Wei Zhongxian's fortune-telling story

Wei Zhongxian (1568- 1627), formerly known as Jinzhong, was born in Suning, Minghe (now Hebei). He was a hooligan when he was a child and changed his name to Li Jinzhong after he left the palace. Wanli became a eunuch when she entered the palace, and later gave him a compound surname and a loyal name.

Wei Zhongxian is the official anomaly.

As the son of a poor family in Hejian Suning (now Suning County, Hebei Province), Wei Zhongxian is neither a rich second generation nor an official second generation. He can't even read, and he loves gambling. When he was young, he often hid to avoid gambling debts. Because of his bad conduct, he is basically a street rascal. By what means did such a person climb to the top and become a powerful figure in Daming officialdom?

In an era, if street hooligans can call the shots and good people such as Lindong party member are persecuted, the deep-seated reason should be that there is something wrong with the era itself.

In the seventeenth year of Wanli (A.D. 1589), Li Jinzhong, a street rogue in Suning County, Hejian Prefecture, was elected to the palace and worked as a handyman under Sun Sian, the eunuch of Bingbi. He didn't know that he had the ability to profoundly influence the court in the following years. Emperor Xizong became his hardcore playmate. This man, who was later renamed Wei Zhongxian, led the emperor to do his best in debauchery and kindness, but he was in charge of political affairs himself and became a legend of the empire.

A formal professional victim of an apprentice.

In the twentieth year of Wanli (AD 1592), Wang Wei and Tai Shou. As early as the reign of Guangzong Zhu Changluo, he was the eunuch trusted by the emperor, and he was the eunuch in charge of the ceremony. Especially in the case of "moving to the palace", Wang Lian, Liu Yijing and other foreign ministers were enthroned, which made them successfully get rid of their control and made great contributions. After Xizong acceded to the throne, he was obedient to Wang An. In the face of such a heavyweight, it is almost impossible for Wei Zhongxian to beat him. However, Wei Zhongxian achieved this seemingly impossible goal.

He seized a weakness of Wang An's personality-straightforward and sparse, and his mind was not careful enough. On the one hand, the United Hakka people are often slandered in front of the emperor; On the other hand, because of his advanced age, Wang An often fell ill, and his contact with Xizong gradually decreased, lacking the opportunity to defend himself. In May of the first year of the Apocalypse (A.D. 162 1), Zhu Youxiao appointed Wang An as the eunuch. This matter is very important to Wei Zhongxian. Because Li Si's power of supervising eunuchs is superior to writing eunuchs. Wei Zhongxian, as a eunuch, will be suppressed by Wang once he takes the upper position. What about Wei Zhongxian? Then he adopted a two-step strategy. First, let the Hakkas criticize Wang An in front of Xizong; The second is to instruct Huo to impeach Wang An. At this moment, Wang An himself made a fatal mistake and resigned as a eunuch. In fact, this is red tape in officialdom. Wang An is just pretending, but he still wants to take office. However, Wei Zhongxian and the Hakkas seized on this matter, and made a two-pronged attack on Wang An, accusing him of deceiving the king and the people. As the emperor hesitated, Wei Zhongxian took the initiative to issue an imperial edict and sent Wang An to Nanhaizi as a net army-let him become a member of the eunuch army. At this point, the characteristics of Wei Zhongxian's "bite the hand that feeds you" have been fully demonstrated. But the Hakkas are more ruthless than Wei Zhongxian, and she wants to uproot them. When Wei Zhongxian hesitated to kill Wang An, the Hakkas said this to him: "I will leave my troubles behind!" I mean, what about you, me and Lee? She was forced by Wang An to move to a secluded place, so why leave future trouble? Wei Zhongxian quickly made up his mind that unless Wang An was removed, his personal safety could not be guaranteed. Because Wang An once owed money to Emperor Xizong, if he doesn't die, he can make a comeback at any time. Although, on the other hand, Wang was kind to Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian's life creed was "Nothing can be achieved with a bodhisattva's heart".

