Royal Guards, an ceremonial soldier with an umbrella fan, was formerly the Treasury Department set up by Zhu Yuanzhang at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which was equivalent to the emperor's personal bodyguard. In the second year of Hongwu, a pro-army general office was established, which was subordinate to the emperor's department of rites. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, he set up a pro-army governor's office and changed it to a royal guard. In this way, the Royal Guards not only inherited the duty of guarding the pro-army Duwei House, but also inherited the duty of being responsible for the emperor's ceremonial halogen book during the imperial ceremony or the emperor's inspection.
According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the highest position was the Governor's Office of the Five Armies at the central level, some of which were similar to military sub-divisions; Then there is the commander-in-chief (commander-in-chief) similar to the provincial military region; Then there are the guards equivalent to the local military divisions. There were 5,600 guards in the Ming Dynasty, divided into 5,000 households in front, back, left, middle and right. Each household has 1 120 people. It is divided into 100 households, each with 1 12 people, including 2 military flags, small flags 10 and foot soldiers 100.
In the Ming Dynasty, Royal Guards ranked first among the pro-army guards. Twenty-two pro-military guards, such as Jinwu Qianwei, Jinwu Weiwei, Yulin Zuo Wei, Yulin Youwei, Fujun Weiwei and Wei Jinyi, were established by Zhu Yuanzhang in Hongwu period, and Jinwu Zuo Wei (formerly the guards of Beiping Zuo Wei and Yan Wang Mi), Jinwu Youwei, Yanshan Zuo Wei and Jiyang Wei were added by Ming Chengzu in Yongle period. In addition, there are "four defenses against horses" such as Teng Youwei and Wu Youwei. These pro-military guards are not subordinate to the governor's office of the Fifth Army, but directly obey the emperor, and their status is generally higher than other guards. In the Ming Dynasty, the duty of guarding the imperial city and Miyagi was to use the pro-army 22 Guards, especially Wu Jin and Yu Lin. The Royal Guards are not in charge of the outer guards of the imperial city, but are in charge of staying behind in the palace, which is equivalent to the emperor's personal guards.
According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, there were only 5,000 households under Wei, and because of its special status, there were 14,000 households (up to 17 households at most), including 5,000 households in front of Jinyi, Jinyi in the back, Jinyi in the left and Jinyi in the right, and 1,000 households in front, back, left, middle, right, back, elephant tamer and flag bearer.
Royal Guards, like other guards, are nominally the highest officials, called commanders, and can be inherited. The descendants of many ministers in the Ming dynasty were awarded official positions, which was actually an empty title of doing nothing. Due to the particularity of the Royal Guards, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty often put military attaché s such as the viceroy, the viceroy and the commander in charge of the Royal Guards. In Ming History, we can see such names as "Lu Bing, the left commander of the Royal Guards", "Zhu Ning, the commander of the Royal Guards" and "Bin Yuan, the minister of the Royal Guards", all of whom were trusted by the emperor.
Under the command of Royal Guards, there are commanders Tongzhi (from the third grade), Commanders (from the fourth grade), Wei (from the fifth grade), Zhengqianhu (from the fifth grade), Deputy Qianhu (from the fifth grade), Baihu (from the sixth grade), Baihu (from the seventh grade) and General Flag (from the seventh grade). But the Royal Guards are different from other guards in that there are three special personnel under the general's banner: general, captain and lux.
The "general" of the Royal Guards is not a real general, but the honorary title of the bodyguard officer in charge of the emperor's personal bodyguard. It was originally called General Tianwu, and later renamed General Dahan. Full 1500 people, thousands of households, hundreds of households, general flags and other seven officials 1507 people, forming an army of its own, under the command of Marquis, Count or Xu. Whenever he meets the celebration of Chaohe, General Han will wear a phoenix-winged crown, a chain mail, a gold medal and an embroidered spring knife, and guard the left and right sides of the throne in the Fengtian Temple (renamed the Imperial Palace in Jiajing period, now the Hall of Supreme Harmony), as well as the doors, corners and Danyong outside the temple.
