What was the impact of the high degree of authoritarian imperial power in the Ming and Qing dynasties on Chinese society?

The extreme expansion of monarchical power and the emperor's personal involvement in common politics were indeed conducive to improving administrative efficiency at certain times (such as during the Yongzheng Dynasty), to the government's gathering and utilization of resources, to the maintenance and strengthening of national unity, to the suppression of all kinds of dissenting forces, to the elimination of corruption, and to the maintenance of the normal functioning of the bureaucratic system of politics. However, from a long-term perspective, this kind of personal dictatorship with obvious irrational features and terrorist colors was not conducive to the long-lasting stability of the Qing rule. On the contrary, it had a very obvious negative impact on the political society at that time:

One is due to the malignant expansion of imperial power, changed the traditional

power distribution system, in the shadow of the emperor, in addition to a very few close ministers, most of the bureaucrats lack of administrative enthusiasm and creativity, have to hold the salary to raise the cross, and live a life of misery. Therefore, the Qianlong emperor lamented that the ministers "only to follow the rules of the manuscript for the job, and no far-sighted thinking, for the country's fundamental plan", "like this habit does not change, even with the countryside is no different" ("Qianlong residence note").

The second is the emperor's personal affairs, the day-to-day political affairs in their own hands, can not adapt to the development of bureaucratic procedures, the objective trend of tightening, the result is that the emperor can not increasingly rely on a small number of close associates of political affairs. This led to the emergence of a new phenomenon of political alienation.

Thirdly, the harsh political control, especially cultural authoritarianism, severely fettered the development of social thought, especially political thought. Compared with the pluralistic and active academic concepts of the time, 18th-century Chinese political thought, especially anti-authoritarian thought, was relatively impoverished. The scholars' understanding of the relationship between the ruler and the ministers was very superficial, and their criticism of the extreme monarchical autocracy was pale and lacked the basic spirit of innovation, which could not help but say that there existed an obvious causal relationship with the harsh political control of the Qing court at that time. It should be said that China in the 18th century was in the development period of China's early modernization, in the socio-economic, ideological and cultural, and even social structure, there is a clear transition trend, and the serious lag of the change of the political system at that time, to a certain extent, slowed down the pace of historical progress.

In short, the so-called extreme monarchical autocracy was that it not only made imperial power the source of all political power, but also advanced the emperor's authority to an unparalleled degree in a one-sided and extreme manner, turning the subjects into the emperor's personal slaves. In the political hierarchy, the strict political personal dependence of the courtiers on the emperor was established from the point of view of master and slave. In political operation, as far as possible, the personal personality of the autocratic emperor, instead of the independent personality of the bureaucrats, with the emperor's right and wrong instead of the right and wrong of the bureaucrats, with the emperor's interests instead of the interests of the state, the will of the emperor as the core of the policy and law. And people usually called the rule of law, can only be the autocratic monarch to implement the rule of man necessary to supplement, as for the bureaucracy characterized by the sectional system, is the monarch of the dictatorship under a huge and tight administrative machine. The extreme monarchical autocracy formed in the Yongqian period, in the short term, did create a high efficiency, a relatively clean administrative culture, a daunting scene of majesty, but in the long run, it actually made the future and destiny of the Qing dynasty, become more unpredictable, stormy. Because as far as the future of the country is concerned, placing the regime in a regulated institutionalized operation has more rationality than handing it over to an individual's dictatorship, both of which are more capable of realizing the principle of rationality in governance and more conducive to social harmony, stability and development. In history, this is a well-known fact that needs no argument.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the authoritarian tendency of centralized power was unprecedentedly serious. Emperor Ming Taizu abolished the central ministry, abolished the prime ministerial system, and made the six ministries responsible for dynastic affairs and directly accountable to the emperor. After the end of the three-province system, the cabinet system was gradually formed with the establishment of a cabinet of university professors to participate in decision-making. The Qing dynasty in the cabinet, on the basis of the six departments, the addition of military affairs, military affairs all depends on the emperor's decision, military affairs ministers just kneeling to receive the transcripts to be conveyed to the implementation of the local military and political leaders directly under the command of the emperor, the monarchical autocracy to the peak. The strengthening of the monarchy in the Ming and Qing dynasties had a profound impact on the development of Chinese history.

