Grand Secretariat - Evolution

Evolution

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the administration adopted the Yuan model of having only one department, the Secretariat, superimposed on the Six Ministries. The Secretariat was led by two Chancellors, differentiated as being "of the left" (senior) and "of the right" (junior), who were the head of the whole officialdom in the empire. Emperor Hongwu was concerned that such a concentration of power in the office of Chancellors would become a serious threat to the throne. In 1380, Chancellor Hu Weiyong was executed upon accusations of treason. After that Hongwu eradicated the Secretariat and the posts of Chancellor; Ministers of the Six Ministries directly reported to the emperor himself.

The burden of the administrative details made it imperative for the emperor to seek secretarial assistance. In 1382, Hongwu drew from the Hanlin Academy, an institution that provided literary and scholarly services to the court, several Grand Secretaries to process his administrative paperwork. These Grand Secretaries were assigned for duty to designated buildings within the imperial palace, and they were collectively known as the Grand Secretariat since the reign of Yongle.

The Grand Secretariat gradually had more effective power since Emperor Xuande. During his reign, all memorials from the Ministries to the emperor had to go through the Grand Secretariat. Upon receiving a memorial, the Grand Secretaries first scrutinized it and then decided upon a proper response. The rescript was then pasted to the face of the memorial and submitted with it to the emperor. Through this process known as piaoyi, the Grand Secretariat became de facto the highest policy-formulation institution above the Six Ministries, and the senior Grand Secretaries had power comparable to the Chancellor of old.