Feng Bao (1543-1583), a native of Shenxian County, Hebei Province, was a Ming eunuch, a famous ming dynasty reformer, and a political ally of Zhang Juzheng.
I don't know when he was castrated into the palace. Jiajingzhong. In the first year of Longqing, he was also in charge of the East Factory and the Imperial Horse Supervisor. At that time, the superintendent of ceremonies lacked a palm eunuch, and according to seniority, Feng Bao should be promoted, but Muzong did not like him. The university's high arch recommended Chen Hong, the superintendent of the imperial superintendent, to hold the seal of the ceremonial superintendent. When Chen Hong resigned, Gao Gong recommended Meng Chong, who was in charge of the Shang Food Supervisor, to fill the vacancy. According to the regulations, Meng Chong was not qualified to take charge of the Ceremonial Supervisor, and Feng Bao hated Gao Gong for this. In the sixth year of Longqing, Muzong died, and the first assistant of the cabinet, Gao Gong, the second assistant Zhang Juzheng, and Gao Yi, were the ministers of Gu Ming, and Feng Bao and other Zhonggong corrections were also one of the auxiliary ministers.
In the first year of the Wanli Dynasty (1573), after the ten-year-old Emperor Shenzong Zhu Yijun ascended the throne, Feng Bao was further reused, and he was promoted from a bingbi eunuch to a palm eunuch, and assisted Empress Li in charge of the education of the little emperor. Emperor Shenzong called Feng Bao a "great companion" and feared him for three points.
During the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Shenzong, Feng Bao always stood next to the throne, and The Manchu Dynasty Wenwu was shocked and dissatisfied. Seeing that Feng Bao's power was getting stronger and stronger, Gao Gong could not tolerate it in his heart, and instructed the cabinet ministers to put forward the slogan of "returning the government to the cabinet" and organize a group of ministers to write a letter to impeach him. Feng Bao seized the handle of Gao Gong's saying after Muzong's death, "How to rule the world at the age of ten", and complained to the empress and the imperial concubine, so Gao Gong was dismissed from his post and went home to idle. A group of ministers who supported the high arch were also investigated.
On the nineteenth day of the first month of the first year of the Wanli Calendar, Emperor Shenzong left the palace early in the morning to see the dynasty, and was charged by a man named Wang Chancellor. After the emperor's bodyguards captured Wang Chancellor, they retrieved a sword from him, and then the emperor ordered him to escort him to Dongchang for interrogation.
Feng Bao took advantage of the institution to trap Gao Gong and secretly instructed Wang Chancellor to pretend that he was directed by Gao Gong. Suddenly, rumors of plotting to assassinate the emperor spread rapidly, and all the officials of the imperial court were in danger of themselves, and did not dare to rush to the top to defend Gao Gong. However, the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau's Zuo Du Yushi Ge Shouli and the official Shangshu Yang Bo stepped forward and insisted that the case of Wang Chancellor be jointly tried by the Ministry of Punishment, the Inspectorate, and the East Factory. Zhang Juzheng was under pressure, so he had to go to Emperor Shenzong and order feng Bao to meet with the left capital Yushi Ge Shouli and the Jinyi Wei Zuo du governor Zhu Xixiao to interrogate. Gao Gong was thus washed away, and Wang Chancellor was sentenced to death.
The case of Minister Wang made Feng Bao annoyed many ministers in the court, and everyone scoffed at his sinister act of framing Gao Gong. Zhang Juzheng, on the other hand, firmly sat firmly in the chair of Shoufu.
Zhang Juzheng became the first assistant, and with the support of the empress dowager and the emperor, and the cooperation of the internal minister Feng Bao, he pro-government for many years and implemented the "one whip" law, which increased the state revenue. He cut redundant personnel and reduced expenditures, which led to a revival of the Ming regime. Although Zhang Juzheng has great talent, the reason why he can be appointed as the first assistant of the cabinet and exert political retribution is because of Feng Bao's full support. However, Feng Bao was greedy for money and good goods, and widely accepted bribes, and Zhang Juzheng also gave him a lot of treasures. Feng Bao later spent a huge amount of money to build a shrine for himself, and Zhang Juzheng wrote the "Records of the Eunuch Feng Gong's Advance Shouzang", which praised him endlessly.
Emperor Shenzong once gave ivory stamps and Feng Bao, inscribed with "Guangming Zhengda", "Erwei Salt Plum", "Ru Zuo Zhou", "Fish and Water Meet", "Wind and Clouds Meeting", and "Treated With the Prime Minister" (Wan Liye Supplement, Vol. 1). Later, Feng Bao was even more arrogant, even if the emperor rewarded and punished, Feng Bao did not open his mouth, and no one dared to execute.
