preface
As a dynasty at the end of the feudal society, the Ming Dynasty not only reached the peak of the absolute monarchy system, but also the eunuchs were the main features of their power, and the well-known Wang Zhen, Wang Zhi, Liu Jin, and Wei Zhongxian were all well-known eunuchs at that time.
They arbitrarily took over the government, sold officials and knights, and enriched their own pockets, which brought extremely bad influence to the Ming Dynasty, and Wang Zhen opened the precedent of the ming eunuch dictatorship, which not only had a special background of the times, but also had the shortcomings of the system and mechanism, and Wang Zhen was personally inseparable.
Wang Zhenqiren - a talent who is willing to "self-palace" for the sake of becoming a big thing
Wang Zhen was born in an unknown date, a native of Wei County, Hebei Province, and when he was young, Wang Zhen was an ambitious young man who studied hard, and he dreamed that he would one day be able to be like the historical Wang Anshi, Kou Zhun, and Sima Guang, who had his ambitions in the political arena of Daming and be crowned marquis and worshipped.
But as a cloth cloth, he can only realize his dream through the imperial examination, but Wang Zhen's qualifications are really mediocre, and how many times he has taken the exam has finally fallen into the situation of a famous Sun Shan and a landing talent.
It seems that the road of keju is not feasible, according to common sense, he can only return to his hometown to be a private school, but Wang Zhen is a sharp breed, he is not willing to live a lifetime of obscurity, plain, just want to break out of the world, so he found another way and made a bold decision:
In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to studying and entering the civilian government to achieve soaring yellow tengda, you can also enter the palace as a eunuch and realize your ideal of wealth and nobility.
Because the eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty were well treated, and the eunuchs had their own set of bureaucratic promotion systems and twelve supervisors, of which the si li supervisor and the imperial horse supervisor were all high-powered and oily yamen, and they were no less than the civil officials of the imperial court.
But there is one more annoying thing, that is, if you want to become a eunuch, you must first go to the palace! Therefore, few men are willing to sacrifice their "life roots" in order to become officials, and only some families who are poor and desperate will enter the palace in this way.
But Wang Zhen is an exception, Wang Zhen belongs to the type of all that looks to power, so Wang Zhen decided to gamble.
He did not even wait for the formal castration procedure, his heart was fierce and fast, he castrated himself, and then smoothly entered the palace and became a eunuch with honor.
That year was the last year of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, who died not long after he entered the palace, and only ten months later, Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi, who had not sat on the throne and had served as a prisoner of the country for more than twenty years, also died of illness.
In 1425, Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne for Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, and Wang Zhen was appreciated by Zhu Zhanji because he was good at observing people's opinions, observing words and colors, plus a little understanding of literature and ink, and was soon appointed as the Eastern Palace Bureau Lang to serve the crown prince Zhu Qizhen, later Ming Yingzong.
This laid the groundwork for Wang Zhen's dictatorship in the future, and wang Zhen's era also provided preconditions for him.
"Mr. Wang" seized the historical opportunity and moved towards the ideal of career
Wang Zhen's later unauthorized power was inseparable from the eunuch system at that time, which was the hotbed for the Ming Dynasty's extremely characteristic imperial power dictatorship to provide a hotbed for eunuchs to chaotic government.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang imposed various restrictions on eunuchs, stipulating that eunuchs were not allowed to read, were not allowed to concurrently serve as foreign ministers, and did not hold offices more than four pins, and set up an iron plaque outside the palace gate, engraved with the words "Internal ministers shall not interfere in political affairs, and those who foresee them will be beheaded."
Therefore, the control of eunuchs in the early Ming Dynasty was very strict. However, by the time of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the situation had changed.
In the process of Zhu Di's successful capture of Jiangshan from his nephew Zhu Yunjiao in 1399, Zhu Di bribed a large number of eunuchs around Zhu Yunjiao to ventilate and deliver information to them, and eunuchs played a small role in it.
Therefore, after Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, he began to promote and appoint eunuchs, and the status of eunuchs gradually improved, for example, Zhu Di set up a secret service agency, the East Factory, and the eunuchs served as the governors, who specialized in prison and monitored the civil and military officials.
In addition, the great navigator Zheng He was also a eunuch, who made great achievements in the Battle of Jingnan and accepted the heavy responsibility of seven voyages to the West.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, the palace formally set up a eunuch school "Neishutang", and selected some clever and clever young eunuchs to study in the hall, and many eunuchs were able to understand the ink and literature roughly, and some even knew the past and the present, and the intention to help the pen was established.
