Why did relatives and eunuchs have exclusive power in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty?

In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, during the periods of Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Ming, and Emperor Zhang, the emperor himself was able to control the political power of the country. However, after entering the middle period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, starting from Emperor He, a situation emerged within the Eastern Han Dynasty regime where relatives and eunuchs took turns to hold the highest power of the country. This situation lasted throughout the history of the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty and became an important feature of the political history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were many reasons for the situation where foreign relatives and eunuchs took turns to have exclusive power. The most important ones were the following three reasons.

The first reason is that the Eastern Han Dynasty's efforts to strengthen centralization went in the opposite direction. One of the main threads running through the history of the development of China's bureaucracy is to resolve the conflict between monarch power and prime minister power. After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu took various measures to strengthen the imperial power. The "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" Zhongchang Tongzhuan says, "Emperor Guangwu was angry at the loss of power for several generations, and was angry at the orders of his powerful ministers. He overcorrected and failed to take charge of the government. Although he appointed the Three Dukes, the affairs were returned to Taige. Since then, , the duties of the Three Officials are just to prepare personnel." The Eastern Han Dynasty still had the "Three Dukes" named prime ministers - Situ (Prime Minister), Taiwei, and Sikong (Yushi Dafu). Although the Sangong enjoys a high and honorable status and reputation, with a rank as high as ten thousand stones, the Sangong cannot manage specific affairs and can only "sit and discuss the Tao". Liu Xiu handed over specific powers to the Shangshutai, known as "Taige".

"Shangshu" was originally an institution under the Shaofu. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu Liu Che established the "Inner Dynasty" corresponding to the Outer Dynasty based on the "Shangshu". Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty selected some middle- and lower-level officials as his attendants and assistants, giving them titles such as Shizhong, Gishizhong, and Changshi. Together with the chief minister, Shangshu Ling, they formed a decision-making body in the palace, called the "Internal Affairs Bureau". "North Korea" or "North Korea". The original Sangong, Jiuqing and other court officials were called "wai dynasty". The outer dynasty has no decision-making power and only executes the orders of the inner dynasty. To participate in confidential matters, court ministers must have the title of "Ling Shangshu Shi" or "Ping Shangshu Shi".

After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu further expanded the scope of authority and organization of "Shang Shu" and developed it into "Shang Shu Taiwan". The chief and deputy officers of the Shangshu Station are Shangshu Ling and Shangshu Pushe respectively. There is also one left and right minister, respectively, as the assistant officers of Shangshu Lingpu. There are "six Cao" under the Chancellor, and the chief of each Cao is the Minister. The six Cao manage the specific affairs of the country respectively: the "Three Gong Cao" is responsible for supervision; the "Libu Cao" is responsible for dismissing officials; and the "Min Cao" is responsible for taxes and taxes. "Ke Cao" is responsible for ethnic minority affairs and foreign affairs; "Erqianshi Cao" is responsible for criminal proceedings; "Zhongdu Cao" is responsible for the security of the capital. The grade of the officials at the Shangshutai is not high. The rank of Shangshu Ling is only a thousand shi, and the rank of Shangshu Pushe is only 600 shi. The chief minister of each Cao Cao is only 400 shi. Hundreds of stones. Although the official ranks of officials at all levels in the Shangshutai are low, above the imperial court, they have control over everything, big and small, and have great power, and they directly obey the emperor's orders. The purpose of the Eastern Han Dynasty's arrangement of "small officials and high power" in the Shangshutai was to make it easier for the emperor to control.

Liu Xiu's measures to strengthen imperial power did play an obvious role in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. However, by the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a subtle power shift occurred. The position of Shangshutai has a slight weight, which not only has actual power, but also facilitates the emperor's control. And since the Shangshutai is convenient for the emperor to control, it is naturally convenient for the control of his relatives, and naturally it is also convenient for the control of the eunuchs. Whether they are relatives or eunuchs, as long as they have the title of "Ping Shangshu Shi" or "Lu Shangshu Shi", they can command and control the Shangshu Station. Once they control the Shangshu Station, it is equivalent to taking the state power into their own hands. Therefore, this arrangement of micro-weighting of central functional departments provides institutional convenience for relatives and eunuchs to take turns to have exclusive power.

