Volume 304 Biographies 192: Officials 1 - Zheng He, Jin Ying, Wang Zhen, Cao Jixiang, Huai En, Wang Zhi, Liang Fang, He Ding, Li Guang, Jiang Cong, Liu Jin, Zhang Yong, Gu Dayong

明太祖既定江左，鑒前代之失，置宦者不及百人。迨末年頒《祖訓》，乃定為十有二監及各司局，稍稱備員矣。然定制，不得兼外臣文武銜，不得御外臣冠服，官無過四品，月米一石，衣食於內庭。嘗鐫鐵牌置宮門曰：「內臣不得干預政事，預者斬。」敕諸司不得與文移往來。有老閹供事久，一日從容語及政事，帝大怒，即日斥還鄉。嘗用杜安道為御用監。安道，外臣也，以鑷工侍帝數十年，帷幄計議皆與知，性縝密不泄，過諸大臣前一揖不啟口而退。太祖愛之，然亡他寵異，後遷出為光祿寺卿。有趙成者，洪武八年以內侍使河州市馬。其後以市馬出者，又有司禮監慶童等，然皆不敢有所干竊。建文帝嗣位，御內臣益嚴，詔出外稍不法，許有司械聞。及燕師逼江北，內臣多逃入其軍，漏朝廷虛實。文皇以為忠於己，而狗兒輩復以軍功得幸，即位後遂多所委任。永樂元年，內官監李興奉敕往勞暹羅國王。三年，遣太監鄭和帥舟師下西洋。八年，都督譚青營有內官王安等。又命馬靖鎮甘肅，馬騏鎮交阯。十八年置東廠，令刺事。蓋明世宦官出使、專征、監軍、分鎮、刺臣民隱事諸大權，皆自永樂間始。

Once the Ming founder had consolidated his hold on the lower Yangzi, he studied the mistakes of earlier dynasties and kept the number of eunuchs to under a hundred. By the end of his reign, when he promulgated the Ancestral Injunctions, the establishment was fixed at twelve directorates and the various bureaus—barely enough to count as a full complement. Yet the standing regulations barred them from holding concurrent civil or military titles in the outer administration, from wearing the headgear and robes of outer ministers, and from rising above the fourth rank; they received one picul of rice a month and were clothed and fed within the inner palace. He once had an iron tablet engraved and set up at the palace gate: "Inner servants must not meddle in government affairs—whoever does so shall be executed. He also ordered the various ministries not to exchange official correspondence with them. An old eunuch who had long served at court once spoke casually about state affairs; the emperor flew into a rage and sent him home that very day. He once appointed Du Andao director of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories. Andao was an outer subject who had served the emperor for decades as a metalworker; he was privy to every plan and deliberation in the field camp, was meticulous and tight-lipped by nature, and whenever he passed the senior ministers he would bow once and withdraw without a word. The founder held him in esteem but granted him no further extraordinary favor; later he was transferred out to serve as minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. There was also Zhao Cheng, whom in the eighth year of Hongwu the court sent as an inner attendant to purchase horses in Hezhou. Later others were sent out on horse-buying missions as well, including Qingtong of the Directorate of Ceremonial—but none of them dared to meddle in affairs or steal. When the Jianwen Emperor came to the throne, he tightened control over the inner servants still further, decreeing that if any of them went outside and committed even minor offenses, local officials might arrest them and report the matter. When the Prince of Yan's army pressed to the north bank of the Yangzi, many inner servants deserted into his ranks and betrayed the court's strengths and weaknesses. The Yongle Emperor regarded them as loyal to his cause, and men such as Dog'er won further favor through military service; once he took the throne, he entrusted them with ever wider responsibilities. In the first year of Yongle, Li Xing of the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs was ordered to travel to Siam and convey the emperor's condolences to its king. In the third year the court dispatched the eunuch Zheng He to lead a fleet on the voyage to the Western Ocean. In the eighth year inner officials such as Wang An were attached to the camp of the regional commander Tan Qing. He also ordered Ma Jing to take command in Gansu and Ma Qi to take command in Jiaozhi. In the eighteenth year the Eastern Depot was set up and charged with intelligence gathering. Thus the great powers later wielded by eunuchs—diplomatic missions abroad, independent military campaigns, supervision of armies, regional commands, and surveillance of ministers and commoners—all had their beginning in the Yongle reign.

初，太祖制，內臣不許讀書識字。後宣宗設內書堂，選小內侍，令大學士陳山教習之，遂為定制。用是多通文墨，曉古今，逞其智巧，逢君作奸。數傳之後，勢成積重，始於王振，卒於魏忠賢。考其禍敗，其去漢、唐何遠哉。雖間有賢者，如懷恩、李芳、陳矩輩，然利一而害百也。今摭其有關成敗者，作《宦官傳》。

At first the founder had decreed that inner servants were not to study books or learn to read. Later the Xuande Emperor set up an inner school, chose young eunuchs for instruction, and had the grand secretary Chen Shan teach them—thus fixing the practice as an institution. Hence many became literate and versed in affairs past and present, then turned their wit and cunning to winning the ruler's ear and doing evil. After several generations the abuse had piled up into an immovable weight, beginning with Wang Zhen and ending with Wei Zhongxian. When one weighs the calamities they brought, how far did they fall short of the eunuch disasters of Han and Tang? Though a few worthy men appeared among them—Huai'en, Li Fang, Chen Ju, and the like—for every one such man a hundred did harm. I have therefore gathered the cases that bear on success and failure and composed this Biography of Eunuchs.

鄭和，雲南人，世所謂三保太監者也。初事燕王於藩邸，從起兵有功。累擢太監。成祖疑惠帝亡海外，欲蹤跡之，且欲耀兵異域，示中國富強。永樂三年六月，命和及其儕王景弘等通使西洋。將士卒二萬七千八百餘人，多賫金幣。造大舶，修四十四丈、廣十八丈者六十二。自蘇州劉家河泛海至福建，復自福建五虎門揚帆，首達占城，以次遍歷諸番國，宣天子詔，因給賜其君長，不服則以武懾之。五年九月，和等還，諸國使者隨和朝見。和獻所俘舊港酋長。帝大悅，爵賞有差。舊港者，故三佛齊國也，其酋陳祖義，剽掠商旅。和使使招諭，祖義詐降，而潛謀邀劫。和大敗其眾，擒祖義，獻俘，戮於都市。

Zheng He was a native of Yunnan, the man the world knows as the Three Treasures eunuch. He first served the Prince of Yan in his princely household and won merit by following him when he raised arms. He rose through repeated promotions to the rank of eunuch director. Chengzu suspected that the deposed Jianwen emperor had fled overseas and wished to track him down; he also wanted to project military power abroad and display the wealth and might of the Middle Kingdom. In the sixth month of the third year of Yongle he ordered Zheng He, Wang Jinghong, and their companions to serve as envoys to the Western Ocean. They commanded more than twenty-seven thousand eight hundred troops and carried vast stores of gold and coin. They built great ships—sixty-two of them measuring forty-four zhang in length and eighteen zhang in beam. They put to sea from Liujiagang in Suzhou, reached Fujian, and sailed again from Wuhumen; they made first for Champa, then in succession called at every foreign state, proclaiming the Son of Heaven's edicts, bestowing gifts on their rulers, and where submission was refused, backing persuasion with force. In the ninth month of the fifth year Zheng He and his fleet returned, and envoys from many states came with him to audience at court. He presented as a prisoner the chieftain of Old Port. The emperor was delighted and distributed ranks and rewards in due measure. Old Port was the site of the former Srivijaya kingdom; its chieftain Chen Zuyi had been preying on merchant shipping. Zheng He sent envoys to summon and pacify him; Zuyi pretended to submit while secretly plotting to waylay the fleet. He routed Zuyi's forces, captured him alive, presented him as a prisoner, and had him executed in the capital marketplace.

六年九月，再往錫蘭山。國王亞烈苦柰兒誘和至國中，索金幣，發兵劫和舟。和覘賊大眾既出，國內虛，率所統二千餘人，出不意攻破其城，生擒亞烈苦柰兒及其妻子官屬。劫和舟者聞之，還自救，官軍復大破之。九年六月獻俘於朝。帝赦不誅，釋歸國。是時，交阯已破滅，郡縣其地，諸邦益震詟，來者日多。

In the ninth month of the sixth year they sailed again for Ceylon. King Alakeshvara lured Zheng He inland, demanded gold and treasure, and sent troops to seize his ships. Seeing that the enemy's main force had marched out and the capital lay undefended, he led his two thousand-odd men in a surprise assault, took the city, and captured Alakeshvara alive together with his wife, children, and officials. The force that had seized his ships, hearing of this, hurried back to relieve the capital; the imperial troops routed them again. In the sixth month of the ninth year he presented the captives at court. The emperor spared their lives, released them, and sent them home. By then Jiaozhi had been conquered and organized into commanderies and counties; the foreign states were still more awed, and embassies to court grew day by day.

十年十一月，復命和等往使，至蘇門答剌。其前偽王子蘇幹剌者，方謀弒主自立，怒和賜不及己，率兵邀擊官軍。和力戰，追擒之喃渤利，並俘其妻子，以十三年七月還朝。帝大喜，賚諸將士有差。

In the eleventh month of the tenth year he was again ordered abroad and reached Samudra. A former pretender, Suganla, was plotting to murder his sovereign and usurp the throne; furious that Zheng He had not included him in the gifts, he led troops to ambush the imperial force. Zheng He fought hard, pursued and captured Nanbuli, and took his wife and children prisoner, returning to court in the seventh month of the thirteenth year. The emperor was greatly pleased and rewarded the commanders and troops according to merit.

十四年冬，滿剌加、古裏等十九國咸遣使朝貢，辭還。復命和等偕往，賜其君長。十七年七月還。十九年春復往，明年八月還。二十二年正月，舊港酋長施濟孫請襲宣慰使職，和賫敕印往賜之。比還，而成祖已晏駕。洪熙元年二月，仁宗命和以下番諸軍守備南京。南京設守備，自和始也。宣德五年六月，帝以踐阼歲久，而諸番國遠者猶未朝貢，於是和、景弘復奉命歷忽魯謨斯等十七國而還。

In the winter of the fourteenth year Melaka, Calicut, and nineteen other states all sent envoys to court and then departed. Zheng He was again ordered to accompany them home and bestow gifts on their rulers. They returned in the seventh month of the seventeenth year. In the spring of the nineteenth year they sailed again and came back in the eighth month of the following year. In the first month of the twenty-second year Shi Jisun, chieftain of Old Port, petitioned to inherit the post of pacification commissioner; Zheng He carried the imperial patent and seal to invest him. By the time he returned, Chengzu had already passed away. In the second month of the first year of Hongxi the new emperor ordered Zheng He and the maritime troops to take up the Nanjing garrison. The Nanjing garrison command dates from Zheng He's appointment. In the sixth month of the fifth year of Xuande, because the emperor had been reigning for some years while distant states had still not come to pay tribute, Zheng He and Wang Jinghong were again ordered to visit seventeen states including Hormuz and return.

和經事三朝，先後七奉使，所歷占城、爪哇、真臘、舊港、暹羅、古裏、滿剌加、渤泥、蘇門答剌、阿魯、柯枝、大葛蘭、小葛蘭、西洋瑣裏、瑣裏、加異勒、阿撥把丹、南巫裏、甘把裏、錫蘭山、喃渤利、彭亨、急蘭丹、忽魯謨斯、比剌、溜山、孫剌、木骨都束、麻林、剌撒、祖法兒、沙裏灣泥、竹步、榜葛剌、天方、黎伐、那孤兒，凡三十餘國。所取無名寶物，不可勝計，而中國耗廢亦不貲。自宣德以還，遠方時有至者，要不如永樂時，而和亦老且死。自和後，凡將命海表者，莫不盛稱和以誇外番，故俗傳三保太監下西洋，為明初盛事云。

He served three emperors and sailed on seven missions, calling at more than thirty states including Champa, Java, Chenla, Old Port, Siam, Calicut, Melaka, Brunei, Samudra, Aru, Cochin, Great and Little Calicut, Western and Eastern Suoli, Jiayile, Ababadan, Nanwuli, Ganbali, Ceylon, Nanbuli, Pahang, Kelantan, Hormuz, Billa, Liushan, Sunla, Mogadishu, Malindi, Lasa, Zafar, Shaliwanni, Jubu, Bengal, Tianfang, Leifa, and Naguer. The exotic goods he brought back were beyond reckoning, yet the empire paid a price that could not be measured in coin alone. After Xuande, visitors from afar still came from time to time, but never again in the numbers of the Yongle years—and Zheng He himself grew old and died. After him, every envoy who sailed the seas invoked Zheng He's name to impress foreign rulers; hence the popular saying that the Three Treasures eunuch sailed the Western Ocean—a byword for the glory of early Ming.

當成祖時，銳意通四夷，奉使多用中貴。西洋則和、景弘，西域則李達，迤北則海童，而西番則率使侯顯。

In Chengzu's day the court was bent on reaching the four quarters of the earth, and most envoys were inner-court eunuchs. Zheng He and Wang Jinghong went to the Western Ocean; Li Da to the Western Regions; Haitong to the northern frontier; and Hou Xian was usually the man sent to the western barbarian lands.

侯顯者，司禮少監。帝聞烏思藏僧尚師哈立麻有道術，善幻化，欲致一見，因通迤西諸番。乃命顯賫書幣往迓，選壯士健馬護行。元年四月奉使，陸行數萬里，至四年十二月始與其僧偕來，詔駙馬都尉沐昕迎之。帝延見奉天殿，寵賚優渥，儀仗鞍馬什器多以金銀為之，道路烜赫。五年二月建普度大齋於靈谷寺，為高帝、高後薦福。或言卿雲、天花、甘露、甘雨、青鳥、青獅、白象、白鶴及舍利祥光，連日畢見，又聞梵唄天樂自空而下。帝益大喜，廷臣表賀，學士胡廣等咸獻《聖孝瑞應歌》詩。乃封哈立麻萬行具足十方最勝圓覺妙智慧善普應祐國演教如來大寶法王西天大善自在佛，領天下釋教，給印誥制如諸王，其徒三人亦封灌頂大國師，再宴奉天殿。顯以奉使勞，擢太監。

Hou Xian served as deputy director of the Directorate of Ceremonial. The emperor heard that the Ü-Tsang monk known as Shangshi Halima possessed occult powers and could work wonders; wishing to see him, he opened communications with the western regions. He therefore ordered Hou Xian to carry letters and gifts to invite the monk, choosing stalwart troops and hardy horses to escort the mission. He set out in the fourth month of the first year, marched overland for tens of thousands of li, and only in the twelfth month of the fourth year did he return with the monk; an edict then ordered the imperial son-in-law Mu Xin to meet them. The emperor received him in the Hall of Imperial Heaven and heaped gifts upon him; banners, saddles, horses, and ritual vessels were mostly wrought in gold and silver, and the roads blazed with pageantry. In the second month of the fifth year a great Buddhist mass was held at Linggu Temple to pray for the blessings of the dynastic founders. Reports claimed that day after day there appeared auspicious clouds, flowers raining from heaven, sweet dew, timely rain, blue birds, blue lions, white elephants, white cranes, and radiance from the Buddha's relics, while Buddhist chant and celestial music were heard descending from the sky. The emperor was still more pleased; court ministers offered congratulatory memorials, and the Hanlin academicians Hu Guang and others each presented a poem entitled "Song of Sacred Filial Piety and Auspicious Response." Halima was then invested with the full title of Great Treasure Dharma King of the Western Heaven and given authority over all Buddhism in the realm, with seals and patents like those of a prince; his three disciples were enfeoffed as great national masters of empowerment, and the court feasted them again in the Hall of Imperial Heaven. For his labors on the mission Hou Xian was promoted to eunuch director.

十一年春復奉命，賜西番尼八剌、地湧塔二國。尼八剌王沙的新葛遣使隨顯入朝，表貢方物。詔封國王，賜誥印。十三年七月，帝欲通榜葛剌諸國，復命顯率舟師以行，其國即東印度之地，去中國絕遠。其王賽佛丁遣使貢麒麟及諸方物。帝大悅，錫予有加。榜葛剌之西，有國曰沼納樸兒者，地居五印度中，古佛國也，侵榜葛剌。賽佛丁告於朝。十八年九月命顯往宣諭，賜金幣，遂罷兵。宣德二年二月復使顯賜諸番，遍歷烏斯藏、必力工瓦、靈藏、思達藏諸國而還。途遇寇劫，督將士力戰，多所斬獲。還朝，錄功升賞者四百六十餘人。

In the spring of the eleventh year he was again dispatched with gifts for the western states of Nepal and Diyongta. The king of Nepal, Shadenige, sent envoys to accompany Hou Xian to court with tribute of local products. An edict enfeoffed him as king and granted patent and seal. In the seventh month of the thirteenth year the emperor wished to open relations with Bengal and other states and again ordered Hou Xian to lead a fleet thither—Bengal lay in eastern India, immeasurably far from China. Its king Saifuding sent envoys bearing a qilin and other tribute goods. The emperor was delighted and increased the gifts in return. West of Bengal lay a state called Zhaonapuer, situated among the Five Indies and an ancient Buddhist land; it had invaded Bengal. Saifuding reported the invasion to the court. In the ninth month of the eighteenth year Hou Xian was ordered to go and proclaim the imperial will; he bestowed gold and treasure, and the armies stood down. In the second month of the second year of Xuande he was again sent to bestow gifts on the western states, passing through Ü-Tsang, Biligongwa, Lingzang, Sidazang, and other lands before returning. On the road they were set upon by bandits; he led the troops in hard fighting and killed or captured many of the enemy. On his return more than four hundred and sixty men were entered on the rolls for promotion and reward.

