Volume 306 Biographies 194: Eunuchs - Jiao Fang, Zhang Cai, Gu Bingqian, Cui Chengxiu, Liu Zhixuan, Cao Qincheng, Wang Shaohui, Huo Weihua, Yan Mingtai, Jia Jichun, Tian Ergeng

明代閹宦之禍酷矣，然非諸黨人附麗之，羽翼之，張其勢而助之攻，虐焰不若是其烈也。中葉以前，士大夫知重名節，雖以王振、汪直之橫，黨與未盛。至劉瑾竊權，焦芳以閣臣首與之比，於是列卿爭先獻媚，而司禮之權居內閣上。迨神宗末年，訛言朋興，群相敵仇，門戶之爭固結而不可解。兇豎乘其沸潰，盜弄太阿，黠桀渠憸，竄身婦寺。淫刑痡毒，快其惡正醜直之私。衣冠填於狴犴，善類殞於刀鋸。迄乎惡貫滿盈，亟伸憲典，刑書所麗，跡穢簡編，而遺孽余燼，終以覆國。莊烈帝之定逆案也，以其事付大學士韓爌等，因慨然太息曰：「忠賢不過一人耳，外廷諸臣附之，遂至於此，其罪何可勝誅！」痛乎哉，患得患失之鄙夫，其流毒誠無所窮極也！今錄自焦芳、張綵以下，迄天啟朝，為《閹黨列傳》，用垂鑒誡。其以功名表見，或晚節自蓋，如王驥、王越、楊維垣、張捷之徒，則仍別見焉。

The harm wrought by eunuchs in the Ming was dreadful enough, but without court factions clinging to them, lending them wings, inflating their power, and helping them strike down their foes, the tyranny would never have blazed so hot. Before the mid-Ming, literati still prized honor and integrity; even when Wang Zhen and Wang Zhi ran rampant, factional networks had not yet taken hold. Once Liu Jin seized power and Grand Secretary Jiao Fang led the cabinet in courting him, senior ministers scrambled to flatter the eunuchs, and the Directorate of Ceremonial came to outrank the Grand Secretariat. By the end of Shenzong's reign, rumor and factionalism ran wild; rival camps treated one another as mortal foes, and partisan warfare had set like cement. Wicked henchmen exploited the turmoil, usurped the sword of state, and cunning rogues hid themselves behind palace women and eunuch chambers. They inflicted cruel and corrupt punishments to satisfy their spite against honest men and their envy of the forthright. The gentry crowded the jails, and worthy men fell to the executioner's blade. When their crimes had run their course, justice was at last enforced and their names stained the legal records and the histories; yet the embers they left behind still brought down the dynasty. When the Chongzhen Emperor settled the treason cases, he handed the matter to Grand Secretary Han Kuang and his colleagues and sighed: "Wei Zhongxian was only one man; it was the outer-court ministers who rallied to him and brought matters to this pass—how could their guilt ever be fully punished!" Alas for those petty men who clutch at gain and fear loss—the harm they spread truly has no end! What follows records from Jiao Fang and Zhang Cai down through the Tianqi reign as the 《Biographies of the Eunuch Faction》, set down as a lesson for posterity. Men who won fame through genuine achievement, or who redeemed themselves late in life—such as Wang Ji, Wang Yue, Yang Weiyuan, and Zhang Jie—are given separate biographies elsewhere.

○焦芳〈（劉宇曹元）〉張綵〈（韓福等）〉顧秉謙〈（魏廣微等）〉崔呈秀〈（吳淳夫等）〉劉志選〈（梁夢環等）〉曹欽程〈（石三畏等）〉王紹徽〈（周應秋）〉霍維華〈（徐大化等）〉閻鳴泰賈繼春田爾耕〈（許顯純）〉

○ Jiao Fang (with Liu Yu and Cao Yuan)〉 Zhang Cai (with Han Fu and others)〉 Gu Bingqian (with Wei Guangwei and others)〉 Cui Chengxiu (with Wu Chunfu and others)〉 Liu Zhixuan (with Liang Menghuan and others)〉 Cao Qincheng (with Shi Sanwei and others)〉 Wang Shaohui (with Zhou Yingqiu)〉 Huo Weihua (with Xu Dahua and others)〉 Yan Mingtai, Jia Jichun, Tian Ergeng (with Xu Xianchun)〉

焦芳，泌陽人。天順八年進士。大學士李賢以同鄉故，引為庶吉士，授編修，進侍講。滿九年考，當遷學士。或語大學士萬安：「不學如芳，亦學士乎？」芳聞大恚曰：「是必彭華間我也。我不學士，且刺華長安道中。」華懼，言於安，乃進芳侍講學士。先是，詔纂《文華大訓》，進講東宮，其書皆華等所為。芳恥不與，每進講，故摘其疵，揚言眾中。翰林尚文采，獨芳粗陋無學識，性陰很，動輒議訕，人鹹畏避之。尹旻之罷也，芳與其子龍相比，謫桂陽州同知。芳知出華、安二人指，銜次骨。

Jiao Fang was from Biyang. He passed the jinshi examination in 1464. Grand Secretary Li Xian, a fellow native of Biyang, sponsored him as a Hanlin bachelor; Fang was made a compiler and later promoted to court lecturer. After nine years of service he was due for promotion to Hanlin bachelor. Someone remarked to Grand Secretary Wan An, "Should a man as ignorant as Fang become a bachelor?" When Fang heard, he flew into a rage: "Peng Hua must have turned them against me. If I am not made bachelor, I will stab Hua on the road in Chang'an. Hua was terrified and appealed to Wan An, who then had Fang promoted to lecturing bachelor. Earlier, the court had ordered the compilation of the 《Great Instructions of Wenhua》 for lectures in the crown prince's palace; Peng Hua and his colleagues had written the entire work. Ashamed to have been left out, Fang seized every lecture to pick flaws in the text and broadcast them before the court. The Hanlin valued literary polish, but Fang was coarse and ignorant, secretive and spiteful, always ready to mock and slander; everyone feared and shunned him. When Yin Min was dismissed from office, Fang was lumped together with Yin's son Long and demoted to vice magistrate of Guiyang Prefecture. Fang knew Peng Hua and Wan An were behind his fall and nursed a grudge to the bone.

弘治初，移霍州知州，擢四川提學副使，調湖廣。未幾，遷南京右通政，以憂歸。服闋，授太常少卿兼侍講學士，尋擢禮部右侍郎。怨劉健尼己，日於眾中嫚罵。健判牒不可意，即引筆抹去，不關白尚書。俄改吏部，轉左侍郎。馬文升為尚書，芳輒加姍侮，陰結言官，使抨擊素所不快及在己上者。又上言禦邊四事以希進用，為謝遷所抑，尤憾遷。每言及余姚、江西人，以遷及華故，肆口詬詈。芳既積忤廷臣，復銳進，乃深結閹宦以自固，日夜謀逐健、遷，代其位。

Early in the Hongzhi reign he was moved to magistrate of Huozhou, then promoted to vice commissioner of education in Sichuan and transferred to Huguang. Soon afterward he was made right vice commissioner in Nanjing, then went home to observe mourning for a parent. When his mourning ended, he was appointed vice minister of rites and concurrent lecturing bachelor, and soon promoted to right vice minister of rites. He resented Liu Jian for blocking his rise and daily hurled abuse at him in public. Whenever he disliked a decision Liu Jian had drafted, he would strike it out with his own brush without telling the minister. He was soon transferred to the Ministry of Personnel and promoted to left vice minister. When Ma Wensheng became minister, Fang constantly insulted him, secretly enlisted censors, and set them on men he disliked and on anyone ranked above him. He also submitted a memorial on four frontier policies hoping for promotion, but Xie Qian blocked it, and he hated Qian all the more. Whenever Yuyao or Jiangxi men came up—because of Qian and Hua—he would break into open abuse. Having long alienated the court yet still hungry for power, Fang threw in his lot with the eunuchs and plotted day and night to oust Liu Jian and Xie Qian and take their posts.