Second, the development of powerful landlord forces during the Eastern Han Dynasty was the class basis for the exclusive power of foreign relatives and eunuchs. The power of powerful landlords developed even further in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. As they compete for land and population economically, they will inevitably compete for political rights.

The relatives of the Eastern Han Dynasty were generally heroes and generals, from famous families. They were representatives of the upper class of powerful landowners. The relatives of the Eastern Han Dynasty mainly include the four major families of "Ma, Dou, Deng, and Liang". Empress Ma of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the daughter of the great hero Ma Yuan; Queen Dou of Emperor Zhang was the great-granddaughter of the great hero Dou Rong; Queen Deng of Emperor He was the granddaughter of the great hero Deng Yu; Queen Liang of Emperor Shun was the great-granddaughter of the great hero Liang descendants of the tradition. These four major families, combined with heroes and relatives, are very powerful.

Except for Queen Ma's family, which is self-effacing, the rest are domineering and prominent.

According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty* The Biography of Dou Rong": "The Dou family has one duke, two marquises, three princesses, and four or two thousand stones. From the ancestors to the grandsons, the official residence of the Dou family looks to the capital. There are thousands of slaves in the city, and there is no comparison among relatives and meritorious officials. "Dou Rong's great-grandson Dou Xian, because of his daughter's brother, was appointed as Emperor Zhang. He became more noble and domineering, and even the members of the royal family were afraid of him. Dou Xian once forcibly bought the manor of Princess Qinshui, Zhang Emperor's sister, at a low price, but the princess did not dare to argue with Dou Xian. When Emperor Zhang knew about it, he was furious and scolded Dou Xian face to face, saying: "If you think deeply about your past mistakes, why should you accuse Zhao Gao of calling a deer a horse when you seize the land? Long thoughts make people frightened. In the past Yongpingzhong, Yin Party and Yin Bo were often summoned. , Deng Die and others are on guard against each other, so no one dares to violate the law, and the edict is still based on the fact that the land and house of his uncle's family are still in vain, let alone a villain who abandons the constitution like an orphan! "Rotted rat ears."

According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty* Biography of Deng Yu": "Since the Zhongxing Dynasty, the Deng family has been favored by nobles for many generations. There are twenty-nine princes, two princes, and thirteen people below the general. , there are fourteen people with two thousand stones, twenty-two people in the school, forty-eight state pastors and county guards, and countless other ministers, generals, officials, ministers, and ministers. Tokyo can't compare with them."`

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty* Biography of Liang Ji" records: "The Ji family has seven princes, three queens, six nobles, two generals, seven ladies and women who are the kings of the city, three princesses, and the rest There are fifty-seven ministers, generals, Yin, and Xiaos (Liang Ji) who have been in office for more than twenty years. They are extremely prosperous and powerful both internally and externally. Hundreds of officials look at them with suspicion. No one dares to disobey orders. The emperor respects himself but is not allowed to have any relatives. . ”

Eunuchs generally come from humble backgrounds, are illiterate, and are looked down upon by ordinary people. However, once they came to power, eunuchs also began to annex land and rose to the status of landlord class. We say that eunuchs are not necessarily bad people. There are also outstanding ones among eunuchs. Tai Shigong who compiled "Historical Records", Cai Hou who invented papermaking, and Sanbao eunuchs who went to the West all left good names in the history of history. Although eunuchs are not all bad people, eunuch politics must be dark. This is because: first, the eunuch was tortured, had a perverted temperament, and was hostile to society and normal people; second, the eunuch had no descendants, so he was not subject to any moral constraints; third, the eunuch's origin They are humble, illiterate, and have no cultural literacy; fourth, the eunuchs only know how to greet and flatter people, but do not have any political experience.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs competed with their relatives politically and expanded crazily economically. They occupied land, took people's wealth, and stole people's women. They did whatever they wanted and aroused great anger among the people. According to the "Biographies of the Eunuchs in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty", the great eunuch Hou Lan "was greedy for extravagance and indulged in extravagance. He asked people to seize 381 houses and 118 hectares of land. There were ten houses in six districts, all of which The high buildings, pools and gardens, facing each other, are decorated with red paintings and red lacquers. The system is complex and similar to the imperial palace. There is also a longevity tomb with double stone coffins, a hundred feet high verandah, broken living rooms and excavated tombs. He seizes a good man and seizes his wife and his children..."

