515 years ago today, on September 13, 1510 (August 11, 1510 lunar calendar), the Ming Dynasty eunuch Liu Jin rebelled. During the Ming Zhengde period, the eunuch Liu Jin (1451-1510), a native of Xingping, Shaanxi Province, was adopted by the eunuch Liu Shun when he was six years old, and later entered the palace as a eunuch, and his surname was changed to Liu. During the Hongzhi period, after the crime was pardoned, he served Zhu Houzhao, who won the favor of Ming Wuzong. He was promoted several times, and he worshipped the eunuch in the palm of the eunuch. After taking power, he took the opportunity to specialize in the government and make a fortune. He was the head of the "Eight Tigers", known as the "Emperor" and Wuzong as the "Emperor". After Liu Jin was arrested, millions of taels of gold and silver were found in his home, and there were counterfeit seals, jade belts and other prohibited items. He was considered the "richest man in the world" at that time. In August of the fifth year of Zhengde (1510), Liu Jin was sentenced to Lingchi. The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were famous for their dictatorship, and the most greedy and authoritarian was Liu Jin, who was known as the "emperor". He held power for five years, ostracizing dissidents and framing Zhongliang. In the end, he ended up being executed by Lingchi and slashed by a thousand swords, and went from one extreme to the other. This is exactly what the saying "If you do more injustice, you will die". Liu Jin's surname is Tan, and she was admitted to the palace by the introduction of a eunuch surnamed Liu, and her surname has since been changed to Liu. Liu Jin served the Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao during the reign of Emperor Xiaoxiao of the Ming Dynasty. He knew how to cherish this rare opportunity, because he knew that the Crown Prince would be the boss of the world in the future, so he tried his best to win over the Crown Prince, who was only ten years old at that time. In 1505 BC, that is, the 18th year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaoxiao of the Ming Dynasty died due to illness, and Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao successfully ascended the throne. This was Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. As Liu Jin thought, his time had come and gone. He, Ma Yongcheng, Gao Feng and other seven eunuchs were favored by the new emperor and were called the "Eight Tigers", while Liu Jin was the king of the "Eight Tigers". Under Liu Jin's leadership, these eunuchs tried every means to encourage Wu Zong to play and enjoy himself, while they were domineering and did bad things behind the emperor's back. Liu Jin was the most trusted by Wu Zong, serving in the inner palace, and was in charge of the elite guards of the capital. The next year, the ministers who were worried about the country saw that Wu Zong was being made to ignore the government by the eunuchs, so they persuaded one after another. At first Wu Zong couldn't listen, until he was told that the sky had changed and that the sky was warning him, Wu Zong said something and planned to deport Liu Jin to Nanjing first. But the ministers insisted on killing this scourge. In order to make the emperor decide to get rid of Liu Jin, the ministers united the main officials of the capital at that time and prepared to persuade them together the next day. But Jiao Fang, the minister of the ministry, was a very dark person at heart, and he ran to Liu Jin's house that night. When Liu Jin saw that Jiao Fang came empty-handed, her boss was not happy, and her face lengthened at that time. She waved her hand at Jiao Fang and said, "I'm busy today, come back tomorrow if you have anything to do!" Jiao Fang saw him like this and turned around and walked out, saying as she walked, "Tomorrow, I don't need to come, I don't know who's home here!" Liu Jin's heart "thumped" and hurriedly said, "What did you say? Come back!" Jiao Fang told Liu Jin the action plan of the ministers tomorrow morning. When Liu Jin heard it, she was shocked and cried in front of Wuzong overnight. Wu Zong saw that Liu Jin was crying pitifully, and thought of his loyal care for himself in the past, so he said, "Okay, don't cry, I know, I won't listen to what others say tomorrow!" The next day, the ministers went to the palace to impeach Liu Jin, Wu Zong said, "Say it one by one, say whatever you want!" The ministers were quite happy at first, thinking that Liu Jin must be finished this time, so they exposed Liu Jin's crimes one after another. When everyone finished exposing, they were waiting for the emperor to order Liu Jin to be killed, but Wu Zong said, "Okay, what you said is quite tired, go back and rest!" Ministers, look at me, I look at you, and say to myself: This is the end? We are talking in vain! Seeing that everyone was standing still, Wu Zong said, "You're not leaving? Well, I'll go first, let's