Eunuchs are a very special group in Chinese history, originally eunuchs were just ordinary people who served the emperor, empress and other members of the imperial family in the imperial palace, and their identity and status were similar to those of palace women, but various factors made the eunuch group gradually participate in the government, and even held the real power to influence the government.
In Chinese history, eunuchs did not have a good impression on future generations, probably because there were many notorious eunuchs in history, such as Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty and Wei Zhongxian of the Ming Dynasty, who were extremely ruthless eunuchs and committed many heinous crimes.
However, Xiaobian personally believes that the most ruthless eunuch in Chinese history is neither Zhao Gao nor Wei Zhongxian, but the one to be introduced now, he is the Zong Ai of the Northern Wei Dynasty, whose popularity is much lower than that of Zhao Gao and Wei Zhongxian, but his heart is more fierce than Zhao Gao and Wei Zhongxian.
Zong Ai was born in 401 AD, and his origin is not recorded in the historical records, but it is known that he was castrated for committing a crime, and later sent to the Northern Wei Palace as a eunuch, at first his status and status were the lowest, and he was often bullied by the old eunuchs in the palace. Later, during the reign of Tuoba Tao, the third emperor of northern Wei, Emperor Taiwu, Zong Ai was appreciated by Emperor Taiwu and went from the lowest eunuch to a permanent attendant, which at that time was a position that the emperor's most favored person could hold.
Emperor Taiwu's eldest son was named Tuoba Huang (拓跋晃), who was made crown prince, and he was as wise and divine as his father Emperor Taiwu, and when Emperor Taiwu led his troops to fight outside, Tuoba Huang took the place of his father to handle the government in an orderly manner, and was a good prince who was deeply praised inside and outside the imperial court.
Since Zong Ai served as a constant attendant, he was a person favored by Emperor Taiwu, and his personality became tyrannical, blind, and fierce, and his style of behavior was exactly two extremes with that of Prince Tuoba Huang, so Tuoba Huang often impeached Zong Ai to Emperor Taiwu, fortunately, Emperor Taiwu's favored Zong Ai did not end, but from then on Zong Ai was extremely resentful of Tuoba Huang.
In 450 AD, Zong Ai found an opportunity to fabricate a case of attempted rebellion out of nowhere, involving dozens of officials and ministers, even the crown prince Tuoba Huang was suspected of participating in the rebellion, Emperor Taiwu executed dozens of officials and ministers, and the prince Tuoba Huang was repeatedly persecuted by Zong Ai during his imprisonment, and eventually died in prison.
In 452, Emperor Taiwu suddenly realized that he planned to execute Zong Ai, but before Emperor Taiwu could order the arrest of Zong Ai, Zong Ai took advantage of Emperor Taiwu's relaxation of vigilance to kill Emperor Taiwu, and claimed that Emperor Taiwu had died suddenly of illness. Zong Ai was not only lucky enough to escape death, but also continued to hold real power.
Since Emperor Taiwu did not change the title of crown prince after the death of Crown Prince Tuoba Huang, the throne became vacant after his death, and Manchu Wenwu discussed who would inherit the throne. According to the Northern Wei imperial succession system, the eldest son of the crown prince Tuoba Huang, that is, the emperor's grandson Tuoba Hao, should inherit the throne, but many ministers of culture and military affairs believed that Tuoba Hao was still very young and it was not easy to inherit the throne, and proposed that The third son of Emperor Taiwu, that is, Tuoba Han, the third brother of the crown prince Tuoba Huang, should inherit the throne.
Since Zong Ai persecuted the crown prince Tuoba Huang to death, he certainly did not want to be succeeded to the throne by emperor's grandson Tuoba Hao, and Zong Ai had always been at odds with crown prince Tuoba Han and did not want him to inherit the throne, so Zong Ai colluded with Tuoba Yu, the sixth son and youngest son of Emperor Taiwu, who was usually very bad, to secretly kill Tuoba Han, and then supportEd Tuoba Yu to inherit the throne.
Tuoba Yu was the most incompetent emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, indulging in wine and pleasure all day long, and the government threw it to Zong Ai to deal with, so Zong Ai was even more powerful, and no one in the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu dared to oppose him.
Although Tuoba Yu and Zong Ai colluded with each other to become emperors, he was worried that one day Zong Ai would endanger his throne, so he wanted to take the opportunity to eliminate Zong Ai, but the result was that Zong Ai was preemptive, but was killed by Zong Ai, at this time it was less than half a year before Tuoba Yu became emperor. Due to Tuoba Yu's fainting and incompetence, he did not have a temple number or a courtesy name after his death, and was called the King of Nan'an.
At this point, Zong Ai, the most ruthless eunuch in Chinese history, successively killed a crown prince Tuoba Huang, two emperors, Tuoba Tao, the emperor Of Taiwu, and Tuoba Yu, the king of Nan'an.
After Tuoba Yu's death, the 12-year-old emperor Tuoba Liu was still supported as emperor by the minister of culture and military affairs who confronted Zong Ai, and became the fifth emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, known as "Emperor Wencheng". Emperor Wencheng was well aware of Zong Ai's actions, and he had just inherited the throne, so he preemptively killed Zong Ai before Zong Ai attacked him, and was executed by five horses and divided the body, at this time the historical time is October 452 AD.
The Northern Wei eunuch Zong Ai, who killed the prince and the emperor, also killed many other people, and was eventually killed by the capital punishment of five horses and corpses, which can be regarded as the punishment he deserved.