Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 686: Party Struggle and Collective Deliberation
"The eunuch party, the Donglin party."

"There's so much going on in the court!"

“When will this stop?”

In the palace, Zhu Youjian sighed as he looked at the briefing from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He was extremely concerned about the movements of the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party.

The most important task of the Jinyiwei's Intelligence Department at present is to keep an eye on the members of these two parties.

Having seen the numerous political parties in later generations, he had a deep understanding of party struggles and knew that once a party struggle broke out, even the best policies would be difficult to implement.

So after he ascended the throne, he chose to suppress party disputes.

Not only did he personally destroy the Eunuch Party, but he also suppressed the Donglin Party at the same time.

Behind the massive campaign to rehabilitate the Donglin Party members were no more than two cabinet ministers and nine ministers from the Donglin Party.

Although Han Yu, the Prime Minister, seemed to be in a high position and had great power, he was actually always alone and powerless in the standing committee meetings.

This is also the reason why he has not been strong enough, and even a little weak.

Apart from the financial power he held through the Finance and Economics Committee, Han Yu's power in military and personnel matters was extremely limited. The Donglin Party's expectation that he would be the chief minister and that the court would be full of upright officials was simply not possible.

Some members of the Donglin Party were very dissatisfied with this, and Huang Daozhou's reinstatement and his speaking out in the court was a reflection of this mentality.

They hoped that Huang Daozhou and others would stir up trouble in the court and even involve his teacher Yuan Keli.

What these people didn't expect was that Zhu Youjian had always been very concerned about Huang Daozhou. After seeing that he showed signs of opposing the reform of rituals and music, he immediately devised a plan to exile him.

The place chosen was Suzhou, and he served as the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, where Yuan Keli once served.

Under his teacher's instructions, Huang Daozhou had no choice but to go south to take up his post.

"The matter of Huang Daozhou was conspired by some members of the Donglin Party."

"The remnants of the eunuch party, who were once their opponents, noticed this, so Yu Huang's gathering took place."

"There are signs of factional strife between these two old rivals."

Thinking about these two things, Zhu Youjian thought to himself.

He knew exactly who was behind Yu Huang.

The chief examiners of the Yichou examination in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Gu Bingqian and Wei Guangwei, were core members of the eunuch party, and they had been defeated in the internal struggle of the eunuch party, so it was impossible for them to be reinstated.

Therefore, the Jinshi of this category did not have a tutor in the officialdom. However, because they were included in the treason case, the Jinshi of Yichou category openly abandoned them. Now some of them recognized Yang Jingchen as their tutor, and some recognized Kong Zhenyun as their tutor. Both of them had served as co-examiners of Yichou category, one was involved with the eunuch party, and the other was inclined to Donglin.

Yu Huang had thought about getting closer to Donglin. He had previously visited Yuan Keli through his colleague Ni Jiashan, and had visited Kong Zhenyun through Yuan Keli.

However, Huang Daozhou's attitude made him realize that he would never be accepted by the Donglin Party. So he went to visit Yang Jingchen again these days, and then there was a gathering at the Bell and Drum Tower.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian could be sure that the remaining members of the eunuch party had chosen Yang Jingchen as the core and had regrouped.

Perhaps they were trying to band together to resist the pressure from the Donglin Party. Perhaps someone else was plotting something to gain more power.

After the list of counter-cases was made public and finalized, these people seemed to have a sword hanging over their heads removed and began to become active.

Because of their thoughts, there will surely be turmoil in the court, and there is even the possibility that party strife will re-emerge.

Zhu Youjian could not help but frown when he thought of this possibility, and felt that he should warn Yang Jingchen. But when he thought of the irreconcilable attitude of the "upright gentlemen" and "eunuch party villains" of the Donglin Party, he felt a headache again, because the root cause of the party struggle was not the remnants of the eunuch party that he had saved.

There were some members of the Donglin Party who wanted to eradicate all evil and not give them any chance at all, so these people could only gather together to protect themselves.