顯有才辨，強力敢任，五使絕域，勞績與鄭和亞。

Hou Xian was quick-witted, physically strong, and bold in action; on five missions to the ends of the earth his achievements ranked only below Zheng He's.

金英

Jin Ying

金英者，宣宗朝司禮太監也，親信用事。宣德七年賜英及範弘免死詔，辭極褒美。英宗立，與興安並貴幸。及王振擅權，英不敢與抗。正統十四年夏旱，命英理刑部、都察院獄囚，築壇大理寺。英張黃蓋中坐，尚書以下左右列坐。自是六年一審錄，制皆如此。其秋，英宗北狩，中外大震。郕王使英、安等召廷臣問計。侍讀徐呈倡議南遷，安叱之，令扶呈出，大言曰：「敢言遷者斬！」遂入告太后，勸郕王任于謙治戰守。或曰叱呈者，英也。

Jin Ying served as the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial under the Xuande emperor and was personally trusted. In the seventh year of Xuande an edict of grace exempting Ying and Fan Hong from the death penalty was issued, couched in the most flattering terms. When Yingzong came to the throne, Ying and Xing'an alike rose to power and imperial favor. Once Wang Zhen had seized control of the government, Ying no longer dared oppose him. In the summer of the fourteenth year of Zhengtong, during a drought, Ying was ordered to review prisoners held by the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate; an altar was set up at the Court of Judicial Review. Ying sat beneath a yellow canopy while the ministers ranged themselves to his left and right. Henceforth a judicial review was held every six years, and this became the fixed practice. That autumn the emperor was taken captive on the northern campaign, and court and country alike were shaken with terror. The Prince of Cheng sent Ying, An, and others to summon the ministers and ask their counsel. The reading attendant Xu Cheng urged removing the court south of the Yangzi; An berated him, had him dragged out, and thundered: "Whoever dares speak of moving the capital shall die! He then went in to report to the empress dowager and urged the Prince of Cheng to put Yu Qian in charge of the defense. Some held that it was Ying who had berated Xu Cheng.

也先入寇，至德勝門，景帝敕安與李永昌同于謙、石亨總理軍務。永昌，亦司禮近侍也。景泰元年十一月，英犯贓罪，下獄論死。帝令禁錮之，終景帝世廢不用，獨任安。也先遣使議和，請迎上皇，廷議報使。帝不懌，令安出，呼群臣曰：「公等欲報使，孰可者？孰為文天祥、富弼！」詞色俱厲。尚書王直面折之，安語塞。及遣都給事中李寔往，敕書不及迎上皇。寔驚，走白內閣，遇安。安復詬曰：「若奉黃紙詔行耳，他何預！」及易儲諸，人遂疑安預謀矣。

When Esen invaded and reached Desheng Gate, the Jingtai emperor ordered An and Li Yongchang, together with Yu Qian and Shi Heng, to take overall command of military affairs. Yongchang, too, was an inner attendant of the Directorate of Ceremonial. In the eleventh month of the first year of Jingtai, Ying was charged with corruption, imprisoned, and condemned to death. The emperor had him imprisoned instead; for the rest of the Jingtai reign he languished unused while An alone retained favor. Esen sent envoys to sue for peace and ask that the captive emperor be returned; the court debated how to answer. The emperor was displeased, sent An out, and called the ministers together: "You wish to send a return envoy—who is fit for the task? Who among you is another Wen Tianxiang or Fu Bi? His tone and manner were fierce. Minister Wang Zhi rebuked him to his face, and An was left speechless. When Chief Envoy Li Shi was dispatched, the imperial letter made no mention of restoring the captive emperor. Shi was alarmed and hurried to the Grand Secretariat to report this; there he met An. An berated him again: "Your duty is to carry out the yellow-paper edict—nothing else concerns you! When the heir was changed, people came to suspect that An had had a hand in the plot.

安有廉操，且知于謙賢，力護之。或言帝任謙太過，安曰：「為國分憂如于公者，寧有二人！」

An was upright in conduct; knowing Yu Qian's worth, he shielded him steadfastly. When some said the emperor relied on Qian too heavily, An replied: "Men who bear the state's troubles as Yu Qian does—are there two of them?"

英宗復辟，蓋磔景帝所用太監王誠、舒良、張永、王勤等，謂其與黃厷構邪議，易太子，且與于謙、王文謀立外藩。於是給事、御史皆言安與誠、良等為黨，宜同罪。帝宥之，但奪職。是時，中官坐誅者甚眾，安僅獲免云。安佞佛，臨歿，遺命舂骨為灰，以供浮屠。

When Yingzong was restored to the throne, he had torn to pieces the eunuchs Wang Cheng, Shu Liang, Zhang Yong, Wang Qin, and others who had served Jingtai, charging that with Huang Gong they had hatched wicked plots, changed the heir, and conspired with Yu Qian and Wang Wen to set up a prince from outside the succession. The supervising secretaries and censors then all urged that An was of the same faction as Cheng, Liang, and the rest and should suffer the same penalty. The emperor spared his life but stripped him of office. Many eunuchs were put to death at that time; An alone, it is said, barely escaped with his life. An was a devout Buddhist; on his deathbed he ordered his bones ground to powder as an offering to the Buddha.

范弘，交阯人，初名安。永樂中，英國公張輔以交童之美秀者還，選為奄，弘及王瑾、阮安、阮浪等與焉。占對嫻雅，成祖愛之，教令讀書，涉經史，善筆劄，侍仁宗東宮。宣德初，為更名，累遷司禮太監，偕英受免死詔，又偕英及御用太監王瑾同賜銀記。正統時，英宗眷弘，嘗目之曰蓬來吉士。十四年從征，歿於土木，喪歸，葬香山水安寺，弘建也。而王瑾至景泰時始卒。

Fan Hong was a native of Jiaozhi; his original name was An. In the Yongle reign the Duke of Ying, Zhang Fu, brought back handsome boys from Jiaozhi and had them castrated; Hong, Wang Jin, Ruan An, Ruan Lang, and others were chosen. He spoke with fluent grace. Chengzu favored him, had him taught to read, and set him to study the classics and histories; skilled with brush and document, he served in the crown prince's Eastern Palace. At the beginning of Xuande he was given a new name, rose to eunuch director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, received the death-exemption edict together with Ying, and later with Ying and Wang Jin of the imperial manufactories was granted a silver tally. In the Zhengtong years Yingzong favored Hong and once called him a blessed guest from Penglai. In the fourteenth year he accompanied the northern campaign and died at Tumu; his body was brought home and buried at Shui'an Temple on Fragrant Hills, which Hong himself had founded. Wang Jin, by contrast, did not die until the Jingtai reign.

瑾，初名陳蕪。宣宗為皇太孫時，朝夕給事。及即位，賜姓名。從征漢王高煦還，參預四方兵事，賞賚累巨萬，數賜銀記曰「忠肝義膽」，曰「金貂貴客」，曰「忠誠自勵」，曰「心跡雙清」。又賜以兩宮人，官其養子王椿。其受寵眷，英、弘莫逮也。

Jin's original name was Chen Wu. When the future Xuanzong was still heir apparent as imperial grandson, Jin attended him from morning till night. When Xuanzong ascended the throne, he bestowed on him the name Wang Jin. After the campaign against the Prince of Han he took part in military affairs throughout the realm, amassed rewards in the tens of thousands, and received silver tallies again and again bearing such inscriptions as "Loyal Liver and Righteous Gall," "Golden Marten and Noble Guest," "Loyal Self-Encouragement," and "Heart and Conduct Both Pure." He was also given two palace women, and his adopted son Wang Chun was granted an official post. In imperial favor neither Ying nor Hong could rival him.

阮安有巧思，奉成祖命營北京城池宮殿及百司府廨，目量意營，悉中規制，工部奉行而已。正統時，重建三殿，治楊村河，並有功。景泰中，治張秋河，道卒，囊無十金。

Ruan An was ingenious in design. By Chengzu's order he laid out Beijing's walls, palaces, and the offices of the hundred bureaus; estimating by eye and planning from his own judgment, he made everything conform to the rules while the Ministry of Works simply executed his plans. In the Zhengtong reign he rebuilt the Three Halls and regulated the Yangcun River, earning merit in both undertakings. Under Jingtai, while working on the Zhangqiu River, he died on the road with less than ten taels in his purse.

阮浪至景帝時，為御用監少監。英宗居南宮，浪入侍，賜鍍金繡袋及鍍金刀。浪以贈門下皇城使王瑤。錦衣衛指揮盧忠者，險人也，見瑤袋刀異常制，醉瑤而竊之，以告尚衣監高平。平令校尉李善上變，言浪傳上皇命，以袋刀結瑤謀復位。景帝下浪、瑤詔獄，忠證之，浪、瑤皆磔死，詞終不及上皇。英宗復辟，磔忠及平，而贈浪太監。

By the Jingtai reign Ruan Lang had become deputy director of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories. While Yingzong was confined in the Southern Palace, Lang waited on him and received a gilded embroidered pouch and a gilded knife. Lang gave them to Wang Yao, an attendant at the gates of the imperial city. Lu Zhong, a commander of the Brocade Guard, was a vicious man; noticing that Yao's pouch and knife were of an unusual make, he got Yao drunk, stole them, and denounced him to Gao Ping of the Directorate of Imperial Wardrobe. Gao Ping had the corporal Li Shan lodge a secret report claiming that Lang had conveyed the captive emperor's command and used the pouch and knife to bind Yao to a plot of restoration. The Jingtai emperor had Lang and Yao thrown into prison; Zhong bore witness against them, and both were torn to pieces—yet their confessions never implicated the captive emperor. When Yingzong was restored, Zhong and Ping were torn to pieces, and Lang was posthumously promoted to eunuch director.

王振，蔚州人。少選入內書堂。侍英宗東宮，為局郎。初，太祖禁中官預政。自永樂後，漸加委寄，然犯法輒置極典。宣宗時，袁琦令阮巨隊等出外采辦。事覺，琦磔死，巨隊等皆斬。又裴可烈等不法，立誅之。諸中官以是不敢肆。及英宗立，年少。振狡黠得帝歡，遂越金英等數人掌司禮監，導帝用重典禦下，防大臣欺蔽。於是大臣下獄者不絕，而振得因以市權。然是時，太皇太后賢，方委政內閣。閣臣楊士奇、楊榮、楊溥，皆累朝元老，振心憚之未敢逞。至正統七年，太皇太后崩，榮已先卒，士奇以子稷論死不出，溥老病，新閣臣馬愉、曹鼐勢輕，振遂跋扈不可制。作大第皇城東，建智化寺，窮極土木。興麓川之師，西南騷動。侍講劉球因雷震上言陳得失，語刺振。振下球獄，使指揮馬順支解之。大理少卿薛瑄、祭酒李時勉素不禮振。振摭他事陷瑄幾死，時勉至荷校國子監門。御史李鐸遇振不跪，謫戍鐵嶺衛。駙馬都尉石璟詈其家閹，振惡賤己同類，下璟獄。怒霸州知州張需禁飭牧馬校卒，逮之，並坐需舉主王鐸。又械戶部尚書劉中敷，侍郎吳璽、陳常於長安門。所忤恨，輒加罪謫。內侍張環、顧忠、錦衣衛卒王永心不平，以匿名書暴振罪狀。事發，磔於市，不覆奏。

Wang Zhen was a native of Weizhou. Chosen while still young, he entered the inner school. He served Yingzong in the Eastern Palace as a bureau attendant. At first the founder had forbidden palace eunuchs to meddle in government. After Yongle they were gradually given heavier responsibilities, yet any who broke the law were punished with the utmost severity. In the Xuande reign Yuan Qi sent Ruan Judui and others outside the capital on procurement missions. When the affair was exposed, Qi was torn to pieces and Judui and the rest were beheaded. When Pei Kelie and others likewise broke the law, they too were put to death immediately. After such examples the eunuchs did not dare act recklessly. When Yingzong came to the throne he was still a youth. Zhen, cunning and sly, won the young emperor's affection, rose above Jin Ying and several others to head the Directorate of Ceremonial, and taught him to rule his subordinates with harsh punishments and to guard against deception by his ministers. Thereafter ministers were cast into prison without cease, and Zhen traded on the terror to amass power. Yet at this time the grand empress dowager was wise and had entrusted affairs to the Grand Secretariat. The grand secretaries Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu were veterans of several reigns, and Zhen feared them inwardly and did not yet dare run riot. By the seventh year of Zhengtong the grand empress dowager had died; Rong was already gone; Shiqi kept to his home after his son Ji was condemned to death; Pu was aged and ill; and the new grand secretaries Ma Yu and Cao Nai carried little weight—so Zhen grew arrogant beyond restraint. He built a great mansion east of the imperial city and raised Zhihua Temple, lavishing labor and timber without limit. He launched the Luchuan campaign, and the southwest was thrown into turmoil. The lecturer Liu Qiu seized on a thunderstorm to submit a memorial on the state's gains and losses, his words pointed at Zhen. Zhen had Qiu thrown into prison and ordered the commander Ma Shun to hack him to pieces. The vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Xue Xuan, and the administrator Li Shimian had long refused to defer to Zhen. Zhen seized on other charges to trap Xuan and nearly killed him; Shimian was made to wear the cangue at the gate of the National Academy. The censor Li Duo failed to kneel when he met Zhen and was banished to garrison duty at Tieling Guard. The imperial son-in-law Shi Jing reviled a eunuch in his household; Zhen, resenting the insult to one of his kind, had Jing thrown into prison. Furious that Zhang Xu, magistrate of Bazhou, had disciplined the horse grooms and camp followers, he had Zhang arrested and implicated Xu's patron Wang Duo as well. He also had the minister of revenue Liu Zhongfu and the vice ministers Wu Xi and Chen Chang shackled at Chang'an Gate. Whoever crossed or angered him was promptly punished and banished. The inner attendants Zhang Huan and Gu Zhong and the Brocade Guard soldier Wang Yong, unable to endure it, denounced Zhen's crimes in an anonymous letter. When the plot was discovered they were torn to pieces in the marketplace without even a memorial to the throne.

