Six Ministries of the Lein Dynasty

The government of the Lein Dynasty was divided at the highest level into the Six Ministries, respectively of Personnel, Finance, Rites and Education, War and Diplomacy, Justice and Public Works. This system, the first ever in the history of the Tranon to be divided functionally rather than by territory, was one of the major innovations of the Lein Dynasty as well as a sign and essential of power centralisation.

History

The first few dynasties of the Tranon were to varying degrees feudal empires, whose emperors often ruled more by negotiation, bargaining and force of personality rather than by any rule of law. Accordingly, the governmental system was based on territorial divisions of the empire, where governors were deployed to various regions as representatives of the emperor. More often than not, however, these governors were helpless against the entrenched power of the local landholders - or, worse still, would ally with them and find ways to disobey the emperor discreetly, thus increasing local power at the expense of central power.

The founding of the Lein Dynasty, therefore, called for massive reform to consolidate and institutionalise the power of the Emperor. That the ministries were now functionally divided and constantly in competition with each other, and that every ministry now had to send representatives to the provincial administrations, now meant that it was far less likely for collusion or alliances with local governors against central authority. The six ministries were respectively given wide powers of their own, while constantly remaining under the personal purview of the Emperor through the Ministers' attendance for Imperial Conferences.