"揭帖"原為明仁宗即位后特許近臣密陳朝政得失的公文,后演變為內閣專享的密奏文書,故稱"密揭"。明代中后期,密揭成為內閣與皇帝溝通的主要方式,內容包括商榷票擬、隨事指陳和承諭答對,直接影響最高決策的形成。密揭一般不抄傳于邸報,只有萬歷十九年爭國本風波后至天啟中,閣臣為取信于外廷,常主動將密揭發抄。密揭有內閣公揭和閣臣私揭之分,閣臣呈進私揭的頻率是其政治地位的重要標識。密揭與題奏本、公揭與私揭的差別,在閣臣文集和奏議集中有不同方式的體現。內閣在明代政治中發揮的作用,除輔助決策之外,還有協調皇帝與外廷,明人稱為"調燮"。尤其在晚明的特殊政治生態中,內閣協調內外的作用在時人關于內閣密揭的爭議中得到充分體現,這種作用是其他朝臣乃至宦官都無法實現的。

“Jietie” were originally secret official documents in which court officials were authorized by Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty to evaluate the pros and cons of court policies. Later, they were developed into documents exclusively used by the Grand Secretariat to send secret memorials, so they were also called “Mijie”(“secret memorials”). In the mid and late Ming Dynasty, secret memorials became the main mode of communication between the Grand Secretariat and the emperor and they could be used by the Grand Secretariat to submit their “piaoni”(drafts of suggested rescripts for the emperor’s approval), state opinions about state aff airs and answer the emperor’s questions, thus directly infl uencing the formation of top decisions. The secret memorials were typically not reproduced in “dibao”(the court bulletin) except during the period from the 19 th year under Emperor Wanli’s reign to the middle of Emperor Tianqi’s reign, when members of the Grand Secretariat would purposely circulate these secret memorials in order to gain the trust of the outer court. Secret memorials were categorized into those submitted by the Grand Secretariat as a whole(collective secret memorials) and those submitted directly to the emperor by a certain individual Grand Secretariat member(individual secret memorial). How often a Grand Secretariat member submitted secret memorials directly to the emperor indicated his political status in the Grand Secretariat. The diff erence between secret and regular memorials and that between collective secret and individual secret memorials are refl ected in various ways in the collected works or collections of memorials of the Grand Secretariat members. In addition to assisting in decision-making, the Ming Dynasty Grand Secretariat also functioned to coordinate the relationship between the emperor and the outer court, known as “tiaoxie”. Especially in the political environment of the late Ming Dynasty, this special role played by the Grand Secretariat was beyond the reach of other courtiers and the eunuchs and it was fully refl ected in the controversies at that time concerning the secret memorial system.