帝方傾心向振，嘗以先生呼之。賜振敕，極褒美。振權日益積重，公侯勛戚呼曰翁父。畏禍者爭附振免死，賕賂輳集。工部郎中王祐以善諂擢本部侍郎，兵部尚書徐晞等多至屈膝。其從子山、林至蔭都督指揮。私黨馬順、郭敬、陳官、唐童等並肆行無忌。久之，構釁瓦剌，振遂敗。瓦剌者，元裔也。十四年，其太師也先貢馬，振減其直，使者恚而去。秋七月，也先大舉入寇，振挾帝親征。廷臣交諫，弗聽。至宣府，大風雨，復有諫者，振益虓怒。成國公朱勇等白事，咸膝行進。尚書鄺埜、王佐忤振意，罰跪草中。其黨欽天監正彭德清以天象諫，振終弗從。八月己酉，帝駐大同，振益欲北。鎮守太監郭敬以敵勢告，振始懼。班師，至雙寨，雨甚。振初議道紫荊關，由蔚州邀帝幸其第，既恐蹂鄉稼，復改道宣府。軍士紆回奔走，壬戌始次土木。瓦剌兵追至，師大潰。帝蒙塵，振乃為亂兵所殺。敗報聞，百官慟哭，都御史陳鎰等廷奏振罪，給事中王竑等立擊殺馬順及毛、王二中官。郕王命臠王山於市，並振黨誅之，振族無少長皆斬。振擅權七年，籍其家，得金銀六十餘庫，玉盤百，珊瑚高六七尺者二十餘株，他珍玩無算。先是，郭敬鎮大同，幾造箭鏃數十甕，以振命遺瓦剌，瓦剌輒報以良馬。及帝親征，西寧侯宋瑛、駙馬都尉井源為前鋒，遇敵陽和，敬又撓使敗。至是逃歸，亦坐誅。

The emperor was wholly in Zhen's thrall and had even addressed him as "Sir." He issued him an imperial letter of lavish praise. Zhen's power mounted day by day; dukes, marquises, and meritorious kinfolk all called him "Father-in-law." Men who feared ruin flocked to his patronage to save their lives, and bribes piled up on every hand. Wang You, a director in the Ministry of Works, was raised to vice minister through flattery; the minister of war Xu Xi and others often knelt before Zhen. His nephews Shan and Lin were ennobled as regional commanders. His creatures Ma Shun, Guo Jing, Chen Guan, Tang Tong, and the rest acted without restraint. In time he provoked the Oirats, and disaster followed. The Oirats were descendants of the Yuan. In the fourteenth year their taishi Esen presented tribute horses; Zhen cut the price offered, and the envoy departed in a rage. In the seventh month of autumn Esen invaded in force, and Zhen persuaded the emperor to lead the campaign in person. The ministers remonstrated again and again, but he would not heed them. At Xuanfu violent wind and rain struck; when others urged retreat, Zhen flew into still greater rage. When the Duke of Chengguo, Zhu Yong, and the others came to report, they all crawled forward on their knees. The ministers Kuang Ye and Wang Zuo crossed Zhen's will and were forced to kneel in the grass as punishment. Even Peng Deqing, director of the Astronomical Bureau and one of his own party, warned him by the heavenly signs, but Zhen would not turn back. On the jiyou day of the eighth month the emperor encamped at Datong, and Zhen was all the more bent on pushing north. The garrison eunuch Guo Jing reported the enemy's strength, and at last Zhen took fright. The army turned back and, in pouring rain, reached Shuangzhai. Zhen had first intended to march the army through Zijing Pass and bring the emperor by way of his home district of Weizhou so as to visit his mansion, but fearing the troops would trample the crops of his native place, he changed the route back toward Xuanfu. The troops were forced into long detours and frantic marching, and only on the renxu day did they reach Tumubao. The Oirat cavalry overtook them there, and the army collapsed in total rout. The emperor was captured; Zhen himself was killed by the mutinous soldiers. When news of the disaster reached the capital the officials broke into loud lamentation; the censor-in-chief Chen Yi and others memorialized listing Zhen's crimes, and the supervising secretaries Wang Hong and others at once fell upon and killed Ma Shun and the two eunuchs Mao and Wang. The Prince of Cheng ordered Wang Shan torn to pieces in the marketplace and put Zhen's faction to death; every member of Zhen's clan, young and old alike, was beheaded. Zhen had monopolized power for seven years; when his property was seized there were more than sixty vaults of gold and silver, a hundred jade platters, more than twenty coral trees six or seven feet high, and treasures beyond counting. Earlier, while Guo Jing was garrisoning Datong, he had cast several dozen urns of arrowheads and, on Zhen's orders, sent them to the Oirats, who in return regularly sent fine horses. When the emperor led the campaign in person, the Marquis of Xining Song Ying and the imperial son-in-law Jing Yuan served as vanguard; at Yanghe they met the enemy, and Guo Jing again sabotaged them and brought on defeat. When he fled back on this occasion, he too was put to death.

英宗復辟，顧念振不置。用太監劉恒言，賜振祭，招魂以葬，祀之智化寺，賜祠曰精忠。而振門下曹吉祥復以奪門功，有寵顓政。

After Yingzong was restored he still could not put Wang Zhen out of mind. On the eunuch Liu Heng's advice he granted Zhen sacrificial rites, summoned his soul for burial, and established a shrine at Zhihua Temple with the plaque "Perfect Loyalty." Meanwhile Wang Zhen's follower Cao Jixiang, having won favor in the seizure of the gates, likewise dominated the government.

曹吉祥

Cao Jixiang

曹吉祥，灤州人。素依王振。正統初，征麓川，為監軍。征兀良哈，與成國公朱勇、太監劉永誠分道。又與寧陽侯陳懋等征鄧茂七於福建，吉祥每出，輒選達官、跳蕩卒隸帳下，師還畜於家，故家多藏甲。

Cao Jixiang came from Luanzhou. He had long been dependent on Wang Zhen. At the beginning of Zhengtong, in the Luchuan campaign, he served as supervising eunuch. In the campaign against the Uriyangqai he marched by a separate route with the Duke of Chengguo Zhu Yong and the eunuch Liu Yongcheng. He also campaigned with the Marquis of Ningyang Chen Mao against Deng Maoqi in Fujian; whenever Jixiang went on campaign he chose able officers and assault troops for his retinue, and after the army returned he kept them at home—so his household hoarded many weapons in secret.

景泰中，分掌京營。後與石亨結，帥兵迎英宗復位。遷司禮太監，總督三大營。嗣子欽，從子鉉、鐸等皆官都督，欽進封昭武伯，門下廝養冒官者多至千百人，朝士亦有依附希進者，權勢與石亨埒，時並稱曹、石。二人惡言官有言，共譖於帝，命吏部尚書王翺察核年三十五以上者留，不及者調用。於是給事何玘等十三人改州判官，御史吳禎等二十三人改知縣。會有風雷雨雹之變，帝乃悟，悉還其職。未幾，二人爭寵有隙，御史楊瑄、張鵬劾之，吉祥乃復與亨合，乘間醞帝。帝為下瑄等詔獄，而逮治閣臣徐有貞、李賢等。事具賢傳。承天門災，帝命閣臣嶽正草罪己詔，詔語激切。吉祥、亨復正謗訕，帝又謫正。焰益張，朝野仄目。

In the Jingtai reign he shared command of the capital garrisons. Later he allied with Shi Heng and led troops to welcome Yingzong back to the throne. He was promoted to eunuch director of the Directorate of Ceremonial and given overall command of the Three Great Garrisons. His adopted son Qin and his nephews Xuan and Duo were all made regional commanders; Qin was further enfeoffed as Marquis of Zhaowu. Household retainers who had bought office numbered in the thousands, and some court officials attached themselves in hope of advancement. His power rivaled Shi Heng's, and the two were known together as Cao and Shi. The two hated remonstrating officials; together they slandered them to the emperor, who ordered the minister of personnel Wang Ao to investigate: those thirty-five and older were to remain, the rest reassigned. Thirteen supervising secretaries including He Qi were demoted to prefectural vice-magistrates, and twenty-three censors including Wu Zhen to county magistrates. Then wind, thunder, rain, and hail struck; the emperor came to his senses and restored them all to office. Before long the two quarreled over favor; censors Yang Xuan and Zhang Peng impeached them. Jixiang again joined Heng and, seizing their chance, got the emperor drunk. The emperor had Xuan and the others thrown into prison and also arrested the grand secretaries Xu Youzhen and Li Xian for investigation. The full account is given in Li Xian's biography. When fire broke out at Chengtian Gate the emperor ordered Grand Secretary Yue Zheng to draft a self-reproach edict; the language was severe. Jixiang and Heng again slandered Zheng, and the emperor demoted him once more. Their arrogance blazed higher; court and country watched in dread.

久之，帝覺其奸，意稍稍疑。及李賢力言奪門非是，始大悟，疏吉祥。無何，石亨敗，吉祥不自安，漸蓄異謀，日犒諸達官，金錢、穀帛恣所取。諸達官恐吉祥敗而己隨黜退也，皆願盡力效死。欽問客馮益曰：「自古有宦官子弟為天子者乎？」益曰：「君家魏武，其人也。」欽大喜。天順五年七月，欽私掠家人曹福來，為言官所劾。帝令錦衣指揮逮杲按之，降敕遍諭群臣。欽驚曰：「前降敕，遂捕石將軍。今復爾，殆矣。」謀遂決。是時甘、涼告警，帝命懷寧侯孫鏜西征，未發。吉祥使其黨掌欽天監太常少卿湯序擇是月庚子昧爽，欽擁兵入，而已以禁軍應之。謀定，欽召諸達官夜飲。是夜，鏜及恭順侯吳瑾俱宿朝房。達官馬亮恐事敗，逸出，走告瑾。瑾趣鏜由長安右門隙投疏入。帝急縶吉祥於內，而敕皇城及京城九門閉弗啟。欽知亮逸，中夜馳往逮杲家，殺杲，斫傷李賢於東朝房。以杲頭示賢曰：「杲激我也。」又殺都御史寇深於西朝房。攻東、西長安門不得入，縱火。守衛者拆河壖磚石塞諸門。賊往來叫呼門外。鏜遣二子急召西征軍擊欽於東長安門。欽走攻東安門，道殺瑾。復縱火，門毀。門內聚薪益之，火熾，賊不得入。天漸曙，欽黨稍稍散去。鏜勒兵逐欽，斬鉉、鐸，鏜子軏斫欽中膊。欽走突安定諸門，門盡閉。奔歸家，拒戰。會大雨如註，鏜督諸軍大呼入，欽投井死。遂殺鐸，盡屠其家。越三日，磔吉祥於市。湯序、馮益及吉祥姻黨皆伏誅。馬亮以告反者，授都督。

After a long while the emperor perceived their treachery and began to doubt them. When Li Xian argued forcefully that seizing the gates had been wrong, the emperor at last saw clearly and kept his distance from Jixiang. Not long after Shi Heng fell, Jixiang grew uneasy and slowly hatched a rebellion; each day he feasted the inner officers, letting them take gold, cash, grain, and silk at will. The officers feared that if Jixiang fell they would be dismissed too, and all were willing to fight to the death for him. Qin asked his guest Feng Yi: "Since antiquity, has a eunuch's son ever become emperor? Yi replied: "Your house has Wei Wu—that is your precedent." Qin was delighted. In the seventh month of the fifth year of Tianshun, Qin privately seized the household servant Cao Fulai and was impeached by the remonstrance officials. The emperor ordered the Brocade Guard commander Gao to arrest and investigate, and circulated an edict to the whole court. Qin was alarmed: "The last time an edict went out, they arrested General Shi. If it happens again now, we are finished. The conspiracy was then fixed. At that time Gansu and Liangzhou sent alarms; the emperor ordered the Marquis of Huaining Sun Tang to campaign west, but he had not yet marched. Jixiang had his ally Tang Xu of the Astronomical Bureau choose the pre-dawn of the gengzi day of that month: Qin would enter with troops while he himself would answer with the forbidden army. Once the plan was set, Qin summoned the officers for a night of drinking. That night Tang and the Marquis of Gongshun Wu Jin both lodged in the court chambers. The officer Ma Liang, fearing failure, slipped out and ran to tell Wu Jin. Jin urged Tang to slip a memorial through the gap at the right Chang'an Gate. The emperor quickly had Jixiang seized inside the palace and ordered the imperial city and all nine gates of the capital shut. Learning that Liang had escaped, Qin rode out at midnight to Gao's house, killed Gao, and wounded Li Xian in the eastern court chamber. Holding up Gao's head to Li Xian he said: "Gao provoked me. He also killed the censor-in-chief Kou Shen in the western court chamber. He assaulted the east and west Chang'an Gates but could not break through and set them afire. The guards tore up bricks from the river embankment and blocked the gates. The rebels ran back and forth shouting outside the gates. Tang sent his two sons in haste to summon the western expedition force to strike Qin at the east Chang'an Gate. Qin turned to attack the east An Gate and killed Wu Jin on the way. He set fires again and burned the gate down. Inside the gate they heaped more fuel; the flames roared and the rebels could not enter. As dawn approached Qin's followers began to scatter. Tang led troops in pursuit, beheaded Xuan and Duo, and Tang's son Yue hacked Qin in the shoulder. Qin fled, trying gate after gate in the Anding quarter, but all were shut. He ran home and made a last stand. Then rain poured down in sheets; Tang directed the armies to charge in with a great shout, and Qin threw himself into a well and died. They then killed Duo and slaughtered his entire family. Three days later Jixiang was torn to pieces in the marketplace. Tang Xu, Feng Yi, and all Jixiang's kin and party were executed. Ma Liang, for reporting the plot, was made a regional commander.

英宗始任王振，繼任吉祥，凡兩致禍亂。其他宦者若跛兒幹、亦失哈、喜寧、韋力轉、牛玉之屬，率凶狡。土木之敗，跛兒幹、喜寧皆降敵。跛兒幹助敵反攻，射內使黎定。既又為敵使至京，有所需索，景帝執而誅之。喜寧數為也先畫策，索賞賜，導入邊寇掠。上皇患之，言於也先；使寧還京索禮物，而命校尉袁彬以密書報邊臣。至獨石，參將楊俊擒寧送京師，景泰元年二月磔於市。亦失哈鎮遼東。敵犯廣寧，亦失哈禁官軍勿出擊。百戶施帶兒降敵，為脫脫不花通於亦失哈。正統十四年冬，帶兒逃歸，巡按御史劉孜並劾亦失哈及他不法事。景帝命誅帶兒，而置亦失哈不問。韋力轉者，性淫毒，鎮守大同，多過惡。銜軍妻不與宿，杖死其軍。又與養子妻淫戲，射殺養子。天順元年，工部侍郎霍瑄發力轉僭用金器若王者，及強娶所部女為妾諸不法事。帝怒，執之下錦衣衛獄，既而宥之。牛玉事，詳《吳廢後傳》。

Yingzong first entrusted himself to Wang Zhen and then to Jixiang; the two together brought catastrophe on the state. Other eunuchs such as Bo'er Gan, Yishihha, Xi Ning, Wei Lizhuan, and Niu Yu were for the most part vicious and cunning. After the Tumu disaster Bo'er Gan and Xi Ning both surrendered to the enemy. Bo'er Gan helped the enemy counterattack and shot the inner attendant Li Ding. Later he came to the capital as the enemy's envoy to demand goods; the Jingtai emperor seized and executed him. Xi Ning repeatedly plotted strategy for Esen, demanded rewards, and guided border raiders in their plunder. The captive emperor was troubled by him and spoke of it to Esen; Ning was sent back to the capital to demand gifts, while the corporal Yuan Bin was ordered to send a secret letter to the border commanders. At Dushi the assistant commander Yang Jun captured Ning and sent him to the capital; in the second month of the first year of Jingtai he was torn to pieces in the marketplace. Yishihha was garrisoning Liaodong. When the enemy attacked Guangning, Yishihha forbade the troops to sally out. The hundred-household officer Shi Daier surrendered to the enemy and acted as go-between for Toto Bukha and Yishihha. In the winter of the fourteenth year of Zhengtong Daier fled back, and the touring censor Liu Zi impeached Yishihha together with his other crimes. The Jingtai emperor ordered Daier executed but took no action against Yishihha. Wei Lizhuan was lecherous and cruel; as garrison commander at Datong he committed many outrages. He coveted a soldier's wife; when she would not sleep with him, he had the soldier beaten to death. He also debauched his adopted son's wife and shot the adopted son dead. In the first year of Tianshun the vice minister of works Huo Xuan exposed Lizhuan's crimes: using gold vessels like a king, forcibly taking women under his command as concubines, and other illegal acts. The emperor was furious, had him arrested and sent to the Brocade Guard prison, then later pardoned him. The affair of Niu Yu is related in full in the Biography of the Deposed Empress Wu.

劉永誠

Liu Yongcheng

其與吉祥分道征兀良哈者劉永誠，永樂時，嘗為偏將，累從北征。宣德、正統中，再擊兀良哈。後監鎮甘、涼，戰沙漠，有功。景泰末，掌團營。英宗復辟，勒兵從，官其嗣子聚。成化中，永誠始卒。

Liu Yongcheng, who went by a separate route with Jixiang against Wuliangha, had served as a deputy general in the Yongle reign and repeatedly joined northern expeditions. In the Xuande and Zhengtong reigns he campaigned twice against the Uriyangqai. Later he supervised the garrisons of Gansu and Liangzhou, fought in the desert, and won merit. At the end of Jingtai he took charge of the regiment armies. When Yingzong was restored he led troops in support, and his adopted son Ju was granted office. Yongcheng died in the Chenghua reign.

