Many people once envied the life of the ancient Chinese emperor because the emperor had many concubines. What’s more, he was the supreme ruler of the dynasty. In fact, the emperor’s life was not as perfect as we thought.
On the contrary, emperors had to do a lot of work to ensure the safety of thrones. Not only do they had to deal with state affairs by themselves, but they had to be good at balancing the power of all sides. Obviously, the Ming emperors were no exception.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang, who is the founder of the Ming Dynasty, once enacted legislation prohibiting eunuchs from interfering in politics, his descendants didn’t comply with him. In particular, the Yongle Emperor broke his father’s rule to repay the eunuch’s credit for their contributions in Jingnan Campaign.
Since then, the power of the Ming eunuchs had gradually increased. In the past, eunuchs were only slaves of emperor and concubine, but since the eunuchs were allowed to get involved in politics, their responsibilities had become more extensive. Surprisingly, some eunuchs became commanders of the expeditionary force.
Why could Ming eunuchs be the commanders of expeditionary forces?
Many eunuchs were castrated at an early age. Although they had received some primary education, their ability couldn’t meet the requirements of becoming a general.
However, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty didn’t care about eunuch’s command ability. They were more concerned about the loyalty of those who commanded the army. The eunuch’s absolute loyalty to the emperor made the emperor dare to give military power to the eunuch.
The most typical example was the Tumu Crisis. Because of Zhu Qi’s fatuity and excessive trust in eunuch Wang Zhen, he appointed eunuch Wang as the commander of the expeditionary force. As a result, under the wrong command, the Ming army suffered heavy losses. To make matters worse, Zhu Qizhen was captured as a prisoner of the Mongolian army.
In the real wars, eunuchs generally didn’t participate in battles, and in many cases, similar to the army’s supervisors, they would regularly serve the emperor. In this way, the power of military attachés would be restricted.
As the saying goes that, a coin has two sides. If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a strong political person, he didn’t need to worry about the eunuch’s threatening. Still, once the emperor trusted the eunuch too much or even gave decision-making power to them, the eunuch would cause considerable damage.
In conclusion
The arrangement of the eunuch as the expeditionary commander was a balancing act of power. Once this balance was broken, it would bring a huge disaster.
From 1402 to 1644, the power of eunuchs gradually expanded. When they tried their best to please the emperor and seduce the emperor to refuse to learn, it was a precursor to their absolute power.
Fortunately, compared to eunuchs who lived in the late Tang Dynasty, the power of the Ming eunuchs couldn’t determine which prince would be emperor. It is the progress of the political system of Ming Dynasty.
