Foreign relatives and eunuchs took turns to monopolize power, on the one hand, the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty became darker and more decaying, causing social unrest, and the Eastern Han Dynasty came to the brink of collapse; On the other hand, foreign relatives and eunuchs held the power of selecting officials, reversing right and wrong, confusing black and white, and blocking the way for scholars to advance to become officials.
The loyalists were full of resentment and dissatisfaction, so they opposed the monopoly of foreign eunuchs and demanded political reforms to maintain the faltering Eastern Han Dynasty.
At that time, the main body opposing the unauthorized camp of foreign eunuchs was a group of upright and enlightened bureaucrats inside and outside the imperial court.
In addition, there were also some scholars, that is, Tai students who were studying in Taixue at that time and apprentices who studied in various counties and counties.
Foreign relatives and eunuchs controlled various political institutions from the central to the local level, and the electoral irregularities were very serious.
For example, at the time of Emperor Shun, Yin Tianxin of Henan should nominate six "filial pieties" according to the system.
He said to his nephew Wang Chen: I have received many letters from your ministers, which cannot be rejected, and can only let you find a real talent to contribute to the country.
It can be seen that at that time, this kind of request was already a common thing, and some powerful and powerful sages had no way to advance to the sky, and had to look at the sky and sigh.
How many bureaucrats like Wang Chen were there at that time?
How many qing officials can still think about the country's talents?
Therefore, there is a proverb circulating in the folk: "Show your talents, but you don't know books." Cha Xiao Lian, the father does not dwell. Han Su is as white as mud, and Gaudilian will be timid as a chicken. ”
Another person helplessly wrote: "The wind stirs the grass, and the rich and noble are called virtuous." Although the literature is full, it is better to have a bag of money. ”
The selected xiucai has no knowledge, the filial piety cited is unwilling to support his parents, and the brave soldiers selected are timid as chickens.
At the beginning of Emperor He's reign, Empress Dowager Dou was in charge of the dynasty, and dou Xian's brothers held the power of the court with tianxian in their mouths, and they were arrogant and lascivious, and they were adulterous, which aroused the dissatisfaction and opposition of some upright bureaucrats at that time.
Situ Yuan An, Sikong Renkui, and others took measures to crack down on foreign forces and dismissed more than forty prefecture and county officials who were close to foreign relatives.
After Emperor He's death, Sikong Zhouzhang attempted to launch a coup d'état because of his opposition to Empress Deng's dictatorship, and was eventually forced to commit suicide.
In the last years of Emperor An, the dispute between eunuchs and foreign relatives made the politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty even more corrupt.
The eunuch Yang Zhen and others repeatedly wrote letters to protest the disruption of politics by foreign relatives and eunuchs, and as a result, Yang Zhen was also deposed and finally committed suicide in anger.
Since then, there has been another policy by Li Gu, demanding that the government abandon foreign relations, return the government to the state, dismiss eunuchs, remove their heavy powers, and forbid the children of eunuchs from participating in politics.
Also, when the Eastern Han government sent Du Qiao and eight other people to divide the prefectures and counties, the attendant Shi Zhang Gang refused to accept the order, buried the wheel in the Luoyang Pavilion, and publicly declared: The jackal is in charge, and an asks the fox? Impeachment of the Liang Ji brothers.
Their actions can be described as a stone stirring up a thousand waves, and the government and the opposition are shaken by it.
During the reign of Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling, foreign relatives and eunuchs further controlled the government, which was ferocious and tyrannical, which aggravated political corruption and social crisis. Politics was darker at the time.
The dictatorship of eunuchs seriously hindered the normal way for intellectuals to enter the military.
The students who were originally in the reserve army of officials felt that their future was uncertain, that they had no way to serve the country, and that they were extremely indignant.
In order to eliminate the power of eunuchs and save the crumbling Eastern Han Dynasty, many people who were worried about the country participated in the administration and discussion of politics with great enthusiasm with great enthusiasm.
At the same time, a large number of upright officials in the DPRK also actively took action to support the movement of the Tai students.
As a result, the two forces united to form a powerful social force, which fought against the eunuch forces in various ways.
In this struggle against foreign eunuchs, qing deliberation was the main means used.
The so-called Qing deliberation was originally a comment by the people on someone's moral conduct.
