After the death of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao first explained Hu Hai, then Li Si, the three of them planned the Dune coup, tampered with Qin Shi Huang's edicts, killed Fu Gong, Meng Tian, Meng Yi and all the other children of Qin Shi Huang, and finally Zhao Gao also killed Li Si, and even killed Jun, sending his son-in-law Yan Le to kill Qin II Hu Hai.
Zhao Gao interfered in politics as a eunuch, and finally thought of himself as an emperor, which is unique in the history of china for five thousand years, so to say that the most serious dynasty in which eunuchs interfered in politics is worthy of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Gao single-handedly destroyed the powerful Qin Dynasty, although he subjectively did not want to destroy the Qin Dynasty, but in a series of political processes, he unintentionally led to the demise of the Qin Dynasty.
Zhao Gaogan zheng
In addition to the Qin Dynasty, the dynasties in Chinese history where eunuchs were more seriously involved in politics include the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty.
First, the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty interfered in politics
The participation of eunuchs in the Eastern Han Dynasty in the imperial government began with the Han and Emperor Liu Zhao, the cause was the need for political struggle, the eunuch was pushed onto the political stage by the emperor as a political force, there are profound objective reasons, look at the story of how the Han and Emperor took the throne and seized power, you can understand how the eunuchs entered the political arena to participate in politics.
Han and Emperor Liu Zhao was the son of Emperor Liu Zhao of Han, Liu Zhao died at the age of 33, this age is considered to be a prime-age death, his son naturally will not be very old, Liu Zhao was only 10 years old when he was emperor, or a small child, could not participate in the government, so the government was controlled by his adoptive mother Empress Dou.
Empress Dou was a woman, and she lived in the deep palace, it was inconvenient to show her face, she wanted to control the government, she had to use her own people to serve as important officials, so Empress Dou used her mother's relatives, she reused her brother Dou Xian and the Dou clan, the Dou clan quickly formed a powerful foreign relative group in the middle of the dynasty, headed by Dou Xian, and its henchmen were all over the imperial court and localities.
Eastern Han eunuch and little emperor
Dou Xian, under the protection of Empress Dou, quickly took control of the state power of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and everyone was like this, once the power was in his hands, he began to run amok and fly around, Dou Xian's party cracked down on dissidents, the most serious thing was that Dou Xian actually dared to send assassins to kill the officials of the imperial court, Dou Xian killed Han Lu, a guru who had a vendetta against him, and also killed Liu Chang, the great-grandson of Liu Xiu, the brother of Emperor Guangwu, which was a rather serious crime, and Dou Xian dared to do so, which was completely lawless.
When Empress Dowager Dou learned of Dou Xian's behavior, she dismissed him from his official position, and later Dou Xian dai made meritorious contributions, led his army to defeat the Northern Xiongnu, and made a great contribution to Yanran Leshi, and then Dou Xian came to power again, and the official was a general, and his three younger brothers, one was The Governor Jinwu was in charge of the security of the capital, one was the Wei Wei, in charge of the palace guards, one was Guanglu Qing, in charge of the emperor's life, and the ministers inside and outside the imperial court were dependent on the Dou clan, otherwise they would be deposed and dismissed.
Han and the emperor united eunuchs in order to seize power
Emperor Han and Emperor He, who were in his teens at the time, witnessed all this and wanted to regain his own imperial power, but no one around him could believe that all the imperial court ministers were attached to Dou Xian, even his mother Empress Dou was on Dou Xian's side, and only eunuchs could trust the little emperor.
So Han and Emperor joined forces with reliable eunuchs to act together, taking advantage of Dou Xian's return to the capital, Han he and Emperor personally went to the Northern Army barracks to order the city gates to be closed, arrested Dou Xian's party, ordered them to return to the fiefdom, and forced Dou Xian to commit suicide, Han he emperor used eunuchs to kill foreign relatives and a party, after that, Han he and emperor reused a number of eunuchs, but at this time the eunuchs did not interfere in the government, but as the emperor's cronies in the harem to convey edicts and manage the harem.
But the Han and emperors made a head, after the Han and emperors, the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty was generally not old enough to take the throne, the youngest was only three months after birth to become the emperor, and there were 2 years old, 8 years old and teenage years old as the emperor, the emperor was young, could not be pro-government, the power fell into the hands of the empress dowager, the empress dowager will be important to the mother's relatives, will form a foreign relatives dictatorship, the little emperor grows up, want to regain his rights, and then have to unite with the eunuchs to crack down on the foreign relatives group, so in the Eastern Han Dynasty formed a vicious circle, At the same time, it led to the strength of three political forces, namely foreign relatives, royalty, and eunuchs.