正德初，戶部尚書韓文言會計不足。廷議謂理財無奇術，唯勸上節儉。芳知左右有竊聽者，大言曰：「庶民家尚須用度，況縣官耶？諺雲『無錢揀故紙』。今天下逋租匿稅何限，不是檢索，而但雲損上何也？」武宗聞之大喜。會文升去，遂擢為吏部尚書。韓文將率九卿劾劉瑾，疏當首吏部，以告芳。芳陰泄其謀於瑾。瑾遂逐文及健、遷輩，而芳以本官兼文淵閣大學士，入閣輔政，累加少師、華蓋殿大學士。居內閣數年，瑾濁亂海內，變置成法，荼毒縉紳，皆芳導之。每過瑾，言必稱千歲，自稱曰門下。裁閱章奏，一阿瑾意。四方賂瑾者先賂芳。子黃中，亦傲很不學，廷試必欲得第一。李東陽、王鏊為置二甲首，芳不悅。言於瑾，徑授翰林檢討，俄進編修。芳以黃中故，時時詈東陽。瑾聞之曰：「黃中昨在我家試石榴詩，甚拙，顧恨李耶？」

Early in the Zhengde reign, Minister of Revenue Han Wen reported that the treasury was short. The court agreed there was no magic to balancing the books and that the emperor should simply spend less. Knowing the emperor's attendants were listening in, Fang declared loudly, "Even common households need money to live—how much more the state? As the saying goes, 'When you're broke, you sort through old paper.' How much delinquent rent and hidden tax is there under heaven? The answer is not to cut the emperor's spending but to collect what is owed—why talk only of austerity? The Zhengde Emperor heard this and was delighted. When Ma Wensheng left office, Fang was promoted to minister of personnel. Han Wen was preparing to lead the Nine Ministers in impeaching Liu Jin; as minister of personnel his name would head the memorial, and he confided in Fang. Fang secretly tipped Jin off. Jin then purged Han Wen, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and their allies; Fang kept his ministry post while joining the Grand Secretariat as a grand secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion, and was later made junior preceptor and grand secretary of Huagai Hall. For years in the cabinet Fang guided Jin as he corrupted the realm, overturned established law, and ravaged the official class. Whenever he visited Jin he addressed him as "Your Thousand Years" and called himself "your follower." In reviewing memorials he did nothing but echo Jin's will. Anyone who wished to bribe Jin had to bribe Fang first. His son Huangzhong was equally arrogant and ignorant and demanded first place in the palace examination. Li Dongyang and Wang Ao ranked him at the top of the second class; Fang was furious. He complained to Jin, who had Huangzhong made a Hanlin proofreader and soon promoted to compiler. Because of Huangzhong, Fang constantly reviled Li Dongyang. Jin heard this and remarked, "Huangzhong tried a pomegranate poem at my house yesterday and it was dreadful—yet he blames Li Dongyang?"

瑾怒翰林官傲己，欲盡出之外，為張綵勸沮。及修《孝宗實錄》成，瑾又持前議，綵復力沮。而芳父子與檢討段炅輩，教瑾以擴充政事為名，乃盡出編修顧清等二十余人於部曹。有司應詔舉懷材抱德之士，以余姚人周禮、徐子元、許龍，上虞人徐文彪四人名上。瑾以禮等皆遷鄉人，而詔草出健，因下四人詔獄，欲並逮健、遷。東陽力解之。芳厲聲曰：「縱貰其罪，不當除名耶？」乃黜健、遷為民，而榜逐余姚人之為京官者。

Jin resented the Hanlin scholars' arrogance toward him and wanted to banish them all to outer posts, but Zhang Cai talked him out of it. When the 《Veritable Records of Xiaozong》 were finished, Jin revived the idea, and Zhang Cai again blocked it. But Fang, his son, proofreader Duan Jiong, and others persuaded Jin to purge the Hanlin under the pretext of expanding government business, and more than twenty compilers including Gu Qing were banished to ministry posts. When officials were ordered to recommend men of talent and virtue, they nominated four men from Yuyao and Shangyu: Zhou Li, Xu Ziyuan, Xu Long, and Xu Wenbiao. Jin noted that all four were from Xie Qian's home region and that Liu Jian had drafted the edict, so he threw them into prison and tried to arrest Jian and Qian as well. Li Dongyang intervened forcefully on their behalf. Fang shouted, "Even if you spare their lives, should they not be stripped of office?" Jian and Qian were demoted to commoners, and an edict expelled all Yuyao men from capital posts.

滿剌加使臣亞劉，本江西萬安人，名蕭明舉。以罪叛入其國，與其國人端亞智等來朝。既又謀入浡泥國索寶，且殺亞智等。事聞，方下所司勘奏。芳即署其尾曰：「江西土俗，故多玩法，如彭華、尹直、徐瓊、李孜省、黃景等，多被物議。宜裁減解額五十名，通籍者勿選京職，著為令。」且言：「王安石禍宋，吳澄仕元，宜榜其罪，使他日毋得濫用江西人。」楊廷和解之曰：「以一盜故，禍連一方，至裁解額矣。宋、元人物，亦欲並案耶？」乃止。

The Malacca envoy Ya Liu was originally Xiao Mingju, a native of Wan'an in Jiangxi. After committing a crime he fled to Malacca and came to court with his countryman Duan Yazhi and others. He later plotted to enter Brunei in search of treasure and to murder Yazhi and his companions. When the affair was reported, the responsible offices were ordered to investigate. Fang immediately added a note at the end: "Jiangxi custom has always been lawless; men such as Peng Hua, Yin Zhi, Xu Qiong, Li Zisheng, and Huang Jing have drawn much public criticism. The provincial quota should be cut by fifty places, and Jiangxi graduates should be barred from capital posts—let this be made law. He also wrote, "Wang Anshi ruined the Song; Wu Cheng served the Yuan—their crimes should be posted so that Jiangxi men are never again employed without scrutiny. Yang Tinghe objected: "Because of one thief you would punish an entire province—even cut the examination quota! And you would drag in men of the Song and Yuan as well?" The proposal was dropped.

芳深惡南人，每退一南人，輒喜。雖論古人，亦必詆南而譽北，嘗作《南人不可為相圖》進瑾。其總裁《孝宗實錄》，若何喬新、彭韶、謝遷皆肆誣詆，自喜曰：「今朝廷之上，誰如我直者。」

Fang loathed southerners; every time one was demoted he rejoiced. Even when he discussed the ancients, he invariably denigrated the South and praised the North; he once composed and presented to Liu Jin the 《Chart on Why Southerners Cannot Serve as Chancellor》. As chief compiler of the 《Veritable Records of Xiaozong》, he freely slandered figures such as He Qiaoxin, Peng Shao, and Xie Qian, and said with satisfaction, "Who at court today is as upright as I?"

始張綵為郎時，芳力薦以悅瑾，覬其為奸利。比綵為尚書，芳父子薦人無虛日，綵時有同異，遂有隙。而段炅見瑾匿綵，芳勢稍衰，轉附綵，盡發芳陰事於瑾。瑾大怒，數於眾中斥芳父子。芳不得已，乃乞歸。

When Zhang Cai was first a bureau secretary, Jiao Fang strongly recommended him to please Liu Jin, hoping he would help with corrupt gains. Once Zhang Cai became minister, Jiao Fang and his son recommended people every day without fail; Zhang Cai sometimes disagreed, and a rift developed between them. When Duan Jiong saw that Liu Jin was holding Zhang Cai in reserve and Jiao Fang's influence had begun to wane, he switched allegiance to Zhang Cai and fully exposed Jiao Fang's hidden misdeeds to Liu Jin. Liu Jin was furious and repeatedly rebuked Jiao Fang and his son in public. Jiao Fang had no choice but to request permission to retire.

黃中頠閣蔭，以侍讀隨父還。瑾敗，給事、御史交劾，削其官，黜黃中為民。久之，芳使黃中賫金寶遺權貴，上章求湔雪復官，為吏科所駁。於是吏部覆奏，請械系黃中法司，以彰天討。黃中狼狽遁走。

Jiao Huangzhong received hereditary privilege for appointment to the Hanlin Academy and returned home with his father as a reader-in-waiting. When Liu Jin fell, supervising secretaries and censors jointly impeached Jiao Fang; his office was stripped, and Jiao Huangzhong was reduced to commoner status. After some time, Jiao Fang had Jiao Huangzhong carry gold and treasures as gifts to powerful nobles and submit a memorial asking to be cleared of blame and restored to office; the Office of Personnel Supervision rejected it. Thereupon the Ministry of Personnel memorialized again, asking that Jiao Huangzhong be shackled and handed over to the judicial authorities so that Heaven's judgment might be made manifest. Jiao Huangzhong fled in disgrace.