懷恩，高密人，兵部侍郎戴綸族弟也。宣宗殺綸，並籍恩父太僕卿希文家。恩方幼，被宮為小黃門，賜名懷恩。憲宗朝，掌司禮監。時汪直理西廠，梁芳、韋興等用事。恩班在前，性忠鯁無所撓，諸閹咸敬憚之。員外郎林俊論芳及僧繼曉下獄，帝欲誅之，恩固爭。帝怒，投以硯曰：「若助俊訕我。」恩免冠伏地號哭。帝叱之出。恩遣人告鎮撫司曰：「汝曹諂芳傾俊。俊死，汝曹何以生！」徑歸，稱疾不起。帝怒解，遣醫視恩，卒釋俊。會星變，罷諸傳奉官。御馬監王敏請留馬房傳奉者，帝許之。敏謁恩，恩大罵曰：「星變，專為我曹壞國政故。今甫欲正之，又為汝壞，天雷擊汝矣！」敏愧恨，遂死。進寶石者章瑾求為錦衣衛鎮撫，恩不可，曰：「鎮撫掌詔獄，奈何以賄進。」當是時，尚書王恕以直諫名，恩每嘆曰：「天下忠義，斯人而已。」憲宗末，惑萬貴妃言，欲易太子，恩固爭。帝不懌，斥居鳳陽。孝宗立，召歸，仍掌司禮監，力勸帝逐萬安，用王恕。一時正人匯進，恩之力也。卒，賜祠額曰顯忠。

Huai'en was a native of Gaomi and a clansman of Dai Lun, vice minister of war. When Xuanzong executed Lun he also confiscated the property of Huai'en's father Xiwen, minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. Huai'en was still a child; he was taken into the palace as a junior eunuch and given the name Huai'en. In the Chenghua reign he headed the Directorate of Ceremonial. At that time Wang Zhi ran the Western Depot while Liang Fang, Wei Xing, and others held power. Huai'en held senior rank, was loyal and unbending, and all the eunuchs respected and feared him. When the assistant minister Lin Jun impeached Fang and the monk Jixiao and was thrown into prison, the emperor wished to execute him, but Huai'en argued stubbornly against it. The emperor grew angry and hurled an inkstone at him: "You help Jun slander me! Huai'en removed his cap, prostrated himself, and wailed aloud. The emperor shouted at him to leave. Huai'en sent word to the prison directorate: "You fawn on Fang and destroy Jun. If Jun dies, how will you answer for it! He went straight home and refused to rise, pleading illness. When the emperor's anger cooled, he sent a physician to see Huai'en and at last released Jun. Then a celestial anomaly occurred, and all the chuanfeng appointees were dismissed from office. Wang Min, supervisor of the Imperial Horse Directorate, asked that the chuanfeng staff in the stables be kept on; the emperor agreed. When Min came to pay his respects, Huai'en cursed him savagely: "The heavens sent this omen because of us—to ruin the government! Just as we tried to set things right, you have spoiled it again. Heaven's thunder will strike you down! Overcome with shame and hatred, Min died not long after. Zhang Jin, who had gained favor by presenting a precious stone, asked to be made prison commander of the Brocade Guard; Huai'en refused: "That office oversees the imperial prisons—how can one buy one's way into it with a bribe? At the time Minister Wang Shu was famed for blunt remonstrance; Huai'en would often sigh: "Of all the loyal and upright men under heaven, this man alone remains." Near the end of the Chenghua reign the emperor, misled by Empress Wan, wished to replace the crown prince; Huai'en argued against it fiercely. The emperor took offense and banished him to Fengyang. When Xiaozong came to the throne he recalled Huai'en and again placed him in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial, where he strongly urged the emperor to remove Wan An and employ Wang Shu. The gathering of upright ministers at court in those days was largely Huai'en's doing. At his death the court granted his shrine the plaque "Manifest Loyalty."

同時有覃吉者，不知所由進，以老閹侍太子。太子年九歲，吉口授《四書》章句及古今政典。憲宗賜太子莊田，吉勸毋受，曰：「天下皆太子有也。」太子偶從內侍讀佛經，吉入，太子驚曰：「老伴來矣。」亟手《孝經》。吉跪曰：「太子誦佛書乎？」曰：「無有。《孝經》耳。」吉頓首曰：「甚善。佛書誕，不可信也。」弘治之世，政治醇美，君德清明，端本正始，吉有力焉。

About the same time there was Qin Ji; no one knew how he had risen, but as an aged eunuch he served the crown prince. When the crown prince was nine, Ji taught him orally the chapters of the Four Books and the political precedents of past and present. When Chenghua granted the crown prince estates, Ji urged him to refuse: "The whole realm will one day be yours. Once the crown prince was reading a Buddhist sutra with an inner attendant when Ji entered; startled, the prince cried, "The old fellow is here!" He hastily snatched up the Classic of Filial Piety. Ji knelt and asked: "Is the crown prince reciting Buddhist scripture? The prince replied: "No— only the Classic of Filial Piety. Ji bowed his head to the ground: "Excellent. Buddhist writings are fantastic nonsense—not to be trusted. In the Hongzhi reign government grew pure, the ruler's virtue clear, and the dynasty's foundations were set straight from the start; Ji had no small part in this.

汪直者，大藤峽瑤種也。初給事萬貴妃於昭德宮，遷御馬監太監。成化十二年，黑眚見宮中，妖人李子龍以符術結太監韋舍私入大內，事發，伏誅。帝心惡之，銳欲知外事。直為人便黠，帝因令易服，將校尉一二人密出伺察，人莫知也，獨都御史王越與結歡。明年設西廠，以直領之，列官校刺事。南京鎮監覃力朋進貢還，以百艘載私鹽，騷擾州縣。武城縣典史詰之，力朋擊典史，折其齒，射殺一人。直廉得以聞，逮治論斬。力朋後得幸免，而帝以此謂直能摘奸，益幸直。直乃任錦衣百戶韋瑛為心腹，屢興大獄。

Wang Zhi was of Yao stock from Dazuo Gorge. He first attended Empress Wan in Zhaode Palace, then rose to eunuch of the Imperial Horse Directorate. In Chenghua twelve a dark pestilence appeared in the palace; the sorcerer Li Zilong won over the eunuch Wei She with talisman arts and secretly entered the inner quarters. When the plot was exposed he was executed. The affair disgusted the emperor, who grew keen to know what was happening beyond the palace walls. Zhi was quick and cunning; the emperor had him change clothes and slip out with one or two guard officers to spy on affairs, so that none knew—except Grand Censor Wang Yue, who cultivated his friendship. The next year the Western Depot was established with Zhi at its head, and lines of guard officers were deployed to gather intelligence. Qin Lipeng, the Nanjing garrison eunuch, returned from delivering tribute with a hundred boats laden with contraband salt, harassing prefectures and counties along the way. The registrar of Wucheng County challenged him; Lipeng beat the man, broke his teeth, and shot one of his companions dead. Zhi investigated and reported the crime; Lipeng was arrested, tried, and sentenced to decapitation. Lipeng eventually escaped execution, but the emperor took this as proof that Zhi could uncover wrongdoing and favored him all the more. Zhi then installed the Brocade Guard hundred-household officer Wei Ying as his trusted inside man and repeatedly opened major prosecutions.

建寧衛指揮楊曄，故少師榮曾孫也，與父泰為仇家所告，逃入京，匿姊夫董玙所。玙為請瑛，瑛陽諾而馳報直。直即捕曄、玙考訊，三琶之。琶者，錦衣酷刑也。骨節皆寸解，絕而復蘇。曄不勝苦，妄言寄金於其叔父兵部主事士偉所。直不復奏請，捕士偉下獄，並掠其妻孥。獄具，曄死獄中，泰論斬，士偉等皆謫官，郎中武清、樂章，行人張廷綱，參政劉福等皆無故被收案。自諸王府邊鎮及南北河道，所在校尉羅列，民間鬥詈雞狗瑣事，輒置重法，人情大擾。直每出，隨從甚眾，公卿皆避道。兵部尚書項忠不避，迫辱之，權焰出東廠上。

Yang Ye, commander of Jianning Guard, was a grandson of the former Grand Tutor Rong; he and his father Tai had been denounced by a hostile clan, fled to the capital, and hid at the home of his brother-in-law Dong Yu. Yu begged Wei Ying to intercede; Ying agreed on the surface but galloped off to report to Zhi. Zhi at once seized Ye and Yu and subjected them to interrogation under the "triple pa" torture. The pa was a brutal Brocade Guard punishment. Joint by joint the bones were wrenched apart; the victim would faint away and then be revived. Ye could bear no more and falsely confessed that he had deposited gold with his uncle Shi Wei, a principal secretary in the Ministry of War. Without awaiting memorial approval from the throne, Zhi arrested Shi Wei and threw him into prison, also seizing his wife and children. When the case was complete, Ye died in prison, Tai was sentenced to beheading, Shi Wei and his kin were all demoted—and for no cause at all the section directors Wu Qing and Le Zhang, envoy Zhang Tinggang, and vice commissioner Liu Fu were also dragged into the affair. From the princely establishments and frontier garrisons to the canal routes north and south, guard officers were posted everywhere; the most trivial squabbles over chickens and dogs were punished with harsh law, and public life was thrown into turmoil. Whenever Zhi went abroad he was followed by a great train, and nobles and ministers alike cleared the road. Minister of War Xiang Zhong alone would not yield; Zhi pressed upon and humiliated him—and Zhi's arrogance now outstripped even the Eastern Depot's.

五月，大學士商輅與萬安、劉珝、劉吉奏其狀。帝震怒，命司禮太監懷恩、覃吉、黃高至閣下，厲色傳旨，言：「疏出誰意？」輅口數直罪甚悉，因言：「臣等同心一意，為國除害，無有先後。」珝慷慨泣下。恩遂據實以奏。頃之，傳旨慰勞。翼日，尚書忠及諸大臣疏亦入。帝不得已，罷西廠，使懷恩數直罪而宥之，令歸御馬監，調韋瑛邊衛，散諸旗校還錦衣。中外大悅。然帝眷直不衰。直因言閣疏出司禮監黃賜、陳祖生意，為楊曄報復。帝即斥賜、祖生於南京。御史戴縉者，佞人也，九年秩滿不得遷。窺帝旨，盛稱直功。詔復開西廠，以千戶吳綬為鎮撫，直焰愈熾。未幾，令東廠官校誣奏項忠，且諷言官郭鏜、馮貫等論忠違法事。帝命三法司、錦衣衛會問。眾知出直意，無敢違，竟勒忠為民。而左都御史李賓亦失直旨褫職，大學士輅亦罷去。一時九卿劾罷者，尚書董方、薛遠及侍郎滕昭、程萬里等數十人。以所善王越為兵部尚書兼左都御史，陳鉞為右副都御史巡撫遼東。

In the fifth month Grand Secretaries Shang Lu, Wan An, Liu Xu, and Liu Ji memorialized the throne with an account of his crimes. The emperor was thunderstruck and sent the eunuchs Huai'en, Qin Ji, and Huang Gao from the Directorate of Ceremonial to the Grand Secretariat to deliver his wrathful order: "Whose idea was this memorial? Lu recited Zhi's offenses in detail, then said: "We are of one mind, acting together to remove a menace to the state—there is no question of seniority among us." Xu spoke with passion and wept. Huai'en then reported what had passed, truthfully and in full. Before long an order came back with words of reassurance. The next day memorials from Minister Zhong and other grandees also arrived. The emperor had no choice but to abolish the Western Depot, had Huai'en enumerate Zhi's crimes and then pardon him, ordered him back to the Imperial Horse Directorate, transferred Wei Ying to a frontier guard, and scattered the depot's banner officers back to the Brocade Guard. Court and country rejoiced. Yet the emperor's affection for Zhi did not wane. Zhi claimed the memorial had originated with Huang Ci and Chen Zusheng of the Directorate of Ceremonial, seeking revenge for Yang Ye. The emperor at once exiled Ci and Zusheng to Nanjing. The censor Dai Jin was a flatterer; when his nine-year term expired he received no promotion. Reading the emperor's mood, he loudly praised Zhi's achievements. An edict reopened the Western Depot, with Wu Shou of the thousand-household rank appointed prison commander; Zhi's arrogance burned hotter than ever. Before long he had Eastern Depot officers fabricate charges against Xiang Zhong, and also egged on the remonstrance officials Guo Tang, Feng Guan, and others to denounce Zhong for misconduct. The emperor ordered the three judicial offices and the Brocade Guard to conduct a joint inquiry. All knew this was Zhi's doing and dared not resist; in the end Zhong was stripped of office and reduced to commoner status. Left Grand Censor Li Bin also lost his post for crossing Zhi's wishes, and Grand Secretary Lu was dismissed as well. Among the high ministers impeached and removed at that time were the ministers Dong Fang and Xue Yuan, the vice ministers Teng Zhao and Cheng Wanli, and dozens more. Zhi installed his favorites: Wang Yue as Minister of War and concurrent Left Grand Censor, and Chen Yue as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and governor of Liaodong.

十五年秋，詔直巡邊，率飛騎日馳數百里，御史、主事等官迎拜馬首，箠撻守令。各邊都御史畏直，服櫜迎謁，供張百里外。至遼東，陳鉞郊迎蒲伏，廚傳尤盛，左右皆有賄。直大悅。惟河南巡撫秦纮與直抗禮，而密奏直巡邊擾民。帝弗省。兵部侍郎馬文升方撫諭遼東，直至不為禮，又輕鉞，被陷坐戍，由是直威勢傾天下。

In the autumn of the fifteenth year an edict sent Zhi to inspect the frontier; he led swift cavalry and covered hundreds of li a day, while censors, section chiefs, and other officials bowed at his horse's head—and he flogged magistrates as he went. The frontier grand censors feared him; they donned armor to greet him and laid on hospitality a hundred li out. Reaching Liaodong, Chen Yue came out to the suburbs, prostrated himself in the dust, and entertained him on the grandest scale; everyone at Zhi's side accepted bribes. Zhi was delighted. Only Henan governor Qin Hong treated him as an equal and secretly memorialized that Zhi's frontier tour was harassing the people. The emperor paid no heed. Vice Minister Ma Wensheng was then pacifying Liaodong; when Zhi arrived he offered no courtesy and also slighted Chen Yue—whereupon Ma was framed and sentenced to border garrison duty. From that point Zhi's power cast its shadow over the entire realm.

直年少喜兵。陳鉞諷直征伏當加，立邊功自固。直聽之，用撫寧侯朱永總兵，而自監其軍。師還，永封保國公，鉞晉右都御史，直加祿米。又用王越言，詐稱亦思馬因犯邊。詔永同越西討，直為監軍。越封威寧伯，直再加祿米。已，伏當加寇遼東，亦思馬因寇大同，殺掠甚眾。遼東巡按強珍發鉞奸狀，直右鉞謫珍。於是惡直者，指王越、陳鉞為二鉞。小中官阿醜工俳優，一日於帝前為醉者謾罵狀。人言駕至，謾如故。言汪太監至，則避走。曰：「今人但知汪太監也。」又為直狀，操兩鉞趨帝前。旁人問之，曰：「吾將兵，仗此兩鉞耳。」問何鉞，曰：「王越、陳鉞也。」帝聽然而笑，稍稍悟，然廷臣猶未敢攻直也。會東廠尚銘獲賊得厚賞，直忌，且怒銘不告。銘懼，乃廉得其所泄禁中秘語奏之，盡發王越交通不法事，帝始疏直。

Zhi was young and loved military affairs. Chen Yue urged him to campaign against Fudangjia, arguing that frontier merit would secure his position. Zhi agreed, made Marquis Zhu Yong of Funing overall commander, and personally supervised the army. When the army returned, Yong was enfeoffed Duke of Baoguo, Chen Yue was promoted to Right Grand Censor, and Zhi received additional grain stipends. Following Wang Yue's advice, they also fabricated a report that Yisimayin had raided the border. An edict ordered Yong and Yue to campaign west together, with Zhi as army supervisor. Yue was enfeoffed Marquis of Weining, and Zhi again received extra grain stipends. Later Fudangjia raided Liaodong and Yisimayin raided Datong, killing and plundering on a great scale. The surveillance censor Qiang Zhen in Liaodong exposed Chen Yue's misconduct; Zhi sided with Yue and demoted Zhen. Those who hated Zhi began to call Wang Yue and Chen Yue his "two battle-axes." The junior eunuch Achou was skilled at comic mimicry; one day before the emperor he performed a drunk man hurling abuse. When someone cried that the imperial carriage was coming, he kept on cursing as before. But at the words "Director Wang is here," he fled in terror. He explained: "These days everyone knows only Director Wang. He also impersonated Zhi, striding before the throne carrying two battle-axes. When asked what they were, he said: "I am a general—these two axes are all I rely on. Asked whose axes, he replied: "Wang Yue and Chen Yue." The emperor smiled at this and slowly took the hint—yet the court ministers still dared not move against Zhi. When Shang Ming of the Eastern Depot captured a bandit and won a rich reward, Zhi grew jealous—and angry that Ming had not told him first. Ming, frightened, secretly traced the leaked palace confidences and reported them, fully exposing Wang Yue's unlawful dealings; only then did the emperor begin to turn away from Zhi.

十七年秋，命直偕越往宣府禦敵。敵退，直請班師。不許，徙鎮大同，而盡召將吏還，獨留直、越。直既久鎮不得還，寵日衰。給事御史交章奏其苛擾，請仍罷西廠。閣臣萬安亦力言之。而大同巡撫郭鏜復言直與總兵許寧不和，恐誤邊事。帝乃調直南京御馬監，罷西廠不復設。中外欣然。尋又以言官言，降直奉御，而褫逐其黨王越、戴縉、吳綬等。陳鉞已致仕，不問。韋瑛後坐他事誅，人皆快之，然直竟良死。縉由御史不數年至南京工部尚書。越、鉞頗以材進。縉無他能，工側媚而已。

In the autumn of the seventeenth year the emperor ordered Zhi and Yue to Xuanfu to meet the enemy. When the enemy withdrew, Zhi asked to bring the army home. Permission was refused; the garrison was shifted to Datong, all officers were recalled—and only Zhi and Yue were left behind. Zhi remained on the frontier for a long time without being allowed to return, and his favor steadily declined. Assistant secretaries and censors bombarded the throne with memorials against his harsh disruptions and called for the Western Depot to be abolished once more. Grand Secretary Wan An argued forcefully for the same course. Guo Tang, grand coordinator of Datong, also reported that Wang Zhi and the regional commander Xu Ning were at loggerheads, and that their discord might jeopardize frontier affairs. The emperor thereupon transferred Wang Zhi to the Nanjing Imperial Horse Directorate and abolished the Western Depot, never to establish it again. Court and countryside alike rejoiced. Soon afterward, at the urging of the censorial officials, Wang Zhi was demoted to the rank of fengyu, and his partisans Wang Yue, Dai Jin, Wu Shou, and others were stripped of office and driven out. Chen Yue had already retired and was not prosecuted. Wei Ying was later executed on other charges, to general public satisfaction; Wang Zhi, however, died peacefully in the end. Dai Jin rose from censor to Minister of Works at Nanjing in only a few years. Wang Yue and Chen Yue had risen largely on genuine talent. Dai Jin possessed no other ability—only a talent for fawning sycophancy.

