The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 315 New Deal
A vigorous new policy was launched.

From the moment the four regents made their resolute and forceful decision at the court assembly, the torrent of water from the mountains surged down, unstoppable.

Those who follow me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish.

How could such a confrontation at the court assembly go unpunished without incurring a price?

In the following month, the Minister of Rites, the Minister of Works, the Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, and the Left Censor-in-Chief—five figures of great importance in the court's major political affairs—were all dispatched to other parts of the country.

Everyone knows that this is the price they paid for confronting the four regents.

In this new dynasty's political landscape, since they are not collaborators, they can only leave. When will they be able to return?

Until the new policy fails!

Will the new policy fail?
Countless people looked at the five Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet sitting high in the court, and then at the surging courtiers heading towards the residences of the five Grand Secretaries, and all shook their heads in their hearts.

Without any stumbling blocks, it would be too difficult for Grand Secretary Lee Hyun-mok to fail!

unless…

The Empress Dowager, sitting in the palace, stood opposite Li Xianmu!
But is that possible?
At least judging from the current situation, there is no possibility.

Regardless of what those people think, the splitting into six parts is ultimately unstoppable.

The first to be affected was the Censorate, which had always been separate from the Six Ministries and other official bodies.

It is also one of the few departments that can stand up to the cabinet. This huge Censorate was once divided into four.

The provincial governors and censors-in-chief were separated from the Censorate and became independent official positions not belonging to any department. The provincial governors and censors-in-chief remained second-rank officials, while the provincial treasurers were downgraded from second-rank to third-rank officials, the same level as the provincial judges. To some extent, the provincial treasurers became subordinate officials of the provincial governors and censors-in-chief.

The governor and the censor-in-chief remained officials in the capital, but they became powerful regional officials in effect.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau was separated from the Censorate and established as the Grand Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Ming Dynasty. The Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau was a second-rank official. This bureau, established by Li Xianmu, officially became one of the top departments in the Ming Dynasty, and was fully responsible for internal investigation of Ming officials, somewhat similar to the disciplinary inspection commissions of later generations.

The first two items were originally added to the Censorate later, so their separation at this point is not a big deal. However, the changes to the Censorate that followed were truly earth-shattering. Li Xianmu divided the Censorate into the North and South branches.

The Northern Censorate was the traditional function of the Censorate. Li Xianmu did not touch the power of the Censorate's censors to report on matters based on hearsay, because this was a right to protect imperial power. If he were to deprive the Empress Dowager of even this power, she would inevitably feel a great sense of crisis.

However, he also imposed certain restrictions to prevent officials from deliberately framing people.

Thus, the Southern Censorate was established, and the remaining censors entered this department to specifically investigate the censors of the Censorate.

These two censors did not communicate with each other; once they entered one censorate, they could never serve in the other censorate for the rest of their lives.

This is a certain restriction imposed to prevent collusion and because it is believed that colleagues will inevitably meet in the future.

It was somewhat similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, with the Northern Garrison and the Southern Garrison. The Northern Garrison was in charge of administrative affairs, while the Southern Garrison investigated the internal affairs of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The Right Vice Censor-in-Chief had previously focused on this matter, but now Li Xianmu had proposed dividing the Censorate into the Northern and Southern branches, which represented a significant restriction on his power.

Because the Southern Censorate was theoretically under the direct leadership of the emperor, if any censor of the Censorate deliberately framed a high-ranking official for personal gain, the case would be reported directly to the cabinet without going through the Censorate or the Office of Transmission. This was a measure by the cabinet to check and balance the Censorate.

The next step was to split and reorganize the Ministry of Rites and the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. In the past, the Ministry of Rites was the one that formulated the various rules, regulations and etiquette systems of the Ming Dynasty, while the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was its subordinate department. Although it was an independent department on the surface, it did not have real decision-making power and completely obeyed the guidance of the Ministry of Rites.

Now, the decision-making power of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices will be returned to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and the Court of Imperial Sacrifices will be completely freed from the control of the Ministry of Rites.

After this separation, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was responsible for all royal ceremonial affairs and no longer needed to consult with the Ministry of Rites, while the Ministry of Rites was responsible for all ceremonial systems of the Ming Dynasty except for the royal system. The division of powers and responsibilities was much clearer than before.

The future Minister of Rites will likely be devastated, as he will be responsible for formulating various matters concerning the royal family. It is a truly lucrative position, given that the wedding of the Crown Prince will cost millions of taels of silver, and there are too many opportunities to embezzle.

From then on, the Ministry of Rites would become a department that merely formulated etiquette policies, a truly powerless and ineffective government office.

Anyone with a keen eye could see that Li Xianmu was trying to establish connections between the royal family and most of the potentially corrupt and lucrative government offices.