芳居第宏麗，治作勞數郡。大盜趙鐩入泌陽，火之，發窖多得其藏金，乃盡掘其先人冢墓，雜燒以牛馬骨。求芳父子不得，取芳衣冠被庭樹，拔劍斫其首，使群盜糜之，曰：「吾為天子誅此賊。」鐩後臨刑嘆曰：「吾不能手刃焦芳父子以謝天下，死有餘恨！」瑾從孫二漢當死，亦曰：「吾死固當，第吾家所為，皆焦芳與張綵耳。今綵與我處極刑，而芳獨晏然，豈非冤哉。」芳父子竟良死。

Jiao Fang's residence was grand and splendid, and the labor of his building projects exhausted several commanderies. The great bandit Zhao Si entered Biyang and set it ablaze; opening vaults, he found much of Jiao Fang's hoarded gold, then completely dug up his ancestors' tombs and burned them mixed with cattle and horse bones. Unable to find Jiao Fang and his son, they took Jiao Fang's hat and robes and hung them on the courtyard trees, drew swords and hacked at the head, had the bandits grind it to pieces, and said, "I am executing this villain on behalf of the Son of Heaven. Later, as he faced execution, Zhao Si sighed and said, "I could not personally slay Jiao Fang and his son to answer to the world; even in death I still have regrets!" Liu Jin's grand-nephew Er Han, facing death, also said, "My death is certainly deserved, but everything my family did was the work of Jiao Fang and Zhang Cai alone. Now Zhang Cai and I suffer the death penalty, yet Jiao Fang alone remains at ease—is this not unjust?" Jiao Fang and his son in the end died natural deaths.

劉宇，字至大，鈞州人。成化八年進士。由知縣入為御史，坐事謫，累遷山東按察使。弘治中，以大學士劉健薦，擢右僉都御史，巡撫大同，召為左副都御史。正德改元，吏部尚書馬文升薦之，進右都御史，總督宣府、大同、山西軍務。宇初撫大同，私市善馬賂權要。兵部尚書劉大夏因孝宗召見，語及之。帝密遣錦衣百戶邵琪往察，宇厚賂琪，為之抵諱。後大夏再召對，帝曰：「健薦宇才堪大用，以朕觀之，此小人，豈可用哉？由是知內閣亦未可盡信也。」宇聞，以大夏不為己地，深憾之。

Liu Yu, courtesy name Zhida, was a native of Junzhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the eighth year of the Chenghua reign. He entered service as a censor after serving as a magistrate; demoted for an offense, he was steadily promoted until he became surveillance commissioner of Shandong. During the Hongzhi reign, on the recommendation of Grand Secretary Liu Jian, he was promoted to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and appointed grand coordinator of Datong, then summoned to serve as Left Vice Censor-in-Chief. When the Zhengde era began, Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng recommended him; he was promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief and appointed supreme commander of military affairs in Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi. When Liu Yu first served as grand coordinator of Datong, he privately purchased fine horses to bribe powerful figures. When Minister of War Liu Daxia was summoned by Emperor Xiaozong, he spoke of the matter. The emperor secretly sent Jin Yi hundred-household officer Shao Qi to investigate; Liu Yu heavily bribed Shao Qi, who covered for him. Later, when Liu Daxia was summoned again for an audience, the emperor said, "Liu Jian recommended Liu Yu as a man of talent fit for great use, but in my view he is a petty villain—how can he be used? From this one knew that the inner cabinet also could not be fully trusted. When Liu Yu heard of this, he deeply resented Liu Daxia for not speaking on his behalf.

劉瑾用事，宇介焦芳以結瑾。二年正月入為左都御史。瑾好摧折臺諫，宇緣其意，請敕箝制御史，有小過輒加笞辱，瑾以為賢。瑾初通賄，望不過數百金，宇首以萬金贄，瑾大喜曰：「劉先生何厚我。」尋轉兵部尚書，加太子太傅。子仁應殿試，求一甲不得。厚賄瑾，內批授庶吉士，逾年遷編修。時許進為吏部尚書，宇讒於瑾，遂代其位，而曹元代宇為兵部。宇在兵部時，賄賂狼籍。及為吏部，權歸選郎張綵，而文史贈遺又不若武弁，嘗悒悒嘆曰：「兵部自佳，何必吏部也。」後瑾欲用綵代宇，乃令宇以原官兼文淵閣大學士。宇宴瑾閣中，極歡，大喜過望。明日將入閣辦事。瑾曰：「爾真欲相耶？此地豈可再入。」宇不得已，乃乞省墓去。逾年瑾誅，科道交章劾奏，削官致仕，子仁黜為民。

When Liu Jin held power, Liu Yu used Jiao Fang as an intermediary to attach himself to Liu Jin. In the first month of the second year of the Zhengde reign, he entered office as Left Censor-in-Chief. Liu Jin liked to break the censorate remonstrators; Liu Yu followed his intent, requested an edict to restrain the censors, and for minor faults would add beatings and humiliation; Liu Jin considered him worthy. When Liu Jin first began accepting bribes, he expected no more than a few hundred taels of gold; Liu Yu was the first to present ten thousand taels as a gift; Liu Jin rejoiced greatly and said, "How generous of you, Mr. Liu! Soon afterward he was transferred to Minister of War and given the additional title Grand Mentor of the Heir Apparent. His son Liu Ren took the palace examination but failed to attain first rank. He heavily bribed Liu Jin; by inner edict Liu Ren was appointed a Hanlin bachelor, and the following year he was promoted to compiler. At the time Xu Jin was Minister of Personnel; Liu Yu slandered him to Liu Jin and took his post, while Cao Yuan replaced Liu Yu at the Ministry of War. While Liu Yu was at the Ministry of War, bribes were everywhere. When he became Minister of Personnel, power passed to selection secretary Zhang Cai, and the gifts from civil officials were not as good as those from military officers; he once sighed in frustration and said, "The Ministry of War was fine enough—why bother with the Ministry of Personnel? Later Liu Jin wanted to use Zhang Cai to replace Liu Yu, so he had Liu Yu retain his original post while also serving as Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion. Liu Yu feasted Liu Jin in the pavilion with great joy, his delight exceeding all expectation. The next day he was about to enter the pavilion to handle affairs. Liu Jin said, "Do you truly want to be chancellor? This place cannot be entered again. Liu Yu had no choice but to request leave to visit his ancestral graves. A year later Liu Jin was executed; censorate officials submitted joint impeachments; Liu Yu's office was stripped and he retired, and Liu Ren was reduced to commoner status.

曹元，字以貞，大寧前衛人。柔佞滑稽，不修士行。舉成化十一年進士。授工部主事。正德二年累遷右副都御史，巡撫甘肅。分守中官張昭奉命捕虎豹，元以軍士出境搜捕，恐啟邊釁，上疏請止，不從。改撫陜西。逾年，召為兵部右侍郎，轉左，尋代宇為尚書兼督團營，加太子少保。將校遷除，皆惟瑾命。元所入亦不貲。五年拜吏部尚書兼文淵閣大學士。元與劉瑾有連，自瑾侍東宮，即與相結。及瑾得誌，遂夤緣躐至卿相，然瑣刺無能，在閣中飲酒諧謔而已。瑾敗，元即日上疏請罪，詞極哀。詔許致仕，言官交劾，黜為民。元無子，病中自作墓誌，嘆曰：「我死，誰銘我者！」

Cao Yuan, courtesy name Yizhen, was a native of Daining Forward Guard. He was soft, sycophantic, and witty, and did not maintain proper conduct as a scholar. He passed the jinshi examination in the eleventh year of the Chenghua reign. He was appointed a chief clerk in the Ministry of Works. In the second year of the Zhengde reign he was steadily promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief and appointed grand coordinator of Gansu. The regional defending eunuch Zhang Zhao was ordered to capture tigers and leopards; Cao Yuan, fearing that sending troops across the border to search and hunt would provoke a border incident, memorialized asking that the order be stopped, but was not heeded. He was transferred to serve as grand coordinator of Shaanxi. A year later he was summoned as Right Vice Minister of War, transferred to the left vice ministership, and soon replaced Liu Yu as minister while also supervising the Tuan battalions; he was given the additional title Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent. Promotions and transfers of officers all followed Liu Jin's command alone. Cao Yuan's income was likewise enormous. In the fifth year he was appointed Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion. Cao Yuan had connections with Liu Jin; from the time Liu Jin served the Eastern Palace they were allied. When Liu Jin got his wish, Cao Yuan climbed by connections straight to minister and chancellor rank, yet he was petty and incapable—in the Grand Secretariat he merely drank wine and bantered. When Liu Jin fell, Cao Yuan that same day memorialized pleading guilty in words of extreme pathos. An edict permitted him to retire, but remonstrating officials jointly impeached him, and he was reduced to commoner status. Cao Yuan had no son; while ill he wrote his own tomb inscription and sighed, "When I die, who will inscribe my epitaph!"