When the Eastern Han government selected officials, the government should, on the basis of the townships' deliberations, recruit those filial and honest people who abided by feudal ethics and morality to enter the army.
Therefore, one can see one's own value and social status from the deliberations.
It is precisely because of this that some celebrities who are good at observing and commenting on characters are respected by everyone.
Their praise and disparagement of the characters to a large extent influenced the public opinion in the countryside, influenced the inspection system at that time, and had a considerable impact on the career of the scholars.
Guo Tai was such a famous scholar, very popular and respected by the people at that time.
There is also the famous scholar Xu Shao and his brother Xu Jing, who also like to evaluate the characters together, and often evaluate the township party figures on the first day of each month, so they call it "Yuedan Appraisal".
In order to manipulate and monopolize the entry of the people, some big bureaucrats and door valve clans have vigorously advocated the elimination of deliberations, and they also have great respect for those celebrities who are longer than Zang.
It should be said that under the extremely corrupt political situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, the Qing deliberations could more or less play a role in stirring up the Qing Dynasty.
At the same time, it also reflects the enthusiasm of people at that time to care about society and participate in politics, showing the power of public opinion and morality.
At that time, some officials in Beijing, such as Li Bing, Chen Fan, Wang Chang, and others, also actively supported the activities of the students, so they were supported by the students.
The tai students greatly respected their character and style, and all praised them in unison: Li Yuanli, the model of the world, was not afraid of Chen Zhongju (i.e., Chen Fan), and The world's junxiu Wang Shumao (i.e., Wang Chang).
Li Bing (李膺), courtesy name Yuanli, was a famous celebrity leader who was known for not shying away from being strong and powerful.
When he was the assassin of Qingzhou, the county sheriff was afraid of his prestige and abandoned the official.
When he was serving as a general of the Liao Dynasty, some ethnic minority nobles went so far as to take advantage of his prestige and sent back the male and female populations that had plundered in Zhangye and other border counties.
Especially when he was a lieutenant colonel, he was known for his law enforcement and not shying away from the strong.
The younger brother of the eunuch Zhang Rang, Zhang Shuo, served as a county commander under him, and Pingsu was greedy and tyrannical, doing no evil, and even killing pregnant women for fun.
When he heard that Li Bingguan had been reinstated, he was very frightened and fled to the capital city of Zhang Rang to hide in his home.
After Li Bing learned the news, he personally led his officials to search Zhang Rang's home, captured Zhang Shuo, and sentenced him to death after interrogation.
Zhang Rang was angry and hateful, and ran to Emperor Huan to file a complaint.
Emperor Huan summoned Li Bing and asked him what had happened.
Li Bing replied: I was worried that I would make a mistake by doing things too late, but I did not expect to be guilty of doing things quickly. Now that I know I have sinned, I only beg His Majesty to give me a little more time to bring the culprits to justice, and then I will be willing to die.
After Emperor Huan listened, he had nothing to say, and finally, he had to say to Zhang Rang: Your brother is guilty, what is the fault of Si Li?
Li Bing was acquitted.
After that, the eunuchs were very afraid of Li Bing, they were cautious everywhere, and they did not even dare to go out of the gate on holidays, and Emperor Huan also felt strange and asked what was going on.
The eunuch replied, "I am afraid of Colonel Lee."
Others admired Li Ping very much because he dared to attack the eunuchs, especially the scholars, believing that if they could receive Li Bing's reception, it would be a great honor, and called him "Denglongmen".
At that time, Zhang Cheng, a powerful man from Hanoi Commandery (河nei Commandery) (in present-day Wuzhixi, Henan), knew a little bit of magic, and he befriended eunuchs, who recommended him to Emperor Huan.
As a result, Zhang Cheng was overwhelmed and acted recklessly. He knew that the imperial court was about to issue an amnesty order, instructing his son to kill people at will.
When Li Bing heard about it, he was very angry, and despite the fact that the amnesty order had been issued, he still sentenced Zhang Cheng's son to death according to law.
The eunuch Hou Lan and others instigated Zhang Cheng's disciples to write a letter falsely accusing Li Bing of contacting the students and disciples of various counties, "for the sake of the ministry party, slandering the imperial court, and suspecting customs."
Emperor Huan became angry, and in the ninth year of Yanxi (166), he ordered the arrest of the party members.