There is a deeper meaning behind this, which is not convenient to discuss at this moment.

The biggest change was that it was separated from the imperial examination system and a Ministry of Education was established.

This is the most shocking part of the recent reforms to the Ministry of Rites.

The Ministry of Education will not only be responsible for the traditional imperial examinations, but will also coordinate the training of various talents in the Ming Dynasty. Its purpose is to promote the prosperity of all industries in the Ming Dynasty and to cultivate a group of talents with professional skills for various departments.

The Ministry of Education's statement immediately made everyone realize that Li Xianmu was dissatisfied with the current imperial examination system, and even with the current officials!
They all knew that Li Xianmu's father, Li Zhongwen Gong Li Qi, placed great importance on the professional skills of officials.

Orthodox students of the School of Mind also learn some arithmetic and criminal law so that they will have the professional knowledge to handle specific matters after entering the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice.

This is also a point of contradiction between the School of Mind and the School of Principle. The vast majority of Confucian scholars, despite studying the way of investigating things and exploring the principles of heaven and earth, ended up pursuing the ethereal and illusory way of heaven. They preferred the abstract to the concrete.

On the surface, the philosophy of mind is about thoroughly investigating the principles of the mind. In reality, its theory aims to liberate thought, not to blindly believe in authority, and to pursue the true principles of things after freeing the mind from its constraints and establishing good intentions in one's heart.

Moreover, the reason for splitting up the Ministry of Works was that Li Xianmu believed that most of the officials in the Ministry of Works did not have professional knowledge and only knew how to manipulate money. Therefore, he completely removed the lucrative positions from the Ministry of Works.

The Ministry of Works thus became a supervisory department under major engineering groups, and its lucrative opportunities diminished considerably.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, there were subjects called Mingfa Ke and Mingsuan Ke, and now it seems that there are plans to revive them.

Some people have made connections to the rapid promotion of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and suddenly some people realize that if they want to serve as officials in the Ministry of Revenue or the Ministry of Justice in the future, do they necessarily have to be officials in the Legal and Mathematical Departments?
At this moment, no one knew Li Xianmu's true intentions.

Subsequently, the powers and responsibilities of the traditional three judicial departments were re-summarized, which made people deeply understand that the focus of Li Xianmu's reform was to clarify the powers and responsibilities between the various departments.

This makes it somewhat difficult to guess Li Xianmu's intentions. Since the Song Dynasty, the court has set up various departments, with layers upon layers of offices, precisely to make these departments check and balance each other.

Why is Li Xianmu the only one who should do this?

Afterwards, someone informed the Empress Dowager about this, hoping to bring Li Xianmu's biggest supporter to their side.

They succeeded, and the Empress Dowager summoned Li Xianmu alone to ask why.

Li Xianmu informed the Empress Dowager of his upcoming plans. On a sunny afternoon, Li Xianmu left the palace, but the reforms continued.

Some people were greatly disappointed.

Some people were shocked and excited.

Then it transformed into deep respect and fear.

No one knows why Li Xianmu, no matter how difficult the situation, could always overcome obstacles and difficulties as if walking on flat ground.

He has been the most important official in the Ming Dynasty for nearly twenty years. He is not even fifty years old yet. Does he intend to rule the Ming Dynasty's officialdom for another ten to twenty years?
At that time, all political forces will likely be forced to live under his tyranny, trembling in fear. After the Censorate was divided into North and South branches, some speculated that its functions as a judicial body might be abolished, and now that has indeed happened.

Lee Hyun-mok demanded that each judicial unit possess its own functions, yet that none of them should hold excessive power.

If a department controls all the procedures of a case, it will inevitably lead to a large number of wrongful convictions. Therefore, the traditional three judicial departments were reorganized, mainly targeting the Ministry of Justice.

Among the three judicial departments in the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Justice held the most power and was responsible for all cases from beginning to end, while the Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate only served as supervisors and judges of major death penalty cases.

In fact, during the Tang and Song dynasties and even earlier during the Qin and Han dynasties, the Dali Temple was the highest judicial organ. With this reform, Li Xianmu transferred all the trials of cases back to the Dali Temple, making it the highest judicial office.

This move is clearly aimed at reducing the functions of the Ministry of Justice and strengthening the functions of the Court of Judicial Review.

Then the Ministry of Justice was split into two again, with one part retained within the Ministry of Justice to investigate criminals and verify the authenticity of cases.

The other half is handled by the Department of Criminal Investigation. After the Ministry of Justice officials have investigated a case, the Department of Criminal Investigation reviews the case files and the process to confirm that there are no wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice. Then, it reports the case to the Court of Judicial Review for trial and determination of the punishment.

