明代阁臣群体为相情结述论

明代的内阁阁臣越到后来越被朝中上下目为实际上的“宰相”,不少阁臣亦不免以“相”自处,乃至行相权之实。本文旨在说明朱元璋虽然从政治上废除了宰相制,但从实质上看,皇权不可能真正合并相权,随着时间的推移,明代中、后期的皇帝们对内阁的把握及对阁臣的任用在潜意识或反映在政治事务中,往往自觉或不自觉地把阁臣当作宰相看待,阁臣甚至被赋予近似宰相的权力,相权观念在朝廷内外官僚群体中亦渐趋复苏。内阁职权的逐步宰相化发展,皇帝和其他官僚亦逐渐对阁臣寄予宰相的期望,而在朝政的运行方面也随之对阁臣提出了宰相般的事权要求。阁臣思想意识中存在浓重的为相情结可以说是与时相应,阁臣群体为相意识的复苏实际上是合乎明代政治走势的一个很自然的过程。

Comments on the Cabinet Ministers' Aspiration to Premier in the Ming Dynasty

The cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty were viewed more and more the factual premiers by all the officials in the royal court,not a few of them inevitably supposed that they had been the premiers,some even held the factual power of the premier.This paper tries to demonstrate that the emperor could not absorb premiers' all the functions though Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the position of the premier.In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,the emperor subconsciously thought that the cabinet ministers had been the premiers,in fact,sometimes the ministers were entrusted the power of the premier.This led to the return of the idea of the premier among the bureaucrats.The power of the ministers' gradual rise to that of the premier made the emperor and the other bureaucrats expect that the ministers should have been the premiers.Those who were responsible for the working of the royal court's administration were expected by both the emperor and the other officials to have the power of the premier.Therefore,the ministers' strong aspiration to premier was the natural result of the age and the return of the ministers group's idea about the premier is in reality a natural process of the political trends in the Ming Dynasty.