The three major eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty, who has the most power? Who's going to end badly?
Some historians say that the Ming Dynasty was the largest eunuch empire in China. In the 276-year history of the Ming Dynasty, the history of eunuch activity is as high as 242 years, from the Ming Dynasty Chengzu Zhu Di was a eunuch to gain power, to Wang Chengen accompanied Ming Sizong Zhu Youzhen to hang himself in the coal mountain, the eunuchs cooperated with the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and performed a historical drama on the stage of Ming history.
Among the many regent eunuchs, although there are eunuch models like Zheng He, there are also many abusive people who influence the court situation and act recklessly, among which three are particularly famous in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but they do not have Zheng He's achievements, and their special features can be summed up in two words: unauthorized power.
These three great eunuchs are: Wang Zhen, the first eunuch in the ages, Liu Jin, the "emperor", and Wei Zhongxian, the "nine thousand years old", so, among these three, how did they abuse their power? Who has more power? Who will end up worse?
Let's break it down.
Speaking of Wang Zhen, the crime that cannot be washed away on him is the initiator of the "Tumubao Change", which caused the humiliating history of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen being captured, so how did he affect Ming Yingzong?
Wang Zhen is also a bit of a cultured person, full of poetry and books, but he is unlucky, he will fail in every exam, and he will take the exam, and he will not even catch a show.
Under the double pressure of frustration and poverty, he decided to enter the palace, but the purpose of his entry into the palace was not just to eat, but to have a higher pursuit, he wanted to get ahead, so he was an ambitious person.
However, for 20 years after entering the palace, he was an unknown teacher, teaching the palace maids and little eunuchs in the court to read and write for many years, so what about his ambition? Has it been worn out by the years?
No, he is waiting for a backer, as a eunuch with brains, he knows very well that if he wants to maneuver in the power field, he can't do it without a backer.
After gaining the trust of Ming Xuanzong, he was sent to the East Palace to serve the crown prince Zhu Qizhen, and since then, he has finally waited for his biggest backer.
When Zhu Qizhen came into contact with Wang Zhen, he was still a child. He was very interested in this new chamberlain, Wang Zhen not only served him, but also accompanied him to read and write like a prince.
And unlike Taifu, Wang Zhen is not so serious, and will tell him a lot of folk tales. I have to say that Wang Zhen is indeed a good "teacher", Zhu Qizhen likes him more and more, and respectfully calls him "Mr. Wang". It can be seen that Wang Zhen's position in Zhu Qizhen's heart has changed qualitatively.
In the tenth year of Xuande (1435), Xuanzong died, and Zhu Qizhen, who was only 9 years old, ascended the throne, and Wang Zhen also became a beneficiary by virtue of their friendship.
Eight months after Yingzong's accession to the throne, he was appointed as the eunuch in charge of the seal and ruled over all the eunuchs. This was a new beginning in his life and a turning point in his fate.
Money and fame were in his pocket, and power began to beckon him. After that, he took advantage of Yingzong's favor and gradually began to approve and fold on behalf of him, convey edicts, and advance to the center of power.
In order to have a greater right to speak, he collected military power in the name of military parades; In order to establish his prestige, he regarded those who welcomed him as cronies, and suppressed them otherwise.
The rise of Wang Zhen's power also attracted the attention of the Empress Dowager and the "Three Yangs" (Yang Rong, Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu) and other important ministers of the former dynasty, and even the Empress Dowager once wanted to kill him.
But Wang Zhen is too talented as an "actor", he showed his "worrying about the country and the people" side in front of "Sanyang", and when the Empress Dowager gave him an "ultimatum", not only Yingzong interceded for him, but even "Sanyang" spoke for him.
After this catastrophe, Wang Zhen reined in a lot and returned to a dormant state, and at the same time changed his overly flamboyant political strategy, instead of currying favor with Yingzong and cultivating cronies, in order to better seek power in the future.
In the seventh year of orthodoxy (1442), the Empress Dowager Yang, who had a deterrent effect on Wang Zhen, died, after which Wang Zhen opened his path to power with great fanfare.
The first thing is to eradicate the "three poplars"; Secondly, the iron plate standing at the gate of the inner palace that "ministers are not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and the pre-rules are cut" were removed.
Since then, the once frustrated literati Wang Zhen has died completely, and a powerful and troubled eunuch has stood up.
