Cause & Context
Early Ming, Taizu deeply guarded against meritorious officials, and deeply worried that the traditional chancellor system held too much power that would seriously threaten centralization of his descendants' imperial power. The power-game between the Central Secretariat and the Six Ministries reached white heat.
Epochal Overview
Zhu Yuanzhang took the case of Chancellor Hu Weiyong's attempted treason and decisively ordered the chancellor system thoroughly abolished. He abolished the Central Secretariat, brought the Six Ministries directly under the emperor alone, and tightly set up the special-agent Embroidered-Uniform Guard.
Key Figures
Ming Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was a timeless centralizing emperor of extremely autocratic style, beyond-others energy, and iron-blooded means. Hu Weiyong, as the last chancellor, was reduced to a sacrifice of this historic wave of imperial power destroying chancellor power.
Civilizational Impact
Abolishing the chancellor wholly broke the important balance of chancellor power against imperial power in classical bureaucratic politics, bringing absolute imperial autocracy to the apex. It put a yoke on the Ming-Qing two-dynasty political systems.
The historic event of Chancellor Abolished represents a foundational peak in the civilizational trajectory of ancient China. Establishing absolute imperial autocracy by centralizing administrative control. By establishing this standard of statecraft and moral benchmark, it continues to echo through the cultural fabric of East Asia.