Wei Zhongxian was originally a gangster, his family was poor when he was young, he wandered the streets, although he was illiterate, he knew archery and horseback riding, liked to gamble, and his life was purely one day at a time.
Looking at Wei Zhongxian's experience before entering the palace, he is somewhat similar to Wei Xiaobao in "The Legend of Deer and Ding", although he has no ability, but because he lives in the market all the year round, he knows how to observe words and feelings, and is proficient in flattery, so that he can survive.
Gambling eventually left Wei Zhongxian with no way out, and he thought of becoming a eunuch. Looking back at history today, many people will think that being a eunuch is obviously a very bad choice, but in the Ming Dynasty, being a eunuch was not an easy task, and it was not possible to become a eunuch with a clean body. Because there are too many people who have difficulties in life, many people purify themselves privately and want to enter the palace as eunuchs, so that at least they will not starve to death. Due to the fact that there were too many people who purified themselves privately, the Ming Dynasty had to issue a ban many times.
Whoever commits a crime in the palace shall be put to the shackles for one month, and a hundred rods. "Records of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty".Wei Zhongxian was lucky enough to know a eunuch in the palace, so after self-castration, he was able to enter the palace.
After entering the palace, he worked under the eunuch Sun Xian, because Wei Zhongxian was good at observing words and feelings, and was good at befriending his superiors, so he was arranged by Sun Xian to work as an errand in the Jiazi library. The so-called Jiazi library is a warehouse in the palace where cloth, pigments and other things are stored, and these materials are sent to the country every year by Zhejiang and other provinces. Obviously, this errand has a lot of oil and water, and Wei Zhongxian was able to get his first pot of gold.
Soon, Wei Zhongxian became attached to the Wei Dynasty, which was a subordinate of the great eunuch Wang An. Wei Zhongxian, who could speak well, soon worshipped Wei Chao, and Wei Chao also recommended Wei Zhongxian to Wang An many times. In the Wei Dynasty, there was a pair of food called Kebaba, the so-called pair of food, that is, the palace woman and the eunuch formed a nominal husband and wife, and this Kebaba was the nurse of Zhu Youxiao (the future Emperor of the Apocalypse). The Wei Dynasty had to serve both Wang An and Zhu Youxiao, and had no time to take care of the Hakka family, so Wei Zhongxian took advantage of the situation and hooked up with Kebaba. After the Wei Dynasty found out, he had a conflict with Wei Zhongxian, and Zhu Youxiao let Kebaba choose by himself, and Kebaba chose Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian took the place of Wei Dynasty.
After the Emperor of the Apocalypse ascended the throne, Ke Baba, as the nurse of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, became more and more noble, which brought great help to Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian was soon promoted to the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch Bingbi, and with the help of Kebaba, the great eunuch Wang An was overthrown.
What does a eunuch do with a pen?
At that time, after the ** to the emperor arrived, it was first checked by the cabinet members, and after the cabinet members read it, they prepared a reply text and sent it to the emperor for approval together with the original request document, which was the "vote draft". There are many documents sent by the cabinet that need to be approved, and the emperor needs to read them and then use a red pen to give instructions, which is called "approval red".
There were too many documents sent by the cabinet, and the emperor was too busy. Therefore, the emperor gradually began to let some eunuchs to help, and let the eunuchs "approve the red" according to the emperor's dictation or the cabinet's vote, and these eunuchs were the eunuchs who were the eunuchs of the ceremonial eunuch Bingbi. The eunuch of Bingbi was not just one, but composed of several people. Obviously, the eunuch Bingbi had a lot of power. Because "approving red" is the highest decision-making power in terms of the nature of its power, it is the core way to realize imperial power. After the "batch of red" is completed, it also needs to be reviewed by the palm print eunuch. The eunuch of the palm seal is in charge of the seal, and the "red" of the eunuch is to be checked, and if there is no problem, he will use the seal.
At that time, the position of the eunuch Wang Tiqian was originally above Wei Zhongxian, but seeing that Wei Zhongxian was so powerful, he strongly demanded that he live under Wei Zhongxian and become Wei Zhongxian's henchman.
It was not enough for Wei Zhongxian to master the celebrant supervisor, he also mastered the East Factory and Jinyiwei. Dongchang and Jinyiwei are both privileged supervision institutions controlled by the emperor, and they are only responsible to the emperor, and can arbitrarily arrest, censor, and even relatives of the emperor.
The civil officials in the court were very wary of Wei Zhongxian's expansion of power, and some people constantly went up to the Emperor of the Apocalypse to advise him, but the Emperor of the Apocalypse ignored all of them.
This kind of exhortation is wave after wave, and it will not end because the Emperor of the Apocalypse protects Wei Zhongxian.
The civil officials have their own logic, and as the ** of the Ming Dynasty, one of their responsibilities is to remind the emperor to take the right path and stay away from treacherous people.
We will have a question, we all know that Wei Zhongxian is a villain, why would the Emperor of the Apocalypse protect him so much?Emperor Apocalypse is only about 20 years old, a young man, and the civil officials talk a lot of big truths at every turn, and Emperor Apocalypse doesn't read much, ** likes to listen. And Wei Zhongxian and Kebaba have been by his side for a long time, serving him and taking care of him, who do you say he likes to listen to?