Zhong often served Su Kang, Guan Ba ​​and others "for internal purposes, thus consolidating the world's fertile fields and beautiful industries, mountains, forests and lakes." In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ling and the eunuchs even openly sold their official positions. Since the money earned was stored in the Western Garden, it was known as "Selling Officials in the Western Garden" in history. From the officials to the local officials, they all set a price, and paid with one hand and paid with the other. To the officer.

Eunuchs rose to become powerful landlords, but they were not valued by the upper class wealthy families and Qingliu. They were political representatives of the lower class of powerful landlords.

The third reason is that starting from Emperor He in the middle period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most emperors died young, and the young emperor often succeeded to the throne and the mother came to the throne. The ages of the eleven emperors in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty when they succeeded to the throne were:

Emperor He, ten years old; L!2

Emperor Shang, a child of a hundred days; 6

Emperor An, thirteen years old;]-&

(former) Young Emperor Liu Yi, age unknown; $ I:i

Emperor Shun, eleven years old; sLjI

Emperor Chong, two years old; M=%9

Emperor Zhi, eight years old; ZN

Emperor Huan, fifteen years old; *n&E'

Emperor Ling, twelve years old; Fs:"1=

Young Emperor, seventeen years old, P#7

Emperor Xian, nine years old. m*bW1

Since most emperors died young and the prince succeeded to the throne at a young age, there was a situation where the mother came to the court and listened to the government with integrity.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty" commented: "The imperial line in Tokyo has been repeatedly eliminated, and the power belongs to the heroine. There are four emperors who stand outside, and six empresses who come to the court. They all decide the strategy, appoint fathers and brothers, and covet children to perpetuate their political affairs. Suppress the wise and use their authority."

These empress dowagers who listen to politics with integrity are not very old, usually in their twenties. After their husbands died, their spirits were empty and decadent, and they had nothing to rely on. They shifted their thoughts and feelings from their married life to the handling of important court affairs. However, these young queen mothers have no minimum social experience and ruling experience, and basically no cultural knowledge. They have no ability to control the state machinery at all, so they have to rely on their father and elder brothers to help them handle national affairs. As a result, state power fell into the hands of relatives.

When the emperor came of age, in order to regain power and eliminate the threat from his relatives, he could only rely on the eunuchs around him. The emperor was young and grew up deep in the palace. He was single and weak, and the people with the closest relationship were the eunuchs. As the "Biographies of the Eunuchs in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty" says: "The internal and external ministers are not received by relatives, and those who live with them are only eunuchs." Since the emperor was a child, everything was taken care of by eunuchs. Eunuchs took care of the emperor's daily life and were familiar with the emperor's temperament and habits. They were the only confidants around the emperor. When the emperor grew up and demanded to take back the political power that originally belonged to him, he would inevitably have conflicts with the group of relatives who wanted to continue their dictatorship. In the struggle against the foreign relatives' group, the eunuchs naturally became the emperor's allies. So, with the help of eunuchs, the emperor regained power. After regaining power, the eunuchs with meritorious service "enjoyed the title of land and ascended to the position of public minister", and the power of the country fell into the hands of these eunuchs with meritorious service. However, when the emperor died and a new king succeeded, the eunuchs were unable to assist the government due to their low political status, so a new relative came to power. This situation in which foreign relatives and eunuchs took turns to have exclusive power became a prominent feature of the politics of the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty.