Eunuchs, as a family of the court, often lead to spiritual distortions, and the joy of life is mostly limited to the desire for food and the struggle for power. Therefore, in the long history of ancient China, eunuchs were particularly eager for power.
Throughout Chinese history, it is not uncommon for eunuchs to control the government, especially in the Qin, Eastern Han, Tang and Ming dynasties. Such as Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty, Shan Chao, Tang Heng, Guan Ba, Su Kang, Cao Jie, Cao Teng of the Eastern Han Dynasty (Cao Cao's grandfather, Cao Pi posthumously named him Emperor Gao and became the only eunuch emperor in Chinese history), Gao Lishi, Li Fuguo, Ju Wenzhen, Wang Shoucheng, Qiu Shiliang, Tian Lingzi, Yang Fugong, Liu Jishu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Liu Jin, Wang Zhi, Wang Zhen, Wei Zhongxian and others in the Ming Dynasty are all representatives of eunuchs in power.
During the Tang Dynasty, the eunuch Tian Lingzi claimed to be the "father of the emperor", while during the Ming Xizong period, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian called himself "nine thousand years old", and his arrogance and domineering attitude can be seen. What is even more rare is that there are three eunuchs in Chinese history who have been named "kings with different surnames". Let's take a look at how they got this award.
1. [Li Fuguo (Tang Dynasty)]
Li Fuguo (704-762), formerly known as Jingzhong, was later given the name Huguo by the emperor and renamed Fuguo, and was a eunuch who leaned towards the government and the opposition during the Suzong period of the Tang Dynasty. Because of his high merit and exceeding the courtesy of the monarch and ministers, he was finally assassinated by the people sent by the Tang Dynasty. When he was young, he served as an attendant to the eunuch Gao Lishi, and although his appearance was strange and ugly, he was slightly literate and literate. At the age of forty, he began to manage the books of the court horses, and was later promoted to the rank of chamberlain to the crown prince Li Heng. In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Tang Xuanzong fled to Shu, and Li Jingzhong followed the crown prince Li Heng to Maweipo (now Xingpingxi, Shaanxi), where he urged the prince to kill Yang Guozhong and suggested that the army march north to Shuofang in order to revive the country. The crown prince Li Heng ascended the throne in Lingwu (southwest of present-day Lingwu, Ningxia), became Suzong, and honored Xuanzong of Tang as the emperor. Li Jingzhong was promoted to the marching Sima of the Marshal's Mansion because of his merits, and was deeply relied on by Suzong, and was given the name "Huguo", which was later renamed "Auxiliary State", and began to control the military and political power of the imperial court.
After Li Fuguo returned to Chang'an with Suzong, he was named the Duke of Yuguo and set up a "Prosecutor's Office" to monitor officials. The local officials of the Jingzhao Prefecture and the county, as well as the judicial trial, must be subject to his decision. Even the promulgation of the edict had to be signed by him before it could be executed, and no official in the DPRK and China dared to raise objections to it. The nobles of the clan even called him "Wulang", and the prime minister at the time, Li Kuo, also gave him the gift of his children and called him the "fifth father". When Emperor Xuanzong returned to Beijing, Li Fuguo suspected that Emperor Taishang had a conspiracy to restore him, so he forced Emperor Taishang to move to the Taiji Palace in the west in the first year of Shangyuan (760), and demoted or dismissed Xuanzong's cronies Gao Lishi and others.
In the first year of Baoying (762), Xuanzong died of depression, and Suzong was also seriously ill. Empress Zhang wanted to murder the crown prince Li Yu, and with Liyue King Li as the crown prince, she mobilized hundreds of eunuchs to control the palace. When Li Fuguo learned of this, he ordered the eunuch Cheng Yuanzhen to take the crown prince first, and launched a forbidden army to attack the palace and kill Empress Zhang and King Yue. Su Zong died on the same day due to excessive fright, and Li Fuguo then proclaimed the crown prince Li Yu as emperor (i.e., Tang Dynasty Emperor).
After Emperor Zong of the Tang Dynasty succeeded to the throne, in order to thank Li Fuguo for his support, he was named Sikong and Zhongshu Ling, making him the first eunuch prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, which also marked the beginning of the eunuch dictatorship in the Tang Dynasty. Since then, Li Fuguo has become more and more arrogant, claiming to be an "old slave who bullies the emperor", and even said to Daizong: "Your Majesty only needs to sit in the inner palace, and the affairs of the outer court will be handled by the old slave." In fact, he was asking Daizong to hand over the military and political power of the country to him. Hearing such arrogance, Daizong was displeased and decided to get rid of Li Fuguo. As a result, Daizong treated Fuguo favorably on the surface and called him "Shang's Father", but he secretly colluded with the eunuch Cheng Yuanzhen to replace the position of Sima of the Marshal's Mansion with Yao Ziang, grasped the military power of the forbidden army, and deprived Li Fuguo of his military power. Subsequently, Daizong dismissed Li Fuguo from his official position and named him King of Bolu. Soon after, someone assassinated him in the middle of the night, cutting off his head and throwing him into the toilet. In the end, he could only be buried with the head carved in wood instead of his real body, and posthumously presented to the Taifu, nicknamed "ugly".