Whoever is good at flattery is promoted; All the courtiers who opposed him were to be dealt with with with extreme cruelty; For a time, the people of the DPRK and China were panicked.
It didn't take long for Wang Zhen to have countless henchmen from ** to the locality, forming a powerful group of friends. Under his troubles, a major event finally occurred - the Tumu Fort Incident.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was captured by the Mongols and became a prisoner of a foreign race, and Wang Zhen was also in the chaos, and was smashed to pieces by the Ming army guards with a sledgehammer.
Although the responsibility for causing this tragedy cannot be entirely attributed to Wang Zhenshen, he did play a role in "adding fuel to the fire."
It is he who strongly persuades the Ying Sect to recruit himself; He doesn't understand military blind command; Invited Yingzong to take advantage of his mansion, delayed the trip, or him. In any case, he was a sinner in the Ming Dynasty and the culprit of the Tumubao Change.
After the "Tumubao Change" in the Ming Dynasty, the national strength was seriously weakened, and the country began to enter a period of decline, and since then it has become the object of bullying by its neighbors. Wang Zhen also went down in history because of the "change of civil fort", and he was left behind for 10,000 years.
After Wang Zhen's death, his ** person came, and this person was Liu Jin, another eunuch of the Ming Dynasty after Wang Zhen.
Wang Zhen hibernated in the palace for twenty years, while Liu Jin hibernated even longer, as long as fifty years. Wang Zhen entered the palace with some literati frustrations, while Liu Jin entered the palace purely to fill his stomach.
Liu Jin entered the palace at the age of five or six, and after entering the palace, he took refuge in a eunuch surnamed Liu, so his surname was changed from Tan to Liu. From the first day he entered the palace, he was a lowly handyman, doing the most tiring work, cleaning, watching, serving the great eunuch, and he did this kind of work for decades.
From youth to prime of life, and from prime of life to close to old age, despite decades of working day by day, he still has a dream, and his dream is to become a powerful eunuch like Wang Zhen.
Thirty years after entering the palace, his life finally ushered in a ray of light, ending his career as a miscellaneous servant, and he was appointed as the envoy of the teaching workshop, in charge of court music.
Although the official is small, it is also a positive ninth grade, and he has finally climbed a step up. However, Liu Jin's rise was a bit bumpy, and soon after this promotion, he was charged with "blasphemy and saint cong" for a musical performance, first for betrayal to death, and later for the emperor's forgiveness and pardon of his crimes.
However, although the death penalty was exempted, the living crime could not be escaped, and he was demoted to Xianzong to keep the spirit, and this guard was ten years.
Ten years later, he seized the opportunity to bribe the chief eunuch in charge, and with all his savings, he was finally elected to the East Palace and got the opportunity to serve the prince.
This year, Liu Jin was nearly fifty years old.
Like Wang Zhen, he also has a set of methods for "conquering" Zhu Houzhao. The history books say that Zhu Houzhao of Ming Wuzong is "sexually intelligent, good at riding and shooting", and likes to fight cocks and lackeys, fish and catch shrimp.
When Liu Jin saw that the prince was such a "stubborn master", he almost saw himself who would soar in the future.
In order to satisfy Zhu Houzhao's fun-loving nature, Liu Jin took him to ride horses, archery, kickball, hunt, cockfight, taming animals, etc., and played all kinds of fun projects.
Under Liu Jin's "training", a new generation of defeated emperors of the Ming Dynasty was "born". In the eighth year of Hongzhi (1505), Xiaozong died, and a few days later, the crown prince Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne for Ming Wuzong, this year, he was 15 years old.
In China's thousands of years of history, every time the young emperor ascends the throne, there will always be someone who monopolizes power, the Han Dynasty is the power of the ministers, the Northern Song Dynasty is the power of relatives, to the Ming Dynasty, it is the major eunuchs who appear on the stage, this time the eunuch who appeared on the stage is Liu Jin.
One person gets the way, the chicken dog **. After Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, the attendants around him were all promoted, and Liu Jin was no exception.
He was appointed as the palm seal eunuch of the Bell and Drum Division, and was also in charge of the court's entertainment. Perhaps Zhu Houzhao hoped that Liu Jin could continue to provide him with various entertainment projects, but this did not meet Liu Jin's appetite.
What he wants is power, but he also understands that if he wants to rise, the first priority is to serve the little emperor well. So, he spent a lot of energy to take care of the little emperor's life, and often took the emperor's micro-clothes for private visits.
