In the early days of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, due to many limitations, the various systems of the Tang Dynasty were extremely imperfect, and many of the systems had a strong flavor of mountain valley child's play.
Later, Li Xuan gradually reformed various systems of the Tang Dynasty, such as establishing a cabinet and establishing nine ministries that far exceeded the traditional dynasty. Now the number of cabinet ministries has increased to thirteen.
Then in the name of retro, the Privy Council system with centralized military power was actually established, and then the Naval Command was established, and the Military Department was split into the Army Department and the Navy Department!
At present, the structure of the center of the Tang Dynasty is complex yet simple. The central agencies directly under the emperor's jurisdiction include: Thirteen Cabinet Departments, the Inspectorate, the Imperial Academy, the Privy Council, and the Naval Command.
The thirteen cabinet ministries are as follows:
Patrol Department: Responsible for law enforcement, maintaining local security, and suppressing explosions. Because this department has a large number of local patrol police, its number is also the largest administrative department in the Tang Dynasty.
Legal Department: Responsible for law formulation, prison management, legal aid, trials and other tasks.
In addition, there is a Supervisory Office that does not belong to the cabinet but is under the direct jurisdiction of the emperor and has established directly affiliated agencies in various places. It is responsible for supervising officials for corruption and bending the law and prosecuting various criminal cases. Together, they constitute the Tang Dynasty.
Judiciary.
The Ministry of Personnel: It still maintains the traditional role and is in charge of the evaluation, promotion and appointment of officials.
Ministry of Etiquette: Responsible for education and etiquette matters.
Department of Household Affairs: Mainly responsible for civil affairs.
Ministry of Industry: Responsible for the construction of major projects, the management of state-owned factories, and the construction of transportation and water conservancy.
Ministry of Agriculture: Responsible for agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishery and other affairs.
Taxation Department: This is one of the most important departments in the Tang Dynasty. It is responsible for tax collection and is the money bag of the Tang Dynasty. The tax inspection team under the Grain Collection Department is the fourth largest armed force of the Tang Dynasty.
With a total of more than 5,000 employees in various places, its combat effectiveness is second only to the Tang Dynasty Army, Datang Navy, and Royal Guards. It is a well-known existence in the south.
Ministry of Commerce: It specializes in industrial and commercial affairs, guiding the orderly and healthy development of private industry and commerce. It is also responsible for official trade with external forces, such as purchasing guns from foreigners, purchasing various strategic materials, and exporting various types of materials to maritime merchants.
Datang's products are a major responsibility of the Ministry of Commerce.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: This department was established at the beginning of the third year of Xuanping. It is mainly responsible for foreign affairs, including diplomatic exchanges with vassal states and foreigners.
Then, there are the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Navy, which have military overtones. The powers of these two departments are generally similar. They are mainly focused on recruiting soldiers, arranging the lives of retired soldiers, and maintaining the influence of the Tang Dynasty's military in the local area.
The above-mentioned thirteen ministries together constituted the cabinet of the Tang Dynasty!
However, it is worth noting that the Tang Dynasty did not actually have an official cabinet. There was only an imperial study room, and some important ministers were on duty in the imperial study room. However, in the eyes of many people, this imperial study room was actually a cabinet, because Thirteen
Most of the excerpts from the ministry would first be passed to the imperial study room for review by the ministers on duty before being submitted to the Hanlin Academy.
However, the minister on duty in the imperial study room has only an empty name, no rank and no salary. He comes and goes based on Li Xuan's words. In fact, it is Liu Bagou who is in charge of the work of the imperial study room, and Liu Bagou's official is Zhong
He is a bachelor of Jidian University and concurrently serves as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
However, it is worth noting that not only academicians can enter the imperial study room, nor do they necessarily have the ability to enter the imperial study room. For example, Zeng Ziwen and Bao Yifen in the military are military generals and do not have the title of academician.
In addition, the new tax minister Qian Zuoli, who was recently transferred to the Imperial Study Room by Li Xuan, does not have the title of bachelor!
Wang Wenhua is a bachelor, but he was kicked out of the Imperial Study Room by Li Xuan!
Currently, there are only three grand masters in the Tang Dynasty, namely Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu, and Wang Wenhua. In the short term, Li Xuan has no plans to add a grand master. Li Xuan plans to weaken the title of grand master.
The minister on duty in the Royal Study Room he appointed was actually the Tang Dynasty's version of the Military Aircraft Department, and it was also a Military Aircraft Department with weakened power.
Whoever he likes to be sent to the imperial study room, he will be sent to!
In addition, in addition to the five ministers on duty, the imperial study room also has eight ministers on duty, a total of fourteen people. There were not so many cabinet members in the Ming Dynasty, and there were not so many people in the Military Aircraft Department of the Ming Dynasty.
of.
The administrative system of the Tang Dynasty may seem complicated to outsiders, but if you look at the essence through the phenomenon, you will find that it was actually Li Xuan's efforts to centralize imperial power.
The emperor was able to directly govern the Thirteen Ministries and other institutions, but he also established an imperial study room for checks and balances, as well as a Hanlin Academy.