General Han's job is similar to that of a ceremonial soldier. This is a very hard job. He often stands still from three or four o'clock in the morning until noon. General Han, the bodyguard in the temple, is not allowed to scratch, yawn, cough or fart, and he is not allowed to smell. Ming Xizong once went to court for the first time and saw the big fellow standing beside him, his armor was tattered, his clothes and shoes were dirty, and he also scolded the relevant leader Wei. General Han, standing outside the temple in the open air, has to endure the wind, frost and rain. After the ceremony, he will scrub and maintain his shining armor, and then he can give it to the "shining armor library" in the south third corridor of Zuoquemen (southeast corner of Wumen) for safekeeping.
When the emperor was in power, General Dahan must also guard the Fengtian Gate (Imperial Gate, now the Taihe Gate). During the emperor's tour, thousands of officials in charge of the generals hung gold medals with the word "Li" written on them and held golden incense burners as a guide to etiquette. General Han was selected from civilian families, demanding that his trunk should be vigorous, he should be more than five feet three inches long, brave and strong, and he should not be sick. Each person receives two stone rations every month, and each person is given a red silk (satin) dress, a red gauze dress and a red silk dress every year. They are selected once every five years and can be promoted to the positions of general flag, hundred households and thousand households.
At first, captain was the proper name of marshal. Later, it was incorporated into the Royal Guards System, which belonged to the front, middle and right five places of the Royal Guards. Each place has ten departments: sedan chair department, cover department, hand fan department, festival department, construction department, sword department, axe department, halberd department, bow and arrow department and horse training department. The captains in charge of these tasks rotate every three days.
In addition to the emperor's halogen book, a security captain is also responsible for the ceremonial ceremony of the Crown Prince and the Prince. For example, on the Millennium Festival (the birthday of the Crown Prince), New Year's Day, the winter solstice and other festivals, a Royal Guards captain 4 19 will be used inside and outside the Wenhua Hall, holding an umbrella, a cover, a fan, a halberd, a man, a spirit and a sword. When the prince leaves Beijing for a fief, he should also be accompanied by 300 royal guards as attendants. After the fief, 300 captains should be selected from the guards of Wang Fu or the chief of the shepherd's house. After the king of the county sealed the marquis, he gave thirty governors, the princess went out of the house and gave three governors of the Royal Guards. The captain is usually a private person, and he is required to be strong and can't make mistakes. When the captain dies, his son or nephew will take his place. Mi Lu can be dismissed, and his family can also be relieved of his post as an officer. Therefore, in order to escape the corvee, many people who have no military status have entered the palace as a captain.
Lux originally referred to soldiers carrying flags, and later belonged to the Royal Guards system, ranking lower than generals and a captain. During the Wanli period, it was stipulated that thousands of households, hundreds of households and son of the general of the Royal Guards, who had been employed for more than 30 years, could be awarded the rank of general of the Royal Guards; if they had been employed for more than 20 years, their sons could be employed as a captain; if they had been employed for less than 20 years, their sons could only be Lux. And only one generation is allowed to attack, and hereditary is not allowed. The organization that manages Lux is six pro-officer posts of Royal Guards, namely, front, back, left, middle, right and middle.
The name "Jinyi" reflects the particularity of Wei Jinyi clothing. The Ming dynasty had strict restrictions on the clothing grades of the royal family and officials, and it was not allowed to exceed them. In the early Ming Dynasty, many founding dukes and marquises were sentenced to death for "exceeding the color of clothes" and "arrogating dragon and phoenix patterns". According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, officials of the Royal Guards Sanpin Hall can wear HongLing flying fish clothes and embroider spring knives. The so-called "flying fish" is actually a four-legged dragon with a fishtail, the "bullfight" is a right-angled four-legged dragon, and the "Kirin" is an animal with a cow's hoof and dragon's feet (it should be noted that both the Earl of the Ming Dynasty and the Xu family wore red uniforms and had Kirin supplements on their chests and backs, among which Kirin was a common animal image, which was different from the dragon-shaped "Kirin clothing"). A dragon with four claws and no other deformation is called a python. The robes embroidered with these four patterns are called python clothes, flying fish clothes, bullfighting clothes and unicorn clothes. They are not in the official clothing system of the product officer, but belong to dresses, which are of very high grade and can only be worn after the emperor gives them a reward or asks for approval.