A few months later, he was promoted to the position of the eunuch of the palm print of the internal official eunuch, and he also had henchmen around him, known as the "Eight Parties" or "Eight Tigers". Liu Jin's emergence soon attracted the attention of civil officials.
As a result, there were constantly ministers in the court, ** eunuchs corrupted the court, and asked the emperor to kill the eunuchs to prevent future troubles.
Zhu Houzhao received all the **, but there was no movement. The civil officials saw that this was not good, and they had to come up with something hard, so they took the Hanwen of the household department as the head, and jointly signed by the elders, Jiuqing and the ministers, and sent it to the emperor.
Zhu Hou took a look at Song Shu, isn't this a threat in disguise? If the "Eight Tigers" are not removed, the Ming Dynasty Hall will not turn. This is not a small matter, so he proposed to place the eunuchs headed by Liu Jin in Nanjing, which means to avoid the limelight first, and then talk about it.
But the civil officials did not do it, forcing the emperor to kill these people. After Liu Jin and the others received the news, they were all frightened, and their lives were all in Zhu Houzhao's thoughts.
What to do, one cry, two troubles, three hangings. Late one night, the "Eight Tigers" hugged the little emperor's thighs and wept in pain, begging the little emperor to let them go.
Zhu Hou looked at his loyal playmates, and he couldn't help but be moved. So, after one night, the sky changed.
The emperor ordered the arrest of Wang Yue, the eunuch who was inclined to Wenchen, and then Liu Jin quickly filled the throne, and the "Eight Tigers" also separated from important positions, and the situation was reversed overnight.
Liu Jin was a blessing in disguise, and became the number one eunuch in the Great Inner in one fell swoop, and finally became the second "Wang Zhen", ushering in the era of autocracy that belonged to him.
The celebrant is the head of the 12 eunuchs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is one of the 24 yamen. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch began to act on behalf of the "red" power, the so-called "red", that is, in the identity of the emperor, with red characters to make instructions.
Therefore, as long as he encounters an unreliable emperor, the hidden power of the celebrant will be revealed. Liu Jin tried his best to confuse Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, so as to set him up, and Liu Jin, who was in power, began to cause trouble.
Fifty years after entering the palace, he turned all the depression in his heart towards those civil officials who once wanted to put him to death.
First of all, he was heavily punished, punishing the rice and grain in his worship to cope with the border war, and punishing him until he went bankrupt;
The second is the court staff, as long as he makes a mistake, he will be punished by the minister, and he instructed the Jinyi guard to "let go of his hands and feet" to fight, and many ministers died because of this.
Third, some ministers were overwhelmed by serious overtime work, working from 5 o'clock in the morning to 5 o'clock in the afternoon, or even 7 o'clock in the afternoon.
After this toss, Liu Jin finally established his prestige, and the prestige of "establishing the emperor" prevailed in secret, as long as he wrote the name of the person and the official name on the paper, the six departments would immediately complete it for him.
In addition to power, wealth also flies like snowflakes. In the list after his downfall, there are more than 12 million taels alone, **2500 million taels, not counting countless treasures that are difficult to estimate.
However, when his power swelled to the peak, Zhu Houzhao couldn't tolerate him anymore. In order to balance Liu Jin, the emperor used Zhang Yong, one of the "Eight Tigers", and under Zhang Yong's manipulation, Liu Jin overturned.
When the list of wealth was placed in front of Zhu Houzhao's eyes, he spit out three words fiercely: Jin is responsible for me, and then ordered Ling Chi to do so.
It is said that he was delayed for three days and slashed 3,357 times, and that year, he was just sixty years old.
Wei Zhongxian had already married a wife and had children when he entered the palace, but because of his good gambling, he lost his family's background, his wife remarried, and he entered the palace in a fit of anger.
Unlike Wang Zhen and Liu Jin, Wei Zhongxian's backer was not the emperor, but a woman, and this woman was Zhu Youxiao's nurse Keshi.
Wei Zhongxian entered the palace in the prime of life, so he was quite proficient in human sophistication, and after a few days of miscellaneous work, he threw stones to ask for directions, got acquainted with the Wei Dynasty, and through the Wei Dynasty, he got acquainted with the great eunuch Wang An, and the nurse of the then emperor's grandson Zhu Youxiao.
