Why was Wei Zhongxian able to change from a street gangster to a powerful eunuch?

Why was Wei Zhongxian able to change from a street gangster to a powerful eunuch?

Wei Zhongxian (魏忠贤), courtesy name Guanwu, was a native of Suning (present-day Suning County, Cangzhou, Hebei) and a eunuch of the late Ming Dynasty. After the palace, he changed his name to Li Jinzhong, and the later emperor gave him the name Wei Zhongxian. During the reign of Emperor Mingxi, he served as a eunuch of Si Li Bingbi and was extremely favored and was known as "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years Old". He excluded dissidents and arbitrarily ruled the country so that people "knew only that there were loyalists, but not that there was an emperor."

After Zhu Youjian succeeded to the throne, he cracked down on and punished the castration party, punished Wei Zhongxian for ten major crimes, arrested and punished him, And Wei Zi hanged himself, and Yu Dang was also purged.

When Wei Zhongxian was young, his family was poor, he was mixed in the streets, he could not read, but he knew how to shoot arrows and ride horses; he liked gambling, was obsessed with wine, and often gambled with a group of evil teenagers, once, after gambling a big loss, he felt very distressed, so he hated himself and changed his name to Li Jinzhong. Because he had become acquainted with the eunuchs in the palace earlier, it was rumored that he had not purified his whole body and still had a testicle. Later, he changed his original surname back to Wei Zhongxian and was given the name Wei Zhongxian by the emperor.

Wei Zhongxian was elected to the palace during the Wanli Dynasty, subordinate to the eunuch Sun Xian and entered the Jia Zi Library by marrying Sun Xian . He also asked to be the mother of the emperor's eldest grandson, Wang Cairen, and joined the Wei Dynasty. The Wei Dynasty praised Wei Zhongxian to Wang An many times, and Wang An also treated him kindly.

The nursing mother of the emperor's eldest grandson was called Keshi, who had always served the Wei Dynasty privately, which was the so-called food relationship, and after Wei Zhongxian entered the palace, the Keshi colluded with him, so that the Keshi coldly met the Wei Dynasty, and loved Wei Zhongxian, and the two formed a deep relationship.

In the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, in the first year of Taichang (1620 AD), Zhu Yijun of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Changluo of the Ming Guang Sect died within one month, and Zhu Youxiao took the throne as Emperor Xizong, and the following year, he changed the Yuan Heavenly Revelation.

Wei Zhongxian and Keshi were favored by Emperor Mingxi, and within a month, Feng Keshi was made Lady Fengsheng, and her son Hou Guoxing, younger brother Ke Guangxian, and Wei Zhongxian's brother Wei Zhao were made Jinyi Wei Qianhu. Soon, Wei Zhongxian was promoted from the Rank of Salary Division to the position of Eunuch of Bingbi and Viceroy of Baohe and Sandian.

Wei Zhongxian was illiterate and was not allowed to enter the ceremonial supervisor as a rule, but because of keshi, he was able to make an exception.

In the first year of the Apocalypse (1621 AD), Zhu Yu gave the Keshi Xianghuotian an edict to Wei Zhongxian to record the merits of governing the tomb of the emperor. Yushi Wang Xinyi advised, but Zhu Yu did not listen.

When zhu you were married, Yushi Bizuo zhou and Liu Lan asked to send keshi out of the palace. Zhu Yu was in love with the school and said: "The empress is young and still needs the care of the old woman, and will talk about it after the emperor's burial." Shortly after Keshi left the palace, he was summoned again.

Wei Zhongxian monopolized the Ke clan and expelled the Wei Dynasty. He was also jealous of Wang An's presiding over the right path, and plotted to kill him and repudiate all the eunuchs under his name.

Keshi is vicious and vicious. Wei Zhongxian did not know the book, but he had a good memory, sexual suspicion was cruel and vicious, and he was flattered. The Emperor trusted these two men very much. The power of the two men was even more arrogant, and they used the Si Li Supervisor Wang Tiqian and Li Yongzhen, Shi Yuanya, Tu Wenfu and others as wings, and the people in the palace did not dare to rebel against them.

Yushi Zhou Zongjian, the attendant Chen Bangzhan, Yushi Ma Mingqi, and Hou Zhenyun tried their best to obstruct him, but they were all reprimanded.