西廠廢，尚銘遂專東廠事。聞京師有富室，輒以事羅織，得重賄乃已。賣官鬻爵，無所不至。帝尋覺之，謫充南京凈軍，籍其家，輦送內府，數日不盡。而陳準代為東廠。準素善懷恩，既代銘，誡諸校尉曰：「有大逆，告我。非是，若勿預也。」都人安之。

With the Western Depot abolished, Shang Ming came to monopolize the affairs of the Eastern Depot. Whenever he learned of a wealthy household in the capital, he would manufacture charges against them and desist only after extorting a heavy bribe. He sold offices and peddled ranks, stopping at nothing. The emperor soon discovered his abuses, demoted him to menial service among the Nanjing palace guards, confiscated his property, and had the goods carted into the inner treasury—in cartloads that took days to unload. Chen Zhun then replaced him at the Eastern Depot. Chen Zhun had long been on good terms with Huai'en; after replacing Shang Ming, he admonished the depot guards: "If there is a grave act of treason, report it to me. Otherwise, do not involve yourselves. The people of the capital were relieved.

梁芳者，憲宗朝內侍也。貪黷諛佞，與韋興比。而諂萬貴妃，日進美珠珍寶悅妃意。其黨錢能、韋眷、王敬等，爭假采辦名，出監大鎮。帝以妃故，不問也。妖人李孜省、僧繼曉皆由芳進，共為奸利。取中旨授官，累數千人，名傳奉官，有白衣躐至太常卿者。陜西巡撫鄭時論芳被黜，陜民哭送之。帝聞頗悔，斥傳奉官十人，系六人獄，詔自後傳旨授官者俱覆奏，然不罪芳也。刑部員外郎林俊以劾芳及繼曉下獄。久之，帝視內帑，見累朝金七窖俱盡，謂芳及韋興曰：「糜費帑藏，實由汝二人。」興不敢對。芳曰：「建顯靈宮及諸祠廟，為陛下祈萬年福耳。」帝不懌曰：「吾不汝瑕，後之人將與汝計矣」。芳大懼，遂說貴妃勸帝廢太子，而立興王。會泰山累震，占者言應在東朝。帝懼，乃止。孝宗立，謫芳居南京，尋下獄，興亦斥退。正德初，群閹復薦興司香太和山，兼分守湖廣行都司地方。尚書劉大夏、給事中周璽、御史曹來旬諫，不聽。興遂復用，而芳卒廢以死。

Liang Fang was an inner-chamber eunuch under the Chenghua Emperor. Greedy, corrupt, and sycophantic, he was a match for Wei Xing. He flattered Consort Wan, daily presenting her with fine pearls and jewels to win her favor. His associates Qian Neng, Wei Juan, Wang Jing, and others vied to take on procurement missions and go out to supervise the major garrisons. Because of the consort, the emperor made no inquiry into their conduct. The sorcerer Li Zisheng and the monk Jixiao were both brought in by Liang Fang, and together they engaged in corrupt profiteering. Using informal imperial commands, they appointed several thousand men to office—they were called chuanfeng officials—and commoners leaped in a single bound to posts as lofty as Minister of Rites. When Zheng Shi, grand coordinator of Shaanxi, impeached Liang Fang and was dismissed, the people of Shaanxi wept as they saw him off. When the emperor heard of it he was somewhat remorseful: he dismissed ten chuanfeng officials and imprisoned six others, and decreed that henceforth all appointments made by transmitted imperial command must be reported back for review—yet Liang Fang himself went unpunished. Lin Jun, a vice director in the Ministry of Justice, was thrown into prison for impeaching Liang Fang and Jixiao. After some time, when the emperor inspected the inner treasury and saw that the seven gold vaults accumulated under successive reigns had all been emptied, he said to Liang Fang and Wei Xing: "You two are the ones who have squandered the treasury. Wei Xing did not dare answer. Liang Fang said: "We built the Xianling Palace and the various shrines only to pray for Your Majesty's long life and boundless fortune. The emperor said, displeased: "I will not hold you to account now—but those who come after will settle the score with you." Liang Fang was deeply frightened and then persuaded Consort Wan to urge the emperor to depose the crown prince and install the Prince of Xing in his place. Just then Mount Tai was shaken by repeated earthquakes, and diviners declared the omen concerned the Eastern Palace. The emperor, alarmed, abandoned the plan. When the Hongzhi Emperor acceded, Liang Fang was banished to Nanjing and soon imprisoned; Wei Xing was also dismissed. At the outset of the Zhengde reign, the eunuch faction again recommended Wei Xing to oversee incense offerings at Mount Taihe and, concurrently, to help administer the Huguang Regional Military Commission. Minister Liu Daxia, supervising secretary Zhou Xi, and censor Cao Laixun remonstrated, but the emperor would not heed them. Wei Xing was restored to office, while Liang Fang ultimately lived out his days in disgrace and died.

錢能，芳黨也。憲宗時，鄭忠鎮貴州，韋朗鎮遼東，能鎮雲南，並恣縱，而能尤橫。貴州巡撫陳宣劾忠，因請盡撤諸鎮監，帝不允。而雲南巡按御史郭陽顧上疏譽能，請留之雲南。舊制，安南貢道出廣西，後請改由雲南，弗許也。能詐言安南捕盜兵入境，請遣指揮使郭景往諭其王，詔從之。能遂令景以玉帶、彩繒、犬馬遺王，紿其貢使改道雲南。邊吏格之不得入，乃去。復遣景與指揮盧安等索寶貨於幹崖、孟密諸土司，至逼淫曩罕弄女孫，許為奏授宣撫。逾三年，事發。詔巡撫都御史王恕廉之，捕景，景赴井死。再遣刑部郎中鍾蕃往按，事皆實。帝宥能，而致其黨九人於法。指揮姜和、李祥不就逮，能復上疏為二人求宥，帝曲從之。巡按御史甄希賢復劾能杖守礦千戶一人死，亦不罪。召歸，安置南京。復夤緣得南京守備。時恕為南京參贊尚書，能心憚恕不敢肆。久之卒。

Qian Neng was another of Liang Fang's faction. During the Chenghua reign, Zheng Zhong supervised Guizhou, Wei Lang supervised Liaodong, and Qian Neng supervised Yunnan; all abused their authority, but Neng was the most imperious. Chen Xuan, grand coordinator of Guizhou, impeached Zheng Zhong and requested that all garrison eunuchs be withdrawn; the emperor did not grant it. Meanwhile Guo Yanggu, the touring censor of Yunnan, submitted a memorial praising Qian Neng and asking that he remain in Yunnan. By established practice the Annamese tribute route ran through Guangxi; a later request to reroute it through Yunnan was not approved. Qian Neng falsely reported that Annamese troops pursuing bandits had crossed the border, and requested that Commander Guo Jing be sent to instruct their king; an imperial command approved it. Qian Neng then had Guo Jing present the king with jade belts, colored silks, dogs, and horses, deceiving the tribute envoys into altering their route through Yunnan. Border officials blocked them and would not permit entry, so they departed. Qian Neng again sent Guo Jing together with Commander Lu An and others to extort treasures from the native chiefs of Ganyai, Mengmi, and elsewhere, going so far as to forcibly violate the granddaughter of the tribal leader Mang Hanong, promising in exchange to memorialize the throne for her appointment as native prefect. More than three years later the affair came to light. An edict ordered Grand Coordinator and Censor-in-Chief Wang Shu to investigate; Guo Jing was arrested and drowned himself in a well. The Ministry of Justice director Zhong Fan was sent to conduct a further inquiry, and every charge was verified. The emperor pardoned Qian Neng but punished nine of his associates according to law. Commanders Jiang He and Li Xiang refused to submit to arrest; Qian Neng again submitted a memorial asking clemency for the two men, and the emperor reluctantly acceded. Touring censor Zhen Xixian again impeached Qian Neng for beating a thousand-household mine guard to death, yet he was again not punished. Qian Neng was recalled and settled in Nanjing. Through connections he again secured the post of Nanjing garrison commander. At the time Wang Shu served as coordinating minister at Nanjing; Qian Neng inwardly feared him and did not dare run rampant. After a long interval he died.

韋眷、王敬亦芳黨。眷為廣東市舶太監，縱賈人通諸番，聚珍寶甚富。請以廣南均徭戶六十隸市舶。布政使彭韶爭之，詔給其半。眷又誣奏布政使陳選，被逮道卒，自是，人莫敢逆眷者。弘治初，眷因結蔡用妄舉李父貴冒紀太后族，降左少監，撤回京。事詳《紀太后傳》。

Wei Juan and Wang Jing were also members of Liang Fang's faction. As Guangdong superintendent of maritime trade, Wei Juan allowed merchants to trade with the foreign kingdoms and amassed enormous stores of jewels and treasures. He requested that sixty corvée households from Guangnan be placed under the maritime trade office. Regional administrator Peng Shao contested the request; an edict granted half. Wei Juan also fabricated charges against regional administrator Chen Xuan; Chen was arrested and died on the road, and from that time onward no one dared oppose him. At the beginning of Hongzhi, Wei Juan, through his association with Cai Yong, falsely promoted Li Fugui as a kinsman of Empress Dowager Ji; he was demoted to assistant director of the Left and recalled to the capital. The full account is given in the Biography of Empress Dowager Ji.

王敬好左道，信妖人王臣。使南方，挾臣同行。偽為詔，括書畫、古玩，聚白金十萬餘兩。至蘇州，召諸生使錄妖書，且辱之。諸生大嘩。巡撫王恕以聞。東廠尚銘亦發其事。詔斬臣，而黜敬充孝陵衛凈軍。

Wang Jing was devoted to heterodox practices and put his faith in the sorcerer Wang Chen. When he was sent south on a mission, he took Wang Chen along with him. Forging an imperial edict, he requisitioned paintings, antiquities, and curios, amassing more than a hundred thousand taels of silver. At Suzhou he summoned the local scholars and forced them to copy out heterodox writings, humiliating them in the process. The scholars erupted in uproar. Grand Coordinator Wang Shu reported the matter to the throne. Shang Ming of the Eastern Depot also exposed the affair. An edict ordered Wang Chen executed and Wang Jing demoted to menial service in the Xiaoling Guard.

何鼎

He Ding

何鼎，餘杭人，一名文鼎，性忠直。弘治初，為長隨，上疏請革傳奉官，為儕輩所忌。壽寧侯張鶴齡兄弟出入宮禁，嘗侍內庭宴。帝如廁，鶴齡倚酒戴帝冠，鼎心怒。他日鶴齡復窺禦帷，鼎持大瓜欲擊之，奏言：「二張大不敬，無人臣禮。」皇后激帝怒，下鼎錦衣獄。問主使，鼎曰：「有。」問為誰，曰：「孔子、孟子也。」給事中龐泮、御史吳山及尚書周經、主事李昆、進士吳宗周先後論救，帝以後故，俱不納。後竟使太監李廣杖殺鼎。帝追思之，賜祭勒其文於碑。是時，中官多守法，奉詔出鎮者，福建鄧原、浙江麥秀、河南藍忠、宣府劉清，皆謙潔愛民。兵部上其事，賜敕旌勵。又有司禮太監蕭敬者，歷事英宗、憲宗，諳習典故，善鼓琴。帝嘗語劉大夏曰：「蕭敬朕所顧問，然未嘗假以權也。」獨李廣、蔣琮得帝寵任，後二人俱敗，而敬至世宗朝，年九十餘始卒。

He Ding, also called Deng Yuan, was from Yuhang and was by nature loyal and straightforward. At the beginning of Hongzhi, while still a lowly attendant, he submitted a memorial calling for the abolition of chuanfeng officials and was resented by his peers for it. Zhang Heling and his brothers, kin of the Marquis of Shouning, came and went within the palace precincts and once attended a banquet in the inner court. When the emperor stepped out to the privy, Heling, drunk, put on the imperial crown; He Ding was incensed. On another day Heling again peered behind the imperial curtain; He Ding seized a large melon intending to strike him and memorialized: "The two Zhang brothers are grossly disrespectful and utterly devoid of a subject's decorum. The empress inflamed the emperor's wrath, and He Ding was thrown into the Brocade Guard prison. When asked who had instructed him, He Ding said: "There was one. When asked who it was, he said: "Confucius and Mencius." Supervising secretary Pang Pan, censor Wu Shan, Minister Zhou Jing, chief clerk Li Kun, and the jinshi Wu Zongzhou all successively pleaded for his life, but because of the empress the emperor would not accept any of it. In the end the emperor had the eunuch Li Guang beat He Ding to death with the rod. Later the emperor remembered him fondly, granted him posthumous sacrificial rites, and had his memorial text carved on a stele. At that time many palace eunuchs kept within the bounds of the law; those sent out to garrison posts included Deng Yuan in Fujian, Mai Xiu in Zhejiang, Lan Zhong in Henan, and Liu Qing in Xuanfu—all modest, upright, and caring toward the people. The Ministry of War reported their conduct, and they were rewarded with an edict of commendation. There was also the Directorate of Ceremonial eunuch Xiao Jing, who served through the reigns of Yingzong and Chenghua, knew the precedents thoroughly, and was skilled at playing the qin. The emperor once told Liu Daxia: "Xiao Jing is the man I consult, yet I have never entrusted him with power. Only Li Guang and Jiang Cong won the emperor's favor and trust; later both men fell, while Xiao Jing lived on into the Jiajing reign and did not die until he was more than ninety.

李廣，孝宗時太監也。以符箓禱祀蠱帝，因為奸弊，矯旨授傳奉官，如成化間故事，四方爭納賄賂。又擅奪畿內民田，專鹽利巨萬。起大第，引玉泉山水，前後繞之。給事葉紳、御史張縉等交章論劾，帝不問。十一年，廣勸帝建毓秀亭於萬歲山。亭成，幼公主殤，未幾，清寧宮災。日者言廣建亭犯歲忌，太皇太后恚曰：「今日李廣，明日李廣，果然禍及矣。」廣懼自殺。帝疑廣有異書，使使即其家索之，得賂籍以進，多文武大臣名，饋黃白米各千百石。帝驚曰：「廣食幾何，乃受米如許。」左右曰：「隱語耳，黃者金，白者銀也。」帝怒，下法司究治。諸交結廣者，走壽寧侯張鶴齡求解，乃寢勿治。廣初死時，司設監太監為請祠額葬祭，及是以大學士劉健等言，罷給祠額，猶賜祭。

Li Guang was an eunuch under the Hongzhi Emperor. He used talismans and prayers to bewitch the emperor, then engaged in fraud and corruption, forged edicts to appoint chuanfeng officials as in the Chenghua era, and people from all quarters rushed to bribe him. He also seized commoner lands within the capital region and monopolized the salt profits to the tune of vast sums. He built a great mansion and drew water from Jade Spring Hill to surround it on every side. Supervising secretary Ye Shen, censor Zhang Jin, and others repeatedly memorialized against him, but the emperor made no inquiry. In the eleventh year, Li Guang urged the emperor to build Yuxiu Pavilion on Longevity Hill. When the pavilion was finished, a young princess died; not long afterward the Qingning Palace caught fire. The astrologers said Li Guang's building of the pavilion had violated the year's taboos. The Grand Empress Dowager said in anger: "Today Li Guang, tomorrow Li Guang—sure enough, disaster has followed. Li Guang, terrified, took his own life. The emperor suspected Li Guang possessed secret writings and sent envoys to search his house; they found a bribe register for presentation to the throne, listing many civil and military ministers and gifts of "yellow and white rice" in quantities of hundreds of shi each. The emperor was shocked and said: "How much can Li Guang eat, that he should receive so much rice? Those around him said: "It is coded language—yellow for gold, white for silver." The emperor was enraged and ordered the judicial offices to investigate and punish the matter. Those who had dealings with Guang went to the Marquis of Shouning, Zhang Heling, to beg for intercession, and the case was quietly shelved. When Guang had first died, the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial had requested a shrine plaque and funeral rites for him; now, on the advice of Grand Secretaries Liu Jian and others, the grant of a shrine plaque was revoked, though sacrificial offerings were still bestowed.

