Among all the feudal dynasties in China, the official administration was the most corrupt. The day when the dynasty faced total collapse was when the relatives and eunuchs came to visit us. Turning to the Twenty-Four Histories, it is not uncommon for the Lu family to seize power, Wu Zetian to usurp the throne, Cixi to come to the court, and other incidents involving foreign relatives to interfere in politics.
In terms of eunuch monopoly, from the reign of Emperor Qin II, when Zhao Gao turned a deer into a horse, when the Eastern Han Dynasty was dominated by Shi Changshi, Gao Lishi wielded power in the Tang Dynasty, to the Song Dynasty, when Tong Guan was in charge of the imperial army, in the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian was wreaking havoc, and then in the late Qing Dynasty, when Li Lianying became domineering, the problem of eunuch chaos was
It has always been serious. Historically, eunuchs played a major role in accelerating the destruction of the feudal dynasty. Why does the interference of foreign relatives and eunuchs in politics mean the spontaneous destruction of the feudal dynasty? From the perspective of the bureaucratic political structure, foreign relatives and eunuchs are foreign objects to the feudal dynasty. Their origins
It is incompatible with the feudal dynasty. Feudal bureaucrats are Confucian officials selected after a certain official career. They have considerable feudal cultural qualities and are selected by national institutions before they can become officials and participate in politics. However, relatives and eunuchs
Pretending that they were favored and trusted by the emperor, they participated in the government affairs and intervened in the political life of the country from the highest level. This in itself meant the destruction of the feudal dynasty. It made the Confucian officials, relatives, and eunuchs decide between maintaining the feudal dynasty or destroying it.
, in a state of natural opposition. This is also very clear to the relatives and eunuchs. In order to expand their political power and pursue corresponding economic interests, they always surround the emperor and try to keep the emperor away from the Confucian officials.
There was a great eunuch named Qiu Shiliang in the Tang Dynasty. When he retired and returned to his hometown, he taught other eunuchs the strategy of misappropriating imperial power. He said that the key to serving the emperor is not to allow the emperor to have leisure. The emperor must read whenever he has time and be close to Confucianism.
Minister, this is "not a kindness but a thin one and a light power". We should use the sounds, dogs, horses, treasures and wealth to "dazzle his heart, make him extremely extravagant, and make him happy without rest". Once the emperor is addicted to enjoyment, then "all the opportunities are in my hands"
, How can we achieve the goal of grace and power?”
Precisely because the relatives and eunuchs are foreign bodies within the integration, when the power of the relatives and eunuchs expands to a considerable extent, they will inevitably be incompatible with the Confucian ministers who are composed according to the patriarchal integration structure. At this time, they will make more use of their power.
Promote cronies to further undermine the feudal dynasty. The result of this is to intensify conflicts, accelerate official corruption, and eventually lead to civil strife.
The disaster of party control in the Eastern Han Dynasty is a very typical example. After the death of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Dou came to the court and called me, and her cousin Dou Xian took over the power. Relatives surnamed Dou and their followers served as court officials and local officials one after another, causing a large number of Confucian scholars to be unable to enter the country.
In 92 AD, Emperor He of the Han Dynasty conspired with the eunuch Zheng Zhong to kill Dou Xian. As a result, the eunuch group took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate the influence of his relatives and took control of the government. After the eunuchs came to power, they suppressed and killed Confucian scholars and created party imprisonment.
Afterwards, the struggle for power between the foreign relatives and the eunuchs continued. After the powerful foreigner Dou Xian - the eunuch Zheng Zhong, there were also the foreign relatives Deng Kun - the eunuch Jiang Jing, Li Guo - the foreign relatives Yan Xian - the eunuch Sun Cheng -
The eunuch Shan Chao, a relative of Liang Ji, worked hard until the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, from 820 to 826 AD, two emperors, Xianzong and Jingzong, were killed by eunuchs within seven years. From 820 AD to 903 AD, there were eight emperors in the Tang Dynasty, except for Jingzong.
Except for the crown prince who succeeded to the throne, the other seven were all supported by eunuchs of various factions according to their own needs. This shows that in the late Tang Dynasty, the integrated structure had been destroyed by the eunuchs' interference in politics. In the Ming Dynasty, Liu Jin, the eunuch who was responsible for the ceremony, had exclusive power, and in 1508 he
More than 300 serving state officials were imprisoned, and 675 officials were deprived of their official status in 1509. Liu Jin was unscrupulous in destroying the integrated structure. He boasted: "All the ministers of the dynasty will leave my house."
During the Tianqi period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian was even more arrogant. He was called "Nine Thousand Five Hundred Years Old" by his followers, and shrines were built in various places to worship him.
Personnel and some upright civil servants and military generals were compiled into a list and killed or removed from office.
