In the first month of the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, the Shunzhi Emperor died. His death is controversial , and the canonical history records that he died of illness rather than monasticism. Although Shunzhi did not become a monk, he once arranged for a close eunuch to become a monk, and this person was named Wu Liangfu. Wu Liangfu's ordination time was the second day of the first lunar month in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, which was the period when Shunzhi was seriously ill. Why did Wu Liangfu become a monk?
Is Wu Liangfu's renunciation the meaning of Shunzhi? First, Shunzhi had the intention of becoming a monk, but he could not realize it as an emperor, so he found someone to become a monk for him. Wu Liangfu has been following him, so he is regarded as the only candidate. The second Shunzhi knew that he was seriously ill, and sent Wu Liangfu to become a monk to let the Buddha "bless" himself to recover as soon as possible. The third situation is that Shunzhi feels that he is going to die, Wu Liangfu knows a lot of things, and arranging for him to become a monk before Shunzhi dies is to protect Wu Liangfu in disguise.
However, not long after Shunzhi's death, Kangxi killed Wu Liangfu. The Draft History of the Qing Dynasty records that Kangxi killed Wu Liangfu, but he was only eight years old at the time. The person who was able to make this decision was Kangxi's grandmother, Empress Xiaozhuang. Why was Wu Liangfu killed shortly after Kangxi ascended the throne? First he persuaded Shunzhi to establish thirteen yamen. There were very few eunuchs in the imperial palace before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, and the affairs of the imperial family were taken care of by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As Wu Liangfu gradually gained shunzhi's trust, he suggested that the emperor manage internal affairs in the tenth year of shunzhi.
Wu Liangfu suggested that the emperor change the internal affairs office to thirteen yamen, so that Wu Liangfu could smoothly become the chief eunuch. Out of trust in Wu Liangfu, Shunzhi agreed to his request, and the Interior Ministry was reformed. At that time, Shunzhi made it clear that eunuchs were not allowed to make friends with officials, and if eunuchs interfered in politics, they would be killed. Secondly, in the fifteenth year of Shunzhi, Wu Liangfu's crime of befriending the chancellor was disclosed, implicating the university scholar Chen Zhiyi and others. Later, Shunzhi protected Wu Liangfu, but instead dismissed Chen Zhixuan from office, but Wu Liangfu did not have anything to do.
From this, we can see that Wu Liangfu was killed mainly for the following reasons: reforming the Interior Ministry to undermine the system and colluding with officials for personal gain. There is also a theory that Wu Liangfu instigated Shunzhi to become a monk, because Xiaozhuang's opposition caused Shunzhi to make Wu Liangfu a monk, and Xiaozhuang hated Wu Liangfu so much. But then again, if Shunzhi became a monk, Wu Liangfu would lose his authority and would not be good for himself, saying that there was still a loophole in saying that he instigated Shunzhi to become a monk.
Later, the Qing Dynasty not only killed Wu Liangfu but also abolished the Thirteen Yamen and restored the original internal affairs system. Why Xiaozhuang killed Wu Liangfu was also because he destroyed the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty, the ancestral system of the Manchus could not be changed, and Wu Liangfu changed the duties of the Internal Affairs Office without authorization, which made Xiaozhuang intolerable, and it was also one of the reasons why he was killed.