蔣琮，大興人。孝宗時，守備南京。沿江蘆場，舊隸三廠。成化初，江浦縣田多沈於江，而瀕江生沙洲六，民請耕之，以補沈江田額。洲與蘆場近，又瓦屑壩廢地及石城門外湖地，故不隸三廠。太監黃賜為守備時，受奸民獻，俱指為蘆場，盡收其利。民已失業，而歲額租課仍責償之民。孝宗立，縣民相率醞於朝，下南京御史姜綰等覆按。弘治二年，綰等劾琮與民爭利，且用揭帖抗詔旨。琮條辨綰疏，而泛及御史劉愷、方嶽等及南京諸司違法事。給事中韓重因星變請斥琮及太監郭鏞等，以弭天怒，未報。而太監陳祖生復奏戶部主事盧錦、給事中方向私種南京後湖田事。後湖者，洪武時置黃冊庫其中，令主事、給事中各一人守之，百司不得至。歲久湖塞，錦、向於湖灘稍種蔬伐葦，給公用，故為祖生所奏。事下南京法司。適郭鏞奉使兩廣，道南京，往觀焉。御史纮等因劾鏞擅遊禁地。鏞怒，歸醞於帝，言府尹楊守隨勘錦、向失出，御史不劾奏，獨繩內臣。帝乃遣太監何穆、大理寺少卿楊謐再勘後湖田，並覆綰、琮訐奏事。

Jiang Cong was a native of Daxing. During the reign of Xiaozong, he served as garrison commander at Nanjing. The reed fields along the river had formerly been under the jurisdiction of the three depots. At the beginning of the Chenghua reign, much farmland in Jiangpu County had been swallowed by the river, while six sandbars had formed along the banks; the people petitioned to cultivate them so as to make up the quota of land lost to the river. Those sandbars lay close to the reed fields, as did the wasteland of Waxie Dam and the lakeside land outside Shicheng Gate; for this reason they had not been placed under the three depots. When the eunuch Huang Ci served as garrison commander, he accepted what scoundrels offered him, declared all of it to be reed fields, and kept every profit for himself. The people had already lost their livelihoods, yet the annual rents and levies were still extracted from them. When Xiaozong came to the throne, the county people went up to the capital together to petition; the Nanjing censors Jiang Wan and others were dispatched to reinvestigate the matter. In the second year of Hongzhi, Wan and the others impeached Cong for contending with the people over profit and for using an informal memorial to defy an imperial edict. Cong replied point by point to Wan's memorial and broadly dragged in censor Liu Kai, Fang Yue, and others, along with illegal conduct in the various Nanjing offices. Assistant secretary Han Zhong, citing a celestial anomaly, asked that Cong and the eunuch Guo Yong be removed from office to appease Heaven's wrath, but received no response. Then the eunuch Chen Zusheng also reported that Ministry of Revenue chief clerk Lu Jin and assistant secretary Fang Xiang had privately cultivated land on the Houhu Lake in Nanjing. Houhu Lake had since Hongwu's day housed the Yellow Register archive; one chief clerk and one assistant secretary were assigned to guard it, and the rest of the bureaucracy was forbidden to enter. Over the years the lake had silted up; Lu Jin and Fang Xiang had planted vegetables and cut reeds on the lakeshore for public use, and for this Zusheng reported them. The case was referred to the Nanjing judicial offices. Just then Guo Yong, on a mission to the two Guang provinces, passed through Nanjing and went to see the lake for himself. Censor Jiang Wan and the others therefore impeached Guo Yong for trespassing into a forbidden area for pleasure. Guo Yong was furious; on returning to court he reported to the emperor that prefect Yang Shunsui had mishandled the investigation of Lu Jin and Fang Xiang, that the censors had failed to impeach the case, and that only inner officials were being punished. The emperor then sent the eunuch He Mu and Vice Minister of the Court of Judicature Yang Mi to reinvestigate the Houhu Lake land and also to review the mutual accusations of Wan and Cong.

明年，奏上，褫錦職，謫守隨、向以下官有差。又勘琮不當受獻地，私囑勘官，所訐事皆誣，綰等劾琮亦多不實，並宜逮治。詔逮綰等。御史伊宏、給事中陳矞等皆言不宜以一內臣而置御史十人於獄，不聽。綰等鐫級調外，而宥琮不問。時劉吉竊柄，素惡南京御史劾己，故興此獄。尚書王恕、李敏，給事中趙竑，御史張賓先後言琮、綰同罪異罰，失平，亦不納。琮由是益無忌。久之，廣洋衛指揮石文通奏琮僭侈殺人，掘聚寶山傷皇陵氣，及毆殺商人諸罪。琮竟免死，充孝陵凈軍。

The following year their report was submitted; Lu Jin was stripped of office, and Yang Shunsui, Fang Xiang, and the other officials below them were demoted by varying degrees. The investigators also found that Cong ought not to have accepted donated land, that he had privately instructed the examining officials, that everything he had accused others of was false, and that the impeachments against Cong by Wan and the others were likewise mostly unfounded; all parties, they said, ought to be arrested and tried. An edict was issued ordering the arrest of Wan and the others. Censor Yi Hong, assistant secretary Chen Yu, and others all argued that it was wrong to imprison ten censors on account of one inner official, but the emperor would not listen. Wan and the others were demoted and transferred elsewhere, while Cong was pardoned and not punished. At the time Liu Ji held power behind the scenes and had long resented the Nanjing censors for impeaching him, so he stirred up this case. Minister Wang Shu, Minister Li Min, assistant secretary Zhao Hong, and censor Zhang Bin in turn argued that Cong and Wan were guilty of the same offenses yet punished differently—that justice had not been even—but the emperor still would not accept it. From that point Cong became all the more unrestrained. After some time, Shi Wentong, commander of the Guangyang Guard, memorialized that Cong lived in unlawful extravagance and murdered people, that he had dug into Mount Jubao and damaged the vital energy of the imperial tombs, and that he had beaten merchants to death, among other crimes. In the end Cong escaped execution and was assigned to menial labor at the Xiaoling Tomb.

劉瑾，興平人。本談氏子，依中官劉姓者以進，冒其姓。孝宗時，坐法當死，得免。已，得侍武宗東宮。武宗即位，掌鐘鼓司，與馬永成、高鳳、羅祥、魏彬、丘聚、谷大用、張永並以舊恩得幸，人號「八虎」，而瑾尤狡狠。嘗慕王振之為人，日進鷹犬、歌舞、角之戲，導帝微行。帝大歡樂之，漸信用瑾，進內官監，總督團營。孝宗遺詔罷中官監槍及各城門監局，瑾皆格不行，而勸帝令內臣鎮守者各貢萬金。又奏置皇莊，漸增至三百餘所，畿內大擾。

Liu Jin was a man of Xingping. He was originally a son of the Tan family; he rose through the patronage of a eunuch surnamed Liu and adopted that surname as his own. During Xiaozong's reign he was convicted under the law and should have been put to death, but was spared. Later he came to serve the crown prince, the future Emperor Wuzong, in the Eastern Palace. When Wuzong ascended the throne, Jin took charge of the Clock and Drum Directorate. Together with Ma Yongcheng, Gao Feng, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin, Qiu Ju, Gu Dayong, and Zhang Yong—all favored for old ties—he was counted among the so-called Eight Tigers, and Jin in particular was sly and ruthless. He admired the example of Wang Zhen and every day introduced hawks and hounds, singing and dancing, and wrestling bouts to the emperor, leading him into secret outings. The emperor delighted in these diversions, gradually placed his trust in Jin, promoted him to the Inner Palace Directorate, and put him in overall command of the regimented armies. Xiaozong's deathbed edict abolished the gun corps of the Inner Palace Directorate and the supervisory offices at each city gate; Jin blocked every provision from being carried out and instead urged the emperor to require every eunuch serving as garrison commander to pay tribute of ten thousand in gold. He also memorialized to establish imperial estates, which in time grew to more than three hundred, throwing the capital region into turmoil.

外廷知八人誘帝遊宴，大學士劉健、謝遷、李東陽驟諫，不聽。尚書張升，給事中陶諧、胡煜、楊一瑛、張襘，御史王渙、趙佑，南京給事御史李光翰、陸昆等，交章論諫，亦不聽。五官監候楊源以星變陳言，帝意頗動。健、遷等復連疏請誅瑾，戶部尚書韓文率諸大臣繼之。帝不得已，使司禮太監陳寬、李榮、王嶽至閣，議遣瑾等居南京。三反，健等執不可。尚書許進曰：「過激將有變。」健不從。王嶽者，素謇直，與太監範亨、徐智心嫉八人，具以健等語告帝，且言閣臣議是。健等方約文及諸九卿詰朝伏闕面爭，而吏部尚書焦芳馳白瑾。瑾大懼，夜率永成等伏帝前環泣。帝心動，瑾因曰：「害奴等者王嶽。嶽結閣臣欲制上出入，故先去所忌耳。且鷹犬何損萬幾。若司禮監得人，左班官安敢如是。」帝大怒，立命瑾掌司禮監，永成掌東廠，大用掌西廠，而夜收嶽及亨、智充南京凈軍。旦日諸臣入朝，將伏闕，知事已變，於是健、東陽皆求去。帝獨留東陽，而令焦芳入閣，追殺嶽、亨於途，箠智折臂。時正德元年十月也。

When the outer court learned that the Eight were luring the emperor into pleasure outings and banquets, Grand Secretaries Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang remonstrated urgently, but the emperor would not listen. Minister Zhang Sheng, assistant secretaries Tao Xie, Hu Yu, Yang Yiying, and Zhang Gui, censors Wang Huan and Zhao You, and the Nanjing remonstrance officials Li Guanghan, Lu Kun, and others submitted one memorial after another, but again he would not listen. Yang Yuan, a registrar of the Five Offices, memorialized on account of a celestial anomaly, and the emperor was somewhat moved. Jian and Qian and the others again sent repeated memorials calling for Jin's execution, and Han Wen, the Minister of Revenue, led the rest of the ministers in pressing the same request. The emperor had no choice, so he sent the eunuchs Chen Kuan, Li Rong, and Wang Yue of the Directorate of Ceremonial to the Grand Secretariat to discuss sending Jin and the others to live in Nanjing. After three rounds of rejection, Jian and the others still insisted that it could not be done. Minister Xu Jin warned, 'If you push this too hard, there will be trouble. Jian refused to yield. Wang Yue had always been straightforward and upright. Together with the eunuchs Fan Heng and Xu Zhi, all of whom hated the eight men, he reported Jian and the others' words to the emperor in full and said the Grand Secretariat had agreed. Jian and the others were just arranging with Han Wen and the other Nine Ministers to kneel at the palace gate at dawn and confront him in person, when the Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang hurried to report to Jin. Jin was terrified, and that night he led Yongcheng and the others to kneel before the emperor and cry around him. The emperor was moved, and Jin then said, 'The one harming your slaves is Wang Yue. Yue had aligned himself with the Grand Secretariat and wanted to control the emperor's movements, so he was first trying to remove those he disliked. Besides, how could mere hawks and hounds harm the great affairs of state? If the Directorate of Ceremonial had the right man, how would the officials on the left dare act like this? The emperor was enraged and at once ordered Jin to head the Directorate of Ceremonial, Yongcheng to head the Eastern Depot, and Dayong to head the Western Depot, and that night had Yue and Heng and Zhi arrested and consigned to the Nanjing eunuch corps. The next day the ministers came to court intending to kneel at the palace gate, but when they learned the situation had changed, Jian and Dongyang both asked to leave office. The emperor kept Dongyang alone, and ordered Jiao Fang into the Grand Secretariat, while men were sent after Yue and Heng and killed them on the road, and Zhi was beaten until his arm broke. This was the tenth month of Zhengde's first year.

瑾既得志，遂以事革韓文職，而杖責請留健、遷者給事中呂翀、劉郤及南京給事中戴銑等六人，御史薄彥徽等十五人。守備南京武靖伯趙承慶、府尹陸珩、尚書林瀚，皆以傳翀、郤疏得罪，珩、瀚勒致仕，削承慶半祿。南京副都御史陳壽，御史陳琳、王良臣，主事王守仁，復以救銑等謫杖有差。瑾勢日益張，毛舉官僚細過，散布校尉，遠近偵伺，使人救過不贍。因顓擅威福，悉遣黨閹分鎮各邊。敘大同功，遷擢官校至一千五百六十餘人，又傳旨授錦衣官數百員。《通鑒纂要》成，瑾誣諸翰林纂修官謄寫不謹，皆被譴，而命文華殿書辦官張駿等改謄，超拜官秩。駿由光祿卿擢禮部尚書，他授京卿者數人，裝潢匠役悉授官。創用枷法，給事中吉時，御史王時中，郎中劉繹、張瑋，尚寶卿顧璿，副使姚祥，參議吳廷舉等，並摭小過，枷瀕死，始釋而戍之。其餘枷死者無數。錦衣獄徽纆相屬。惡錦衣僉事牟斌善視獄囚，杖而錮之。府丞周璽、五官監候楊源杖至死。源初以皇變陳言，罪瑾者也。瑾每奏事，必偵帝為戲弄時。帝厭之。亟麾去曰：「吾用若何事，乃混我！」自此遂專決，不復白。

Once Jin had his way, he used the matter to remove Han Wen from office and beat the six men who had petitioned to keep Jian and Qian, including the giving-attendance officials Lü Chong and Liu Que and the Nanjing giving-attendance officials Dai Xian and the others, as well as fifteen censors such as Bo Yanhui. The Nanjing garrison commander, Earl of Wujing Zhao Chengqing, the prefect Lu Heng, and Minister Lin Han were all implicated because of memorials by Chong and Que; Heng and Han were forced to retire, and Chengqing's stipend was cut in half. The deputy Censor-in-chief Chen Shou of Nanjing, the censors Chen Lin and Wang Liangchen, and the principal secretary Wang Shouren were again punished by beating and demotion in varying degrees for having tried to save Xian and the others. Jin's power grew stronger by the day. He picked out the smallest faults in officials, spread his junior guards out to spy near and far, and made it impossible for people to repair their own mistakes. He thus monopolized power and favor and sent all his eunuch followers to be stationed at the various frontiers. For his achievements at Datong, more than 1,560 officers and guards were promoted, and an imperial order also appointed several hundred Brocade Guard officers. When the Compendium of Governance was completed, Jin falsely accused the Hanlin compilers of careless copying; they were all punished, while copyists Zhang Jun and others were ordered to recopy the work and were promoted far above their station. Zhang Jun was raised from Minister of Imperial Entertainments to Minister of Rites; several others were given metropolitan ministerial ranks as well, and even the craftsmen who bound the volumes were granted official posts. He introduced the cangue. Assistant secretary Ji Shi, censor Wang Shizhong, the secretaries Liu Yi and Zhang Wei, Minister of Credentials Gu Xuan, vice commissioner Yao Xiang, and councilor Wu Tingju were all seized on petty grounds, cangued almost to death, and only then released and sent to border garrison duty. Countless others died under the cangue as well. The prisons of the Brocade Guard were crowded with shackled prisoners one after another. Because he hated Brocade Guard assistant commissioner Mou Bin for treating prisoners humanely, he had him beaten and imprisoned. The prefectural vice magistrate Zhou Xi and the Five Offices registrar Yang Yuan were beaten to death. Yang had originally taken advantage of a celestial anomaly to speak out against Jin; he was precisely one of those who had denounced him. Whenever Jin had business to report, he first found out when the emperor was occupied with amusement. The emperor grew weary of this. He would wave him away at once, saying, "What do I keep you for—only to confuse me! From then on Jin made decisions on his own and no longer sought the emperor's approval.

二年三月，瑾召群臣跪金水橋南，宣示奸黨，大臣則大學士劉健、謝遷，尚書則韓文、楊守隨、張敷華、林瀚，部曹則郎中李夢陽，主事王守仁、王綸、孫磐、黃昭，詞臣則檢討劉瑞，言路則給事中湯禮敬、陳霆、徐昂、陶諧、劉郤、艾洪、呂翀、任惠、李光翰、戴銑、徐蕃、牧相、徐暹、張良弼、葛嵩、趙士賢，御史陳琳、貢安甫、史良佐、曹閔、王弘、任諾、李熙、王蕃、葛浩、陸昆、張鳴鳳、蕭乾元、姚學禮、黃昭道、蔣欽、薄彥徽、潘鏜、王良臣、趙佑、何天衢、徐玨、楊璋、熊卓、朱廷聲、劉玉等，皆海內號忠直者也。又令六科寅入酉出，使不得息，以困苦之。令文臣毋輒予封誥，痛繩文吏。寧王宸濠圖不軌，賂瑾求復護衛，瑾予之，濠反謀遂成。瑾不學，每批答章奏，皆持歸私第，與妹婿禮部司務孫聰、華亭大猾張文冕相參決，辭率鄙冗，焦芳為潤色之，東陽頫首而已。

In the third month of the second year, Jin summoned the ministers to kneel south of the Jinshui Bridge and proclaimed the treacherous faction: among the grand secretaries, Liu Jian and Xie Qian; among the ministers, Han Wen, Yang Shunsui, Zhang Fuhua, and Lin Han; among the ministry officials, the secretary Li Mengyang and chief clerks Wang Shouren, Wang Lun, Sun Pan, Huang Zhao, and others; among the literary officials, the compiler Liu Rui; among the remonstrance officials, assistant secretaries Tang Lijing, Chen Ting, Xu Ang, Tao Xie, Liu Qie, Ai Hong, Lü Chong, Ren Hui, Li Guanghan, Dai Xian, Xu Fan, Mu Xiang, Xu Xian, Zhang Liangbi, Ge Song, Zhao Shixian, and the censors Chen Lin, Gong Anfu, Shi Liangzuo, Cao Min, Wang Hong, Ren Nuo, Li Xi, Wang Fan, Ge Hao, Lu Kun, Zhang Mingfeng, Xiao Qianyuan, Yao Xueli, Huang Zhaodao, Jiang Qin, Bo Yanhui, Pan Tang, Wang Liangchen, Zhao You, He Tianqu, Xu Jue, Yang Zhang, Xiong Zhuo, Zhu Tingsheng, Liu Yu, and others—men famed throughout the empire for their loyalty and rectitude. He also ordered the Six Departments to enter at the yin hour and leave at the you hour, denying them rest in order to wear them down. He forbade civil officials from receiving seals and patents at will and harshly disciplined the clerical staff. When Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao, plotted rebellion, he bribed Jin to have his guard restored; Jin granted it, and Chenhao's revolt thereafter took shape. Jin was unlettered; whenever he drafted responses to memorials he took them home to his private residence and settled them in consultation with his brother-in-law Sun Cong, a clerk in the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Wenmian, a notorious scoundrel of Huating. His wording was crude and verbose, so Jiao Fang polished it, while Li Dongyang could only bow his head in assent.