Eastern Han eunuchs began to be reused
The fundamental reason why the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty interfered in politics was: the emperor borrowed the power of eunuchs to attack the forces of foreign relatives, the emperor believed in eunuchs, did not believe in foreign relatives, eunuchs as the emperor's cronies were dependent on the imperial power, most of the eunuchs in the Eastern Han Dynasty held power without political appeals, eunuchs had no descendants, they only knew how to accumulate wealth and maintain their status, and they would not pose a threat to the emperor politically.
The eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty were completely carried up by the emperor, and the emperor hoped to use the power of eunuchs to balance the forces of foreign relatives and form a political balance to maintain the rule of the emperor, so although the Eastern Han Dynasty produced too many small emperors, it also maintained the state of 195, once there were no eunuchs, the Eastern Han Dynasty would immediately perish, for example, after the death of the Han Ling Emperor, the foreign relative He Jin was killed by the eunuchs, and the eunuchs were killed by the scholar class, the eunuchs disappeared, and the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty became a puppet until it perished.
Eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty could not directly interfere in the politics of the dynasty, mostly indirectly by speaking around the emperor or the empress, and the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty also controlled part of the military power in the later period, and once became one of the most powerful political forces, precisely because of the strength of the eunuchs, the scholar class tended to support the foreign clique and jointly attack the eunuchs, which eventually led to the demise of the eunuch clique.
2. Eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty interfered in politics
After the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, from the Three Kingdoms to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was no situation of eunuchs interfering in politics, and there was no eunuch interference in politics in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, until the tang Xuanzong period, there began to appear eunuchs interfering in politics, Tang Xuanzong had a famous eunuch named Gao Lishi, because he had been assisting Tang Xuanzong to rely on politics to become an emperor, so he was trusted and valued by Tang Xuanzong, and Gao Lishi was the first eunuch in the Tang Dynasty to intervene in the government.
Gao Lishi was in charge of the affairs of the internal service province, and with the acquiescence of Tang Xuanzong, he could even approve simple chapters and interfere in the affairs of the dynasty, and Gao Lishi eventually became a general on horseback, becoming a red man in front of Tang Xuanzong and becoming the object of attachment to the magnates.
Tang Dynasty eunuch Gao Lishi
During the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong did not trust the military generals everywhere, and sent many of his close eunuchs to the army as supervisors, in fact, to monitor the military generals, during this period, the eunuchs interfered in more people and things, many eunuchs relied on the opportunity to be a supervisor of the army to ask for bribes from the military generals, and if the bribes failed, the eunuchs simply framed them directly, such as the eunuch Bian Lingcheng, because the bribe could not be killed, the two famous generals Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi.
After Tang Xuanzong opened the head of reusing eunuchs, the later Tang emperors also began to reuse eunuchs, for example, there was a Li Fuguo during the Tang Suzong period, because of the merits of Tang Suzong, and later he also achieved the marshal's palace marching Sima and began to control the military power, to the Tang Dynasty Emperor period, Li Fuguo was again named Zhongshu Ling, both military power and political power, became the climax of eunuchs interfering in politics, and was later killed by Tang Dynasty sect assassins.
During the tang dezong period, there was a Jingyuan mutiny, although this matter was quelled, but there was a consequence, Tang Dezong handed over the military power of the Shen Ce army to the eunuchs, from then on, the Shen Ce army under the management of the eunuchs, became an army in the hands of eunuchs, the eunuchs had military power in their hands, began to intervene in the regime, the eunuchs in the later period could even depose the emperor, even the emperor had to look at the eunuchs' eyes, and even the eunuchs killed the king, such as Tang Jingzong Li Zhan was killed by the eunuchs.
Gao Lishi and Tang Xuanzong
The power of eunuchs in the Tang Dynasty was the strongest of all the dynasties in China, in the final analysis, it was due to the fact that the Tang Emperor did not trust the military generals, and the use of eunuchs was caused by the tang Dynasty since the Anshi Rebellion, successive emperors did not trust the military generals, preferring to trust the eunuchs rather than trust the military generals, the emperor let the eunuchs control the military power, and the direct national army became the eunuch's private army, the eunuchs had the army, and the emperor naturally could not fight the eunuchs.
