Chapter 428 The cabinet ministers have opened their ten thousand words today)
After arousing Emperor Zhu Ciyu's determination for reform, subsequent matters became easier to handle.
After all, the Ming Dynasty is now so powerful, and the progress of national power is obvious to all the people in the world. The conservative forces have also been completely wiped out by Zhu Shuren's two waves of tax reform and government official reform in the past fifteen years, so the laws of the ancestors are not so important.
Of course, the direct cause of this reform was, after all, the invention and application demonstration of the Newcomen steam engine, so any change must start from this starting point.
Zhu Shuren wanted to reform the entire official system and laws of the Ming Dynasty. He could not start by talking about rebuilding the Ming Dynasty laws. Instead, he wanted to emphasize that the Ming Dynasty laws had always been incomplete and their coverage was too narrow, so that subsequent extra laws and regulations were so complicated that they could only be added but not modified.
Zhu Shuren told the emperor and his cabinet ministers: "At the beginning of the formulation of the Ming Code, a huge drawback was that it only focused on the official system and criminal names, while other things were mixed in and promulgated. The implementation and implementation of the Ming Code,
It is also dominated by the Ministry of Punishment.
Even if the common people violated the "Household Code", the Ministry of Household Affairs can only ask for correction, but the punishment still depends entirely on the Ministry of Punishment system. Even fines, confiscation of class fees, and compensation for losses all rely on the Ministry of Punishment. This is too much.
Cumbersome.
Nowadays, all industries are prosperous in our Ming Dynasty. We have also separated workers and peasants, and abolished the small tax for farmers and the land tax for workers. This is a great good governance that has not been seen in three hundred years. Since industry and commerce are so prosperous, the punishment of private money disputes still relies entirely on the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishment.
, is really inappropriate.
Therefore, in the future laws, we must first separate "criminal/civilian". What is punished by the public instruments of the state is only crime and punishment. There should be new laws for civil infringement compensation and industrial and commercial economic disputes."
It is normal for Zhu Shuren to think of this, because in the construction of the rule of law in a modern country, one of the most important watersheds is the complete separation of criminal law and civil law. For some matters, the government does not need to exercise the power of punishment. The government only needs to provide arbitration to fair private entities.
Already.
To separate the law from its roots, we must first formulate a brand new "Ming Dynasty Civil Code". Later, we can use this as an opportunity to abolish all the household laws and other provisions on civil financial disputes in the old "Da Ming Code".
Lose.
In the future, another "Criminal Code of the Ming Dynasty" will be formulated, and other laws will be slowly added to form a new unified code. In this process, the old "Criminal Code of the Ming Dynasty" can be gradually abolished, and the "Chenghua Code" and "Jiajing Code" will be
These hundreds of regulations that have been added over the years no longer need to appear in the form of patches. Those that should be incorporated into the new laws of the Ming Dynasty will be directly absorbed, and those that are outdated and should be abolished will be directly abolished.
In this way, it turns out that Zhu Shuren did not want to abolish Taizu's law, but that Taizu's law was really confusing. The rights and responsibilities of each category were not clear enough and the division was not detailed. Now it is necessary to refine each part independently.
Eventually, the old law was unable to be implemented and was naturally abolished.
…
After Zhu Shuren put forward this succinct ideological outline and road map, Zhu Ciyu, Zhang Huangyan, and Fang Yizhi instantly brightened their eyes. They had to admit that this idea was very good and very stable.
Now that things have been done, no one will think that this is "replacing Zhu with Shen". The ancestral methods of Lao Zhu's family have been thoroughly discovered, and at the same time, they have advanced with the times.
Zhu Ciyu couldn't help but eagerly asked: "Since we need to separate criminal and civil laws, I don't know how to formulate this new civil law and where to start? How many years will it take to carry out subsequent reforms?"
Zhu Shuren had been in seclusion for more than half a month in advance, so he had already thought about the problem thoroughly. When his son asked him for advice, he didn't even need to think, he just blurted out:
"The new civil code will naturally focus on people and business, mainly punishing people, financial infringements, disputes, and contracts between business and industry. To put it bluntly, it is to manage money first, regardless of crime and punishment.
As for this entry point, isn’t it there now? We can learn from the British “Monopoly Law” and first formulate a “Civil Code of Science and Education Monopoly” of the Ming Dynasty as a chapter of the future complete “Civil Code”, and then
Then gradually add the civil code violations, contracts, and business parts. After three or five chapters, the general "Civil Code" is ready to be published.
