内阁相否?——明人内阁话语解析

Whether the Cabinet Member was Prime Minister:The Analysis of the Discourse on the Cabinet Members in Ming Dynasty

“内阁相否”是明代一个突出的政治话题。与明亡后的制度检讨不同,明代以外朝官员为主体的持论者,把心目中认为理想的内阁,与以往朝代的丞相制度相比照,得出“内阁非相”或“内阁为相”的结论,作为一种“他者”话语,这带有更多改变现状的意图。其中的矛盾性源于内阁权力与职责相割裂的制度特征。这一制度特征与持续百年的他者话语一起,深刻影响了明代内阁的政治演进和阁臣对于“内阁相否”的自我认知。

The question that whether the cabinet member was prime minister was a prominent political topic in the Ming Dynasty.Being different from the system review after the fall of the Ming Dynasty,the arguers with officials of the outer court being the main body drew a positive or negative conclusion by comparing the ideal cabinet with the prime minister system of the previous dynasties.As a discourse of“the other”,it had more intention to change the present situation.The contradiction of the discourse stemmed from the institutional characteristics of the division between the power and responsibility of the cabinet system in the Ming Dynasty.Together with the other s discourse which had lasted for more than a hundred years,this institutional feature had profoundly influenced the evolution of the cabinet and the self-cognition of the cabinet members of whether they were prime ministers or not.