As a result, the rules established by Zhu Yuanzhang that eunuchs could not read, and over time, the eunuchs who were responsible for serving the emperor's left and right participated in the government of the dynasty.
In the later period of Zhu Zhanji's reign, he gradually slackened off and indulged in fighting crickets, so he asked the eunuch of Si Li to approve the recital for him, which became a common practice over time, called "Approval Red", and the most powerful eunuch in the Si Li Supervisor was the Palm Seal Eunuch, followed by the Bingbi Eunuch.
Wang Zhen was elected to the crown prince during the rising stage of the eunuch's power, and Wang Zhen knew that the child around him was the future Emperor Daming, so he did his best to please the prince.
Moreover, he seriously taught the prince to read and write, very responsible, the two were inseparable, the relationship was very close, Zhu Qizhen even directly called him "sir" or Wang Companion.
In 1435, at the age of nine, Zhu Qizhen succeeded to the throne as Emperor Mingyingzong, and as the emperor's favorite and trusted eunuch, Wang Zhen was soon promoted to the position of eunuch of the Imperial Household.
At that time, the system of voting and approving red was already mature, and after the cabinet "drafted the vote" was submitted to the court, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi used a red pen to write the emperor's opinions on the chapter, called "approval of red", and finally examined and approved by the palm seal eunuch and handed over to the cabinet to write an edict for issuance.
Si Lijian actually became the emperor's spokesman, and Emperor Yingzong gave such an important official position to Wang Zhen, plus Emperor Yingzong was young, reclusive, and had little contact with foreign ministers.
This opens the way for Wang Zhen's future power, but this "ideal" is difficult to achieve at the moment, because there are two biggest obstacles in front of him.
Wang Zhen broke through the restrictions of the "Three Yangs" cabinet and Empress Zhang
Although Zhu Qizhen became emperor, because he was too young to personally handle state affairs, his grandmother, Empress Dowager Zhang (Empress Chengxiao Zhang), listened to the government, and the cabinet ministers "Three Yangs" (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang Pu) assisted in the administration.
Speaking of the "Three Yangs", before Zhu Qizhen succeeded to the throne, all three of them were the elders of the three dynasties of Zhu Di, Zhu Gaozi, and Zhu Zhanji, with high positions of power and power, and their protégés and former officials were all over the government and the public.
During his ten years as an assistant minister, he stabilized border defense, straightened out the administration of officials, and developed the economy, so that the national strength of the Ming Dynasty continued to develop along the peak track, and the status of the Cabinet Ministers of the Ming Dynasty was unprecedentedly improved, from the original emperor clerk to an auxiliary minister with the nature of a chancellor.
Each of them has experienced decades of ups and downs in the eunuch sea, especially the chief cabinet minister Yang Shiqi from the Battle of Jingnan to the open and secret struggle between the crown prince Zhu Gaoxu and his brother Zhu Gaoxu for the throne, and by the time of Zhu Qizhen, he had become the head of the civilian official clique.
Empress Dowager Zhang was even more powerful, she was the mother of Emperor Mingrenzong Zhu Gaoji, the mother of Emperor Mingxuanzong Zhu Zhanji, when she was the empress, she helped Zhu Gaozi handle government affairs, and the affairs of the court were clearly understood.
After becoming empress dowager, military affairs were more subject to her rulings, although Empress Zhang participated in the government, but she was upright, never allowed her family to participate in politics, and after Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, Zhang Shi was promoted to empress dowager.
Under the pleading of the "Three Yangs" and the imperial court ministers, he became the most powerful figure in the early days of Zhu Qizhen, so although Wang Zhen had become a eunuch in charge of the seal, he could only choose to be patient in the face of the situation of wolves before and tigers in the back.
In front of the "Three Yangs," they smiled and greeted each other, bowed their waists, and showed a humble and respectful look at all times; although Zhu Zhanji's team of ministers who had left behind was strong, they had a fatal weakness, that is, the age structure was old.
Yang Shiqi is already 70 years old, and Yang Rong and Yang Pu have already passed the age of Hua Jia, so Wang Zhen can wait patiently.