Today, our Ming Dynasty still lacks the legislative talent and experience to combine Chinese and Western elements and keep pace with the times, so we can leave more time for the first "Monopoly Law" and finish it within three to five years. There is no rush.
Let the researchers from Nanjing University study the methods available to the Western barbarians, as well as the essence of the ancient Roman bronze watch method regarding private industry and commerce. Learn from it while learning, and learn from Western learning for application, so as to ensure safety. After all, we are Chinese
Since ancient times, the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce has been too serious, and there is indeed a lack of experience in this area. European countries have placed emphasis on commerce. We have something to learn from in terms of civil and commercial laws, and the future criminal law can be based on our Chinese tradition."
Zhu Shuren also knew very well that today's Ming Dynasty is very powerful and has no obvious internal or external troubles, so it is impossible to generally learn from Western France like the late Qing Dynasty did in parallel time and space, and there is no need. Western France in the 1670s was indeed still very backward.
However, there is one thing to say. In the field of civil and commercial law, the West now has a corporate system and a banking system because of its emphasis on business. There is indeed something worth learning from Ming Dynasty. In this regard, Ming Dynasty was too absent from class and had no historical accumulation of its own.
Therefore, Zhu Shuren set the guiding ideology of seeking truth from facts and “only learn from Western commercial law, and basically do not learn from Western administrative law and criminal law”.
In addition, as a digression, in 1677, although England did not have a "Patent Law" in the modern sense (it would have been thirty years later when Newcomen invented the steam engine), today's Britain already has one
The Monopoly Act was promulgated in 1624.
That’s why Zhu Shuren’s words just now suggested that the responsible legislative departments should learn from this “Monopoly Law” in the future.
This thing has been around for fifty years, and it is in the form of written regulations. Zhu Shuren even borrowed an original set of readings from Newton, and compared them with later codes in his memory.
Compared with the later British "Patent Law", the most important differences between the "Monopoly Law" and the later British "Patent Law" are that the validity period of technology protection in today's "Monopoly Law" does not seem to be 20 years, but can be longer.
And it is similar to laws such as the "Copyright Law" in later generations, which can protect the inventor for life. As long as the inventor is alive, he can always monopolize the technology. In other words, if a person invents a certain technology, he will be able to monopolize the technology.
If he is young and has a long life span, much more than 20 years, then he will make a profit. They will eat alone for many more years, at least until he dies.
(Note: However, in British history, from the late 17th century to the early 18th century, because of this system, there were many craftsmen who invented awesome technologies. Because of their crimes, they often survived after protecting them for 20 years.
In the end, he died inexplicably. The British probably took this factor into consideration later, and when the Patent Law was promulgated, all inventors were protected for twenty years no matter how long they lived.
In contrast, the Copyright Law protects the author for life plus 50 years after death, so there is not so much moral risk. After all, copyright was aimed at literary and artistic works in the early days, and there was not such a big economic benefit. No one would do it for
I wanted to invite people all over the world to read Jin Yong’s martial arts novels for free a few years ago, but I thought Jin Yong’s life was too long and killed him.)
In addition to the term of protection, there is another major difference between the 1624 "Monopoly Law" and the later "Patent Law", which is that the requirements for the degree of technical disclosure in patent applications are quite different.
The "Patent Law" of later generations required "full disclosure", which is to ensure that others can copy and reverse your invention after the protection expires. However, the requirements of the "Monopoly Law" in 1624 were not that high, as long as you can create a sample and demonstrate it in public.
To achieve design indicators and functions, the specific technical details and principles do not need to be fully disclosed.
Now that Ming Dynasty is drawing on the "Monopoly Law", there are similar considerations. Ming Dynasty has so many scientific and technological innovations in the field of biochemical and environmental material formulas. If the formulas are disclosed for the sake of patent protection, then Ming Dynasty will lose money. Originally, Ming Dynasty could keep it secret for at least forty or fifty years.
Years or more, just as long as the recipe for Coca-Cola has been kept secret.
Therefore, the early "Monopoly Law" legislation of the Ming Dynasty should also focus on physical experiments and review, and pay less attention to the explanation of principles. If you can demonstrate in public that you can achieve this effect, you can authorize it. As for how to do it, you can keep a little secret.
(Note: This will also have disadvantages, that is, if later people invent a way to achieve the same function using other principles, but at a lower cost. However, because the external functions of the two are similar, and the former does not need to disclose the internal technical principles,
This later cost-reducing and improved inventor may not be authorized.