More than 200 people, including Li Bing and Chen Shi, were taken in for trial.
Tai Wei Chen vigorously advised and refused to accept the case, pointing out that doing so was no different from burning books and pit Confucianism.
Emperor Huan became even more angry and ordered Chen Fan's removal.
Later, under the pressure of public opinion, Emperor Huan had to release the party members and pardon them back to the fields, but he also explicitly stipulated that the party members would be imprisoned for life, all of them would be dismissed, and they would not be allowed to become officials again.
This is the famous "party affair."
After the danggong incident, the scholar was moved by the wind.
They added to the different names of the three kings, eight and eight jun, eight gu, and so on, who were imprisoned by the power of eunuchs.
Fan Huan returned home from prison, and his hometown father and elders greeted him with thousands of vehicles. The son of Shi Jingyi was a student of Li Bing and was not implicated because he was not included in the roster.
Jing Yi took the initiative to ask for the dismissal of officials and return home.
The General Ofeliao Huangfu was not included in the party ban as a celebrity, but he declared his relationship with the party members and asked for a seat together, saying: I have recommended Zhang Yi before, and I am the one who supports the party; When I was sentenced to military service, Zhang Feng, a student of the Tai Dynasty, had complained about my grievances, but I was echoed by the Party, and I should be punished.
Although in the end Emperor Fugui and others were not punished by the imperial court, they were appreciated by the people.
Because of this, the antagonism between them and the powerful eunuchs of the imperial court was even higher, which greatly shocked the feudal rulers.
Zhang Jian, known as one of the Eight And, was then serving as the governor of the eastern part of Shanyang Commandery (山阳郡; present-day Juyedong, Shandong).
The eunuch Hou Lan (侯览), a native of Fangdong (防東, in present-day Jinxiang, Shandong), was a lieutenant of Emperor Huan in his early years, and later, he participated in the killing of Liang Ji and was given the title of Marquis of Gaoxiang for his merits.
From then on, Hou Lan held great power and could not live forever.
According to historical records, Hou Lan plundered more than one million hectares of people's land and 381 houses, and built a total of 16 districts.
Each mansion has high-rise buildings and ponds, rare birds and animals, and pavilions lined up one after another, just like the emperor's forbidden palace.
Hou Lan's family relied on his power in the township to run amok and brutalize the people, which was deeply hated by the local people.
Zhang Jian exposed his crimes, ordered his punishment, and wrote to the imperial court to punish Hou Lan.
However, the letter was withheld by Hou Lan and did not reach the emperor.
From then on, Hou Lan was very jealous of Zhang Jian.
In the second year of Jianning (169), Hou Lan instructed Zhu, a compatriot of Minya and Zhang Jian, and falsely accused Zhang Jian of forming a party with twenty-four people from the same county, endangering the Sheji Jiangshan.
The eunuch Cao Jie then motioned to the relevant departments to implicate Li Ping and other people who had been imprisoned last time, and asked the emperor to punish the party members.
At that time, the young and ignorant Ling Emperor did not know what a party member was, and the eunuch Cao Jie told him that the party members wanted to seize the power of the country.
At this moment, the Spirit Emperor finally understood, this is enough, we must re-treat them.
Therefore, Emperor Ling issued an edict, and more than a hundred people, including Li Bing and Fan Huan, were arrested and died in prison, their wives and children migrated to the side, and those involved were imprisoned by the five tribes.
Zhang Jian fled the disaster to the north, and it is said that he was covered by many people on the way out, and many people funded to help.
Later, the government tracked down and hundreds of people were implicated and their families were destroyed; Coupled with the fact that some people with ulterior motives framed others, or some local officials deliberately expanded, in the end, a total of six or seven hundred people died, exiled, and deposed and imprisoned.
The scourge of the party has continued for more than ten years, and the scope of the series and the scope of the blows has reached an incomparable degree.
It was not until the first year of Zhongping (184), after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, that the Eastern Han government announced a pardon for the Party members and used them to suppress the peasant uprising.
The party is a struggle within the ruling class and a way of redistributing the power of the ruling class.
It is a political movement of intellectuals and bureaucrats on an unprecedented scale in ancient China, and it is also a struggle between good and evil.
At that time, those party members who were not afraid of violence, worried about the country and the people, and full of ideals were deeply admired by future generations, and their demeanor added luster to Chinese intellectuals.