However, Wang Zhen's ambitions had long been seen through by the experienced Empress Dowager Zhang, and one day, Zhang Shi took a seat in the Ben Hall, and Emperor Yingzong stood facing west, summoning the British Gong Zhang Fu and Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang Pu and other old courtiers.
After encouraging the ministers to assist the emperor, he sent someone to summon Wang Zhen, and after Wang Zhen knelt down, Zhang Shi's face suddenly changed and he shouted:
"You wait for the emperor to obey the rules, and you should give death!"
The female officials beside them immediately placed their knives on Wang Zhen's neck, frightening Wang Zhen's body and trembling. Zhang's actions frightened Yingzong and several ministers, and they all knelt down to intercede for Wang Zhen, and Zhang spared him, but warned him:
"People like you, since ancient times, many people have misled the country, the emperor is young, where do you know!" Now because the emperor and the ministers have interceded for you, and spared you this time, if you commit another crime in the future, you will certainly be punished. ”
After that, Zhang often sent people to the cabinet to inquire about political affairs, and once he learned that Wang Zhen had decided to arbitrarily and had not been submitted to the cabinet for consultation, he immediately sent someone to summon Wang Zhen to rebuke him, so in Zhang's lifetime, Wang Zhen could not really be good at government.
Wang Zhen had no choice but to stop on the road of interfering in the government and politics, adopt the method of bending and seeking extension, wait for the opportunity, and change his strategy.
Instead of interfering directly in the affairs of the government, he further curryed favor with Emperor Yingzong, secretly made friends with courtiers, cultivated a large number of private parties, and gradually gained wings.
The most obvious is that in 1441, Wang Zhen entered the palace to participate in the banquet for the completion of the three major halls of Fengtian, Huagai, and Jinsheng, and when he first arrived outside the door, the hundred officials in the palace paid homage to him and welcomed him, which fully showed that although Wang Zhen was restricted by Empress Zhang and Sanyang, his power had gradually become stronger.
In 1442, Empress Dowager Zhang died of illness, Wang Zhen lost the person who had the most control over him, and Yang Rong of the Three Yangs died of illness in 1440.
Under Wang Zhen's drill camp, Yang Shiqi and Yang Pu became increasingly isolated, and With the death of Zhang, Wang Zhen's power grew, and hundreds of officials were arrested if they were dissatisfied, so that everyone in the courtiers was in danger, and Yang Shiqi could not stop it.
In order to consolidate his power, Wang Zhen began to attack Yang Shiqi and look for his handle, but Yang Shiqi's son was very uncontentious, and his son Yang Ji was arrogant and committed violent killing.
In 1442, at the behest of Wang Zhen, the imperial historians were impeached and fabricated to Yang Shiqi, who was nearly eighty years old and unable to fight, and he could only resign with an old illness when he was discouraged, and ended up depressed two years later.
After killing Yang Shiqi, the remaining elderly Yang Pu was inferior to Yang Rong and Yang Shiqi in terms of seniority and prestige and scheming, and there was no need to worry at all.
In this way, all the conditions for Wang Zhen's abuse of power were ripe, and after removing all the obstacles that prevented him from taking power, the first thing he did was to take off the iron plaque that Zhu Yuanzhang hung on the palace door that prohibited eunuchs from interfering in political affairs.
Subsequently, he built a mansion for himself in the capital, and wang Zhen, who was once a poor talent, finally realized his dream of becoming an extremely popular subject and becoming popular.
Subsequent
After taking power, Wang Zhen's greedy nature was gradually exposed, and he used the power in his hands to form a party for personal gain, vigorously promoting those who sneaked up on horses and flattered each other; On the one hand, it brutally suppresses those who oppose themselves and disrespect themselves.
At the same time, he also accepted bribes and embezzled everywhere, and when Wang Zhen died without his family property, there were more than sixty libraries of gold and silver alone, more than a hundred jade plates, more than twenty coral trees six or seven feet high, and countless other treasures, which showed the extent of his corruption and bribery.
In 1449, Wang Zhen instigated Zhu Qizhen to personally conquest Vala, but after a fierce defeat at Tumu Fort, known in history as the change of Tumu Fort, Wang Zhen himself was also beaten to death with an iron cone by the escort general Fan Zhong, which can be described as evil retribution.
However, the ming dynasty's autocratic system was destined to continue the eunuch chaos, and Daming was in decline in the mutual consumption of the civilian official group and the eunuch group.