How did the feudal monarchy of the Qing Dynasty reach its peak?

The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China. On the basis of summarizing the experience of the previous generations, the Qing rulers developed the traditional Chinese monarchical politics to the most perfect and mature point. During the Qing dynasty, the common flaws of traditional Chinese monarchy, such as the serious misconduct of the emperor, the arbitrary power of powerful ministers, foreign relatives and eunuchs, the disputes among civil officials, and the division of the country into clans and towns, etc., were all compressed to a minimum degree. Of course, the Western Empress Dowager's dictatorship at the end of the Qing Dynasty was a shortcoming. However, considering the special status of the empress dowager, it was much better to let the empress dowager dictate power than to let the eunuchs of the Han, Tang and Ming Dynasties run amok! The Qing Dynasty was the real peak of traditional Chinese monarchy, which could not be compared to the Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties.　　After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the basic political framework of the Chinese feudal dynasties was a hereditary centralized monarchical system of government. Under this system of government, the entire state apparatus was like a big pyramid: subordinates obeyed their superiors, localities obeyed the central government, and the hereditary emperor, as the highest person in charge of the country, was at the top of the pyramid, with the highest decision-making power on state affairs. This system of government in reality to be able to operate normally and effectively, it is necessary to do the following three points at the same time: 1, the emperor himself to monopolize the power, to prevent any form of subordinates of the arbitrary power and political instability caused by the resulting.

2, the transition to the throne should be smooth, to prevent political unrest and even war caused by the struggle for the throne. A famous example is the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the Western Jin Dynasty.