see you another day!" After saying that, he left as if nothing had happened. The ministers knew that the operation ended in failure. Wu Zong not only continued to favor Liu Jin and others, but also put Si Lijian, Dongchang, and Xichang in charge of them. At the same time, he sent another upright eunuch to Nanjing to join the army, and then intercepted him halfway. The confused Wu Zong brought a great disaster to the Ming Dynasty because he didn't know what to do. Si Lijian was a very important inner palace official office at that time, with one eunuch in the palm print and eight or nine eunuchs in the pen. In the Ming Dynasty, when a hundred officials wrote to the emperor, they had to send it to the cabinet first, and the cabinet assistants made preliminary handling opinions, called "votes", and then handed them over to the emperor for approval. The emperor used a Zhu pen (that is, a red pen) to issue instructions on the memorial, which was called "criticism of red". If some emperors were not diligent in political affairs, they would let the eunuchs favored by Si Lijian write on their behalf, which provided conditions for the eunuchs to misbehave. In addition, Si Lijian's eunuchs had a privilege unmatched by other departments: to convey the emperor's will. Sometimes the eunuchs recorded what the emperor said, and then let the cabinet draft it, or the eunuchs communicated it orally to the relevant ministers. This system directly created opportunities for the eunuchs to tamper with the edicts. Liu Jin is the supervisor of Si Lijian, which is an important capital for his domineering and domineering. For the ministers who once united to kill him, Liu Jin of course hated them to the bone. After he took power, he opened the knife on these ministers. He used many methods, one is punishment, that is, fine rice to supply the border. Because the number of punishments was very large, some reached as many as several thousand stones, so that many ministers were punished to the point of bankruptcy. The second is physical punishment, and the most vicious is to take off their clothes and use the tingcane. The original tingcane in the Ming Dynasty was only an insult to the minister's personality, not a physical punishment, so the minister was allowed to use felt, blankets and cotton-padded clothes on the body. But Liu Jin asked the minister to strip and be punished. During the execution, the Jinyi guards who were instructed to execute the execution were beaten hard, and the ministers were often beaten to death on the spot. In addition, Liu Jin made a large flail weighing 75 kilograms. After the minister he persecuted put on this flail, he was dragged to death within a few days. Liu Jin knew that the officials in charge of persuasion were a great threat to him, and after taking power, he did not let them go. In addition to dismissal, caning, and framing and convicting for excuses, he also punished and threatened these officials in normal times: ordering them to enter the dynasty at Yinshi time (3:00 to 5:00) in the morning, and not letting them go until Youshi time (5:00 to 7:00) in the afternoon. After working for about 14 hours a day, Liu Jin's purpose was to make them not rest and let them have no energy to impeach themselves. Liu Jin did whatever he wanted when attacking dissidents, and he did not let go of the officials of the Hanlin Academy who usually only bowed to him without kowtowing and giving a big salute. After making an excuse, he rushed 20 people to Nanjing to work, and some even reduced their positions to the people. After clearing all the dissident ministers, Liu Jin became authoritarian at will, and he was very good at controlling the emperor for his use. First, he entangled the fun-loving Wuzong with playing ball, running horses, catching rabbits with eagles, etc., and then asked him for political instructions when Wuzong was having a good time. Wuzong was always upset and said, "Why do you come to me for everything? Are you all idle people?" Liu Jin pretended to be gloomy and retreated, and his heart happily left the country. Through this, Liu Jin easily held the power of the cabinet in his hands. In order to completely control the cabinet, he also arranged Jiao Fang, who had previously tipped him off and made meritorious contributions, to serve in the cabinet, while Jiao Fang did everything according to Liu Jin's eyes, which opened a bad example of the cabinet's auxiliary ministers obeying the orders of eunuchs. In addition to the cabinet, there were only six government organs, and Liu Jin arranged his subordinates into six departments. Sometimes, he just wrote on paper who was the official, and the six departments had to be arranged according to his wishes. Those high-ranking princes had to kneel and bow when they saw Liu Jin, and they didn't even dare to lift their heads. Liu Jin's level is limited. In order to review the memorial, he took the minister's