In the event, Ni Sihui, Zhu Qinxiang, and Wang Xinyi also spoke to Zhu Youxiao, but they were all relegated to other places. None of them had pointed at Wei Zhongxian yet.

Wei Zhongxian persuaded Zhu Youxiao to choose a martial eunuch to make firearms to practice in the palace, and secretly colluded with the university scholar Shen Fei to help, and he also guided Zhu Youxiao to indulge in the promotion of voice tricks and dogs and horses to shoot and hunt. Liu Zongzhou, the chief of the Punishment Department, first impeached him, and Zhu Youxiao was furious, and it was only because of the university scholar Ye Xianggao's rescue that he was pardoned.

At the beginning, Emperor Mingshen Zhu Yijun had been in power for a long time, and he was tired of political affairs, and he did not approve many chapters. The courtiers gradually established portals, and they used the extreme and astonishing remarks as a fashion to use the dispute over the capital of the country to rebuke the palace ban. Ministers were impeached and attacked by officials and were often forced to retire from illness. Gu Xiancheng, the official Shangshu, lectured at Donglin Academy, and Dr. Hai Neishi followed him. The name "Donglin" began from this. Later, the three cases of "sacking", "red pill" and "moving the palace" occurred, and the entire imperial court seemed to be fighting a lawsuit. When confronted by the Donglin Party, the crowd regarded him as an evil party.

In the early years of the apocalypse, almost all the ministers were dismissed and dismissed, and people of insight worried that they would be too radical and that chaos would occur. After Wei Zhongxian's forces were formed, his party members really tried to rely on him to exclude the Donglin Party. Xu Dahua, Huo Weihua, and Sun Jie first attached themselves to Wei Zhongxian, and Liu Yijing and Shangshu Zhou Jiamu were all impeached by Sun Jie and left.

At that time, Ye Xianggao and Han Huoguang were assisting the government, Zou Yuanbiao, Zhao Nanxing, Wang Ji, Gao Panlong, and other officials were in high positions, zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, Huang Zunsu, and others were talking about the road, and they all went all out to preside over the Qing discussion, and Wei Zhongxian failed to succeed.

In the second year of the Apocalypse (1622 AD), Zhu Youxue commented on the Qingling Gong, and Yin Feng Wei Zhongxian's nephew commanded the Jinyi Wei. Commenting on Shen Yi's communication with Wei Zhongxian and Wei Zhongxian's Ke clan to Hui Shiyang and Shang Shu Wang Ji, they were both demoted. Just in time, it was hailing in early summer, and Zhou Zongjian said that the hail was not in season, caused by Wei Zhongxian's rumors and evil. Xiu Shuwen Zhenmeng and Taibu Temple Shaoqing Manchu Chaozhuan also said this one after another, and as a result, they were all deposed.

In the spring of the third year of the Apocalypse (1623 AD), Wei Zhongxian introduced Wei Guangwei, a personal friend, as a university scholar. Yushi Guo Gong attacked Zhou Zongjian, Liu Yijing, Zou Yuanbiao, Yang Lian, Zhou Chaorui, and others to protect Xiong Tingbi, saying that they had protected the traitors and evil people and had misled the country. Zhou Zongjian retorted that Guo Gong had been instructed by Wei Zhongxian, and Yushi Fang Da ren also assisted Zong Jian in attacking Guo Gong and Wei Zhongxian, but neither was able to win.

In the autumn of that year, Zhu Yu ordered The Jinyi officials who were sheltered by Wei Zhongxian and Ke's son Hou Guoxing to be hereditary. The Bingbu Shangshu Dong Hanru, the Zhongcheng Notes, and the Imperial History Wang Si Theory all advised each other, but Zhu Yu did not follow.

Wei Zhongxian was even more unscrupulous, increasing the internal exercise army to 10,000 people, wearing armor and entering the palace, and arbitrarily abusing him. He falsely preached the Holy Will and put Zhu Changluo's chosen servant Zhao Shi to death.

YuFei Zhang was pregnant, and Keshi plotted to kill her. He also removed the title of Concubine Li. Empress Zhang was pregnant, and Keshi shiji had her an abortion. Zhu Yu school therefore lacked heirs. Other victims were Concubine Feng Guiren and other concubines, as well as eunuchs such as Wang Guochen, Liu Kejing, ma Jian, and others. The secret of the Forbidden Palace cannot be fully understood. In the winter of that year, Wei Zhongxian also led the affairs of the East Factory.