2. [Tong Guan (Northern Song Dynasty)]
Tong Guan (1054-1126), the word Daofu (also known as Daofu), born in Kaifeng, entered the palace in the year of the weak crown, and became one of the "six thieves" in the Huizong period of the Northern Song Dynasty. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", Tong Guan "has a burly figure, a dignified appearance, more than ten beards under his chin, and strong muscles and bones like iron, which is very different from ordinary eunuchs." During the Shenzong period, after Tong Guan entered the palace, he studied under the eunuch Li Xian, a senior eunuch in the same township, and went to the front line with Li Xian, laying his military foundation, but he failed to stand out for a long time. It was not until after Zhezong that Huizong ascended the throne, and Tong Guan, who was nearly half a hundred years old, was finally reused by Huizong Zhao Ji because of his excellent work ability and the recommendation of Prime Minister Cai Jing.
Huizong once sent Tong Guanjian to the west to conquer the Xia Kingdom, and led an army of 100,000 to conquer the Qingtang Dynasty. When the army arrived in Huangchuan, due to a sudden fire in the palace, Huizong issued an edict ordering Tong Guan to return to the division. However, Tong Guan saw that the fighter plane had arrived, and resolutely decided not to obey the edict and continued to advance westward, and finally won a complete victory, capturing four states in a row. This feat was deeply appreciated by Huizong, and Tong Guan was exceptionally appointed as the envoy of Gyeongbok Hall and the observer of Xiangzhou. Soon, he was promoted to the envoy of the Wukang Army for his military exploits, and was awarded the honor of inspecting the school again for recovering the Jishi Army and Taozhou.
In the first year of Zhenghe (1111), Tong Guan was promoted to the rank of Inspector Taiwei (the highest position of military attache at that time) and concurrently served as the Privy Council (military head after the emperor), creating a precedent for eunuchs to preside over the Privy Council. Since then, Tong Guan has been ranked as the third duke, holding heavy troops, and has been fighting with foreign tribes Xia, Liao, and Jin in the northwest border for more than ten years. In the second year of Xuanhe (1120), Huizong sent Tong Guan to lead 150,000 troops as an envoy of Xuanfu to suppress the peasant rebel army of Fangla, and after more than 450 days of fierce fighting, more than 70,000 rebels were killed. Tong Guan was named the Taishi because of this merit, and the power leaned towards the government and the opposition, and the glory was incomparable. At that time, people referred to Cai Jing as "Gongxiang" and Tong Guanzun as "媪 (ǎo) Xiang".
In the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), Tong Guan was named the king of Guangyang County because of the recovery of the realm of Quanyan, commanding the army to guard the frontier and stationed in Dayuan. However, at that time, the Jin State had destroyed the Liao State and invaded the south. Seeing that the general trend had gone, Tong Guan fled back to Bianliang from Dayuan, and disobeyed Qinzong's order to stay in Bianjing, and accompanied Huizong on his southern tour. Therefore, Chen Dong, a university scholar, and others wrote a letter to impeach Cai Jing, Tong Guan and other six people as six thieves who misled the country.
Tong Guan's main crime is "resentment against Liaojin and creating a gap". However, in fact, the resentment of Liaojin was not formed by Tong Guan, and the gap was not created by Tong Guan. Tong Guan has been in charge of the army for 20 years, and although he has won and lost in the battles with Xia, Liao, and Jin, he has done his best and has not defected to the enemy. The death of the Northern Song Dynasty was actually caused by the inaction of Huizong, which led to the corruption of the imperial court and the collapse of the economy. An important reason why Tong Guan became the target of public criticism was that as a eunuch, most officials in the DPRK and China were prejudiced against him, and Tong Guan was arrogant and domineering, and he had grudges up and down. After the throne of Huizong, Qinzong ascended the throne, Tong Guan lost his backer, and was demoted three times in a row in the first year of Jingkang (1126). In July, he was demoted to the Jiyang Army (now Ya County, Hainan), and then charged with ten crimes, and was hunted down and beheaded by Zhang Cheng, the superintendent of the imperial history.
On the seventh day of the first month of September, Zhang Cheng's head escorting Tong Guan was hung high above the head of Bianjing City, causing a tide of spectators and a sensation in the capital. This eunuch who has been in charge of the army for the longest time, controls the most military power, and has the highest knighthood in Chinese history has ended his legendary life. Just one year later, the great tragedy in Chinese history - the "Jingkang Disaster" happened.
