However, in this case, it would completely break the political balance of the national power structure. It would make the emperor seem somewhat shameless, and it would also offend the entire imperial bureaucracy. It would probably encounter fierce opposition from many knowledgeable people in the country, thus shaking the empire. Basis of domination.

In the more than 90 years since the founding of the Qi State, this kind of overturning of the table has not happened. In addition to several emperors who "obey the rules" and "talk about politics", the empire's national power has always been on the rise, making the political situation relatively stable and the imperial power He and Xiangquan also maintain a delicate balance.

However, in general, the emperor's power was in a relatively strong position in the empire's political structure and was far less binding than in the pre-Ming Dynasty. The balance of the empire's power completely relied on the emperor's self-restraint.

If we encounter the kind of emperor who says, "I won't care about the floods after I die" and doesn't care about any political rules, it will definitely become the biggest disaster for the empire.

Of course, Qi's cabinet government, or even the entire country, has not yet entertained the idea of ​​deposing the royal family for the sake of the empire's future generations.

However, the cabinet's thoughts on restricting, controlling, and weakening the imperial power have always existed.

In the past, during the period of Taizu and Taizong, it was still in the early days of the founding of the country. The emperor was very authoritative, and the cabinet government could only obey orders. Naturally, it did not dare to have the idea of ​​expanding the power of the cabinet.

After the two emperors Taizu and Taizong died one after another, Emperor Taiping succeeded to the throne. Due to his gentle personality, decisive approach, and willingness to delegate power to the cabinet, the cabinet government gained a lot of initiative.

In the fourteenth year of Taiping (1716), the Fengshan Massacre in Yizhou, Qin State, occurred. His Majesty the Emperor tried to threaten the Qin State with force, but was unanimously opposed by the cabinet. The government's uncooperative attitude finally made Emperor Taiping change his mind and instead use The crisis between Qi and Qin was resolved through peaceful negotiation.

This was the first time that the Qi cabinet government used collective strength to force the emperor to make compromises, which marked that the prime minister's power had gradually gained the ability to resist the imperial power.

Just when the cabinet government was preparing to slowly erode and restrict the imperial power by "sneaking into the night with the wind", sudden changes occurred in the imperial family. The prince who had been waiting for more than 40 years died unexpectedly, forcing Emperor Taiping to establish a weak crown. The age of the emperor's grandson is the heir.

Later, Emperor Taiping died and the young Emperor Yonglong succeeded to the throne.

Because the new monarch lacked experience in governing, he had to rely on the assistance of several "Tuogu ministers" appointed by Emperor Taiping to ensure the smooth operation of the empire's political situation. This inevitably made the center of power of the entire empire gradually tilt towards the cabinet.

This made the cabinet government not only surprised but also harbored some suspicions.

Can our country of Qi use this to transform from the "constitutional monarchy" model to the "constitutional monarchy" model?

Although the two have similar meanings, the meanings are different after the word order is changed.

Qi's current political system is similar to a "constitutional monarchy" in which the monarch takes the lead in formulating a basic constitution. The constitution has far more restrictions on the cabinet, the Imperial Court, and the Senate than on imperial power.

On the other hand, “constitutional monarchy” mainly means that the monarch rules according to the provisions of the constitution, and the constitution imposes various restrictions on the monarch’s powers.

The Kingdom of England during this period was a typical "constitutional monarchy". It first established the tradition that the king is under the law, that is, the principle that the king must rule according to the law. The power of the monarch is extremely limited and restricted, and the parliament and cabinet occupy a dominant position in national power.

As for Qi's "constitutional monarchy", the emperor is the de facto legislator, and the cabinet is responsible to the emperor rather than the Imperial Court and the Senate. The emperor was not only the administrative head and framer of the constitution, but also the commander-in-chief of the army. The participation of the people and the nobility was "granted" by the emperor rather than inherent in it.

What a wonderful thing it would be if, taking advantage of the fact that the emperor is currently "young and ignorant" and in a relatively weak position, the cabinet government could seize part of the power belonging to the emperor and gradually establish a cabinet-led imperial power structure.

At that time, His Majesty the Emperor will only have to act as the nominal head of the empire and preside over ceremonial activities such as the awarding of the Royal Science Prize. As for the management of the empire's affairs, it will be entrusted to the cabinet.

(End of this chapter)