Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

It is obvious that the criminal law has its own innovations that are not in line with the ancient system, such as the imperial caning, the East and West Factories, the Jinyiwei, and the Zhenfusi Prison.

——History of Ming Dynasty

The general meaning of this sentence is that the imperial caning, the East and West Factories, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the Pacification and Prison Administration were all creations of the Ming Dynasty.

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I have already mentioned the beating in court, so I will not repeat it here.

The East Factory, West Factory and Embroidered Uniform Guard are collectively known as the Factory Guard. There was actually also an Inner Factory here, which only existed for a very short time.

The Zhenfusi Prison refers to the prison of the Beizhenfusi, an agency under the Jinyiwei.

The East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were permanent institutions in the Ming Dynasty and rarely changed;

The Western Factory was only established twice, in the 13th year of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty's Chenghua reign and the first year of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty's Zhengde reign. Both times it only lasted for five years before being abolished. At that time, its power was greater than that of the Eastern Factory.

Neihangchang only appeared once, in the first year of the Zhengde reign, and was abolished four years later.

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Gua mainly talks about Jinyiwei and Dongchang.

The predecessor of Jinyiwei was Yiluansi, which was changed to Jinyiwei by Zhu Yuanzhang in the 15th year of Hongwu - in charge of guarding, arresting, and criminal justice.

The first is the guards - attendants who protect the emperor.

Whenever he attended court meetings or tours, he would prepare a procession of ceremonial guards and be accompanied by generals of the Han Dynasty (a total of 1,507 people) and other attendants.

The guards were divided into shifts to take turns on duty.

When watching the morning sun and evening moon, plowing the fields, and inspecting the livestock, she would wear a flying fish robe, carry an embroidered spring sword, and stand by his side.

In short, most of the duties of the Jinyiwei were personal bodyguards.

The second is arrest and prison - detecting, arresting and interrogating thieves.

In wartime, they collected intelligence and persuaded enemy generals to rebel. (During the Wanli War to pacify the Japanese and aid Korea, the intelligence work of the Jinyiwei contributed a lot to the Ming army.)

In normal times, they arrest thieves, interrogate them, and work with the three judicial departments to interrogate and review cases.

The three judicial departments refer to the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Dali Temple. Under normal circumstances, the Ministry of Justice or the Censorate will conduct the initial trial of the case, and the Dali Temple will review it.

In other words, the Jinyiwei was a military intelligence department and also an institution that could interfere with ordinary judicial affairs.

The above two duties are the responsibilities of the formal Jinyiwei.

The "Wei" in the name of Jinyiwei refers to the garrison, which clearly tells everyone that it is a military organization. It’s just that Jinyiwei does not directly participate in combat. It is also one of the weapons research and development departments. Many equipment of Shenjiying come from Jinyiwei.

Of course, in addition to the responsibilities that are presented on the surface, there are also hidden responsibilities - supervising officials and collecting intelligence.

No matter what movements of the military, civilians and officials in the capital, the emperor could learn about it through the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Therefore, the Jinyiwei also has another responsibility, which is to be the eyes and ears of the emperor and the director of discipline.

There are two historical dramas here:

Theater 1:

Lao Zhu: Song Lian (the first civil official of the Ming Dynasty), how many dishes did you cook at home yesterday?

Song Lian: Four...five.

Lao Zhu: How many meat and how many vegetables?

Song Lian: Two meat dishes and three vegetable dishes.

Lao Zhu: No, it’s clearly three meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.

In order to prove that he was not guessing, Lao Zhu would take out the portrait and check it on the spot.

Theater 2:

Lao Zhu: Song Ne (Chief Academician of the Imperial College), what did you do at home last night?

Song Ne: I didn’t do anything.

Lao Zhu: No! You had a fight with your wife, and you sat alone and sulked for a long time.

After saying that, he asked someone to bring a portrait, which showed Song Ne looking sulky.

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About the Northern Pacification Office, the Pacification Office Prison, and the Imperial Prison.

The Beizhenfusi, which was under the jurisdiction of the Jinyiwei, had the power to "govern the imperial prison."

Edict - the emperor's edict.

