preface
Eunuchs existed in China's feudal history for a long time, and their influence has become a key point in the rise and fall of many feudal historical dynasties.
Throughout the history of dynasties, the most prominent eunuch problems belonged to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
These three dynasties all appeared to varying degrees as indispensable and incomparable eunuch forces. The decline of these three dynasties can also be said to be inseparable from the chaotic, decadent and dilapidated eunuch dictatorship.
The Twenty-Second Chronicle of History says: "The eunuchs of the three generations of the Han and Tang Dynasties were the most harmful, and the Tang Dynasty, the power of the eunuchs was above the lord of man, and the establishment of the king, the killing of the king, and the abolition of the king, there were the same children's play." Eunuchs are like poisonous beasts, known to people for thousands of years. "
This article is aimed at the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty, and the eunuchs in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the reason why they were chosen in this time period is because in the first and middle periods of the Tang Dynasty, due to the rising power of the imperial power, and the country is constantly developing, the four seas are harmonious, so the phenomenon of some prominent forces coming out to cause chaos in the government is still not so obvious.
In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong Tianbao, for various reasons, eunuchs gradually emerged to interfere in the government. The problem of eunuchs during the Tang Dynasty was also very prominent, but while it was constantly causing chaos in the government, eunuchs, as the closest people to the emperor, became the main responsible person of the emperor's control and monitoring of various forces, so to a certain extent, eunuchs played a certain role in maintaining the rule of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei
The reason why the eunuch power can continue to expand, and even usurp its own power to interfere with the government, is inseparable from the feudal emperor's own support, especially when the imperial power is in decline, the eunuch, as the emperor's most trusted domestic slave, was pushed onto the stage of history, becoming a crutch that could not be taken off in the twilight of the imperial power, and at the same time, it was a funeral product of the autocratic imperial power. The role of eunuchs in maintaining imperial power was particularly prominent in the middle and late Tang dynasties.
However, before the Anshi Rebellion, the power of eunuchs was completely dependent on imperial power, and after the Anshi Rebellion, the internal friends fought each other, the outer feudal towns were divided, and the imperial power was in jeopardy.
So the emperor fished up the eunuch's life-saving grass and used the "house slave",
Internally restraining the courtiers and supervising the vassals externally, the eunuchs' power swelled sharply, and the eunuchs parasitic to the imperial power became the "heart-strengthening agent" for the imperial power to survive.
Portrait of Tang Xuanzong
After the Anshi Rebellion, eunuchs gradually became the backbone of political power
After the Anshi Rebellion, the crown prince Li Heng was a eunuch
Li Fuguo
Under the planning of the north, Lingwu was called emperor for Suzong.
Emperor Suzong appointed Li Fuguo as the head of the counterinsurgency military affairs, and made him the Shangshu of the Bingbu Department, and added the fu yi tongsan division, and the power was tilted to the opposition. The Daizong Dynasty also resorted to the power of eunuchs. Before Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, he was made crown prince by Emperor Suzong because of his merits in recovering the two capitals, and in April of the first year of Baoying (762), Emperor Suzong fell seriously ill, and Empress Zhang plotted rebellion with the Yue king
At this time, the eunuch Li Fuguo began to support Emperor Daizong again, helping Emperor Daizong to eliminate the resistance to the throne and stabilize the palace, which eventually enabled Emperor Daizong to smoothly ascend the throne, so Li Fuguo was indispensable.
After Li Fuguo,
Cheng Yuanzhen
Trusted by the Patriarch
At the time of Emperor Daizong, the emperor's monopoly on eunuchs was not due to his inability to control, but to dependence, support, and protection.
Cheng Yuanzhen monopolized power, killed the heroes until Tubo invaded, the capital was plundered, and Emperor Daizong could not bear to kill him, so he only dismissed Yuanzhen's officials and released them to the fields, but soon added them, and then impeached for Yushi, and was exiled.
During the reign of Emperor Dezong, he relied more heavily on eunuchs. In the second year of Jianzhong, the town of Sifan rebelled, the Guannei army was requisitioned, and the Jingyuan Mutiny occurred, and after the fengtian disaster, Emperor Dezong deeply jealous of the military generals and courtiers, and entrusted the post of eunuch to the post of forbidden army, and the lieutenants of the Shence Army
"The Fortune teller"
The left and right Privy Councillors are collectively called
"Castration of the Four Nobles"
。
Li Fuguo film and television image
The Old Book of Tang says: "In terms of anger, the old slave is guilty of capital crimes, and the matter langjun cannot be done, please go to the underground emperor in advance, and shangyu you will answer it." Emperor Xianzong thought of the merits of Qiyi Dai and gave him the kaifu Yi Tongsan Division. Everything in the world is decided by the North Division, and the prime minister only carries out the documents. "
After Emperor Dezong, Shunzong, due to physical reasons, Shunzong basically did not participate in the affairs of the dynasty, so he appointed him to the eunuchs such as Ju Wenzhen, who was the closest confidant, and Ju Wenzhen was the hero who strongly supported Shunzong's ascension to the throne
After that, Shunzong insisted on the Zen position due to physical reasons and political changes.