Gifts are usually made of high-grade fabrics such as satin, glossy satin, silk, yarn and silk, with red as the background color (there are also colors such as cyan, blue, purple and agarwood), and complicated techniques such as gold wire weaving and makeup are adopted. The faucet and claws are on the chest, the dragon body bypasses the shoulders, and the dragon tail is left behind. Generally speaking, python clothing is the highest level of gift clothing, followed by flying fish clothing, bullfighting clothing and Kirin clothing. It is worth mentioning that not all members of the Royal Guards are wearing flight suits. Those who can wear flight suits are basically officers of the Royal Guards. As for generals, a captain and lux, they can't wear flight suits at all. In addition, flying fish patterns can be used in T-shirts, straight bodies, robes, stickers, trailers and other clothing; The flying fish pattern can be made into a chest patch or a "over-the-shoulder robe" over the shoulder; Flying fish can have wings or not ... Generally speaking, there are no fixed rules. In fact, even people in the Ming Dynasty could not easily distinguish these differences. Although the Ming emperor repeatedly banned flying fish and bullfighting clothes, the emperor himself often gave them at will, leading to more and more chaos.
The so-called "Embroidered Spring Knife" has not been handed down in kind, but many researchers have made textual research on it according to Paintings of Ming Dynasty. It is generally believed that the style of embroidered spring Dao is similar to that of ordinary waist Dao in Ming Dynasty, but the body of the sword is shorter than that of ordinary waist Dao, and the whole body has radian, which is convenient for pulling out and protecting the Dao. The biggest feature of embroidered spring knife is that there is a sheath skirt on the scabbard and rows of spikes are woven at the bottom of the skirt. In addition, the embroidered spring knife is not a patent of the Royal Guards, but can also be worn by guards, flag bearers and other pro-troops, and ministers of civil and military affairs will also receive embroidered spring knives when they ride with the emperor.
The biggest feature of embroidered spring knife is that there is a sheath skirt on the scabbard and rows of spikes are woven at the bottom of the skirt. Royal Guards, the emperor's intelligence agency, is the emperor's personal bodyguard, so it is responsible for protecting the emperor, thus undertaking secret investigations and spying on information. There are two town officials in the Royal Guards, the head of which is called "the town lawsuit order in the Royal Guards". South Paul is in charge of the law and discipline of the Royal Guards, as well as the military craftsmen who make weapons. Deputy envoy of North Town of Royal Guards is responsible for spying on officials of civil and military affairs secretly, and at the same time, he is also responsible for monitoring the vassal king and counter-spying. "Ming history? According to official records, the task of Beizhen's deputy envoy is to "steal and rape, wipe ditches in the street, and save time by secret arrest".
When Beizhen's deputy envoy arrested people, he did not need to go through the legal procedures of the three departments of the outer court (the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and Duchayuan), but directly arrested the notorious Royal Guards Prison (also known as Royal Guards Prison). Once the arrested person walks through the prison gate, nine out of ten people have no reason to live. The troops of Royal Guards who perform reconnaissance and arrest tasks are called Tiqi, and they are served by a captain, Lux and other junior noncommissioned officers. During the Hongwu Dynasty, their number was only 500, but in the Zhengde period, the number increased to more than 60,000. During the Jiajing period, there were 150,000 or 60,000 overseas informants.