Imperial Prison - the prison of the Jinyiwei under the emperor.

Although the Northern Pacification Office was subordinate to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, there was a period of time when the Northern Pacification Office had great power. Cases could be reported directly to the higher authorities after being closed in the imperial prison, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was not allowed to interfere.

The kind of villains that often appear in film and television dramas, the Jinyiwei who look like the only one who is superior to others, is actually a specific reference, referring to the Beizhenfusi

The Northern Pacification Division had a lot of external tasks and often traveled all over the country.

People from the Northern Pacification Office who went out were all called "imperial envoys". Since the Northern Pacification Office was directly responsible to the Jinyiwei, and sometimes even bypassed the Jinyiwei's head to report directly to the emperor, local officials were respectful when they saw people from the Northern Pacification Office, and they did not care at all, calling them "Shangcha" or "Imperial Envoy".

To be more strict, the Jinyiwei agency responsible for criminal investigation is actually the "North and South Pacification Division".

Among them, the "Nanzhenfusi" is responsible for the laws and military discipline of the guard.

The "Northern Pacification Office" handled cases designated by the emperor and had its own prison (the imperial prison). It could arrest, torture, and execute people on its own without going through the judicial system.

The most famous Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty were the Thirteen Guards of the Northern Pacification Division.

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As for the East Factory, it was set up by Zhu Di.

The power of the East Factory is divided into "listening and recording" and "sitting and recording".

On the first day of every month, the people in the East Factory drew lots to decide who to monitor.

The person who monitored the joint trials of the three judicial departments and the interrogation of serious criminals by the Northern Pacification Department was called Tingji.

The person who monitors officials of all ranks is called Zuoji.

Strictly speaking, the responsibilities of the Eastern Depot were not as important as those of the Imperial Uniform Guard, nor as extensive.

The very simple function is to monitor officials and court departments.

But there is one thing in common with the Jinyiwei, which is the interference in judicial power.

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The Chang and the Wei are interdependent, so people refer to them as the Chang and the Wei together.

——History of Ming Dynasty

In most cases, the Dongchang and the Jinyiwei had a mutually restraining relationship, but they also went through periods of collusion and committing evil.

For example, Qiu Ju of the East Factory, Gu Dayong of the West Factory, and Shi Wenyi of the Embroidered Uniform Guard during the Zhengde period were all subordinates of the eunuch Liu Jin.

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In the early Ming Dynasty, both the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang were still within the control of the emperor.

But in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor no longer trusted the cabinet, so he expanded the power of the Censorate without limit, which led to the uncontrolled development of the power of the Censorate.

In fact, fundamentally, this was a contest between the emperor and the cabinet, and during the contest, the struggle got out of control.

These struggles mainly focus on the struggle for judicial power.

1. The right to interrogate.

The Censorate and the Guards had the power to interrogate the people they detained. The emperor would also order the Censorate and the Guards to conduct trials together with the Three Judicial Departments. As a result, part of the judicial power of the Three Judicial Departments was divided by the Censorate and the Guards.

2. Supervise judicial power.

The East Factory had the power to "listen and record". During the interrogation of the Three Law Departments, the Factory Guards monitored the behavior of the Three Law Departments and reported to the emperor.

During the grand trial, the eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department would sit in court together with the three judicial officials to review the case and report to the emperor.

The emperor could instruct the eunuchs and the imperial guards to intervene and control cases in a timely manner.

3. Power of adjudication.

According to Ming Dynasty law, the Censorate and Guards did not have the final say. But the problem was that after the Censorate and Guards had conducted a trial, the three judicial officials were often intimidated by their power and did not dare to modify their trial results.

The criminal judge saw the truth and did not dare to change a single word. ——"History of Ming Dynasty"

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During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister and personally led the six ministries, becoming the first person to restrain the power of officials.

The emperors who came after him were actually no less capable.

But Zhu Yuanzhang took the initiative to attack, while the subsequent emperors fought back more passively.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the feeling of the melons was in line with the old saying: either the east wind prevails over the west wind, or the west wind prevails over the east wind. As for the people who were blown by the wind, who cares!