The complete intensification of the contradiction between the civil official group and Wei Zhongxian came from Yang Lian's **. Yang Lian listed Wei Zhongxian's 24 major sins, and if any one of them is established, Wei Zhongxian will die without a place to be buried. The general opinion of the civil officials at that time was that Wei Zhongxian was in a catastrophe this time.
When Wei Zhongxian received the song, he was also frightened into a cold sweat, and hurriedly ran to the Emperor of the Apocalypse and cried bitterly, crying with tears. And some of the little eunuchs around the Emperor of the Apocalypse all said good things to Wei Zhongxian, telling Wei Zhongxian's hard work, and the Hakka family also told the Emperor of the Apocalypse that Wei Zhongxian was wronged. The Emperor of the Apocalypse was completely surrounded by Wei Zhongxian's forces. What he could feel was that everyone around him was saying good things to Wei Zhongxian.
The next day, Yang Lian was severely reprimanded by the Emperor of the Apocalypse in his edict.
Yang Lian and the others were full of anticipation and waited for the Emperor of the Apocalypse to report the crimes of Wei Zhongxian and others to the Emperor of the Apocalypse in the court. But how could Wei Zhongxian give him this opportunity, and let Emperor Tianqi quit the dynasty for three days for various reasons.
Yang Lian wanted to use a letter to bring down Wei Zhongxian, but he was too naïve, he didn't even see the face of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, how could he succeed?And even if he saw the Emperor of the Apocalypse, could the Emperor of the Apocalypse believe his words?
After Yang Lian went up, those Donglin ** people supported Yang Lian one after another, but the Emperor of the Apocalypse couldn't listen to it.
When we look back at it, we see the problem. In order to bring down Wei Zhongxian, Yang Lian had many exaggerations in the recital, many of which were indeed Wei Zhongxian's crimes, but some of them were not Wei Zhongxian's actions, they were the decisions of the emperor and the imperial court, which aroused the disgust of the Emperor of the Apocalypse. What is the feeling of the Emperor of the Apocalypse?These civil servants are really bad, and they are all nonsense.
The struggle between courtiers and eunuchs has one aspect that is easily overlooked, and that is the emotional bond between the eunuch and the emperor. Wei Zhongxian is more than 40 years older than Emperor Tianqi, and he takes care of his daily life, often accompanying him, responding to requests, and Tianqi gradually has trust and dependence on Wei Zhongxian, this trust and dependence is accumulated with a lot of time, Yang Lian and others have only been with the emperor for a long time, and it is a question whether the emperor can call out the name of each minister.
The courtiers wanted to use the national law and ancestral training to bring down Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian used emotional ties to influence the emperor.
Yang Lian's ending was to be imprisoned and die in prison, which meant a great rout of the civil official group, Zhao Nanxing, Zuo Du Yushi Gao Panlong, Chen Yuting, and dozens of people before and after Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and Wei Dazhong were either dismissed from their posts or killed by Wei Zhongxian. At the beginning of the civil official group, some people chose to submit to Wei Zhongxian, Xu Zhaokui, Wang Shaohui, Qiao Yingjia, Xu Shaoji, Ruan Dacheng, Cui Chengxiu and a large number of others began to look forward to Wei Zhongxian.
Although Wei Zhongxian was victorious, he wanted to make everything existing into an iron case, so he had the "Three Dynasties Classics".
On the tenth day of the fourth month of the sixth year of the Apocalypse (1626), Huo Weihua wrote thousands of words in the matter, criticizing Liu Yijing, Han Lu, Sun Shenxing, Zhang Wenda, Zhou Jiamo, Wang Zhicai, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Zhou Chaorui, Yuan Huazhong, Wei Dazhong, Gu Dazhang and others, and completely overturned the conclusions of the "Attack Case", "Red Pill Case", and "Palace Removal Case", so as to achieve the goal of safeguarding Wei Zhongxian and provide a theoretical basis for everything Wei Zhongxian did.
Obviously, the idea of the "Three Dynasties Canon" was concocted by Wei Zhongxian's civil official clique, and only they had the ability to do this.
After that, Wei Zhongxian began to accept the *** at all levels to further improve his status. He has reached the top of his official position and needs to be promoted in some other places. Many flattering ** began to build ancestral halls for them, some of these ancestral halls were built in the ancestral mausoleum of Fengyang, and some were built near the Confucian Temple. Some people even suggested putting the statue of Wei Zhongxian in the Temple of Confucius and accepting the worship of the students with Confucius, but fortunately, some people said that when the emperor worshiped Confucius, was he also worshipping Wei Zhongxian, and this plan was abandoned.
Wei Zhongxian did not take power for a long time, Emperor Tianqi reigned for a total of 7 years, Wei Zhongxian really controlled the government for only 3 years, and after Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, Wei Zhongxian quickly collapsed.
Isn't Wei Zhongxian powerful and has many followers, why did all this disappear in just three months?
In the Ming Dynasty, the recognition of imperial power by the civil official group far exceeded that of previous dynasties, which was the result of the strengthening of the centralization of power in successive dynasties. Although Wei Zhongxian is powerful, he is dependent on the imperial power after all. Therefore, when the emperor wanted to govern him, he couldn't make a little wave.