當劉瑾時，廷臣黨附者甚眾。瑾誅，言官交劾。內閣則焦芳、劉宇、曹元。尚書則吏部張綵、戶部劉璣、兵部王敞、刑部劉璟、工部畢亨、南京戶部張澯、禮部朱恩、刑部劉纓、工部李善。侍郎則吏部柴升、李瀚，前戶部韓福，禮部李遜學，兵部陸完、陳震，刑部張子麟，工部崔巖、夏昂、胡諒，南京禮部常麟、工部張誌淳。都察院則副都御史楊綸、僉都御史蕭選。巡撫則順天劉聰、應天魏訥、宣府楊武、保定徐以貞、大同張禴、淮揚屈直、兩廣林廷選，操江王彥奇。前總督文貴、馬炳然。大理寺則卿張綸，少卿董恬，丞蔡中孚、張檜。通政司則通政吳釴、王雲鳳，參議張龍。太常則少卿楊廷儀、劉介。尚寶卿則吳世忠，丞屈銓。府尹則陳良器，府丞則石祿。翰林則侍讀焦黃中，修撰康海，編修劉仁，檢討段炅。吏部郎則王九思、王納誨。給事中則李憲、段豸。御史則薛鳳鳴、朱袞、秦昂、宇文鐘、崔哲、李紀、周琳。其他郎署監司又十餘人。於是綵論死，福謫戍，元、恩、震、聰、訥、武、恬、介、黃中、海、仁、憲、鳳鳴、鐘除名，亨、昂閑住，善、巖、諒、志淳、綸、直、彥奇、良器、哲致仕，選、以貞、禴、中孚、龍、祿、銓、炅、豸、袞、紀、琳、九思，納誨謫外，朝署為清。

During Liu Jin's time, a great many court ministers factionally attached themselves to him. When Liu Jin was executed, remonstrating officials jointly impeached them. In the Grand Secretariat there were Jiao Fang, Liu Yu, and Cao Yuan. Among ministers there were Zhang Cai in the Ministry of Personnel, Liu Ji in the Ministry of Revenue, Wang Chang in the Ministry of War, Liu Jing in the Ministry of Justice, Bi Heng in the Ministry of Works, Zhang Can in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, Zhu En in the Ministry of Rites, Liu Ying in the Ministry of Justice, and Li Shan in the Ministry of Works. Among vice ministers there were Chai Sheng and Li Han in the Ministry of Personnel, former Revenue official Han Fu, Li Xunxue in the Ministry of Rites, Lu Wan and Chen Zhen in the Ministry of War, Zhang Zilin in the Ministry of Justice, Cui Yan, Xia Ang, and Hu Liang in the Ministry of Works, Chang Lin in the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Zhichun in the Nanjing Ministry of Works. In the Censorate there were Vice Censor-in-Chief Yang Lun and Assistant Censor-in-Chief Xiao Xuan. Among grand coordinators there were Liu Cong in Shuntian, Wei Ne in Yingtian, Yang Wu in Xuanfu, Xu Yizhen in Baoding, Zhang Fu in Datong, Qu Zhi in Huai-Yang, Lin Tingxuan in the Two Guangs, and Wang Yanqi commanding the Yangtze. Among former supreme commanders there were Wen Gui and Ma Bingran. In the Court of Judicial Review there were Chief Minister Zhang Lun, Vice Minister Dong Tian, and Assistant Ministers Cai Zhongfu and Zhang Hui. In the Directorate of Transmission there were Transmission Commissioners Wu Yi and Wang Yunfeng, and Assistant Commissioner Zhang Long. In the Court of Imperial Sacrifices there were Vice Ministers Yang Tingyi and Liu Jie. In the Court of Imperial Seals there were Chief Minister Wu Shizhong and Assistant Minister Qu Quan. The prefectural intendant was Chen Liangqi, and the vice intendant was Shi Lu. In the Hanlin Academy there were reader-in-waiting Jiao Huangzhong, compiler Kang Hai, reviser Liu Ren, and proofreader Duan Jiong. Among bureau secretaries in the Ministry of Personnel there were Wang Jiusi and Wang Nahui. Among supervising secretaries there were Li Xian and Duan Zhi. Among censors there were Xue Fengming, Zhu Gun, Qin Ang, Yuwen Zhong, Cui Zhe, Li Ji, and Zhou Lin. More than ten other bureau secretaries and supervising commissioners were involved as well. Thereupon Zhang Cai was sentenced to death and Han Fu was banished to border garrison service; Cao Yuan, Zhu En, Chen Zhen, Liu Cong, Wei Ne, Yang Wu, Dong Tian, Liu Jie, Jiao Huangzhong, Kang Hai, Liu Ren, Li Xian, Xue Fengming, and Yuwen Zhong were struck from the rolls; Bi Heng and Xia Ang were suspended from duty; Li Shan, Cui Yan, Hu Liang, Zhang Zhichun, Yang Lun, Qu Zhi, Wang Yanqi, Chen Liangqi, and Cui Zhe retired; and Xiao Xuan, Xu Yizhen, Zhang Fu, Cai Zhongfu, Zhang Long, Shi Lu, Qu Quan, Duan Jiong, Duan Zhi, Zhu Gun, Li Ji, Zhou Lin, Wang Jiusi, and Wang Nahui were demoted outside the capital—until the court offices were cleared.

張綵，安定人。弘治三年進士。授吏部主事，歷文選司郎中。綵議論便利，善伺權貴指。初矯飾徹聲譽，尚書馬文升等皆愛之。給事中劉郤嘗劾其顛倒選法數事，文升悉為辯析，且譽其聰明剛正，為上下所推服。詔令辦事如故。綵即五疏移疾去，文升固留不得，時論稱之。越數日，給事中李貫薦綵有將略。楊一清總制三邊，亦薦綵自代。而焦芳以綵與劉瑾同鄉，力薦於瑾。瑾欲致之，因著令，病過期不赴者，斥為民。綵乃就道。既見瑾，高冠鮮衣，貌白晳修偉，鬚眉蔚然，詞辯泉湧。瑾大敬愛，執手移時，曰：「子神人也，我何以得遇子！」時文選郎劉永已遷通政，次當驗封郎石確。疏既入，瑾令尚書許進追原疏，以綵易之。綵自是一意事瑾。瑾惡進不附己，綵因媒孽去進，以劉宇代之。宇雖為尚書，銓政率由綵，多不關白宇，即白宇，宇必溫言降接。綵抱案立語，宇俯僂不敢當。居文選半載，擢左僉都御史，與戶部右侍郎韓鼎同廷謝。鼎老，拜起不如儀，為谷大用、張永輩所竊笑。瑾方慚，而綵丰采英毅，大用等皆稱羨，瑾乃喜。越二日罷鼎，而綵逾年超拜吏部右侍郎。