當是時，瑾權擅天下，威福任情。有罪人溺水死，乃坐御史匡翼之罪。嘗求學士吳儼賄，不得，又聽都御史劉宇讒，怒御史楊南金，乃以大計外吏奏中，落二人職。授播州土司楊斌為四川按察使。令奴婿閭潔督山東學政。公侯勛戚以下，莫敢鈞禮，每私謁，相率跪拜。章奏先具紅揭投瑾，號紅本，然後上通政司，號白本，皆稱劉太監而不名。都察院奏讞誤名瑾，瑾怒詈之，都御史屠滽率屬跪謝乃已。遣使察核邊倉，都御史周南、張鼐、馬中錫、湯全、劉憲，布政以下官孫祿、冒政、方矩、華福、金獻民、劉遜、郭緒、張翼，郎中劉繹、王藎等，並以赦前罪，下獄追補邊粟，憲至瘐死。又察鹽課，杖巡鹽御史王潤，逮前運使寧舉、楊奇等。察內甲字庫，謫尚書王佐以下百七十三人。復創罰米法，嘗忤瑾者，皆擿發輸邊。故尚書雍泰、馬文升、劉大夏、韓文、許進，都御史楊一清、李進、王忠，侍郎張縉，給事中趙士賢，任良弼，御史張津，陳順、喬恕、聶賢、曹來旬等數十人悉破家，死者繫其妻孥。

In those days Jin wielded sole power over the empire, dispensing favor and punishment entirely as he pleased. When a criminal drowned, the censor Kuang Yizhi was punished for it. He once demanded a bribe from academician Wu Yan and did not get it; then, heeding the slander of Grand Censor Liu Yu, he turned on censor Yang Nanjin and, in the annual evaluation of outside officials, had both men removed from office. He appointed Yang Bin, a native chieftain of Bozhou, surveillance commissioner of Sichuan. He put his son-in-law Lü Jie in charge of the school administration of Shandong. From dukes, marquises, meritorious nobles, and imperial in-laws downward, none dared insist on equal courtesy; whenever they paid a private visit, they knelt and bowed in succession. Memorials had first to be prepared on red paper and submitted to Jin—the "red memorials"—and only afterward sent on to the Directorate of Communications as "white memorials"; everywhere he was addressed as Eunuch Liu, never by name. When the Censorate named Jin in a judgment report by mistake, he flew into a rage and cursed them; Grand Censor Tu Yong and his subordinates had to kneel and apologize before he would let the matter drop. He sent envoys to audit the border granaries, and Grand Censors Zhou Nan, Zhang Nai, Ma Zhongxi, Tang Quan, and Liu Xian, along with provincial administrators Sun Lu, Mao Zheng, Fang Ju, Hua Fu, Jin Xianmin, Liu Xun, Guo Xu, Zhang Yi, and secretaries Liu Yi and Wang Jin, were all imprisoned on pre-amnesty offenses and forced to make restitution in border grain; Liu Xian died of illness in prison. He also inspected the salt revenues, flogged salt censor Wang Run, and arrested former transport commissioners Ning Ju, Yang Qi, and others. He inspected the Inner Armor and Character Treasury and demoted one hundred seventy-three officials, including Minister Wang Zuo. He revived the penalty of grain fines as well; anyone who had ever offended Jin was hunted out and made to deliver grain to the border. Thus former ministers Yun Tai, Ma Wensheng, Liu Daxia, Han Wen, and Xu Jin; Grand Censors Yang Yiqing, Li Jin, and Wang Zhong; Vice Minister Zhang Jin; assistant secretaries Zhao Shixian and Ren Liangbi; censors Zhang Jin, Chen Shun, Qiao Shou, Nie Xian, Cao Laixun, and dozens more were ruined; where the accused died, their wives and children were held liable as well.

其年夏，御道有匿名書詆瑾所行事，瑾矯旨召百官跪奉天門下。瑾立門左詰責，日暮收五品以下官盡下獄。明日，大學士李東陽申救，瑾亦微聞此書乃內臣所為，始釋諸臣。而主事何釴、順天推官周臣、進士陸伸已暍死。是日酷暑，太監李榮以冰瓜啖群臣，瑾惡之。太監黃偉憤甚，謂諸臣曰：「書所言皆為國為民事，挺身自承，雖死不失為好男子，奈何枉累他人。」瑾怒，即日勒榮閑住，而逐偉南京。時東廠、西廠緝事人四出，道路惶懼。瑾復立內行廠，尤酷烈，中人以微法，無得全者。又悉逐京師客傭，令寡婦盡嫁，喪不葬者焚之，輦下洶洶幾致亂。都給事中許天錫欲劾瑾，懼弗克，懷疏自縊。

That summer an anonymous placard attacking Jin's conduct appeared along the imperial avenue; Jin forged an edict summoning all officials to kneel beneath Fengtian Gate. Jin stood at the left of the gate and interrogated them; by evening every official of fifth rank and below had been thrown into prison. The next day Grand Secretary Li Dongyang pleaded for them; Jin also heard faintly that the placard had been written by inner officials, and at last he released the ministers. But chief clerk He Yi, Shuntian magistrate Zhou Chen, and jinshi Lu Shen had already died of heatstroke. The day was fiercely hot; the eunuch Li Rong offered the ministers iced melons, and Jin resented it. The eunuch Huang Wei was incensed and said to the ministers, "Everything written in that placard concerned the state and the people. To step forward and confess, even at the cost of your lives, would not dishonor you as men—but how can you falsely implicate others? Jin was furious; that same day he forced Li Rong into retirement and banished Huang Wei to Nanjing. At that time the investigators of the Eastern and Western Depots ranged everywhere, and terror filled the roads. Jin established an Internal Operating Depot as well, more cruel still; no one caught in even a minor offense escaped whole. He also drove every hired laborer out of the capital, ordered all widows to remarry, and burned the unburied dead; the capital seethed and nearly descended into disorder. Chief assistant secretary Xu Tianxi wished to impeach Jin but feared he would fail; he kept the memorial on his person and hanged himself.

瑾故急賄，凡入覲、出使官皆有厚獻。給事中周鑰勘事歸，以無金自殺。其黨張綵曰：「今天下所饋遺公者，非必皆私財，往往貸京師，而歸則以庫金償。公奈何斂怨貽患。」瑾然之。會御史歐陽雲等十餘人以故事入賂，瑾皆舉發致罪。乃遣給事、御史十四人分道盤察，有司爭厚斂以補帑。所遣人率阿瑾意，專務搏擊，劾尚書顧佐、侶鐘、韓文以下數十人。浙江鹽運使楊奇逋課死，至鬻其女孫。而給事中安奎、潘希曾，御史趙時中、阮吉、張彧、劉子厲，以無重劾下獄。奎、彧枷且死，李東陽疏救，始釋為民。希曾等亦皆杖斥，忤意者謫斥有差。又矯旨籍故都御史錢鉞、禮部侍郎黃景、尚書秦纮家。凡瑾所逮捕，一家犯，鄰里皆坐，或瞰河居者，以河外居民坐之。屢起大獄，冤號遍道路。《孝宗實錄》成，翰林預纂修者當遷秩，瑾惡翰林官素不下己，調侍講吳一鵬等十六人南京六部。

Jin was insatiably greedy for bribes; every official arriving for audience or departing on mission was expected to make a lavish gift. Assistant secretary Zhou Yao returned from an investigatory mission and killed himself because he had no gold to offer. His follower Zhang Cai said, "What the realm sends you is not always private wealth; often they borrow in the capital and repay from treasury funds on the road home. Why heap up resentment and store up disaster for yourself? Jin thought he had a point. When censors Ouyang Yun and more than ten others presented bribes as custom required, Jin exposed them all and brought them to punishment. He then dispatched fourteen assistant secretaries and censors along different routes to audit and seize assets, and local officials vied to levy heavy taxes to fill the treasury. Those he sent invariably carried out Jin's wishes and devoted themselves to prosecutions; they impeached Ministers Gu Zuo, Lü Zhong, Han Wen, and dozens more. The Zhejiang salt transport commissioner Yang Qi fell behind in his quota, died under the pressure, and even his daughter and granddaughter were sold off. Assistant secretaries An Kui and Pan Xizeng and censors Zhao Shizhong, Ruan Ji, Zhang Yu, and Liu Zili were imprisoned for failing to bring serious charges. An Kui and Zhang Yu were cangued nearly to death; only after Li Dongyang memorialized in their defense were they released as commoners. Pan Xizeng and the others were also beaten and dismissed, and those who displeased Jin were demoted to varying degrees. He also forged an edict to confiscate the estates of former Grand Censor Qian Yue, Vice Minister of Rites Huang Jing, and Minister Qin Hong. In every arrest Jin ordered, one household's offense implicated the neighbors; if someone lived facing the river, those on the far bank were punished as well. He repeatedly opened great criminal cases, and cries of injustice rang along every road. When the Veritable Records of Emperor Xiaozong were completed, the Hanlin compilers who had taken part were due for promotion; Jin, who resented the Hanlin for never deferring to him, transferred sixteen of them, including lecturer Wu Yipeng, to the Nanjing ministries.

是時，內閣焦芳、劉宇，吏部尚書張綵，兵部尚書曹元，錦衣衛指揮楊玉、石文義，皆為瑾腹心。變更舊制，令天下巡撫入京受敕，輸瑾賂。延綏巡撫劉宇不至，逮下獄。宣府巡撫陸完後至，幾得罪，既賂，乃令試職視事。都指揮以下求遷者，瑾第書片紙曰「某授某官」，兵部即奉行，不敢復奏。邊將失律，賂入，即不問，有反升擢者。又遣其黨丈邊塞屯地，誅求苛刻。邊軍不堪，焚公廨，守臣諭之始定。給事中高淓丈滄州，所劾治六十一人，至劾其父高銓以媚瑾。又以謝遷故，令餘姚人毋授京官。以占城國使人亞劉謀逆獄，裁江西鄉試額五十名，仍禁授京秩如餘姚，以焦芳惡彭華故也。瑾又自增陜西鄉試額至百名，亦為芳增河南額至九十五名，以優其鄉士。其年，帝大赦，瑾峻刑自如。刑部尚書劉璟無所彈劾，瑾詬之。璟懼，劾其屬王尚賓等三人，乃喜。給事中郗夔核榆林功，懼失瑾意，自縊死。給事中屈銓、祭酒王雲鳳請編瑾行事，著為律令。

At that time Grand Secretariat members Jiao Fang and Liu Yu, Minister of Personnel Zhang Cai, Minister of War Cao Yuan, and Brocade Guard commanders Yang Yu and Shi Wenyin were all Jin's trusted confidants. He altered the old system, requiring every provincial governor to come to the capital to receive edicts and pay bribes to Jin. Liu Yu, governor of Yansui, failed to appear and was arrested and thrown into prison. Lu Wan, governor of Xuanfu, arrived late and nearly fell under punishment; after paying a bribe, he was allowed to resume office on probation. When guard commanders and those below sought promotion, Jin need only write a slip saying, "So-and-so is granted such-and-such an office," and the Ministry of War would carry it out without daring to memorialize again. If frontier generals broke discipline but paid bribes, no action was taken; some were even promoted instead. He also sent his followers to survey frontier garrison lands and extort payments with merciless severity. The frontier troops could bear it no longer and burned the government offices; only when local commanders reasoned with them did the unrest subside. Assistant secretary Gao Qing surveyed Cangzhou and impeached sixty-one people, even denouncing his own father Gao Quan to curry favor with Jin. Because of Xie Qian, he barred natives of Yuyao from appointment to metropolitan office. In the treason case involving the Champa envoy A Liu, he cut Jiangxi's provincial examination quota by fifty places and likewise barred appointment to metropolitan rank as he had for Yuyao—this because Jiao Fang hated Peng Hua. Jin also raised Shaanxi's provincial quota to one hundred and had Fang increase Henan's to ninety-five, to favor men from their home regions. That year the emperor proclaimed a general amnesty, yet Jin continued his harsh punishments as before. Minister of Justice Liu Jing found nothing to impeach, and Jin reviled him for it. Liu Jing, in fear, impeached three of his own subordinates, Wang Shangbin and others, and Jin was pleased. Assistant secretary Xi Kui, while reviewing merits at Yulin, feared losing Jin's favor and hanged himself. Assistant secretary Qu Quan and Grand Academy rector Wang Yunfeng asked that Jin's conduct be compiled and enacted as law.

五年四月，安化王寘鐇反，檄數瑾罪。瑾始懼，匿其檄，而起都御史楊一清、太監張永為總督，討之。初，與瑾同為八虎者，當瑾專政時，有所請多不應，永成、大用等皆怨瑾。又欲逐永，永以譎免。及永出師還，欲因誅瑾，一清為畫策，永意遂決。瑾好招致術士，有俞日明者，妄言瑾從孫二漢當大貴。兵仗局太監孫和數遺以甲仗，兩廣鎮監潘午、蔡昭又為造弓弩，瑾皆藏於家。永捷疏至，將以八月十五日獻俘，瑾使緩其期。永慮有變，遂先期入，獻俘畢，帝置酒勞永，瑾等皆侍。及夜，瑾退，永出寘鐇檄，因奏瑾不法十七事。帝已被酒，俯首曰：「瑾負我。」永曰：「此不可緩。」永成等亦助之。遂執瑾，繫於菜廠，分遣官校封其內外私第。次日晏朝後，帝出永奏示內閣，降瑾奉御，謫居鳳陽。帝親籍其家，得偽璽一，穿宮牌五百及衣甲、弓弩、袞衣、玉帶諸違禁物。又所常持扇，內藏利匕首二。始大怒曰：「奴果反。」趣付獄。獄具，詔磔於市，梟其首，榜獄詞處決圖示天下。族人、逆黨皆伏誅。張綵獄斃，磔其屍。閣臣焦芳、劉宇、曹元而下，尚書畢亨、朱恩等，共六十餘人，皆降謫。已，廷臣奏瑾所變法，吏部二十四事，戶部三十餘事，兵部十八事，工部十三事，詔悉厘正如舊制。

In the fourth month of the fifth year, Prince of Anhua Zhu Zhifan rebelled and issued a proclamation enumerating Jin's crimes. Jin at last grew afraid, concealed the proclamation, and appointed Grand Censor Yang Yiqing and eunuch Zhang Yong as overall commanders to suppress the revolt. Among the Eight Tigers who had risen with Jin, many found their requests denied once he monopolized power; Yongcheng, Dayong, and the others all resented him. Jin also tried to drive Yong away, but Yong escaped through cunning. When Yong returned from campaign, he resolved to use the opportunity to bring Jin down; Yang Yiqing devised the plan, and Yong's mind was made up. Jin liked to gather sorcerers. One Yu Riming falsely declared that Jin's grandnephew Erhan was destined for great nobility. Sun He, eunuch of the Armaments Bureau, repeatedly sent him armor and weapons, while frontier supervisors Pan Wu and Cai Zhao of the two Guang provinces also made bows and crossbows for him, all of which Jin hoarded at home. When Yong's victory memorial arrived, scheduling the presentation of captives for the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Jin had the date postponed. Yong feared a plot and entered the capital ahead of schedule; after the captives were presented, the emperor set out wine to reward him, with Jin and the others in attendance. That evening, after Jin withdrew, Yong produced Zhifan's proclamation and memorialized seventeen counts of Jin's unlawful conduct. The emperor, already drunk, bowed his head and said, "Jin has betrayed me. Yong said, "This cannot wait." Yongcheng and the others lent their support as well. They then seized Jin and bound him at the vegetable depot, dispatching officials and guards to seal his residences inside and outside the city. The next day, after the late audience, the emperor showed Yong's memorial to the Grand Secretariat, demoted Jin to palace attendant, and banished him to Fengyang. The emperor personally searched his household and found a forged seal, five hundred palace passes, and forbidden items including armor, bows, embroidered robes, and jade belts. In the fan he habitually carried were hidden two sharp daggers. At last the emperor flew into a rage, saying, "The slave truly meant to rebel. He ordered Jin sent straight to prison. When the case was complete, an edict ordered him dismembered in the market, his head displayed, and the prison verdicts posted throughout the realm. His clansmen and fellow conspirators were all executed. Zhang Cai died in prison, and his corpse was dismembered. Grand Secretariat members Jiao Fang, Liu Yu, and Cao Yuan, together with ministers such as Bi Heng and Zhu En—more than sixty in all—were demoted and banished. Thereafter court ministers memorialized on Jin's altered regulations: twenty-four in the Ministry of Personnel, more than thirty in the Ministry of Revenue, eighteen in the Ministry of War, and thirteen in the Ministry of Works; an edict ordered all restored to the old system.