Therefore, Wei Zhongxian and the Hakkas secretly sent palace eunuch Liu Chao to take charge of Nanhaizi, trying to kill Wang An. Liu Chao and Wang Anyou were enemies. After he arrived, Wang An was not allowed to eat at first. Wang An has a strong desire to survive, digging up grass roots for food, as if to make a comeback and stubbornly survive. According to historical records, Liu Chaoyou was "culled" and Wang An died.

In fact, in addition to Wei Dynasty and Wang An, there are countless victims in Wei Zhongxian's official career, such as Zhou Zongjian,,, Zuo Guangdou, etc.

Fame reached its peak.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse (A.D. 1626), Wei Zhongxian's prestige in the empire reached its peak. This year, his holy places are all over the world. I admire that the movement to build a shrine in Wei Zhongxian, which originated in Hangzhou and Zhejiang, was supported by the emperor. Emperor Xizong named the Wei Zhongxian shrine built in the West Lake "Pude" and ordered hundreds of households in Hangzhou to keep the shrine. As a result, tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of temples have appeared all over the country. Let's look at Wei Zhongxian's position again. Wei was a eunuch, and also the eunuch of the East Factory, but obviously the emperor felt that this was not enough. He not only went to his post, but also gave Wei Zhongxian the seal of "Gu Mingyuan Chen", awarded him a nine-year-old title, and acquiesced in the five-worship and three-knocking ceremony for the statue of Wei Zhongxian. This is the emperor's breakthrough in etiquette-the imperial etiquette order system has never had such a breakthrough before; Even the emperor gave up his supreme power and let Wei Zhongxian exercise his discretion in handling government affairs when he was busy as a carpenter. Wei Zhongxian was so proud all his life that he almost became the "emperor".

final

In August of the seventh year of the Apocalypse (AD 1627), Xizong died. As he had no children, his half-brother Zhu Youjian was ordered to inherit the throne for Emperor Chongzhen on the fourth day of the same month. 1October 27th, Wei Zhongxian's ten deadly sins were exposed by Qian. Among them, there are three most important things: one is to merge with the emperor. Wei Zhongxian was on an equal footing with the former emperor, saying, "If you obey the imperial edict, you will sue me and the factory minister." Qian Jiazheng asked, "Has there never been such a performance?" The second is the queen. . The third is conscription. . Emperor Chongzhen was only seventeen years old when he received this letter, and only two months after he ascended the throne. But Wei Zhongxian has been in power for many years, occupying a high position, and no one can beat him. So Chongzhen had to face a life-and-death challenge: Do you want to compete with Wei Zhongxian?

On the third day of September, the departure of Hakkas from the palace seemed to be the first thrust to overthrow the dominoes in Wei Zhongxian. On the fourth day of September, Gan Xiang Xizong, who became a prison eunuch because of buttering up Wei and Ke, resigned. According to Daming Law, the eunuch in Li Si was above the eunuch in Dong Zhang factory, but in order to please Wei Zhongxian, Wang Tigan was willing to take the second place. Now, as an open eunuch of Li Si's army, Wang Tigan jumped out and became a victim of Wei Zhongxian dominoes, apparently challenging the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty ... Eighteen-year-old Chongzhen retained Wang Tigan with great sincerity. He confided in his heart, shed tears, understood with emotion and acted with reason. In the end, he was moved by sincere loyalty, which only meant that Wei Zhongxian was behind. This round, Chongzhen won.

But the episode of history will come soon. On September 14, Yang Xiuxiu, director of the Nanjing General Political Department, stood up indignantly and impeached Wei Zhongxian's cronies Cui Chengxiu, Li, Taipu Temple, Yansui Governor Zhu Tongmeng and others, saying that they were unfilial and their parents were not at home, which violated the platform of "ruling the world with filial piety" just put forward by Chongzhen. At the same time, Zhou Yingqiu, the official department minister who has been muddling along for so many years, was impeached, and officials were promoted to keep a balance. "Where is the bottom line? Where is the conscience of the official? "

