Western Depot of the Ming Dynasty

Timeline

1. 1477Before Lingji Palace in the capital · BeijingAfter the case of Li Zilong colluding with palace eunuchs came to light, the Chenghua Emperor selected over a hundred Jinyiwei men skilled at investigation and set up a separate office before Lingji Palace, calling it the Western Depot, and ordered the eunuch Wang Zhi to supervise it. The Western Depot widely spied on major and minor affairs of state and even street talk and gossip, arresting court officials without first awaiting imperial approval, and its power soon surpassed that of the Eastern Depot.
2. 1477–1481Capital · BeijingGrand Secretaries and ministers such as Shang Lu and Xiang Zhong submitted memorials denouncing the Western Depot's harshness and harm to governance; in the fifth month of the thirteenth year of Chenghua the depot was briefly abolished and Wang Zhi returned to the Directorate of Imperial Horses. Barely a month later the Chenghua Emperor reopened the Western Depot. Thereafter Wang Zhi inspected the frontiers and supervised the armies, with the surveillance of the depots and guards and frontier merits mutually reinforcing each other, and court and country alike called it Wang Zhi's ascendancy.
3. 1482Capital · BeijingGrand Secretaries and censors again impeached the Western Depot for its harsh punishments that troubled the people, and Shang Ming, supervisor of the Eastern Depot, further reported that Wang Zhi had leaked palace affairs; the Chenghua Emperor abolished the Western Depot in the third month of the eighteenth year of Chenghua. Wang Zhi shortly fell from favor and was transferred out, ending the Chenghua-era Western Depot's institutional setup; its reopening in the early Zhengde reign belonged to another political cycle.