In the Ming Dynasty, Dongchang had a close relationship with Wei Jinyi, and they were collectively called "factory guards". Jiang Bin, who was favored by Ming Wuzong, once led both the factory and the health department. In addition, the punishment for thousands of households and the punishment for hundreds of households in Dongchang were selected from the Royal Guards. Under them, there are more than 40 people in charge of classes, foremen and secretaries, all of whom are elites selected from the Royal Guards. This can easily lead to a misunderstanding for beginners now. It seems that Royal Guards and Dongchang are a eunuch institution. Actually, members of the Royal Guards working in the East Factory don't need * * *. Their official positions are still thousands or hundreds of Royal Guards, and their household registration is also subordinate to Royal Guards. However, their working relationship belongs to the East Factory, where they work and are under the jurisdiction of the eunuchs. Such as modern secondment. After the dispatch post is terminated or terminated, he will still return to his original post in the Royal Guards and be promoted in the Royal Guards system in the future.
During the period of the Republic of China, especially in the second half of the 1940s, in order to allude to the white terror rule in Kuomintang-controlled areas, the role and power of Wei Jinyi's "secret service" were greatly exaggerated by progressive intellectuals, whose masterpiece was Yi Ding's book "Secret Service Politics in the Ming Dynasty". In fact, the Ming Dynasty really relied on state bureaucrats, not factory guards. Six cabinets. It's not like the East Factory talked to the Royal Guards about the temple. Even if the factory guard is red and purple in front of the emperor, he can't get on the table. He can only be the emperor's lackey, and he must rely on the emperor's flattery.
On the other hand, the most important duty of Royal Guards is arrest and imprisonment, and intelligence gathering is only an extension. Its intelligence investigation means did not pose a threat to the important ministers of North Korea at all. Since Xia Yan was written in Jiajing period, none of the records destroyed by the Ming Dynasty were destroyed by the Royal Guards, mainly relying on the efforts of officials (the imperial court, Dali Temple and Justice Department). However, in Zhang Ting, another notorious system in the Ming Dynasty, the captain of the Royal Guards was responsible for beating ministers with sticks, and the eunuch responsible for punishment was Li Si Jane. Many ministers who made suggestions and offended Tian Yan died tragically under the club of the Royal Guards when they were beaten with a scepter.
During the Nonchen Rebellion in Japan, Royal Guards sent a spy named "Don't Collect at Night" to spy on Japanese military intelligence. This point is also exaggerated and legendary in today's literature or film and television works. In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, there were basically famous spies in border guards all over the country who didn't accept at night. In the middle and early Ming dynasty, it was mainly to spy on Mongolian movements, and in the later period, it strengthened the sentry work of Jurchen in Liaodong. "No gathering at night" is usually composed of local people who can speak the local language and are familiar with the surrounding environment. Generally speaking, compared with the Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the same period, the level of external espionage of Royal Guards is very low.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the intelligence reconnaissance ability of Royal Guards had been weak to almost none. According to Ming history? According to the Records of Criminal Law and A Brief Introduction to the North of Ming Dynasty, on the eve of Li Zicheng's visit to Beijing in March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Royal Guards "sneaked into the capital, and servants, servants, vendors and pawns were all thieves, but nothing happened". Even on March 19, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, and people took refuge. The Royal Guards are still trying their best to suppress the "rumors" about the fall of Beijing and send the "rumor mongers" to Jin Wu's office. Even the toilets in Beijing were invaded at this time.
As the Royal Guards are the first of the 22 pro-armies, the heroes of the Ming Dynasty and the children of consorts gave Royal Guards many hereditary Royal Guards, such as commanders, comrades-in-arms, anecdotes, thousands of families and hundreds of families, to show their favor. For example, among the descendants of Xu Da, the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, except the eldest son, hereditary Wei Gong and Ding Gong, all the others were positions granted by scholars to Royal Guards. In the Ming Dynasty, there were "Four Gardens in Jinyi" and "Six Gardens in Jinyi" in the south of Nanjing, which were private gardens for many children.
However, it should be noted that the position of the Royal Guards is different from the nominal position (in charge), and the birthright granted by the Royal Guards to ministers and nobles is mostly a nominal position, not an actual position. Some of them are called "scattered riders", they are regarded as eight officials, and they receive a monthly salary of 16 of a stone meter. As for the children who hold real positions in the Royal Guards, they should be selected regularly by the Ministry of War. If they are useful, they will still keep their original positions. Otherwise, they will be transferred from their actual posts to paid posts.