Wei party member was impeached, and Wei Zhongxian immediately tried to protect him. He reminded Chongzhen that the parents of these officials died and they were not at home. Ding You was the result of staying in office because of the favor of the first emperor. For such officials who are loyal to the country and forget their personal interests, they are not commended, but knocked down with a stick. After that, does the work of the court still need to be done? Zhou Yingqiu, the official department minister, is definitely a good official who adheres to principles. Isn't Yang Xiuxiu brought by his old man's house? Wei Zhongxian's words make Chongzhen hard to refute. The demise of Wei is deadlocked, but the voice of a dynasty has begun. 1October 22nd, Minister of Industry Liu Chengyuan impeached Wei Zhongxian. It is intolerable to say that he has gangs and factions all over China and "abolished the name of the former minister". Hearing this, Chongzhen bowed his head and said nothing.

The anti-Wei movement rose. 126, after a poster was posted by Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice, Wei Zhongxian's top ten crimes were revealed by Gong Shengqian of Haiyan County. Chongzhen after watching the hydrophobic, called Wei Zhongxian, let in waits to give money to read the hydrophobic. One read slowly, but there was a hidden danger, so history entered a turning point-Wei Zhongxian was afraid. He bribed eunuch Xu Yingyuan with a large sum of money to plead for himself in front of Chongzhen. Wei Zhongxian didn't have to do this, if he had the courage to do or die with Chongzhen. In fact, Wei Zhongxian's weakness in this matter gave the young emperor the pride or motivation to reverse Gan Kun. Emperor Chongzhen rebuked Xu Yingyuan for meddling in other people's affairs, and made a special decree for this purpose, sternly reprimanding Wei Zhongxian: "I thought that the sages who were loyal and righteous not only peeped at famous instruments and punished them indiscriminately, but also accumulated the treasures of their ancestors, such as treasures handed down from generation to generation, gold and silver, etc. ; At the age of one inch, when the funeral was over, I read Zigong (the coffin of the first emperor), and my aunt decided Fengyang. (Guest, Wei) The second offender made a fortune and did not enter the official position. It's reckless, and it will always be a smoke bomb.

Guard. "Chongzhen also ordered all the shrines in Wei Zhongxian to be demolished, sold at a discount and funded by Liao Xiang.

On the first day of November, Chongzhen ordered Wei Zhongxian to be placed in Fengyang, and then Wei Zhongxian was ordered to leave Beijing for Fengyang Zuling. On the sixth day of November, when Wei Zhongxian's huge team came to Nanguan, Fucheng County, another imperial edict of Chongzhen followed closely: "... If you don't strive for self-improvement, you must dare to drive your livestock to death, bring your own fierce blade, embrace and protect them, and the situation will be rebellious. My heart is evil ... "In this case, Wei Zhongxian had to choose to hang himself. Chongzhen "beheaded his body and hung in the river". On December 23rd, the seventh year of the Apocalypse (AD 1627), Chongzhen began to crack down on counter-revolutionary gangs in Wei Zhongxian. Emperor Chongzhen issued a letter: "The Wei Zhongxian Inverse Temple built in the world will be demolished and the price will be changed." Key members of Wei Zhongxian Group, including "Five Tigers" and "Five Tigers", have been punished. This suppression, which lasted for more than a year, was finally decided by Chongzhen himself. There is no doubt that the punishment result is severe or devastating: Wei Zhongxian and Ke died in a counter-revolutionary gang in Wei Zhongxian. Cui Chengxiu and others condemned the crime of "rebellion and conspiracy first"; Liu Zhixuan and others demanded that the crime of "paying close attention" be sentenced to execution in the autumn; Eleven people, including Wei Guangwei, and thirty-five people, including Wei Zhide, were expelled from the army on charges of "flattery and support", and eunuchs such as Shi Li were sentenced to banishment on charges of "cruel servants and inferior people"; One hundred and twenty-nine people, including Gu Bingqian, were sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of "paying close attention to others"; 44 people, including Huang, were expelled from public office and can never be used again. In this way, more than 260 people were dealt with before and after the "Wei Zhongxian King Decision", and the story of the rise and fall of Wei Zhongxian in troubled times was settled.