張永，保定新城人。正德初，總神機營，與瑾為黨。已而惡其所為，瑾亦覺其不附己也，言於帝，將黜之南京。永知之，直趨帝前，訴瑾陷己。帝召瑾與質，方爭辯，永輒奮拳毆瑾。帝令谷大用等置酒為解，由是二人益不合。及寘鐇反，命永及右都御史楊一清往討。帝戎服送之東華門，賜關防、金瓜、鋼斧以行，寵遇甚盛。瑾亦忌之，而帝方永，不能間也。師出，寘鐇已擒，永遂率五百騎撫定余黨。還次靈州，與一清言，欲奏瑾不法事。一清曰：「彼在上左右，公言能必入乎？不如以計誅之。」因為永畫策，永大喜，語詳一清傳。是時，瑾兄都督同知景祥死，京師籍籍謂瑾將以八月十五日俟百官送葬，因作亂。適永捷疏至，將以是日獻俘，瑾使緩其期，欲俟事成並擒永。或以告永，永先期入獻俘，是夜遂奏誅瑾。

Zhang Yong was a native of Xincheng in Baoding. At the beginning of Zhengde he commanded the Divinely Mechanized Camp and was at first allied with Jin. Before long he came to detest Jin's conduct, and Jin in turn sensed that he no longer stood with him; Jin spoke to the emperor and was about to have Yong dismissed to Nanjing. Yong learned of it, went straight before the emperor, and accused Jin of framing him. The emperor summoned Jin to confront him, and in the midst of their argument Yong suddenly struck Jin with his fist. The emperor had Gu Dayong and the others set out wine to reconcile them, but from that point the two were even less able to coexist. When Zhifan rebelled, Yong and Right Censor-in-chief Yang Yiqing were ordered to suppress him. The emperor saw them off in military dress at Donghua Gate and bestowed passes, golden melons, and steel axes for the journey—a mark of extraordinary favor. Jin envied him as well, but the emperor was so devoted to Yong that he could not drive them apart. Before the army had gone far, Zhifan had already been captured; Yong then led five hundred cavalry to pacify the remaining rebels. When he halted at Lingzhou on the return march, he spoke with Yang Yiqing about memorializing Jin's crimes. Yang Yiqing said, "He is at the emperor's side. Can you be sure your words will reach him? It would be better to destroy him by stratagem. He then laid out a plan for Yong, who was greatly pleased; the details are given in Yang Yiqing's biography. At that time Jin's elder brother, deputy regional commander Jing Xiang, died, and rumor spread through the capital that Jin would wait until the fifteenth day of the eighth month, when officials came to escort the funeral, and then rise in revolt. Just then Yong's victory memorial arrived, scheduling the presentation of captives for that very day; Jin ordered the date postponed, hoping to wait until his plan succeeded and seize Yong as well. Someone informed Yong; he entered early to present the captives, and that very night memorialized for Jin's execution.

於是英國公張懋、兵部尚書王敞等，奏永輯寧中外，兩建奇勛，遂封永兄富為泰安伯、弟容為安定伯。涿州男子王豸嘗刺龍形及「人王」字於足，永以為妖人，擒之。兵部尚書何鑒乞加永封，下廷臣議。永欲身自封侯，引劉永誠、鄭和故事風廷臣，內閣以非制格之。永意沮，乃辭免恩澤。吏部尚書楊一清言宜聽永讓，以成其賢，事竟已。久之，坐庫官盜庫銀事，閑住。九年，北邊有警，命永督宣府、大同、延綏軍禦之，寇退乃還。

Thereupon Duke of Ying Zhang Mao, Minister of War Wang Chang, and others memorialized that Yong had pacified court and realm and won two extraordinary victories; Yong's elder brother Fu was enfeoffed as Earl of Tai'an and his younger brother Rong as Earl of Anding. A man of Zhuozhou named Wang Zhi had once tattooed a dragon and the characters "Human King" on his foot; Yong took him for a sorcerer and arrested him. Minister of War He Jian petitioned to add to Yong's honors, and the matter was referred to the court for discussion. Yong wished to be enfeoffed as marquis in his own person, citing the precedents of Liu Yongcheng and Zheng He to pressure the ministers, but the Grand Secretariat blocked it as contrary to regulation. Discouraged, Yong declined the bounty. Minister of Personnel Yang Yiqing argued that Yong should be allowed to yield, thereby completing his reputation for virtue, and the matter ended there. After some time he was placed on inactive duty because a treasury official had stolen silver from the storehouse. In the ninth year, when trouble broke out on the northern frontier, Yong was ordered to command the armies of Xuanfu, Datong, and Yansui against the enemy; he returned only after the raiders withdrew.

寧王宸濠反，帝南征，永率邊兵二千先行。時王守仁已擒宸濠，檻車北上。永以帝意遮守仁，欲縱宸濠於鄱陽湖，俟帝至與戰。守仁不可，至杭州詣永。永拒不見，守仁叱門者徑入，大呼曰：「我王守仁也，來與公議國家事，何拒我！」永為氣懾。守仁因言江西荼毒已極，王師至，亂將不測。永大悟，乃曰：「群小在側，永來，欲保護聖躬耳，非欲攘功也。」因指江上檻車曰：「此宜歸我。」守仁曰：「我何用此。」即付永，而與永偕還江西。時太監張忠等已從大江至南昌，方窮治逆黨，見永至，大沮。永留數旬，促忠同歸，江西賴以安。忠等屢讒守仁，亦賴永營解獲免。武宗崩，永督九門防變。世宗立，御史蕭淮奏谷大用、丘聚輩蠱惑先帝，黨惡為奸，並及永。詔永閑住。已而淮復劾永在江西不法事，再降永奉御，司香孝陵，然永在江西，實非有不法也。嘉靖八年，大學士楊一清等言，永功大，不可泯，乃起永掌御用監，提督團營。未幾卒。

When Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao rebelled, the emperor marched south, and Yong led two thousand frontier troops ahead. By then Wang Shouren had already captured Chenhao and was escorting him north in a caged cart. Yong, acting on the emperor's presumed wish, blocked Shouren and wanted to release Chenhao on Poyang Lake so the emperor could arrive and fight him personally. Shouren refused; when he reached Hangzhou he went to see Yong. Yong refused to receive him. Shouren shouted down the gatekeeper and went straight in, calling out, "I am Wang Shouren! I have come to discuss affairs of state with you—why turn me away? Yong was overawed. Shouren then said that Jiangxi had already been ravaged beyond endurance and that once the imperial army arrived, the disorder would be incalculable. Yong saw it at once and said, "With petty men at my side, I came only to protect the emperor's person—not to steal the credit. He then pointed to the caged cart on the river and said, "That should be mine." Shouren replied, "What use would I have for it?" He immediately handed it over to Yong, and the two returned together to Jiangxi. By then the eunuch Zhang Zhong and others had already come up the Yangzi to Nanchang and were ruthlessly prosecuting the rebel party; when they saw Yong arrive, they were deeply dismayed. Yong remained several weeks and pressed Zhong to return with him; Jiangxi owed its calm to him. Zhong and the others repeatedly slandered Shouren, but Shouren was spared thanks to Yong's intercession. When Wuzong died, Yong was put in charge of the Nine Gates to guard against unrest. After Shizong came to the throne, censor Xiao Huai memorialized that Gu Dayong, Qiu Ju, and their ilk had bewitched the late emperor, formed a wicked faction, and implicated Yong as well. An edict ordered Yong to retire from active duty. Soon Huai again accused Yong of misconduct in Jiangxi, and Yong was further demoted to palace attendant and assigned to tend incense at the imperial tombs—though in truth his conduct in Jiangxi had not been unlawful. In the eighth year of Jiajing, Grand Secretary Yang Yiqing and others argued that Yong's merit was too great to be erased; he was recalled to head the Directorate of Imperial Household and supervise the regimented armies. He died not long after.

谷大用

Gu Dayong

谷大用者，瑾掌司禮監時提督西廠，分遣官校遠出偵事。江西南康民吳登顯等，五月五日為競渡，誣以擅造龍舟，籍其家，天下皆重足屏息。建鷹房草場於安州，奪民田無數。瑾誅，大用辭西廠。未幾，帝復欲用之，大學士李東陽力諫乃止。六年，劉六、劉七反，命大用總督軍務，偕伏羌伯毛銳、兵部侍郎陸完討之。大用駐臨清，召邊將許泰、郤永、江彬、劉暉等入內地，聽調遣。久之無功，會賊過鎮江狼山，遇颶風舟覆，陸完兵至殲之，遂封大用弟大亮為永清伯。而先是平寘鐇時，其兄大寬已封高平伯矣，義子冒升賞者，不可勝紀。世宗立，以迎立功賜金幣。給事中閻閎極論之，尋降奉御，居南京。已，召守康陵。嘉靖十年籍其家。

Gu Dayong, when Jin was in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial, oversaw the Western Depot and sent officials and guards out to gather intelligence. When the people of Nankang in Jiangxi held dragon-boat races on the fifth day of the fifth month, he falsely accused them of building dragon boats without authorization and confiscated their property, until all under heaven walked in fear and held their breath. He built hawk houses and pasture grounds at Anzhou and seized countless fields from the people. When Jin was executed, Dayong resigned from the Western Depot. Not long after, the emperor again wished to employ him, but Grand Secretary Li Dongyang remonstrated forcefully and stopped it. In the sixth year, when Liu Liu and Liu Qi rebelled, Dayong was ordered to take overall command of military affairs and, together with Earl of Fuqiang Mao Rui and Vice Minister of War Lu Wan, suppress them. Dayong was stationed at Linqing and summoned frontier generals Xu Tai, Que Yong, Jiang Bin, Liu Hui, and others into the interior to await his orders. After a long stalemate, the rebels passed Mount Lang in Zhenjiang, where a hurricane overturned their boats; Lu Wan's troops arrived and annihilated them, and Dayong's younger brother Daliang was enfeoffed as Earl of Yongqing. Earlier, when Zhifan was suppressed, his elder brother Dakuan had already been enfeoffed as Earl of Gaoping, and the number of adopted sons and men fraudulently promoted for reward was beyond counting. When Shizong came to the throne, Dayong was rewarded with gold and silk for his service in bringing about the succession. Assistant secretary Yan Hong memorialized against him in the strongest terms, and soon he was demoted to palace attendant and sent to live in Nanjing. Later he was summoned to guard the Kangling Mausoleum. In the tenth year of Jiajing his household was confiscated.

魏彬，當瑾時，總三千營。瑾誅，代掌司禮監。其年，敘寧夏功，封弟英鎮安伯，馬永成兄山亦封平涼伯。世宗立，彬不自安，為英辭伯爵。詔改都督同知，世襲錦衣指揮使。給事中楊秉義、徐景嵩、吳嚴皆言彬附和逆瑾，結姻江彬，宜置極典。帝宥不問。已而御史復論之，始令閑住。

Wei Bin, during Jin's time, commanded the Three Thousand Battalion. After Jin was executed, Bin took over the Directorate of Ceremonial. That year, when the Ningxia campaign was rewarded, his younger brother Ying was enfeoffed as Earl of Zhen'an, and Ma Yongcheng's elder brother Shan was also made Earl of Pingliang. When the Shizong emperor came to the throne, Bin grew uneasy and had Ying resign the earldom. An edict reduced him to deputy regional commander with hereditary rank as Brocade Guard commander. The supervising secretaries Yang Bingyi, Xu Jingsong, and Wu Yan all urged that Bin had echoed the rebel Jin and allied by marriage with Jiang Bin, and deserved the utmost penalty. The emperor pardoned him and took no further action. Soon the censors memorialized again, and at last he was ordered to live in retirement.

張忠，霸州人。正德時御馬太監，與司禮張雄、東廠張銳並侍豹房用事，時號三張，性皆凶悖。忠利大盜張茂財，結為弟，引入豹房，侍帝蹴鞠。而雄至怨其父不愛己致自宮，拒不見。同儕勸之，乃垂簾杖其父，然後相抱泣，其無人理如此。銳以捕妖言功，加祿至一百二十石。每緝事，先令邏卒誘人為奸，乃捕之，得賄則釋，往往以危法中人。三人並交通宸濠，受臧賢、錢寧等賄，以助成其叛。寧王反，忠勸帝親征。其遮王守仁捷，欲縱宸濠鄱陽，待帝自戰，皆忠之謀也。

Zhang Zhong was a native of Bazhou. In the Zhengde reign he was eunuch director of the imperial stables; with Zhang Xiong of the Directorate of Ceremonial and Zhang Rui of the Eastern Depot he served in the Leopard Quarter and wielded power—the three were called the Three Zhangs, all savage and lawless in character. Zhong coveted the wealth of the great bandit Zhang Mao, took him as a sworn brother, brought him into the Leopard Quarter, and had him attend the emperor at kickball. Xiong, meanwhile, bitterly resented his father for driving him to castration and refused to see him. When his fellows urged him, he drew a curtain and beat his father with a staff, then embraced him and wept—such was his perversity. Rui won promotion of salary to one hundred twenty piculs for arresting those who spread sorcerous talk. Whenever he investigated a case he first had patrolmen lure people into crime, then arrested them; if bribes were paid he released them—thus he often trapped men with harsh laws. All three had dealings with the Prince of Ning and took bribes from Zang Xian, Qian Ning, and others to help the rebellion along. When the Prince of Ning rebelled, Zhong urged the emperor to lead the campaign in person. Their intercepting Wang Shouren's victory report and their plan to release the prince at Poyang and let the emperor fight him himself were all Zhong's schemes.

是時，又有吳經者，尤親匿。帝南征，經先至揚州。嘗夜半燃炬通衢，遍入寡婦、處女家，掠以出，號哭震遠近，許以金贖，貧者多自經。先是，又有劉允者，以正德十年奉敕往迎烏斯藏僧，所賫金寶以百餘萬計。廷臣交章諫，不聽。允至成都，治裝歲餘，費又數十萬，公私匱竭。既至，為番人所襲。允走免，將士死者數百人，盡亡其所賫。及歸，武宗已崩，世宗用御史王鈞等言，張忠、吳經發孝陵衛充軍，張雄、張銳下都察院鞫治、允亦得罪。

At that time there was also Wu Jing, whom the emperor favored above all others. When the emperor marched south, Jing went ahead to Yangzhou. He would light torches in the main streets at midnight, enter the homes of widows and maidens one by one, seize them and carry them off; their cries shook the countryside. He promised ransom in gold, and many of the poor hanged themselves. Earlier there had been Liu Yun, who in the tenth year of Zhengde was ordered to go welcome Tibetan monks, carrying gold and treasure worth more than a million. The ministers remonstrated in memorial after memorial, but the emperor would not listen. When Yun reached Chengdu it took more than a year to prepare the mission, costing several hundred thousand more; public and private funds alike were drained dry. Once he arrived he was attacked by the western tribes. Yun escaped, but several hundred officers and men were killed and everything he had brought was lost. By the time he returned the Wuzong emperor had died. The Shizong, acting on censors such as Wang Jun, sent Zhang Zhong and Wu Jing to military service at the Xiaoling Guard, had Zhang Xiong and Zhang Rui tried by the Censorate, and punished Yun as well.

世宗習見正德時宦侍之禍，即位後御近侍甚嚴，有罪撻之至死，或陳屍示戒。張佐、鮑忠，麥福、黃錦輩，雖由興邸舊人掌司禮監，督東廠，然皆謹飭不敢大肆。帝又盡撤天下鎮守內臣及典京營倉場者，終四十餘年不復設，故內臣之勢，惟嘉靖朝少殺云。

The Shizong had seen close at hand the disasters eunuch attendants brought in the Zhengde years; after his accession he kept them under strict control, beating the guilty to death or displaying their corpses as a warning. Zhang Zuo, Bao Zhong, Mai Fu, Huang Jin, and the like—though old retainers from the Xing mansion who headed the Directorate of Ceremonial and supervised the Eastern Depot—were all cautious and did not dare run riot. The emperor also removed entirely the eunuch garrison commissioners throughout the empire and those who managed the capital camps and granaries; for more than forty years thereafter such posts were not restored. Thus eunuch power abated somewhat only in the Jiajing reign, as the account concludes.

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