At the same time, another very, very critical point is that the Tang Dynasty did not have a system such as Ke Dao Yan Guan, and no institution or individual had the power to refute the imperial edict.
If Li Xuan decided to issue a certain order, the normal procedure would be to draft it through the Hanlin Academy, seal it with Li Xuan, seal it with the minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room, and then submit it to the Thirteenth Ministry for detailed execution, or submit it to the local government again.
However, if there is an error in any part of this process, Li Xuan can directly bypass it and give the order directly.
For example, if the imperial study room disagrees, Li Xuan will directly ask the Hanlin Academy to issue an order to the Thirteen Ministries!
If the Thirteenth Ministry does not agree, the imperial study can directly issue orders to various localities and departments under the Thirteenth Ministry.
If there is a problem with the Imperial Study Room and the Thirteen Ministries, Li Xuan can directly bypass them and directly control the military and political affairs of the country through the Hanlin Academy.
Even if the Hanlin Academy went against the emperor's will, Li Xuan could still instill his will by directly issuing an imperial edict to the local government.
In other words, even if the Hanlin Academy, the Royal Study Room, and the Thirteen Ministries rebelled collectively, Li Xuan could effectively control military and political affairs.
As for military power, Li Xuan was firmly in his hands. With the separation of military and political affairs, Li Xuan directly handed over any affairs related to the military to the Privy Council and the Naval Command. In addition, large-scale strategies,
It requires Li Xuan's personal edict to be launched. Even the Privy Council and the Naval Command do not have the authority to directly start a war.
For example, the last time the Portuguese attacked Haojing, only Li Xuan could order the war. Of course, it was impossible for Li Xuan to directly go to the ground to issue orders, and communications lagged behind, so Li Xuan would send special imperial envoys in advance.
Carrying imperial decrees and issuing orders.
Similarly, this time when the commercial laws of the Tang Dynasty were formulated, Li Xuan was still as arbitrary as before!
Whether and when this business law can be issued can only be decided by Li Xuan.
However, Li Xuan did not have time to deal with the preliminary work and the detailed formulation of commercial laws. It was drafted by the Ministry of Justice after consultation between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Commerce of the Cabinet and after consulting Li Xuanneng's opinions.
Although Li Xuan had a headache after seeing this thick book of business laws, he still read it carefully. He needed to know whether the business laws of the Tang Dynasty formulated by the Ministry of Justice were up to standard and whether he had obeyed him.
original proposal.
The laws of the Tang Dynasty were basically copied from the Ming Dynasty in the early days, but later they underwent extensive changes. Some of the laws that did not conform to the actual situation of the Tang Dynasty were deleted. Today's commercial laws of the Tang Dynasty also have the Ming Law.
There are some traces of business, but they are already very few.
The entire business law of the Tang Dynasty is divided into two parts. One is the regulation of merchants, which is called merchant law, while the other part is the regulation of business entities, that is, companies and other institutions, which is called company law.
The former Merchant Code has a total of eighteen articles, many of which are regulations in the usual sense. However, one thing worth noting is that, like the Ming Dynasty, the Merchant Code did not force merchants to become merchants and prohibit merchants from participating in the imperial examination.
that power.
Because as the general outline of the laws of the Tang Dynasty, the Law of the Tang Dynasty has already clearly stipulated in Article 8: People of the Tang Dynasty can engage in farming, studying, joining the army, doing business, serving as officials and other industries as they wish.
No one can stop it. In other words, this article actually abolished the system of different treatment based on place of origin instituted by Zhu Chongba.
But in this era, discrimination against low-class people still exists, but it is not explicitly stipulated, but it is the overall atmosphere of society. For example, actors and other low-class people, their social status has not been that high since ancient times.
The Tang Dynasty was no exception.
Well, except for later generations, when these actors finally became masters, each of the butchers could also become a pillar of society and speak nonsense.
If the contemporary courtesans on the Qinhuai River knew this, they would definitely regret being born more than four hundred years earlier!
The 21st century is their golden age!
Compared with the merchant's law, which has only eighteen articles, the company's law has many more, reaching more than three hundred.
This business law of the Tang Dynasty has provided a certain degree of guidance on how contemporary businessmen should do business, and has guided some of these contemporary handicraft workshops to gradually transition into the ranks of modern companies.
After Li Xuan briefly read it, he thought it was feasible, so he formally approved it and issued an edict to the whole world!
The promulgation of the Commercial Code of the Tang Dynasty almost instantly detonated public opinion in the three provinces, especially among the gentry class.
Don’t be surprised, why the business laws of the Tang Dynasty aroused discussion among the gentry class? It’s very simple, because businessmen these days are actually inseparable from the landlords, and the landlords are a large group of scholars, and the scholars are students, and they are officials.
The main force was the gentry.
In other words, in fact, landlords, businessmen, and scholars are not separated from each other.
In the city of Guangzhou, in the mansion of the Wang family, one of the medium-sized maritime merchants in Guangzhou city, the head of the Wang family and several high-level clan members are discussing with a group of shopkeepers the impact that the business laws of the Tang Dynasty may have on them!