If carefully distinguished, the Royal Guards can also be divided into three categories: "Royal relatives and relatives pay the original salary" and "official running regardless of military and political affairs". For example, Emperor Xuanzong's love for Wu, a tributary beauty, made her a virtuous princess. Wu's younger brother, Wu An, was appointed commander of the Royal Guards. Wu Xianfei had a son, Emperor Jingtai, and Wu An was made an earl by the emperor's nephew. However, after the restoration of Ming Yingzong, Wu 'an once again became the head of the Royal Guards.
In addition to consorts, some favored eunuchs in the early Ming Dynasty also had fathers, brothers, sons and nephews who were awarded the position of Royal Guards, but they could not inherit it. However, during the period of Ming Yingzong, this tradition was also broken by the great eunuch Wang Zhen. His nephew, Wang Lin, was appointed as the commander of the Royal Guards, and the nephew or younger brother of eunuch Gao Rang, Gao Rang, Gao Rang and others was also appointed as the hereditary deputy thousand households of the Royal Guards.
By the way, during the reign of Zheng De, this malpractice reached its peak. Some eunuchs' sons and nephews were even made earl, but they still served as servants at home. For example, Mashan, the nephew of eunuch Ma Yongcheng, named Pingliangbo, is higher than Yipin official, but he wears python clothes and jade belts to water flowers and feed horses at Ma Yongcheng's home. The eunuch's prestige reached this level, and the political coma in the Ming Dynasty was evident.
The Ming Dynasty inherited the system of the Yuan Dynasty and implemented a hereditary household registration system, including private households, military households, artisans, kitchen households (edible salt), medical households, yin and yang households, musicians, as well as ling households who look after tombs, firewood households, tea farmers who grow tea, business stores and so on. Except for the descendants of the royal family, dignitaries, officials, gentry and students, everyone has been assigned a specific household registration and must serve a specific officer. Military households belong to the army and the Ministry of War, and they have to undertake military service from generation to generation. During the Yongle period, there were more than two million military households, accounting for one-fifth of the national population.
In the Ming dynasty, the status of military households was very low. In addition to military service, they must cultivate crops, raise horses, collect grass, build dams and transport grain. In addition, they are often forced to be private servants for officers such as company commanders, commanders, thousands of households and hundreds of households, and cultivate private fields, open kilns to burn bricks and tiles, collect firewood and charcoal, build government houses, and even do private jobs such as peeling paint, picking hazelnuts, smuggling salt, embroidery and carving. Although military households are not untouchables, they are often harder than untouchables.
Members of the Royal Guards also belong to the army, but there are two situations. First, from the commander of Zhengsanpin to the official of Jiupin in Zhengqipin Town, most of them are hereditary, and it is a blessing to be enthroned; On the other hand, because of their fixed status and relatively low economic status, many children belonging to the Royal Guards rose to the upper class through official positions and marriage. Fang Congzhe, who served as the cabinet record at the end of Wanli, belonged to the Royal Guards, and his distant ancestor was the commander of the Royal Guards in Yongle.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the development of social economy, the imperial system almost completely collapsed, and Wei Jinyi was not spared. Like the three major battalions in the capital, there are serious drawbacks such as "occupying the service" and "buying leisure". There are also some lawless people who take a fancy to the special status of the deputy envoy of the North Town of the Royal Guards, and take out twenty or thirty taels of silver to buy "Tang Tie" from the officials of the Royal Guards to prove that this person is a captain of a certain institute of the Royal Guards, and then they can use this identity to extort money.
There is one last point about the Royal Guards that needs to be clarified. Now the full name of the online Royal Guards is "All Royal Guards are Commanders and Commanders", and even * * * is called that. In fact, when consulting the classics, records and other classics of the Ming Dynasty, the official name of Wei Jinyi is only the word "Wei Jinyi". Although in the Ming Dynasty, the Royal Guards were often commanded by governors and envoys, but they were never granted the status of governors and envoys, so the Royal Guards could not be equated with governors and envoys.