Ju Wenzhen
He actively supported the later Emperor Xianzong, and Xianzong exerted great efforts to calm down the rebellious feudal towns and revitalize the Tang dynasty
"Yuan and ZTE"
Name.
However, in his later years, Emperor Xianzong was obsessed with the art of immortality, indulged in the harem, ignored the government, and had great power attributed to eunuchs.
In the fifteenth year of Yuan He, Emperor Xianzong died violently. Li Yun the Prince of Feng and the lieutenant tutu Chengxuan of the Left Army plotted to depose The Crown Prince Li Heng,
The crown prince had to unite with the eunuch Wang Shoucheng at the time, and finally killed Tutu Chengcui and others first, so that Li Heng was able to keep the position of prince and become emperor.
Emperor Jingzong succeeded to the throne, regarded the country as a child's play, went wild and dazed, and was slightly dissatisfied with the eunuchs around him, and the eunuch Liu Keming and others took advantage of Emperor Jingzong's night hunting back to the palace, drunk, and rebelled against the king.
The Privy Counsellor sent Wang Shoucheng into the palace to get rid of Liu Keming and others, and Li Ang, the King of Lijiang, took the throne as Emperor Wenzong, and Wang Shoucheng was a great general for meritorious service.
Wang Shoucheng film and television image
Eunuch power gradually became the military pillar and spokesman of the emperor
A distinctive feature of eunuch politics in the Tang Dynasty was that the emperor involved eunuchs in the military and controlled the army. Emperor Xuanzong appointed the eunuch Yang Sixun to lead an army to suppress the rebellion, and he repeatedly made military achievements and was awarded the title of General of the Auxiliary State.
During the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Suzong deeply felt that the moderation made it unreliable, and took the eunuch Li Fuguo as the commander-in-chief of the military, the eunuch Yu Zhao'en as the envoy of the military, and the general festival of the Nine Towns festival to make the soldiers to negotiate An Qingxu.
The eunuchs were really able to grasp the military power after the Jingyuan Mutiny, when Emperor Dezong was in danger, the country was in turmoil, and there was a mutiny in Jingyuan in the northwestern capital of Jingyuan and the establishment of Zhu Zhu as king, and it was the eunuchs Dou Wenchang and Huo Xianming who did their best to protect Emperor Dezong and turn the crisis into peace.
Emperor Dezong re-employed eunuchs and expanded the Shen Ce Army, forming the Left and Right Ten Armies, with a total strength of 150,000 people, with the Shen Ce Army as the core to form the Forbidden Army, which was uniformly commanded by the eunuchs.
Portrait of Yang Sixun
From then on, the eunuch special prohibition army became customized, from Emperor Dezong to the 11th Dynasty of Emperor Zhaozong, Dou Wenchang, Huo Xianming, The Fifth Shouliang, Yang Zhilian, Sun Rongyi, Tutu Chengcui, Ma Cunliang, Tutu Shiye, Wang Shoucheng, Qiu Shiliang, Yu Hongzhi, Tian Lingzi and others, all of whom had successively served as lieutenants of Shen ce. The Shen Ce army was stationed around the capital, remotely controlling the Beijing Division internally, deterring the fan town externally, and becoming the military pillar for the Tang Dynasty to continue to survive in the case of the division of the fan town.
The "Chronicle of entering the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law" says: "In Baoyingzhong, the Chao En Xi Army greeted Hua Yin and Emperor Dezhi. Left and right divine strategists, The Heavenly Son Protectors also. There are 100,000 troops every year. Since the ancient kings frequently rebelled against their subjects, no one has seized the throne since the army was placed. "
Eunuchs used the divine strategy to forbid the army, allowing the emperor to have a more loyal and powerful army as a capital for talking with local feudal towns.
In addition to commanding the Divine Strategist Army to play a deterrent and leading role, the eunuchs also led the Forbidden Army to directly participate in the crusade against rebellion and block the invasion of ethnic minorities on many occasions
as
In the chaos of Anshi
In the specific situation of the late Tang Dynasty, the forbidden army led by the eunuchs had actually become the only military pillar on which the centralized power depended for its survival, and if there was no eunuch leader of the Shence Forbidden Army, I am afraid that the unity of the Tang Dynasty would have been impossible to maintain.