These situations show that relatives and eunuchs are forces outside the patriarchal clan. When they gain power, they threaten the emperor, attack Confucian ministers, and destroy the feudal dynasty. At this time, there will be political instability and a crisis-ridden situation.
Since relatives and eunuchs were the forces that obviously destroyed the feudal dynasty, why would this power be included in the feudal dynasty and inevitably expand? The key point is that relatives and eunuchs were brought into the feudal dynasty by the amplification of imperial power. Imperial power
Although he had an irrevocable regulatory mission in the feudal dynasty, the emperor's abilities were limited and were not commensurate with the regulatory tasks he shouldered. After Zhu Yuanzhang took over the power, he had to review more than 140 memorials every day. In addition,
There are also hundreds of government affairs to deal with. Ashby, a cybernetics expert, once said that a person's adjustment ability cannot exceed the variability of the system that he can block. In other words, it cannot exceed what he is doing every moment.
Ability to choose. In order to amplify his own adjustment ability, the emperor had to rely on some kind of power.
Although the relatives were not members of the royal family, they were the closest people to the emperor. Eunuchs had a low status. They could come and go at the drop of a hat. They were also the emperor's close servants and eyes and ears. Therefore, the imperial power used relatives and eunuchs to supervise and control the bureaucracy.
Institutions are an unavoidable choice. In the short term, it may be effective, and these two forces can still be under the control of the emperor. But the result of long-term use will inevitably cause the destruction of the feudal dynasty itself.
Even the emperor himself became a puppet and suffered from it. This is a historical will. As long as there is the regulating effect of absolute imperial power, no matter how wise and vigilant the emperor is, the exclusive power of eunuchs or relatives will always appear.
The most serious harm caused by eunuchs was in the Ming Dynasty. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, the most stringent measures were taken to prevent eunuchs from interfering in politics. In view of historical lessons, Zhu Yuanzhang once formulated laws and regulations that strictly prohibited concubines and eunuchs from interfering in politics to avoid future troubles. In the fifth year of Hongwu, he hung a warning inscribed in the palace.
The red card of the concubine regulations expressly prohibits concubines from intervening in politics. In the 17th year of Hongwu's reign, the "ancestral precepts" were promulgated. A three-foot-tall iron stele was built in the palace, with the words "Internal officials are not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and those who interfere will be killed." It also stipulated that eunuchs were not allowed to interfere in political affairs.
When serving as a civil and military officer, he is not allowed to have any correspondence with eunuchs when he is an official. The eunuch's official rank cannot exceed the fourth rank, and he is not allowed to read or read. Zhu Yuanzhang institutionally blocked his relatives and eunuchs from interfering in politics. It can be said that he went to great lengths. But the consequences are again.
How? Since the contradiction between the unlimited monarchy and the emperor's limited adjustment ability is impossible to resolve, one of the eunuchs and relatives always becomes the borrowed force to extend the imperial power. The prohibition of relatives from intervening in politics was better in the Ming Dynasty.
, but the emperor did not use relatives, so he could only use eunuchs. Eunuchs would inevitably become more and more aggressive in their political affairs.
Soon after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, these ancestral prohibitions had no binding force on his descendants. Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty was able to seize the throne by using eunuchs as his eyes and ears, so he treated the eunuchs "from the bottom of his heart". Yingzong was the emperor who was supported by the eunuch Wang Zhen.
After becoming adults, they naturally had to rely on Wang Zhen to handle the affairs of the court. After Yongle, the status of eunuchs also changed. They changed from being led by the Ministry of Personnel to supervising the Ministry of Personnel, and had the power of promotion, selection and dispatch. During the reign of Emperor Xianzong, they were added
The "Two Factories" of the new spy agencies can well illustrate the internal connection between the expansion of imperial power and the eunuchs' involvement in politics. At that time, there were already the secret agencies Dongchang and Jinnongwei. However, Xianzong was still full of suspicions and suspected that the people around him were related to outsiders.
In order to collude with each other, they set up a separate West Factory to spy on foreign ministers and civilian activities, and entrusted the masses to supervise Wang Zhi as the leader. This caused trouble to the point where the world knew that there were two factories but did not know that there was a court, and was afraid that the spy leader was not straight and did not know that there was an emperor.
There were also conflicts between the eastern and western factories. The emperor could take advantage of these conflicts to supervise and control the bureaucracy. The power of the eunuchs took advantage of the situation and developed. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the ability to integrate regulation was completely lost, and it finally collapsed.
To sum up, as long as there are emperors, there will be eunuchs. As long as there are eunuchs, even if there are one or two good emperors, the eunuchs will eventually interfere in politics, accelerating the corruption and destruction of the dynasty.