Wei Chao and the Hakka were originally in a "food" relationship, but after Wei Zhongxian appeared, he kept shouting at the Hakka family, and the others were tall, so the Hakka "empathized and fell in love" and switched to Wei Zhongxian's arms.
The Hakka family and Zhu Youxiao are like mother and son, and with the help of the Hakka family, the relationship between Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youxiao has become increasingly close. Not long after Zhu Youxiao of Ming Xizong ascended the throne, Wei Zhongxian occupied the high position of the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi and held great power.
Zhu Youxiao was obsessed with carpentry and ignored the government, which gave Wei Zhongxian a huge space for operation, the emperor's will, the world's major events, and the career of the ministers all came from the mouth of Wei Gonggong.
In the third year of the Apocalypse (1623), Wei Zhongxian was also in charge of the East Factory, and he had a gun in his hand, coupled with the support of the Hakka family, since then, he has opened his road to power, and "Nine Thousand Years Old" was immediately put on the agenda.
Wei Zhongxian understood that in order to strengthen himself, in addition to cultivating cronies and expanding his own henchmen, he also had to spare no effort to attack his opponents.
In terms of cultivating party henchmen, he brought all his relatives to be officials, and also cultivated a series of teeth: "five tigers", "five biao", "ten dogs", "ten children", "forty grandchildren" and so on.
It can be said that there are people from the six ministries of the imperial court and cabinet to the local governors, governors, and even prefectures and counties, thus forming an intertwined network of power.
At the same time, he also targeted the Donglin party members who were in charge of the government, and all the Donglin party members in the cabinet were dismissed.
However, just when he was arrogant, Yang Lian, the deputy capital of the imperial history, wrote to him and drafted a total of 24 charges for him. This note was presented to Zhu Youxiao through special channels, and Wei Zhongxian learned that his soul was not possessed.
But Zhu Youxiao doesn't distinguish between right and wrong, only talks about feelings, he has a good relationship with the Hakka family and Wei Zhongxian, as long as they cry in front of him, a hundred charges can't overwhelm him.
After escaping the catastrophe, Wei Zhongxian fought back vigorously, arrested Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Yuan Huazhong, and Wei Dazhong for ** crimes, and finally killed them in prison by extremely cruel means.
After that, he wantonly hunted down and killed seven people, including Gao Fanlong, Zhou Qiyuan, and Zhou Shunchang, the leaders of the Donglin Party. Historically, the Donglin Party members who suffered in these two prisons were called "the first six gentlemen" and "the last six gentlemen", and the Donglin Party suffered this blow and then collapsed.
Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka clan not only caused trouble in the court, but also brutalized the harem, resulting in Zhu Youxiao not even having any children. The East Factory under his charge is even more reckless, brutalizing the people and committing many crimes.
However, such a person actually built an ancestral hall for himself in the people, and asked the whole people to "praise" him, but the outrageous thing is that a lot of them were really built.
Good and evil will be rewarded in the end, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Ming Xizong Zhu Youxiao died of illness, because there was no heir, so the throne was passed to his brother Zhu Youzhen.
After Chongzhen came to power, both Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka clan were liquidated. Wei Zhongxian was sent to Fengyang, and committed suicide on the way, and then Emperor Chongzhen ordered his body to be broken into pieces, and hung his head at the west gate of Hejian Mansion to show the public. Hakka was escorted to the Huanyi Bureau, and later whipped to death, and his body was burned in Jingle Hall.
Judging from the experiences of Wang Zhen, Liu Jin, and Wei Zhongxian, they all have a common characteristic, that is, they all have to directly or indirectly rely on a backer, and this backer is the Ming Emperor.
With the support of the Ming Emperor, he sought the highest authority of the inner palace, the celebrant eunuch, and became a eunuch with a pen, so as to obtain the power of "approving red" and open their road to power.
In the process of seizing power, they formed a hostile relationship with Wenchen, and then took cruel measures to suppress dissidents.
The final downfall is also very simple, and if you lose your backer, you lose everything. Therefore, in the final analysis, these eunuchs are still humble, and the most fundamental problem why they can disturb the court is still the emperor.
If you want to compare the three of them, I personally think that in terms of corruption, Liu Jin is the first; In terms of brutality, Wei Zhongxian is the worst; In terms of negative impact on the Ming Dynasty, it is none other than Wang Zhen; In terms of ending, of course, Liu Jin is the worst; In terms of power, it's pretty much the same.
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