Zhang Cai was a native of Anding. He passed the jinshi examination in the third year of the Hongzhi reign. He was appointed a chief clerk in the Ministry of Personnel and served as bureau director in the Selection Bureau. Zhang Cai was sharp in discourse and good at reading the wishes of powerful men. At first he cultivated an air of rectitude to build his reputation, and Minister Ma Wensheng and others all admired him. Supervising secretary Liu Xi once impeached him on several counts of perverting selection law; Ma Wensheng fully argued in his defense and praised his intelligence and integrity, winning esteem above and below. An edict ordered him to carry on as before. Zhang Cai immediately submitted five memorials citing illness and asking to leave; Ma Wensheng firmly tried to retain him but could not, and contemporary opinion praised Zhang Cai for this. After several days, supervising secretary Li Guan recommended Zhang Cai as a man of military talent. Yang Yiqing, supreme commander of the Three Frontiers, also recommended Zhang Cai to succeed him. But Jiao Fang, because Zhang Cai was a fellow townsman of Liu Jin, strongly recommended him to Liu Jin. Liu Jin wanted to bring him in and therefore issued a regulation that anyone who failed to report after illness leave expired would be dismissed as a commoner. Zhang Cai then set out on the road. Once he met Liu Jin, he wore a high cap and fresh clothes; he was fair-skinned, tall, and imposing, with luxuriant beard and brows, and his eloquence poured forth like a spring. Liu Jin greatly admired him, held his hand for a long time, and said, "You are a divine man—how did I ever merit meeting you! At the time selection secretary Liu Yong had already transferred to the Directorate of Transmission; next in line for promotion was verification-and-seal secretary Shi Que. Once the memorial was submitted, Liu Jin had Minister Xu Jin recall the original memorial and substitute Zhang Cai in his place. From then on Zhang Cai devoted himself entirely to serving Liu Jin. Liu Jin resented Xu Jin for refusing to align with him; Zhang Cai, by sowing slander, had Xu Jin removed and Liu Yu put in his place. Though Liu Yu held the title of Minister, the power of appointment remained largely in Zhang Cai's hands; many matters never reached Liu Yu at all, and even when they did, Liu Yu always greeted him with warm, yielding courtesy. Zhang Cai would stand clutching his papers as he spoke; Liu Yu would bow low before him and dare not hold himself as an equal. After half a year as Director of the Bureau of Appointments, he was promoted to Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief and, together with Han Ding, Vice Minister of Revenue, went before the throne to offer thanks. Han Ding was elderly; his bows and risings fell short of proper form, and Gu Dayong, Zhang Yong, and the rest secretly laughed at him. Liu Jin was mortified, but Zhang Cai's presence was bold and commanding; Gu Dayong and the others spoke of him with open envy, and Liu Jin's mood turned bright. Two days later Han Ding was dismissed, and within a year Zhang Cai was promoted out of turn to Vice Minister of Personnel.

鼎，合水人。弘治時，為給事中，負直聲。後遷右通政，治水安平有勞績，以通政使家居。至是為瑾所引，復挫歸，遂失其素望。

Han Ding was a native of Heshui. In the Hongzhi era he had served as a supervising secretary and enjoyed a reputation for blunt integrity. Later he was transferred to Right Vice Commissioner of Transmission; for distinguished work in controlling the waters at Anping he retired home with the rank of Commissioner of Transmission. Now, having been advanced by Liu Jin, he met with humiliation on his return and lost the standing he had long commanded.

瑾欲大貴綵，乃命劉宇入內閣，以綵代之。一歲中，自郎署長六卿。僚友守官如故，咸惴惴白事尚書前，綵厲色無所假借。尋加太子少保。每瑾出休沐，公卿往候，自辰至哺未得見。綵故徐徐來，直入瑾小閣，歡飲而出，始揖眾人。眾以是益畏綵，見綵如瑾禮。綵與朝臣言，呼瑾為老者。凡所言，瑾無不從。因不時考察內外官，糾摘嚴急，間一用薄罰，而諸司臺諫謫辱日甚。變亂舊格，賄賂肆行，海內金帛奇貨相望塗巷間。性尤漁色。撫州知府劉介，其鄉人也，娶妾美。綵特擢介太常少卿，盛服往賀曰：「子何以報我？」介皇恐謝曰：「一身外，皆公物。」綵曰：「命之矣。」即使人直入內，牽其妾，輿載而去。又聞平陽知府張恕妾美，索之不肯，令御史張禴按致其罪，擬戍。恕獻妾，始得論減。

Liu Jin wished to raise Zhang Cai to great eminence, so he ordered Liu Yu into the Grand Secretariat and had Zhang Cai take his place. Within a single year he had risen from a bureau secretary to one of the Six Ministers. His colleagues kept their posts as before, yet all approached the Minister's desk in fear; Zhang Cai would darken his face and show no leniency. Before long he was additionally appointed Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Whenever Liu Jin left the palace on his days of rest, the high officials would come to wait on him; from morning until the afternoon meal they could not gain an audience. Zhang Cai would deliberately arrive late, enter Liu Jin's private pavilion directly, drink merrily with him, and only then come out to bow to the waiting crowd. The others therefore feared Zhang Cai all the more and accorded him the same deference they showed Liu Jin. When Zhang Cai spoke with court officials, he called Liu Jin 'the old gentleman.' Whatever he proposed, Liu Jin never refused. He then began irregular inspections of officials within and outside the capital, prosecuting them with harsh urgency; though he sometimes imposed only light penalties, demotion and disgrace among the bureaus, censorial offices, and remonstrating officials grew worse by the day. He overturned long-standing rules; bribery ran unchecked, and across the realm gold, silk, and rare goods crowded the roads and lanes. He was above all a predator of women. Liu Jie, prefect of Fuzhou, was his fellow townsman and had taken a beautiful concubine. Zhang Cai specially promoted Liu Jie to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, went in full ceremonial dress to congratulate him, and asked, "How will you repay me? Liu Jie, terrified, apologized and said, "Apart from my own body, everything I have is yours, my lord." Zhang Cai said, "Then it is settled." He then sent men straight into the inner quarters, seized the concubine, and carried her off in a sedan chair. He also heard that Zhang Shu, prefect of Pingyang, had a beautiful concubine; when he demanded her and Shu refused, he ordered Censor Zhang Fu to investigate and bring charges against him, recommending banishment to the frontier. Zhang Shu surrendered the concubine, and only then was his sentence reduced.

綵既銜瑾恩，見瑾擅權久，貪冒無厭，天下怨之，因乘間說曰：「公亦知賄入所自乎？非盜官帑，即剝小民。彼借公名自厚，入公者未十一，而怨悉歸公，何以謝天下？」瑾大然之。會御史胡節巡按山東還，厚遺瑾。瑾發之，捕節下獄。少監李宣、侍郎張鸞、指揮同知趙良按事福建還，饋瑾白金二萬。瑾疏納金於官，而按三人罪。其他因賄得禍者甚眾。苛斂之害為少衰，中外或稱綵能導瑾為善矣。及瑾伏誅，綵以交結近侍論死，遇赦當免。改擬同瑾謀反，瘐死獄中，仍剉屍於市，籍其家，妻子流海南。

Zhang Cai, deeply indebted to Liu Jin, saw that Liu Jin had held power for years with insatiable greed and that the realm resented him; seizing a favorable moment he said, "Do you know where the bribes you receive really come from? They are either stolen from the public coffers or wrung from the common people. They borrow your name to enrich themselves; of what reaches you, not one part in ten—and yet all the hatred settles on you. How can you answer to the realm? Liu Jin was deeply persuaded. It happened that Censor Hu Jie, returning from an inspection tour of Shandong, presented Liu Jin with lavish gifts. Liu Jin opened the gifts and had Hu Jie arrested and thrown into prison. Junior Director Li Xuan, Vice Minister Zhang Luan, and Assistant Commander Zhao Liang, returning from investigating affairs in Fujian, presented Liu Jin with twenty thousand taels of silver. Liu Jin memorialized surrendering the silver to the state and prosecuted the three men for their crimes. Many others likewise met ruin through bribery. The scourge of harsh exactions eased somewhat, and within and outside the court some praised Zhang Cai for steering Liu Jin toward better conduct. When Liu Jin was executed, Zhang Cai was sentenced to death for associating with close attendants, a charge that should have been remitted when an amnesty was granted. The charge was changed to conspiracy with Liu Jin to rebel; he died of illness in prison, yet his corpse was still dismembered in the marketplace, his household was confiscated, and his wife and children were exiled to Hainan.