3. [Zongyu (Northern and Southern Dynasties)]
Zong Ai (401-452), a eunuch of the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although not as powerful as Wei Zhongxian of the Ming Dynasty, had great wealth and power, and was also a eunuch with great power in the Taiwu Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Zong Ai's origin is unknown, and his origin and place of origin are not recorded in the history books. He was brutally castrated for "crime", and then he was sent to the court of the Northern Wei Dynasty and became a low-level eunuch. In the imperial palace, Zong Ai did some chores, and because of his diligence and cleverness, he was later appointed as a regular attendant by Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao, and became a close eunuch by the emperor's side.
In the eleventh year of Taiping Zhenjun (450), Emperor Taiwu led a large army to attack Liu Song of the Southern Dynasty. The Northern Wei army was invincible and achieved an unprecedented victory in attacking the Song Dynasty in the south. In the first year of Zhengping (451), Emperor Taiwu rewarded his ministers on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and Zongai, who was a close confidant of the emperor, was named the Duke of Qin, becoming the first eunuch in Chinese history to obtain a duke.
Later, Emperor Taiwu went north and appointed the prince Tuoba Huang as the supervisor of the country, but Zong Ai intervened more in the prince, and had a gap with the prince's subordinates to enmity Ni Daosheng and Shilang Rencheng, Zong Ai was afraid that the prince's accession to the throne in the future would be unfavorable to him, so he launched a power struggle with the forces of the East Palace, relying on Tuobatao's trust to frame the prince and his subordinates with the intention of rebellion. Unexpectedly, Tuoba Tao believed him, and ordered the purging of the prince's mansion, and killed the prince's close ministers, the squire Ren Pingcheng and the revenge Ni Daosheng. The crown prince Tuoba Huang also became ill due to accumulated worries and died of illness at the age of 24. Later, Tuoba Tao knew that the prince was innocent, and he was very remorseful, and posthumously named Tuoba Huang as "Prince Jingmu", and named Tuoba Tao, the son of the prince, as the king of Gaoyang.
But as soon as Zong Ai saw this, he was worried that Emperor Taiwu would liquidate the person who framed the prince in front of him, so he didn't do it, and he didn't stop doing it, and first attacked Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao in March of the second year of Zhengping of the Northern Wei Dynasty (452). A rare heroic monarch in the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty died tragically at the hands of eunuchs, and Zong Ai also became the first eunuch in Chinese history to plot to kill the emperor.
After the death of Tuoba Tao, the imperial court wanted to set up the third prince Tuoba Han Dongping King as the emperor, but Zong Ai had a bad relationship with Tuoba Han, so he pretended to set up the queen's order and killed Tuoba Han; and pretended to be the queen's order, and killed the minister Shang Shufu who supported the king of Dongping, Wu Xinggong and Kai in the service and Taiyuan Gong Xue Ti in the service, and then set up the king of Nan'an (Wu Wang) Tuoba Yu as the emperor. Tuoba Yu knew that he was neither the eldest son nor the crown prince, and his ability to ascend the throne and become emperor was entirely due to the support of Zongai.
In order to express his gratitude, Tuoba Yu appointed Zong Ai as the Grand Sima, the Great General, the Grand Master, the Governor of the Chinese and Foreign Military, the Secretary of the Collar in the Middle School, and the title of King Feng Yi. As a result, Zong Ai became the number one minister of the country's military and political power, and he "ranked in Yuanfu, recorded the three provinces, and was also the chief of the ban, and sat on the secretary of state, and his power was getting worse day by day." Because Zong Ai's arbitrary dictatorship caused the worries and dissatisfaction of the ministers of the court, Tuoba Yu wanted to regain the imperial power, but was killed by Zong Ai. In just a few months, Zong Ai killed two emperors in a row, becoming the only eunuch in Chinese history to kill two emperors.
After General Zhenwei and Liu Ni learned of this, he immediately conspired with the prince and young Fu Youya, Shangshu Yuanhe in the palace, Shangshu Lu Li, and Shangshu Changsun Thirsty Marquis, and Youya, He Yuan, and Changsun Thirsty Marquis led by You Ya, He Yuan, and Changsun Thirsty Marquis to lead the forbidden army to guard the palace, and Lu Li and Liu Ni welcomed Emperor Sun Tuoba Jun into the palace and ascended the throne. Liu Ni led the forbidden army to the East Temple and captured Zong Ai and his henchman Jia Zhou. In order to repay Zongai for trapping his father, killing his ancestors, and killing his uncle, the new emperor Wencheng Emperor Tuoba Jun ordered that Zongai and his henchmen "have five punishments and raze three tribes" to show their hatred. This is known as "the craziest eunuch in Chinese history", and his life ended.
Eunuchs, as officials who served the emperor, monarch and their families in ancient times, were originally only responsible for court chores and were not allowed to participate in state affairs. However, because they were able to gain trust or seize opportunities because they were in constant contact with the royal family, there were cases in some dynasties where eunuchs held the power of state affairs.