Anshi Rebellion
Eunuchs became important eyes and ears for the emperor to monitor local feudal towns
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong once forbade eunuchs to serve as foreign envoys, but the phenomenon of eunuchs being envoys was not prohibited.
During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, the phenomenon of eunuchs serving as overseers of the army or for other special affairs was not only common, but also began to gradually form a system.
In the sixth year of Tianbao, the deputy capital of Anxi and the four towns of Zhi made Gao Xianzhi order Gao Xianzhi to ride 10,000 to xiao Bolu, and the eunuch Bian Lingcheng went out with the army as a supervisor. During the Anshi Rebellion, due to the emperor's suspicion of the generals, eunuchs and overseers were generally set up to accompany the army to supervise the generals.
After the Anshi Rebellion, there were many towns in Fang, and the eunuchs accompanied the military supervision army, and correspondingly evolved into the permanent supervisory envoys of each fang town, forming a network of eunuch supervisors directly under the central government and all over the towns.
In the Tang Dynasty, the supervising military organ in Fanzhen was called the Supervisory Military Academy, and the main post was the supervising military envoy, and there were several supervising troops under it. The supervision army is not subject to the jurisdiction of the moderation, but is self-contained, and its main functions are: First, to monitor the commanders of the clan and to play the impeachment. 2. Pacify the non-commissioned officers and eliminate the chaos. 3. Inspector of other affairs of the other town.
Eunuchs accompanied the army to supervise the army
The Old Book of Tang says: "The tang zhongren went out to supervise the Fang Zhen army, and those with high rank were the envoys of the supervision army." Following the news, the edict is praised. There is both land and people, and its armor and soldiers, and its wealth, guardian commander, calm the state family, the emperor is benevolent, and the heart is pushed in the belly. "
The military supervision system of the Tang Dynasty was the product of the contradiction between the central government and the feudal towns in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, there were many feudal towns in the world, and the moderation made each side according to each other, and if the Tang Court could not effectively control the vast majority of the feudal towns, it would be difficult to survive. therefore
Naturally, the system of eunuchs supervising the army was popularized, and its organization was further tightened, its duties were strengthened, and its status was enhanced.
Tang Dynasty supervision military system
appraise
After the Anshi Rebellion was basically quelled and the three towns of Heshuo fell into a state of division, the Tang court was able to control most of the feudal towns in Guanzhong and the south for a long time.
One of the reasons for this lies in the eunuch supervision system. Eunuchs who served as envoys to supervise the army really played a certain role in stabilizing the hearts and minds of the army, eliminating military chaos, containing generals, and preventing the spread of the situation of dividing the territory.
To sum up, the so-called eunuch monopoly is not the fault of a single eunuch, but a tool used by the feudal emperor to maintain the weakening imperial power, and it is also the last bet made by the emperor to maintain the "remnants" of the dynasty.
The initiator of the eunuch dictatorship was not a bystander, but the feudal emperor himself. Feudal masters often ignored this point, only criticized the eunuchs, and regarded the feudal emperor as a victim, in fact, it was the opposite.
Judging from the monopoly of eunuch power in the fourteen dynasties in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the only people who really overpowered the imperial power were Emperor Wenzong, Qiu Shiliang of the Second Dynasty of Emperor Zhaozong, Liu Jishu and others. Moreover, the emperor often instigated the eunuchs first and then abandoned them, and successively removed the eunuchs who had usurped power
Qiu Shiliang
When he returned to his hometown, almost none of them died well.
Images of Vengeyoshi
The emperor's support was controlled by eunuchs, but in fact, the maintenance of imperial power depended on the protection of eunuchs, and this dependence was manifested in, first, the use of eunuchs to combat the forces of "rebellion". Second, rely on eunuchs to stabilize the throne.
Emperor Suzong relied on Li Fuguo to succeed to the throne in chaos, and entrusted him with military and political power to help him quell the rebellion. "The Difficulty of Fengtian" Emperor Dezong relied on eunuchs to escape. Emperor Xianzong relied on Ju Wenzhen to be able to meditate internally.
Third, the emperor himself coveted pleasure and entrusted government to eunuchs.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, except for Emperor Xianzong, Emperor Wuzong, and Emperor Xuanzong, most of the others were mediocre and faint. The weakness of the monarch is impossible to exercise effectively, and this power vacuum can only be filled by eunuchs. In addition, it is the basic duty of the envoys to supervise the moderation and to report on their political performance or irregular actions in a timely manner. It can be seen that in the political life of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the eunuch supervision system had important political significance.
bibliography:
[1] Old Book of Tang
[2] "Entering the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law" and so on