韓福者，西安前衛人也。成化十七年進士。為御史，按宣府、大同，數條奏軍民利病，邊人悅之。弘治中，遷大名知府，奸盜屏跡，道不拾遺，政績為畿輔冠。以卓異舉，遷浙江左參政，病免。

Han Fu was a native of Xi'an Front Guard. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventeenth year of Chenghua. As a censor he inspected Xuanfu and Datong, repeatedly memorializing on the hardships and needs of soldiers and civilians, and the border people were pleased with him. In the Hongzhi era he was transferred to prefect of Daming; scoundrels and robbers vanished, and no one picked up lost goods left on the road—his record ranked first among the prefectures of the capital region. Recommended for outstanding merit, he was transferred to Left Assistant Administrator of Zhejiang, then retired due to illness.

武宗立，言官交薦，召為大理右少卿。正德二年以右僉都御史督蘇、松糧儲。未幾，召入為右副都御史。坐累，下詔獄。獄上，劉瑾以同鄉故，立命出之。召與語，大悅，即用為戶部左侍郎。福強結幹吏，所在著能聲。至是受挫，為瑾所拔擢，遂精心事瑾，為效力。瑾亦時召與謀，委寄亞於綵。會湖廣以缺餉告，命兼僉都御史往理之。瑾喜操切，福希指，益務為嚴苛。湖廣民租自私弘治改元後，逋六百餘萬石，皆遇災蠲免。福欲追徵之，劾所司催科不力，自巡撫鄭時以下凡千二百人。奏至，舉朝駭愕，戶部尚書劉璣等議如福言。瑾忽怒福，取詔旨報曰：「湖廣軍民困敝，朕甚憫之。福任意苛斂，甚不稱朕意，令自劾，吏部舉堪代者以聞。」福引罪求罷，乃召還。四年復命核遼東屯田。福性故刻深，所攜同知劉玉等又奉行過當。軍士不能堪，焚掠將吏及諸大姓家。守臣發帑撫慰之。亂始定。給事中徐仁等極論之。瑾迫公議，勒福致仕。明年瑾敗，籍其貲，則福在湖廣時所饋白金數十萬兩，封識宛然，遂遣戍固原。

When the Wuzong Emperor acceded, remonstrating officials jointly recommended him, and he was summoned as Vice Director of the Court of Judicial Review. In the second year of Zhengde he was appointed Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief to oversee grain storage in Suzhou and Songjiang. Before long he was summoned to serve as Vice Censor-in-Chief. He was implicated in a case and sent to the imperial prison. When the case reached the throne, Liu Jin, because they were from the same native district, immediately ordered his release. Summoned to speak with him, Liu Jin was greatly delighted and immediately appointed him Left Vice Minister of Revenue. Han Fu had always cultivated ties with capable clerks and everywhere won a reputation for competence. Now, having suffered a fall, he was raised up by Liu Jin and thereupon devoted himself wholeheartedly to Liu Jin's service, laboring on his behalf. Liu Jin also summoned him from time to time for counsel, entrusting him with responsibilities second only to Zhang Cai. It happened that Huguang reported a shortage of provisions, and Han Fu was additionally appointed Assistant Censor-in-Chief and sent to manage the matter. Liu Jin delighted in harsh, incisive measures; Han Fu, eager to please him, strove all the more to be severe and exacting. Private land rents in Huguang, since the first year of the Hongzhi reign, had fallen overdue by more than six million shi—all of it exempted because of disasters encountered. Han Fu wished to pursue collection of these arrears; he impeached the responsible offices for lax collection, implicating everyone from Grand Coordinator Zheng Shi downward—twelve hundred persons in all. When the memorial arrived, the whole court was shocked; Revenue Minister Liu Ji and others deliberated in accordance with Han Fu's proposal. Liu Jin suddenly turned on Han Fu and issued an imperial edict in reply: "The soldiers and people of Huguang are weary and impoverished; We are deeply compassionate toward them. Han Fu has arbitrarily imposed harsh levies, which greatly fails to accord with Our intent. Let him memorialize his own dismissal; the Ministry of Personnel is to nominate suitable replacements and report. Han Fu acknowledged his guilt and requested dismissal, and was then recalled. In the fourth year he was again ordered to audit military colonies in Liaodong. Han Fu was by nature harsh and unyielding; the Assistant Commander Liu Yu and others he brought with him also enforced his orders to excess. The soldiers could not endure it; they burned and plundered the homes of commanders, officials, and great clans. The defending officials opened the treasury to console and reassure them. Only then was the disturbance settled. Supervising secretaries Xu Ren and others memorialized forcefully against this. Liu Jin, pressed by public opinion, compelled Han Fu to retire. The next year, when Liu Jin fell, his confiscated assets included several hundred thousand taels of silver that Han Fu had presented during his time in Huguang, the seals still intact; Han Fu was accordingly banished to Guyuan.

李憲，岐山人。為吏科給事中，諂事瑾，每率眾請事於瑾，盛氣獨前，自號六科都給事中。時袖白金示同列曰：「此劉公所遺也。」瑾敗，虞禍及，亦劾瑾六事。瑾在獄，笑曰：「李憲亦劾我乎？」卒坐除名。

Li Xian was a native of Qishan. As a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel, he fawned on Liu Jin; each time he would lead the crowd to petition Liu Jin, striding forward with overbearing airs and styling himself Chief Supervising Secretary of the Six Offices. He would sometimes draw silver from his sleeve to show his colleagues, saying, "This was a gift from Lord Liu. When Liu Jin fell, fearing that retribution would reach him, he also memorialized six charges against Liu Jin. Liu Jin, in prison, laughed and said, "Li Xian memorializes against me too? In the end Li Xian was sentenced to removal from office.

張龍，順天人。官行人，邪媚無賴，與壽寧侯通譜系，因得交諸中人、貴戚，恃勢奪人田宅。正德三年夤緣為兵科給事中，出核遼東軍餉，得腐豆四石。請逮問監守諸臣，罰郎中徐璉以下米三百石有差。瑾以為能，擢通政參議。瑾敗，謫知灤州。後又結朱寧為父，起嘉興同知，遷登州知府。言官彈射無虛月。與山西左布政使倪天民、右布政使陳逵、右參議孫清並貪殘，天下目為「四害」。龍朝覲入都，中旨擢右通政，為寧通中外賄，所乾沒不貲。後以私取賄，為寧所覺，斥逐之。嘉靖初，下獄論死。

Zhang Long was a native of Shuntian. He held the post of Courier; sycophantic and worthless, he claimed kinship with the Marquis of Shouning and thereby gained access to eunuchs and noble relatives, relying on their power to seize others' fields and houses. In the third year of Zhengde, through pull he became a supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for War, went out to audit Liaodong military provisions, and discovered four shi of spoiled beans. He requested that supervising and guarding officials be arrested for questioning, and fined Registrar Xu Lian and others, in varying amounts, three hundred shi of grain. Liu Jin considered him capable and promoted him to Participating Secretary of the Office of Transmission. When Liu Jin fell, he was demoted to magistrate of Luanzhou. Later he also took Zhu Ning as his adoptive father, was restored as Vice Magistrate of Jiaxing, and was transferred to prefect of Dengzhou. Remonstrating officials impeached him month after month without pause. Together with Left Provincial Administrator Ni Tianmin of Shanxi, Right Provincial Administrator Chen Kui, and Right Assistant Administrator Sun Qing, all were greedy and cruel—the world regarded them as the "Four Scourges." When Zhang Long came to court for an audience, a secret edict promoted him to Right Vice Commissioner of Transmission; he served as Zhu Ning's conduit for bribes inside and outside the court, and what he embezzled was beyond reckoning. Later, for privately taking bribes, he was discovered by Zhu Ning and driven out. In the early Jiajing period he was imprisoned and sentenced to death.