In other words, such a law is very motivating to encourage human beings to invent products with completely new functions from scratch, but it is very unfavorable to encourage human beings to invent 'low-cost improvements to existing products'. But now the Ming Dynasty
It’s not yet an era when striving for industrialization and reducing costs is the main conflict, and there aren’t many “cost-reducing and efficiency-increasing inventions,” so we can choose the lesser of two evils.)
As for the future transformation of the "Monopoly Law" into the "Patent Law" in keeping with the times, that will be at least a few decades away. Let Ming first maximize the benefits from the dividends brought by Zhu Shuren's cheating.
…
A timetable was set to spend three to five years slowly learning and establishing the "Monopoly Law", and then another three to five years to initially complete the "Ming Dynasty Civil Code".
Finally, it will take a few more years to complete the "Ming Dynasty Criminal Law" and the "Ming Dynasty Administrative Law" and completely abolish the old "Ming Dynasty Law". Then it is estimated that the entire time cycle will take 20 years.
What will happen in 20 years? Zhu Shuren is now 53. If he can live another 20 years, he will be 73 - even Confucius lived to 73 and died. This is already the life span of a saint.
Therefore, Zhu Shuren knew very well that the comprehensive revision he had set for the "Ming Dynasty's Third Seven-Year Plan", which kept pace with the times, would definitely not be completed within seven years and would have to be delayed. So there was no need to think about the follow-up."
"Fourth Seven-Year Plan", just follow the inertia and try to find ways to stabilize the overall direction, and you will be very good in this life.
However, since the laws were to be comprehensively revised, the Ming Dynasty's official system and branch reform also seemed urgent.
Just as the Ming Dynasty Law separated the civil law from the criminal law, wouldn't it be strange to have a "Ministry of Punishment" in charge of civil and commercial affairs in the future?
The six-ministry system inherited by the Ming Dynasty from the Sui and Tang Dynasties has been stumbling for 1,100 years. If we count the time when the Eastern Han Dynasty divided the ministerial office into six bureaus, it would be 1,600 years ago. This way of decentralizing power is drawn.
, it’s really decaying and awkward.
There are many political branches, power and responsibilities are unclear, and everything needs to be resolved urgently.
Therefore, Zhu Shuren suggested that while preparing for the revision of the new law starting this year, the six departments of the Ming Dynasty Center must be re-divided and split.
On this issue, Zhang Huangyan and Fang Yizhi also agreed to change, because the Ministry of Industry currently in charge of Fang Yizhi is also in chaos. It is obviously only the Ministry of Industry, but the Academy of Sciences must be under his control.
This does not count, because it has been seven or eight years since the establishment of Nanjing University, and Nanjing University mainly focuses on science and engineering. The education and appointment of students here are mostly under the control of the Ministry of Industry.
But it turns out that education work belongs to the Ministry of Rites, and many mathematical talents taught by the Ministry of Industry. If they take financial management positions or go to the tax department, they are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. It is so messy and intertwined with each other, and there is too much wrangling.
In short, the Ming Dynasty has accumulated too many new things over the years, all of which did not exist when it was divided into six parts. It can no longer be stuffed into them, and must be divided and sorted out.
The young emperor Zhu Ciyu also believed in this. Finally, in the spring and summer of the fifteenth year of Xiaokang, the Ming court focused on discussing these issues.
While preparing for the new law, members of the legislative team discussed splitting the corresponding departments according to the responsibilities of the future new law.
After five months of intensive discussions and repeated deliberation, the cabinet finally announced:
The original six divisions were split and renamed ten divisions.
The Ministry of Rites is divided into three departments: the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Domain.
The old Ministry of Rites was only responsible for royal affairs and all other ritual activities of the court.
The separated Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports was specifically responsible for all educational work, regardless of liberal arts and sciences, all were under the control of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Scientific research work was also under the control of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, which was equivalent to the "Science, Education, Culture and Health" of later generations.
The vassal ministry was equivalent to the later generation's specialized department in charge of diplomatic work, and the "vassal tribute" task of the old rites ministry was removed.
The Ministry of War is still the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Personnel is still the Ministry of Personnel. These two remain unchanged.
The Ministry of Criminal Justice was renamed the Ministry of Law. From now on, it will not only manage criminal justice, but also the justice of civil and commercial disputes. However, all trial work will no longer be aimed at punishing crimes with public power, and part of it will only arbitrate and coordinate private money disputes.