On the one hand, the strengthening of monarchical autocracy was objectively conducive to the consolidation of the unified multi-ethnic state, which played a positive role in maintaining national unity, social stability, resisting foreign aggression, organizing water conservancy projects, developing social economy, preventing secession and fragmentation, and strengthening ethnic exchanges. For example, the Kangxi Emperor organized two successive Battles of Yaksa to defeat the Tsarist Russian army; the strengthening of the Qing Dynasty's management of Taiwan and Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet all contributed to the consolidation of the unified multi-ethnic state and the promotion of the development of the border areas.

On the other hand, the strengthening of monarchical autocracy during the Ming and Qing dynasties seriously hindered the progress and development of Chinese society, causing it to lag greatly behind Western countries. This is reflected in:

Politically, the strengthening of the monarchical dictatorship in the Ming and Qing Dynasties led to the extreme expansion of imperial power and made it difficult to form a democratic system. This became an important factor hindering social progress. The emperor was both the supreme legislator, the supreme administrator and the supreme judge, free from any constraints and supervision. This absolute monarchical autocracy made the emperor's decisions characterized by personal arbitrariness and capriciousness, which led to constant policy blunders; while officials were afraid to follow orders, which fostered the wind of conformity, bureaucracy, and corruption in the officialdom. The unprecedented strengthening of feudal monarchy in the Ming and Qing dynasties was not an indication of the strong vitality of the feudal system; it was a political manifestation of the decline of the feudal system. The factory guard system practiced in the Ming Dynasty and the establishment of the Military and Political Office in the Qing Dynasty made it even more difficult for a democratic system to take shape.

Economically, the strengthening of monarchical autocracy in the Ming and Qing dynasties fettered the development of social productive forces and hindered the development of the budding of capitalism. This was manifested in the following ways: First, the peasants were brutally exploited and extremely poor, and thus could not afford to buy handicrafts from the market. Secondly, the money exploited by the landlords and merchants was often used to buy land, thus affecting the expansion of the handicraft industry. Thirdly, the Qing rulers set up many barriers in the country, imposed heavy taxes on commodities, and strictly limited the scale of handicraft production. Fourthly, the state practiced a closed-door policy and prohibited overseas trade, which affected the development of handicrafts.

Ideologically and culturally, the strengthening of monarchical dictatorship in the Ming and Qing dynasties stifled people's creativity, made people's thinking increasingly rigid, and hindered the development of science and technology. Anti-feudal democratic ideas were also curtailed. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination system was based on the eight-legged system; and in the early Qing Dynasty, the word prison was also practiced, which ideologically strengthened the persecution and suppression of the intellectuals and the people. These measures, so that the intellectuals at every turn, at a loss, so that their study of learning is limited to the rigid bureaucratic style of wandering, intellectuals are afraid of "treason" crime by the secret service arrested, or by the scourge of extermination. They had to close their eyes to reality and their mouths to practical matters, thus suffocating their thoughts and stifling their intelligence, creating a situation of "all horses in the air". Anti-feudal democratic ideas were absolutely banned, making it difficult to spread democratic ideas, and the development of science and technology was also seriously hampered.

In foreign relations, the strengthening of the monarchy in the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually isolated China from the world, causing it to lag behind the global trend. The Ming Dynasty once implemented the "sea ban"; the Qing government has long been the implementation of the "closed-door policy", several times ordered the ban on overseas trade. The "closed-door policy" was not conducive to the normal interaction between the Chinese nation and the peoples of the world; it was not conducive to the Chinese people's understanding of the world, going out into the world, learning from the world's peoples' excellent ideology and culture and advanced science and technology, in order to complement their strengths. It thus hinders China's development, isolates China from the world and lags behind the world trend.

When China's monarchical authoritarian system reached its peak, the Western world had already initially established a modern democratic system based on the constraints and balance of power, thus politically stepping into a modern society and opening the way for the development of capitalist productive forces. The highly centralized monarchical system in China seriously stifled social creativity and slowed down the pace of social development. The strengthening of the monarchical autocracy in the Ming and Qing dynasties was the main culprit for China's lagging behind the West in the modern era and its passive-aggressive position.