顧秉謙 (魏廣微)

Gu Bingqian (with Wei Guangwei)

廣微，南樂人，侍郎允貞子也。萬曆三十二年進士。由庶吉士歷南京禮部侍郎。忠賢用事，以同鄉同姓潛結之，遂召拜禮部尚書。至是，與秉謙俱以原官兼東閣大學士。七月，秉謙晉太子太保，改文淵閣。十一月晉少保、太子太傅。五年正月晉少傅、太子太師、吏部尚書，改建極殿。九月晉少師。

Wei Guangwei was a native of Nanle, son of Vice Minister Yun Zhen. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-second year of Wanli. From Hanlin Academic Probationer he rose through the ranks to Vice Minister of Rites at Nanjing. When Wei Zhongxian held power, through shared native place and surname he secretly allied with him and was thereupon summoned and appointed Minister of Rites. At this time both he and Gu Bingqian were appointed Grand Secretaries while retaining their original posts, at the Eastern Pavilion. In the seventh month Gu Bingqian was promoted to Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and transferred to the Wenyuan Pavilion. In the eleventh month he was promoted to Junior Guardian and Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent. In the fifth year, first month, he was promoted to Junior Preceptor, Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent, and Minister of Personnel, and transferred to the Jidian Hall. That September he was promoted to Junior Mentor.

秉謙為人，庸劣無恥，而廣微陰狡。趙南星與其父允貞友善，嘗嘆曰：「見泉無子。」見泉，允貞別號也。廣微聞之，恨刺骨。既柄政，三及南星門，閽人辭不見。廣微怫然曰：「他人可拒，相公尊，不可拒也。」益恨南星。楊漣之劾忠賢二十四罪也，忠賢懼，屬廣微為調旨，一如忠賢意。而秉謙以漣疏有「門生宰相」語，怒甚。會孟冬饗廟，且頒朔，廣微偃蹇後至，給事中魏大中、御史李應升連劾之。廣微益憤，遂決意傾善類，與秉謙謀盡逐諸正人，點《縉紳便覽》一冊，若葉向高、韓爌、何如寵、成基命、繆昌期、姚希孟、陳子壯、侯恪、趙南星、高攀龍、喬允升、李邦華、鄭三俊、楊漣、左光鬥、魏大中、黃尊素、周宗建、李應升等百餘人，目為邪黨，而以黃克纘、王永光、徐大化、賈繼春、霍維華等六十餘人為正人，由閹人王朝用進之，俾據是為黜陟。忠賢得內閣為羽翼，勢益張。秉謙、廣微亦曲奉忠賢，若奴役然。

Gu Bingqian was a mediocre, shameless man; Wei Guangwei was sly and treacherous beneath the surface. Zhao Nanxing was close to Wei Guangwei's father, Yunzhen, and once sighed and said, "Jianquan has no son." Jianquan was Yunzhen's courtesy name. When Guangwei heard this, his hatred cut to the bone. Once in power, he called three times at Nanxing's door, but the gatekeeper turned him away. Guangwei said in a fury, "You may refuse others, but you cannot refuse the Chancellor himself." His hatred of Nanxing only deepened. When Yang Lian memorialized against Wei Zhongxian with twenty-four counts of misconduct, Zhongxian grew afraid and had Guangwei draft the imperial response—word for word as he wanted it. Gu Bingqian was enraged, for Yang's memorial had called him a "student who rose to be Chancellor." At the winter temple sacrifice, when the court also issued the calendar for the new month, Guangwei arrived late and insolent; Supervising Secretary Wei Dazhong and Censor Li Yingsheng impeached him in succession. Furious, Guangwei resolved to destroy the righteous. With Gu Bingqian he plotted to purge every upright official, compiling a list from 《The Gentry Handbook》: Ye Xianggao, Han Kuang, He Ruchong, Cheng Jiming, Miao Changqi, Yao Ximeng, Chen Zizhuang, Hou Ke, Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong, Qiao Yunsheng, Li Banghua, Zheng Sanjun, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Wei Dazhong, Huang Zunsu, Zhou Zongjian, Li Yingsheng, and more than a hundred others were branded an evil faction; Huang Kezuan, Wang Yongguang, Xu Dahua, Jia Jichun, Huo Weihua, and sixty-odd others were declared the righteous. The eunuch Wang Chaoyong delivered the lists, and on their basis men were promoted or cast out. With the Grand Secretariat as his wings, Wei Zhongxian's power swelled still further. Gu Bingqian and Wei Guangwei groveled before Zhongxian like bondsmen.

葉向高、韓爌相繼罷，何宗彥卒，秉謙遂為首輔。自四年十二月至六年九月，凡傾害忠直，皆秉謙票擬。《三朝要典》之作，秉謙為總裁，復擬御制序冠其首，欲用是鉗天下口。朝廷有一舉動，輒擬旨歸美忠賢，褒贊不已。廣微以劄通忠賢，簽其函曰「內閣家報」，時稱曰「外魏公」。先是，內閣調旨，惟出首輔一人，餘但參議論而已。廣微欲擅柄，謀之忠賢，令眾輔分任，政權始分，後遂沿為故事。

Ye Xianggao and Han Kuang were removed one after another; He Zongyan died; and Gu Bingqian became chief Grand Secretary. From the twelfth month of the fourth year to the ninth month of the sixth, every blow struck against loyal and upright officials bore Gu Bingqian's draft rescript. Gu Bingqian served as chief editor of 《The Essential Records of Three Reigns》 and drafted an imperial preface to stand at its head, hoping thereby to silence the whole empire. At the court's every move they drafted rescripts heaping praise on Wei Zhongxian, again and again. Guangwei kept up a correspondence with Zhongxian, marking each envelope "Grand Secretariat Family Dispatch"; people called him "Lord Wei of the Outer Court." Before this, Grand Secretariat rescripts came from the chief Grand Secretary alone; the other members only joined in debate. Guangwei wanted sole control and consulted Zhongxian; the Grand Secretaries were made to divide the work, power was split for the first time, and the practice became fixed custom.

楊漣等六人之逮也，廣微實與其謀，秉謙調嚴旨，五日一追比。尚書崔景榮懼其立死杖下，亟請廣微諫止。廣微不自安，疏言：「漣等在今日，誠為有罪之人，在前日實為卿寺之佐。縱使贓私果真，亦當輔付法司，據律論罪，豈可逐日嚴刑，令鎮撫追贓乎？身非木石，重刑之下，就死直須臾耳。以理刑之職，使之追贓，官守安在？勿論傷好生之仁，抑且違祖宗之制，將朝政日亂，與古之帝王大不相侔矣。」疏入，大忤忠賢意。廣微懼，急出景榮手書自明，而忠賢怒已不可解。乃具疏乞休，不許。居兩月，矯詔切責廷臣，中言「朕方率循舊章，而曰『朝政日亂』，朕方祖述堯、舜，而曰『大不相侔』」，蓋即指廣微疏語。廣微益懼，丐秉謙為解，忠賢意少釋。然廣微卒不自安，復三疏乞休，五年八月許之去。廣微先已加少保、太子太傅，改吏部尚書、建極殿大學士，至是復加少傅、太子太師，蔭子中書舍人，賜白金百、坐蟒一、彩幣四表裏，乘傳，行人護歸。典禮優渥，猶用前好故也。居二年，卒於家，贈太傅，恤典如制。

When Yang Lian and five others were seized, Guangwei had in fact helped plan it; Gu Bingqian drafted a harsh rescript demanding payment under threat of punishment every five days. Minister Cui Jingrong feared they would be beaten to death on the spot and urgently begged Guangwei to remonstrate and put a stop to it. Uneasy in his own mind, Guangwei submitted a memorial: "Yang Lian and the rest are guilty men today, but only yesterday they served as officials in the ministries and directorates. Even if their graft were proved beyond doubt, they ought to be handed to the judicial authorities and punished by law—how can they be tortured day after day while the Brocade Guard is sent to squeeze out bribes? Flesh and blood are not wood or stone; under savage beating, death is only a breath away. To set men to judge crimes and then order them to hunt for bribes—what becomes of official duty? Never mind the injury to the virtue of sparing life—it also breaks the institutions of the founding emperors; the court will sink deeper into disorder and bear no resemblance to the sage-kings of antiquity." The memorial enraged Wei Zhongxian when it reached him. Guangwei panicked and quickly produced Jingrong's own letter to clear himself, but Zhongxian's wrath could no longer be appeased. He submitted a memorial begging to retire; it was refused. Two months later a forged edict sharply rebuked the court, declaring, "I am just now following the old statutes, and you say 'the court grows daily more chaotic'; I am just now emulating Yao and Shun, and you say 'greatly unlike'"—plainly aimed at Guangwei's own words. Guangwei grew still more afraid and begged Gu Bingqian to intercede; Zhongxian's anger eased a little. Still unable to rest easy, Guangwei submitted three more memorials begging to leave office; in the eighth month of the fifth year he was at last allowed to go. Guangwei had already risen to Junior Guardian and Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent and been made Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary of the Jianji Hall; now he was further promoted to Junior Mentor and Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent, his son ennobled as a Secretariat Drafting Officer, and he was given a hundred taels of white silver, a python robe, four suits of colored silk, relay horses for the journey home, and an attendant to escort him. The honors were lavish—a last courtesy to an old ally. Two years later he died at home; he was posthumously honored as Grand Preceptor, with funeral rites according to regulation.