"The friends of the noble are the party of the villain."

"No matter what kind of clique it is, we must unite and fight against those who are different!"

"This party struggle must be suppressed, no matter whether they are villains or gentlemen."

Ouyang Xiu's article "On Factions" directly sentenced the reformists to political death.

Zhu Youjian didn't understand it before, but after being emperor for two years, he realized that no matter how Ouyang Xiu defended the friends of gentlemen, it could not change the nature of forming a faction.

After forming a party, it is inevitable that the party will unite to fight against those who are different from it, just like the new party created by Wang Anshi for the purpose of reform, and the fierce struggle between it and the old party.

The Donglin Party of the Ming Dynasty was concerned about state affairs and reformed bad policies, and their program was not bad. Among them, there were many gentlemen who were willing to sacrifice their lives to uphold their ideals.

However, once these gentlemen formed a party, they could no longer control what happened next.

Many people joined the Donglin Party just as they had joined Wang Anshi's New Party, using it to gain political benefits for themselves.

Zhu Youjian knew this very well, so he decided to suppress the party struggle with greater force and divert the court's attention:
"The 'Great Ming Etiquette and Law Convention' proposed earlier is a good idea. We can throw out some clauses and let the ministers in the court discuss it carefully."

"It is better to let them pay attention to these etiquette and laws than to engage in meaningless party disputes."

Zhu Youjian was very adept at diverting the court's attention, and he quickly decided to incorporate the previously established court meeting system into the etiquette and law.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty formulated the "Court Meeting Law" based on the provisions of etiquette and law. It determined the participants and decision validity of court meetings at all levels, as well as the court discussion, court recommendation, and court interrogation systems. It also established committees in government offices at all levels to improve the collective discussion system with the concept of democratic centralism.

This incident indeed attracted attention from all walks of life. After adapting to the current court meeting system, many officials believed that the current court meeting system should be written into the etiquette and law, and more detailed laws should be formulated based on it.

Especially because of the implementation of the new calendar, the new moon and full moon courts will be changed to the first and sixteenth day of the month. They will be named monthly courts or other names. This is a matter of concern to all the ministers.

After several months of trial implementation of the new calendar, officials generally realized the convenience of the new calendar and no longer wanted to attend court meetings when others were on vacation.

This time they unanimously agreed to use the new calendar in court meetings and no longer use both the new and old calendars.

Zhu Youjian readily accepted this suggestion and officially issued an edict in the court, ordering the full implementation of the new calendar from May 1st of the new calendar, including holding court meetings.

After a brief period of using both the old and new calendars, the new calendar began to be tried on a larger scale and became dominant.

Then there is the collective system, which has a greater impact.

Because Zhu Youjian required that each institution of the court should set up committees and standing committees, and the standing committees should hold regular meetings to decide daily affairs.

This means that each government office will no longer be a one-man show by the chief official, and no one can decide matters at will.

If the chief officer is not resourceful enough, he may even be sidelined by other members of the Standing Committee and lose his decision-making power in the department.

The six ministers, the nine ministers and other chief officials naturally resisted this. However, the cabinet ministers supported it very much, because they felt that this would limit the power of the nine ministers and allow them to focus more on the affairs of their own departments. If one of the nine ministers jumped too high in the future, they could also choose to support the standing committee of that department and let them compete with that nine minister for power.

With the support of the cabinet ministers and the vice ministers, the collective system was undoubtedly passed. Even the ministers and the prime ministers, after the emperor granted them the power to convene meetings and veto, reluctantly accepted this.

What made them particularly happy was that the emperor granted the assembly the power to make recommendations. They could appoint officials in their own departments, make recommendations to the Ministry of Personnel on the appointment and removal of subordinate officials, and recommend candidates when subordinate official vacancies occurred.

This gives them a greater say in personnel matters within their department and allows them to better implement their will.

(End of this chapter)