memorial back to his home, asked his brother-in-law, who was an official in the Ministry of Rites, to review it for him, and then took it to the cabinet for Jiao Fang to revise. Therefore, people at that time secretly called him "establish an emperor". In order to increase his power, Liu Jin also established another spy organization, "Expert Factory", with power above the Jinyiwei and the East Factory and the West Factory. Through spies, he supervised the officials and the common people, creating an atmosphere of terror and maintaining his dictatorship. After gaining power, Liu Jin, like many corrupt officials, also began to amass money. His methods were not innovative. Bribery, bribery, and embezzlement were all common methods. It was just that his courage was much greater than that of ordinary corrupt officials, because no one restricted him. There was a man named Liu Yu. When he first became governor, he bribed Liu Jin with 10,000 gold, which made Liu Jin happy. Later, Liu Yu gave Liu Jin tens of thousands of silver, and as a result, he was promoted to the post of Minister of the Ministry of War. Most of the other officials were afraid that Liu Jin would retaliate against them, so they always paid bribes to Liu Jin when they went to the capital to pay homage to their duties, which was called a "greeting ceremony". As little as a thousand taels, as much as 5,000 taels. One year, when investigating local officials, someone paid a bribe of 20,000 taels of silver. If you are promoted to an official, you must immediately use a large amount of money to "thank" Liu Jin, which is called a "thank you gift". If you give less money, you will be dismissed immediately, but if you quickly add money, your official position can be restored immediately. The official position has basically become a commodity sold by Liu Jin. After accepting bribes from others, Liu Jin also acted in violation of the law and even created unjust imprisonment. The emperor Ge Hao turned out to be a commoner after being punished for offending Liu Jin, but Liu Jin accepted the bribes of Ge Hao's enemies and found excuses to take Ge Hao into the capital, where he was sentenced to 30. Liu Jin's dictatorship not only caused chaos in the government, but also directly led to the intensification of local conflicts. After the officials paid him bribes, they would inevitably exploit the people, forcing the people to have no choice but to resist. Just a few months after Liu Jin was executed, Liu Liu and Liu Qi revolted in the capital area. Liu Jin's power is getting bigger and bigger, and in the end he wants to be the boss of the world. He secretly carved seals and secretly made bows and arrows in an attempt to seize the position. However, with the mantis catching cicadas and the yellow sparrow behind, Liu Jin only cares about himself to make a fortune, but he did not expect that the other seven tigers are watching his words and deeds. Because when they asked Liu Jin for power, Liu Jin always refused to take care of it, and over time, the contradiction gradually intensified. In April 1510, Yang Yiqing, the official of the Wu Sect, and Zhang Yong, one of the eunuchs of the seven tigers, went to quell the rebellion of King Anhua. After the rebellion was quelled, when Yang Yiqing reported the situation of the war to Wu Zong, he also exposed Liu Jin's seventeen major crimes, including rebellion. Wu Zong didn't care about other things, and when he heard that someone was going to rebellion, he couldn't help being surprised and ordered Liu Jin to be arrested and interrogated The next day, Wu Zong personally went out to raid Liu Jin's house. As a result, seals, jade belts, and other prohibited items were found, which were forbidden to be privately owned by ordinary people and officials. Two daggers were also found in the fan that Liu Jin often held. Wu Zong was furious and finally believed in the fact that Liu Jin had rebelled. In August of that year, Liu Jin was sentenced to Lingchi, that is, thousands of cuts, and was executed for a total of three days. In the feudal society, except for the "ten evils" such as rebellion and killing of parents, ordinary death row prisoners could only be executed after the fall of frost and before the winter solstice. This is in line with the times of the sky (seasonal changes), and when all things grow in spring, it is forbidden to execute, and it is also forbidden to kill young birds and beasts. But Liu Jin was the first serious crime of rebellion, so he was executed before the autumn frost came. The families who had been victimized used a penny to buy Liu Jin's meat that had been cut into thin pieces and ate it to relieve their hatred. The dictatorship of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty fully summed up the lessons of the Qing Dynasty, so the eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty were strictly controlled, and there was no eunuch dictatorship.