Six Ministries of the Ming

Timeline

1. 1368Yingtian Prefecture · ChinaAfter founding the dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ministries of Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works, each with a Minister and Vice Minister, handling personnel selection, household registration and taxes, rites and examinations, military affairs, judicial cases, and construction works, replacing the Zhongshu Sheng of the Yuan and establishing the Ming central administrative framework.
2. 1380Nanjing Imperial City · JiangnanAfter the thirteenth year of Hongwu, when Hu Weiyong was executed and the Zhongshu Sheng and the office of chancellor abolished, the Six Ministries became directly subordinate to the emperor, greatly enhancing their authority and forming the core office system of early Ming administrative decision-making and decree issuance.
3. c. 1382–1398Six Ministries of Yingtian Prefecture · ChinaDuring the Hongwu era the staffing of the ministry bureaus, memorial procedures, and local counterpart relations were successively defined: the Ministry of Revenue oversaw yellow registers and fish-scale land registers, the Ministry of War oversaw guard military affairs, and the Ministry of Justice oversaw statutes and trials, largely finalizing the functional pattern of the early Ming Six Ministries.