明代镇戍武官军政考选初探

A Preliminary Study of the Evaluation of the Garrison Military Officers in the Ming Period

伴随着朱元璋及其后继者以道德教育和量化管理两种手段管理武官举措的失败,武官考察制度应运而生,军政考选就是对武官实行五年一次的考察制度。明代镇戍武官军政考选制度发端于弘治年间,确立于正德年间,发展于嘉靖、隆庆时期,定型于万历初年。军政考选的方法是:高级镇戍武官自陈行状业绩求退,中下级镇戍武官由守巡兵备官员、督抚按和兵部及兵科官员自下而上层层考察,最后皆由皇帝决定去留。由于镇戍武官任职条件和镇戍武官军政考选僵化程序的限制,加之明代后期文官集团的普遍腐败,军政考选的积极作用受到削弱。

After the failure to control military officers through moral education and quantitative administration,the evaluation of military officers came into being—the periodical evaluation of military officers is a system through which military officers were evaluated every five years.The periodic evaluation of garrison military officers in the Ming period was initiated in the Hongzhi reign,established in the Zhengde reign,developed in the Jiajing and Longqing reigns,and finally matured during the Wanli reign.The method of the periodic evaluation of garrison military officers is as follows：Senior military officers submitted self-evaluation of personal conducts and achievements to the throne for appraisal;middle and low level military officers were rated by local supervision officials and the Ministry of War successively.Because of universal irregularities of officialdom,the limitations for selecting garrison military officers,and the stereotyped evaluation procedure of garrison military officers,the periodic evaluation of military officers did not play apositive role.