The tang dynasty's local system is also a system of moderation, local generals support the army and respect themselves, but also often rebel, from the beginning of the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty's feudal towns have always been abandoned to the imperial court, the emperor will not trust the military generals even more, in order to control the power, the emperor reuses eunuchs, in addition, there is no other force.
However, several emperors of the Tang Dynasty could not fully control the military power controlled by eunuchs due to their ability problems, especially after the death of the old emperor, his eunuch cronies became a threat to the new emperor, unless the emperor was supported by eunuchs, and the history of the Tang Dynasty was also repeated in this way.
Tang eunuchs could even depose emperors
The reason for the problem of eunuchs interfering in the government of the Tang Dynasty was that the emperor did not trust the military generals and appointed close eunuchs to control the military power, but this appointment was out of control with the death of the emperor, posing a threat to the next emperor, and in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the emperor and the eunuchs have been competing for power, either the eunuchs were killed by the emperor, or the emperor was suspended or deposed by the eunuchs.
The difference between tang eunuchs and eastern han eunuchs is that eastern han eunuchs are attached to and loyal to the emperor, are on the same front as the emperor, and will not pose a threat to the emperor, while the tang eunuchs, for the sake of power and status, do not hesitate to attack the emperor, and even compete with the emperor for power, the fundamental reason is that they control the military power, and the tail is too big to fall.
3. Eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty interfered in politics
The situation of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty was different, during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, eunuchs were strictly forbidden to interfere in politics, and in the ming dynasty Zhu Di period, a secret service agency of the East Factory was set up, directly led by eunuchs, and in the Ming Xianzong period, the West Factory was set up, and the duty of the East Factory and the West Factory was to supervise and suppress smuggling, which was to directly give the eunuchs the power of supervision, judicial power and law enforcement power, and the eunuchs could arrest ministers and people at will and conduct trials, and they were also responsible for monitoring hundreds of officials, which was to interfere in the government of the dynasty.
Eunuch of the Ming Dynasty
However, the power of eunuchs can be more than this, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty are directly involved in politics, during the Ming Xuanzong period set up the eunuch Bingbi, and gradually formed an institutionalization, the Ming Dynasty has a cabinet responsible for deliberating on politics, and then the results of the discussion of politics should have been approved by the emperor, but the emperor gave this power to the eunuch Bingbi, so that the eunuch can participate in politics, especially in the middle and late period, when the emperor does not pay attention to political affairs, basically the eunuch is criticizing the red, which is equivalent to the eunuch replacing part of the imperial power, which is the political power of the eunuch.
In summary, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had the power of supervision, the judicial power, the law enforcement power, and the right to approve the red (to participate in the regime), in addition, there were some eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty who were involved in military power, such as the great eunuch Wang Zhen during the Ming Yingzong period, who failed in the tumu fort rebellion, resulting in the emperor being captured, but the military power was also for a while, most of the time did not control the military power, and there were several famous eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, such as Wei Zhongxian and Liu Jin, who were all powerful.
Wei Zhongxian and the Chongzhen Emperor
Although the power of the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty is great, it is also very easy to beat them, that is, the emperor's words, because the political system of the Ming Dynasty is more perfect than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, although the eunuchs have great power, but they do not have military power, the East Factory, the West Factory, and the Jinyi Guards are not strictly speaking regular troops, calling them police forces or gendarmes is more accurate, in politics the cabinet can also balance the eunuchs, the Ming Dynasty can often see the clique of civil officials fighting with the eunuchs, the two sides are evenly matched, and the emperor benefits from it.
Although Liu Jin's power was overwhelming, he was easily destroyed by Emperor Wuzong of Ming, don't look at how powerful Wei Zhongxian is, even if he is nine thousand years old, as long as the Chongzhen Emperor gives an order, he will immediately take down Wei Zhongxian, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty supports the eunuchs, the eunuchs can monopolize power, once the emperor wants to destroy the eunuchs, the eunuchs immediately fail, and they cannot be compared with the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty.
The reason why the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty interfered in the government was the connivance of the emperor, the emperor also used the eunuchs to attack the civilian official clique and maintain balance, although the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were powerful, but there were also forces to balance them, and the eunuchs did not have military power, it was easy to be eliminated, in the final analysis, the politics of the Ming Dynasty was more stable, avoiding the dominance of any political force.