But Feng Bao also often does something to understand the general situation. For example, the cabinet produced white lotuses and there were double white swallows in the Hanlin Courtyard, and Zhang Juzheng brought them to the emperor to play, and Feng Bao sent someone to Zhang Juzheng and said: "The emperor is young, and he should not use these strange things to make the emperor greedy." "And it can restrain their children so that they dare not act recklessly." The people in Beijing also felt that Feng Bao was a good person.
When Shenzong was eighteen, he once drunkenly flirted with the palace maid. Feng Bao complained to the empress dowager. The empress dowager was furious and almost deposed emperor Shenzong. The empress dowager ordered Zhang Juzheng to give advice and draft a "edict for committing crimes" on behalf of the emperor, and punished him to kneel at the Cining Palace for six hours, so the emperor held a grudge against Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng.
In the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1582), Zhang Juzheng became ill from overwork and died in office. On his deathbed, he recommended his chief examiner Pan Sheng to enter the cabinet. Feng Bao sent someone to summon him. Yu Shilei zhen and Wang Guo, wang Jiguang, said that he could not be appointed, and Pan Sheng resigned halfway through. The cabinet Zhang Siwei estimated that Shen Shixing would not be under Pan Sheng, and agreed to the matter on the drafting of the opinion, and the emperor immediately replied yes. Feng Bao was sick at the time and insulted: "If I am sick, will there be no me?" ”
When the crown prince was born, Feng Bao wanted to be made a count, and Zhang Siwei rebuked him with no precedent, planning to give his brother and nephew an official position as a governor of the capital. Feng Bao said angrily, "Who did you rely on to get today, but betrayed me!" ”
Yushi Guo Weixian requested that Wu Zhongxing and others be summoned, and Feng Bao rebuked him for the protection of his inter-luxury and degraded him.
On december of the tenth month of the Wanli Dynasty (the eighth day of the first month), Li Zhishang of Jiangxi Province impeached Feng Bao for twelve major crimes. The focus is on Xu Jue and Feng Bao's blackmail and criminal offenses. Other counts include:
Princess Yongning chose to marry, and Feng Bao accepted a bribe from Liang Guozhu, knowing that his son had a short life and was indeed ill, but he was willing to protect him. As a result, when they were married, Liang "had a nosebleed and wet his robe", and a month after the big wedding, he actually died, causing the princess to die of depression and illness a few years later.
Among the twenty-four eunuchs who had died, Feng Bao sealed off his houses and searched for all the family assets. Only his ordinary things were collected and offered to the emperor, and the gold beads were already in possession.
Feng Bao's mansions are innumerable all over Beijing. He built a cemetery in the North Pass. The magnificence of the garden is comparable to that of the Xiyuan (where the Jiajing Emperor lived and worked for a long time). There are more than 5,000 houses built in the original hometown, and even counties and counties, whether in scale or in the degree of beauty, are comparable to the royal residence.
At this time, the empress dowager had been returning the government to the emperor for a long time. Feng Bao lost his dependence, and the emperor accumulated a lot of anger against Feng Bao. Zhang Whale, an old eunuch in the Eastern Palace, took the opportunity to state Feng Bao's faults and sins, and asked the emperor to send Feng Bao to idle. The Divine Sect was still afraid of him and said, "If the great companion comes to the temple, what will I do?" Zhang Whale said, "Since you have the Holy Will, how dare you enter the palace again!" Shenzong obeyed Zhang Whale's words and gave instructions on the Holy Will: "Feng Bao deceived the emperor and the kingdom, and the sin was so deep that he should have been killed." He served for a long time, so he was demoted to the imperial court from a wide range and sent to a new house in Nanjing to live idle. Then he began to raid Feng Bao's family property and sent him to Nanjing Xiaoling to grow vegetables.
After that, Feng Bao "who died in Nanliudu and was buried in the Imperial Factory." Lin Mu Senran, majestic city..." ("Zhongzhi Zhi, Vol. 5").
Feng Bao's younger brother Feng You and nephew Feng Bangning were both governors, but after being stripped of their posts, they were arrested, and they were imprisoned for a long time, and died in prison.
Feng Bao is elegant and proficient in piano art and calligraphy. In the sixth year of the Wanli Calendar, Feng Bao collected the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" with an inscription on it, and the self-signed official called "the governor of Chincha, the official school of the East Factory, and the eunuch in charge of the imperial ceremony supervisor". It is said that he saw this painting when he was waiting for the emperor in front of the imperial court. He praised the painting of the "Map of the Upper River of the Qing Dynasty" and regarded it as "something more precious than Sui Zhu and Bi". Since then
Emperor Shenzong Zhu Yijun was only sixteen years old, had not yet personally governed, and the power in the palace was held by Feng Bao, so some researchers believe that this map was stolen by Feng Bao from Ouchi. Not only that, in order not to be investigated afterwards, Feng Bao also fabricated a story that the "Qingming River Map" had been destroyed, which was widely circulated in society at that time.
Feng Bao's authenticity