The Ministry of Household Affairs was split into the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. Needless to say, tax collection and household registration management and population management were finally separated. The one who manages people is in charge of people, and the one who manages money is in charge of money.
The Ministry of Industry was split into the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Commerce. The original vehicle and ship construction and transportation authority of the Ministry of Industry was split and handed over to a department similar to the later Ministry of Commerce. The Ministry of Industry itself could add another one for domestic industrial construction planning.
The powers of management are similar to those of the later Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Administration for Industry and Commerce.
At the same time, this department similar to the Ministry of Commerce that was separated has the authority to specifically manage the import and export of foreign trade and develop the maritime and colonial undertakings. It can be regarded as directly raising the Ming Dynasty's world-opening work to the level of an independent ministry, which can have its own
The pursuit of political achievements. Zhu Shuren believes that this dismantling can definitely greatly enhance the intensity of overseas development work.
These ten ministries, plus the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is independent of the ten-ministerial system, have a total of eleven ministerial-level units. According to the old law, the ministers of each ministry are brought into the cabinet to discuss government affairs, which seems too bloated.
Efficiency will also be low.
Moreover, considering that in modern times, the span of work specialties becomes wider, and officials are mobilized across departments and systems, it is easy for the problem of "laymen to manage experts" to arise.
The officials of the future are not just rotten scholars who can only read the Four Books and Five Classics. They have to understand more and more professional knowledge. In many cases, the working ability in one position cannot be easily transferred.
Therefore, Zhu Shuren pointed out that we must avoid the problem of "chickens talking to ducks" and "laymen commanding experts". We can no longer bring all eleven minister-level officials into the cabinet for discussions.
The final solution discussed was to set up "Associate Ministers of the Cabinet" on top of each ministry, similar to the previous "Associate Ministers of the Cabinet", except that now there can be three or four Associate Ministers of the Cabinet, and they are no longer equal.
There is no random overlapping of associate ministers, but a clear division of labor. Each associate minister is only in charge of certain ministries (similar to the deputy associate ministers in later generations, some are in charge of science, education, culture and health, and some are in charge of foreign affairs)
Among the four associate ministers of the cabinet, the first one is in charge of the three ministries of Rites, Literature and Fan;
The second official in charge is law;
The third person is in charge of military affairs and commerce (that is, foreign navigation, colonization and national defense are handed over to the same associate minister. This is considering that most of the colonization in this era is armed colonization, not peaceful business, and requires force protection)
The fourth is in charge of civil affairs, finance, industry, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
As a result, the chief minister of the cabinet was renamed "prime minister", and his deputies were four "cabinet associate ministers". These four cabinet associate ministers were each in charge of two to three ministerial-level units.
The eleven ministerial level beings will no longer directly enter the cabinet in the future.
However, under special circumstances, the prime minister or associate minister of the cabinet will be allowed to directly serve as the minister of a certain ministry at the same time. In this way, if a minister is also a cabinet minister, he can still join the cabinet to discuss affairs.
After the system is finalized, in order to allow the new system to transition smoothly without encountering resistance, the first batch of candidates must naturally be cautious.
In fact, Zhu Shuren himself has not been directly in power for many years. He did not care much about these titles at first. He wanted Zhang Huangyan to directly transfer from the chief minister of the cabinet to the prime minister of the cabinet.
However, Zhang Huangyan firmly declined, saying that after the reform, the power of cabinet ministers has actually been improved than before. In this critical period of reform, people who can control the situation need to stand up.
In the end, Zhu Shuren, who had retired for several years, had no choice but to reluctantly serve as the first prime minister of the Ming Dynasty. He stood up for this position and increased the confidence of the people in the world.
He doesn't care, but the people of the world force him to calm people's hearts, and there is nothing he can do.
After Zhu Shuren, the four associate ministers of the cabinet (ranked in order, the higher the rank, the higher the power) are:
Zhang Huangyan, the First Associate Minister of the Cabinet, is in charge of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Law;
Fang Yizhi, the second associate minister of the cabinet, is in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
Zheng Chenggong, the third associate minister of the cabinet, is in charge of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Commerce;
Gu Yanwu, the fourth associate minister of the cabinet, is in charge of the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Domain.
The above-mentioned adjustment of the power structure was finally completed within fifteen years of Xiaokang. All ministries and offices and teams also completed the split and reorganization. New personnel were added when needed, and professional talents were introduced when needed. Everything went very smoothly.