Wang Zhen was one of the most notorious eunuchs in Ming Dynasty history. Because of his interference in politics, Zhu Qizhen, the sixth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became a captive in Tumu Crisis.
There was no doubt that the Tumu Crisis was shameful for the Ming. However, why Wang Zhen was able to cause such a great deal of damage that it almost led the Ming Dynasty to be overthrown by the Mongolians?
The answer was that Wang Zhen’s power reached its peak, and no one but the emperor could restrict him. Regrettably, Zhu Qizhen believed in Wang Zhen so much that it was difficult for Ming officials to impeach the eunuch.
Wang Zhen was actually born in Hebei, China, and was castrated as a eunuch when he was a child.
However, many public researches indicate that Wang Zhen chose to become a eunuch because he was unable to pass the imperial examination as an official.
This conclusion is wrong because Wang Zhen mentioned in his autobiography the reason he became a eunuch. He is not a Confucian full of poetry.
He was only educated in the palace for more than a decade in necessary skills such as literacy, writing, and numeracy. Generally speaking, his level of education wasn’t high.
However, with his excellent work performance, he gradually won the emperor’s trust and got his lucky day in 1428.
In 1428, Xuande Emperor, who is the father of Zhu Qizhen, instructed Wang Zhen to urge the prince to learn, so Wang Zhen had the opportunity to educate Zhu Qizhen, which would provide the convenience of having the absolute power in the court.
In other words, Wang Zhen was the first teacher of Zhu Qizhen and he could turn an emperor into a puppet by education.
In 1435, Zhu Qizhen, who was only nine years old, became the sixth emperor of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the power of Wang Zhen seriously expanded due to the trust of emperor. What’s worse, Wang Zhen gradually carried out his plan to have the absolute power in the court.
Inducing Zhu Qizhen to indulge in pleasure and refused to learn
The people always hope that the emperor is wise, especially in the feudal dynasty of autocracy. At the same time, in order to cultivate a perfect emperor in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming would concentrated their high-quality education resources on the emperor.
However, once the emperor became smart and sensible, he would no longer be controlled. As the teacher of Zhu Qizhen, Wang Zhen actually was incompetent and sinister.
It was incredible that Wang Zhen always deliberately delayed and shortened the emperor’s study time to turn the young emperor into his puppet. More often than not, Wang Zhen hoped that the emperor would indulge in pleasure and give him all decision-making power so that the emperor would be lazy and muddle-headed.
Establishing prestige through the emperor
If the emperor were a tiger, then Wang Zhen was a fox. The fox always achieved its purpose to establish prestige by the tiger.
In order to made officials afraid of himself, Wang Zhen often persuaded Zhu Qizhen to punish the officials who made mistakes or his opponents severely.
As for those officials who followed Wang Zhen, he would protect them when they made mistakes. In this case, many Ming officials were afraid of Wang in their hearts, and worried that Wang would consider themselves as political opponents. So that officials dared not offend Wang Zhen easily.
As a result, Wang Zhen became more and more crazy. Except for the emperor, he wasn’t afraid of any Ming Dynasty officials. What’s worse, many Ming officials chose to remain silent or resign early to maintain the safety of their power.
Filtering information
Due to the power struggle, Wang Zhen did a lot of crimes and offended many people. Some upright officials started to impeach Wang Zhen bravely.
However, the cunning Wang Zhen considered the officials’ actions in advance. He controlled the emperor’s access to getting information effectively, and filtered out information that was not good for him. As a result, the emperor couldn’t get the criticism of Wang Zhen, and Wang Zhen could target his opponents.
In conclusion
Wang Zhen caused considerable damage to the Ming Dynasty. To some extent, he was a sinner of the Ming. Unfortunately, Wang Zhen wasn’t the last eunuch with absolute power in the court.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, once legislated that the eunuch couldn’t interfere in politics. However, his successor didn’t fully comply with the rule from 1402 to 1644. Sometimes, the history of Ming Dynasty is so interesting.
Confusingly, Zhu Qizhen ordered people to build a shrine for eunuch Wang Zhen after his death.