3, the emperor himself should have a good quality, including a high sense of political responsibility, clear-headed, diligent style of government.　　Let's look at the performance of the Qing Dynasty: First, the emperor's power to monopolize the Qing Dynasty imperial power is highly strengthened. Institutional construction, the centralized monarchy of China's feudal dynasties in the Qing Dynasty to the most complete degree of development. Yongzheng's contribution in this regard is the most prominent. In order to strengthen the power of the emperor, Yongzheng's measures are mainly three: 1, the establishment of the Office of military affairs. To military affairs as the emperor's confidential secretary class to assist the emperor to deal with important political affairs, the cabinet to assist the emperor to deal with general political affairs. Through this institutional setup and division of labor, to solve the problem of how the emperor to a person's body to effectively oversee all the political affairs of the military and the state.　　2, the establishment of the zhangzuo system. Through the zazhou system, to solve the problem of how the emperor understands the situation and supervise the subjects.　　3, the civil and military officials of the citation system. Solve the problem of human rights and effective control of the entire state apparatus.　　Due to the Qing dynasty imperial power is highly strengthened, the emperor really to achieve the power of the emperor, effectively preventing the subject of arbitrary and chaotic government, coupled with the Qing emperor is more sober, so in the constraints of the imperial power, the ruling group of the internal power struggle than the previous generation of the degree of intensity of the previous generation has been reduced, as reflected in the political situation, that is, the Qing dynasty's political situation in general than the previous generation of the stability of the. The more mature a political system is, the better it is able to harmonize the relationship within the ruling group and realize the integration within the ruling group, and the smoother its political situation will be. The Qing Dynasty did this.　　Second, the throne handover smooth Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty created a secret system of reserves, to ensure that the throne handover smooth, effectively preventing the destabilization of the national political situation due to the throne contention.　　Third, the emperor's good quality of successive emperors, the emperor of the Qing dynasty, the overall quality of the most excellent, there is no serious misconduct. With the previous generation of scholars, that is: "the Qing dynasty more than the Lord of the order, the most down is not lost in the Lord", with our modern people are most familiar with the expression, that is: "the Qing dynasty without a dimwit". The Qing dynasty royal family law is strict, the education of the prince attaches great importance to, at the same time in the establishment of the problem of reserves abandoned the previous dynasty must be established long practice, can have a choice to do in the hereditary monarchy does not change the premise, as far as possible, choose the quality of the outstanding prince to inherit the throne.　　Summarizing the performance of the above points, the Qing Dynasty was certainly the highest peak of traditional Chinese monarchy.　　From the principle of dialectics, the last one is always the most perfect. Because the development of things is always from imperfection to perfection. This was also true of the monarchical autocracy of the Chinese feudal dynasties. In the early days of feudal society, the monarchical system of the feudal dynasty was certainly very simple and rough in practice; with the forward development of feudal society and the accumulation of ruling experience, the monarchical system of the feudal dynasty was also improved and enhanced in practice until it finally reached the peak of perfection in the Qing Dynasty. By the same token, the Qing Dynasty was also the most complete in terms of its system of rules and regulations. The Qing dynasty's system of rules and regulations and monarchical politics were the culmination of two thousand years of feudal society in China. The position of the Qing Dynasty in Chinese history can be compared to that of the Zhou Dynasty, which was revered by Confucius.　　Some people criticize the politics of the Qing Dynasty because of the high degree of strengthening of imperial power after the Song Dynasty, especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, thinking that the Qing Dynasty was a step backward from the Han and Tang dynasties. This view is prejudiced. These people have actually been influenced by modern Western ideas of democracy and freedom, so they have an aversion to the strengthening of imperial power and bring in their own such subjective preconceptions when evaluating history. The basic political system of feudal dynasties in China was a monarchical dictatorship with centralized power. Under this system of government, the emperor, as the highest person in charge of the state, had the highest authority over state affairs. Confucianism, on the other hand, was the ruling ideology of the feudal dynasties. Confucianism was politically about advocating the maintenance of a unified and powerful imperial power. Confucius, the ancestor of Confucianism, made it very clear in the Analects of Confucius: "When there is a way in the world, rites and music and conquests come from the Son of Heaven". Note that it is "when there is a way in the world, the rituals and music and conquests come from the Son of Heaven", not "when there is a way in the world, the rituals and music and conquests come from the vassals, or from the scholars, or from the common people". Therefore, the strengthening of imperial power after the Song Dynasty, especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, was in essence the self-improvement of the feudal monarchy in practice. So the Qing Dynasty politics relative to the Han and Tang Dynasty, can only be said to be progress rather than regression.　　One more issue to be noted in evaluating the strengthening of imperial power in the Qing Dynasty is the "separation of powers between the monarch and the prime minister". From ancient to modern times, there have been some scholars who believe that the ideal monarchical politics should be the separation of powers between the monarch and the prime minister, and criticized the strengthening of imperial power in the Qing Dynasty on this basis. My opinion: under the condition of hereditary monarchy, the separation of powers is not feasible. The reason is that morally speaking, the emperor was not responsible for the country if he entrusted the prime minister with the affairs of the state and only cared about his own personal moral cultivation, and from the point of view of interests, entrusting the prime minister with the affairs of the state for a long period of time would lead to the downward shift of power, which would eventually lead to the change of dynasty. In the feudal era, this situation is not allowed to occur! That is why the emperor must monopolize the power. The separation of powers between the emperor and the prime minister is just an unrealistic and childish idea of some literati.　　Dialectics believes that when a thing develops to the most perfect degree, it reaches the peak of its own development. Because when something develops to the most perfect degree, it means that there is no room for further development and improvement within itself, so its own development has also reached its peak. If you must move forward, then you must deny yourself to realize the self-breakthrough. In the Ming Dynasty, the traditional shortcomings of the feudal monarchy were still very serious, such as the emperor's serious misconduct, the civil officials' party disputes, and the eunuchs' power abuse, etc. In the Qing Dynasty, these shortcomings were still very serious. In the Qing Dynasty, all these shortcomings were minimized. This shows that the Ming Dynasty was the end of the feudal society in China, but it had not yet reached its zenith, and the Qing Dynasty was the zenith. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty could only be a progress rather than a regression compared to the Ming Dynasty. Because the Qing Dynasty was the apex and the peak of the development of Chinese feudal society, the evils of the Qing Dynasty were not a matter of the quality and ability of the individual rulers, but the feudal system itself was beyond redemption. Therefore, in order to solve the problem, the society must be completely remodeled. In the words of a netizen, the late Qing Dynasty was the time when "the Chinese nation really had to be reborn by fire". Look at the actual situation, the late Qing Dynasty, under the combined effect of internal and external factors, China's social form has undergone great changes, from ancient society to modern society transformation.　　Throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty, it is not only carrying on the past and following the past, but also a great ups and downs, great joys and great sorrows. It is lamentable.