The Department of Criminal Justice served as a communication channel between the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review, and also supervised both the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review. If the Department of Criminal Justice believed that the Court of Judicial Review's judgment was incorrect, it could request a review. If the Court of Judicial Review insisted on the decision, it would be reported to the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, who was specifically responsible for the three judicial departments, for handling.

At this point, the judicial and supervisory departments have been completely dismantled.

By this point, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Rites had become completely powerless government departments with greatly reduced powers and responsibilities, and the Censorate was no longer feared by anyone.

The Ministry of Personnel will remain unchanged. The Ministry of War and the Five Military Commissions already check and balance each other, so there is no need for major changes. The only change is to separate its various subordinate departments, such as the review of weapons manufacturing, from the Ministry of War.

This made the Ministry of War a purely military and civil service department.

The Ministry of Revenue was truly valued, and it and the Ministry of Personnel were respectively referred to as the two highest-ranking officials.

Li Xianmu's dismantling of the Ministry of Revenue was also the most thorough.

In the past, the Minister of Revenue was regarded as the chief steward of the court's finances, but Li Xianmu is now going to say no to this traditional system.

The Ministry of Revenue will only be responsible for the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the matching of the household registration system and the land system, and will have control over the land and population. However, the specific taxation will not be their responsibility. Instead, the Ming Dynasty Taxation Bureau will be established separately to be in charge of various taxes.

In this way, the Ministry of Revenue would try its best to record the household registration and population situation in various places accurately, since the heavy burden of tax collection would not fall on their shoulders.

The Imperial Tax Office of the Ming Dynasty was responsible for collecting taxes as accurately as possible based on the household registration information submitted by the Ministry of Revenue.

If there is anything amiss, they will request verification of the accuracy of the information provided by the Ministry of Revenue, thus creating a competitive situation between the two parties to prevent one from falsifying information.

Subsequently, all responsibilities related to currency production and control were separated from the Ministry of Revenue, and the previously established official money shops of the Ming Dynasty were combined to form the Ming Central Money Shop, which was the central bank of the Ming Dynasty and was responsible for formulating fiscal policies.

Then comes the series of oversight and auditing of the departments that use the money, which involves verifying all expenditures.

At this point, almost every one of the six departments had been divided into three.

Upon closer examination, there are as many as nineteen second-rank departments in the imperial court that are not related to the royal family.

They are the Ministry of Personnel.

Ministry of War.

Ministry of Rites and Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Industry.

The Ministry of Justice, the Department of Criminal Investigation, and the Court of Judicial Review.

Ministry of Revenue, Ming Dynasty Central Bank, Ming Dynasty Tax Administration.

Budget Review and Audit Division.

The Southern Censorate, the Northern Censorate, and the Anti-Corruption Chief Command.

Lifanyuan.

Maritime Transport Office.

The Zongli Yamen (Foreign Ministry) was a government-business alliance.

Department of General Affairs.

When these nineteen second-rank government offices were unveiled, the entire court immediately understood the core idea behind Li Xianmu's reforms.

Every department must have oversight!
In all matters, each thing must be handled properly!

The various departments of the imperial court were not allowed to make decisions solely by the Minister.

Everything depends on the decision made by the higher authorities.

At the same time, the responsibilities of each department are clearly defined, and all actions taken are traceable, which will greatly reduce shirking of responsibility.

After this reform, the entire central government has become vastly different from its previous mindset, resembling a series of linear departments.

At the top is the emperor, followed by the cabinet, and all the departments are connected to the cabinet. Then these departments are connected to the nineteen provinces.

The regulations are clear and easy to understand!
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

What kind of words should be used to describe this institutional reform that took place in the tenth year of the Xuande reign?
I want to say four words—unprecedented.

Since Qin Shi Huang established the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers system, no administrative reform has ever been as significant as this one.

This reform was imbued with the spirit of modern governance: the establishment of a civilized government that had shed barbarity.

Where there is administration, there must be supervision; where there is no monopoly, there must be performance evaluation.

Some say the initial intention of all this was for the cabinet to seize power, but in reality, even contemporaries had to admit that this reform brought about a "complete transformation" of the government.

Such a radical reform, if considered solely from the perspective of power struggles, would be a gross underestimation of the legendary figure Li Xianmu.

Judging from his legendary life, he never harmed the country because of political struggles. I believe that his original intention was to promote the construction of the Ming Dynasty's civilized system.

The reign title "Xuande" was used for a total of ten years. The first nine years belonged to Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Zhu Zhanji, but the tenth year did not belong to Emperor Zhengtong, Zhu Qizhen, but to Li Xianmu!
This is the starting point for him to surpass all predecessors! —From "These Things About the Ming Dynasty"

(End of this chapter)