Wei Zhongxian

Timeline

1. 1580–1620Forbidden City, Beijing · BeijingA native of Suning, a rogue in his youth, he castrated himself after losing at gambling, entered the palace under the name Li Jinzhong, served under eunuch Sun Xian, and later sought the post of steward to Lady Wang, mother of the imperial grandson. He formed a conjugal partnership with Ke Shi and through her gained access to the imperial grandson Zhu Youxiao. After the Guangzong emperor died and the Xizong emperor ascended, he regained his surname and was granted the name Zhongxian.
2. 1620–1624Beijing · BeijingAfter the Xizong emperor ascended, Zhongxian transferred from the Bureau of Firewood to the Directorate of Ceremonial as a writing eunuch, a post he should not normally have entered but obtained through Ke Shi's influence. In the third year of Tianqi he became supervisor of the Eastern Depot. The emperor was devoted to carpentry and delegated most governance to the inner court. He marginalized Wang An, gathered Wang Tiqian and others as followers, and merged with the Qi, Chu and Zhe factions of the outer court, gradually overpowering the Donglin grand secretaries.
3. 1624–1627Beijing · BeijingIn the fourth year of Tianqi, Yang Lian submitted a memorial impeaching him on twenty-four charges, and the eunuch party struck back. In the fifth year Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong and the other Six Gentlemen were arrested and died in prison; in the sixth year Gao Panlong, Zhou Shunchang, Huang Zunsu and others were also killed. Ye Xianggao and others successively left office. Localities competed to build shrines in his honor, and the Eastern Depot and Embroidered Uniform Guard spied on court and country. The 1626 Wanggongchang explosion was written up by the Donglin faction as a portent of heavenly rebuke, but failed to shake his power.
4. 1627Fucheng · FuchengIn the eighth month of the seventh year of Tianqi the emperor died and the Prince of Xin, Zhu Youjian, ascended the throne. Qian Jiazheng and others listed ten great crimes; the emperor first assigned him to tend the incense at the ancestral tombs in Fengyang, then ordered his arrest and return. Zhongxian hanged himself with Li Chaoqin at Fucheng. The following year his corpse was mutilated and displayed at Hejian, Ke Shi died in the Washing Bureau, and the eunuch party was entered in the Chongzhen-Determined Case of Treason.