秉謙票擬，事事徇忠賢指。初矯旨罪主考丁乾學，又調旨殺漣、光鬥等。惟周順昌、李應升等下詔獄，秉謙請付法司，毋令死非其罪。內臣出鎮，秉謙撰上諭，已復與丁紹軾請罷。二事微有執爭。馮銓既入閣，同黨中日夜交軋，群小亦各有所左右。秉謙不自安，屢疏乞休，後廣微一年致仕去。崇禎元年，為言官祖重曄、徐尚勛、汪應元所糾，命削籍。已，坐交結近侍，入逆案中，論徒三年，贖為民。二年，昆山民積怨秉謙，聚眾焚掠其家。秉謙年八十，倉皇竄漁舟得免，乃獻窖藏銀四萬於朝，寄居他縣以死。廣微亦追論削奪，列逆案遣戍中。

In every rescript he drafted, Gu Bingqian did exactly as Wei Zhongxian wished. He forged an edict condemning chief examiner Ding Qianxue and drafted rescripts that sent Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and others to their deaths. Only when Zhou Shunchang and Li Yingsheng were sent to the imperial prison did Gu Bingqian ask that they be handed to the judicial authorities, lest they die for crimes they had not committed. When palace eunuchs were sent out to garrison commands, Gu Bingqian drafted the imperial proclamation—yet he also joined Ding Shaoshi in asking that the practice be abolished. In these two matters he showed a trace of resistance. After Feng Quan entered the Grand Secretariat, allies turned on one another day and night, and every petty man had his own patron. Gu Bingqian could not feel secure; he memorialized again and again to retire, and left office a year after Guangwei. In the first year of Chongzhen, censorial officials Zu Chongye, Xu Shangxun, and Wang Yingyuan impeached him, and he was ordered struck from the rolls. Later, for consorting with palace favorites, he was named in the Treason Case, sentenced to three years' banishment, and allowed to ransom his way back to commoner life. In the second year the people of Kunshan, who had long hated Gu Bingqian, rose up, burned his house, and looted it. Gu Bingqian was eighty; he fled in panic and escaped aboard a fishing boat, then surrendered forty thousand taels of silver from his cellar to the court and lived out his days in another county. Wei Guangwei was also prosecuted in retrospect, stripped of honors, named in the Treason Case, and sent into exile in the interior.

黃立極施鳳來張瑞圖來宗道楊景辰

Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, Lai Zongdao, Yang Jingchen

自秉謙、廣微當國，政歸忠賢。其後入閣者黃立極、施鳳來、張瑞圖之屬，皆依媚取容，名麗逆案。

Once Gu Bingqian and Wei Guangwei held the reins, real power passed to Wei Zhongxian. Those who entered the Grand Secretariat after them—Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, and men like them—won favor through fawning and were all named in the Treason Case.

黃立極，字中五，元城人。萬曆三十二年進士。累官少詹事、禮部侍郎。天啟五年八月，忠賢以同鄉故，擢禮部尚書兼東閣大學士，與丁紹軾、周如磐、馮銓並參機務。時魏廣微、顧秉謙皆以附忠賢居政府。未幾廣微去，如磐卒。明年夏，紹軾亦卒，銓罷。其秋，施鳳來、張瑞圖、李國𣚴入。已而秉謙乞歸，立極遂為首輔。

Huang Liji, courtesy name Zhongwu, was a native of Yuancheng. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-second year of the Wanli reign. He rose through the posts of Junior Mentor and Vice Minister of Rites. In the eighth month of the fifth year of Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian, citing their shared hometown, promoted him to Minister of Rites and Eastern Pavilion Grand Secretary; he joined Ding Shaoshi, Zhou Rupan, and Feng Quan in directing state affairs. At the time Wei Guangwei and Gu Bingqian both held power in the government by clinging to Wei Zhongxian. Before long Guangwei left office, and Rupan died. The following summer Shaoshi died as well, and Feng Quan was dismissed. That autumn Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, and Li Guozhen entered the Grand Secretariat. Before long Gu Bingqian asked to retire, and Huang Liji became chief Grand Secretary.

宗道，蕭山人。立極同年進士，累官太子太保、禮部尚書，以本官兼內閣大學士，預機務。宗道官禮部時，為崔呈秀父請恤典，中有「在天之靈」語。編修倪元璐屢疏爭時事，宗道笑曰：「渠何事多言，詞林故事，止香茗耳。」時謂宗道清客宰相云。

Lai Zongdao was a native of Xiaoshan. Huang Liji, a jinshi of the same year, rose to Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Minister of Rites, then served as Grand Secretary with those ranks and took part in state affairs. While serving in the Ministry of Rites, Lai Zongdao petitioned for funeral honors for Cui Chengxiu's father, writing among other things of "his spirit in heaven." Compiler Ni Yuanlu memorialized again and again on affairs of the day; Zongdao laughed and said, "What does he have to talk so much about? In the Hanlin Academy the whole custom is tea and snacks. People called him the "tea-and-snacks Chancellor."

景辰，瑞圖同縣人。萬曆四十一年進士。積官吏部右侍郎，與宗道同入閣。官翰林時，為《要典》副總裁，一徇奸黨指，又三疏頌忠賢。及朝局已變，乃請毀《要典》，給事、御史交劾之，與宗道同日罷。

Yang Jingchen was a fellow townsman of Zhang Ruitu. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-first year of the Wanli reign. He rose to Vice Minister of the Right in the Ministry of Personnel and entered the Grand Secretariat together with Lai Zongdao. As a Hanlin compiler he served as deputy chief editor of 《The Essential Records》, doing exactly as the wicked faction wished; he also submitted three memorials praising Wei Zhongxian. When the political tide had turned, he asked that 《The Essential Records》 be destroyed; supervising secretaries and censors impeached him in a body, and he was dismissed on the same day as Lai Zongdao.

其後定逆案，瑞圖、宗道初不與，莊烈帝詰之，韓爌等封無實狀。帝曰：「瑞圖為忠賢書碑，宗道稱呈秀父『在天之靈』，非實狀耶？」乃以瑞圖、宗道與顧秉謙、馮銓等坐贖徒為民，而立極、鳳來、景辰落職閑住。

When the Treason Case was later settled, Zhang Ruitu and Lai Zongdao were at first left out; the Chongzhen Emperor questioned this, and Han Kuang and others answered that there was no solid evidence. The emperor said, "Zhang Ruitu wrote an inscription for Wei Zhongxian's stele, and Lai Zongdao spoke of Cui Chengxiu's father's 'spirit in heaven'—are those not facts? Thereupon Zhang Ruitu and Lai Zongdao, together with Gu Bingqian, Feng Quan, and others, were sentenced to banishment commutable to commoner status; Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Yang Jingchen were stripped of office and sent home.

崔呈秀

Cui Chengxiu

崔呈秀，薊州人。萬曆四十一年進士。授行人。天啟初，擢御史，巡按淮、揚。卑汙狡獪，不修士行。見東林勢方盛，將出都，力薦李三才，求入其黨，東林拒不納。在淮、揚，贓私狼籍。霍丘知縣鄭延祚貪，將劾之，以千金賄免。延祚知其易與，再行千金，即薦之。其行事多類此。

Cui Chengxiu was a native of Jizhou. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-first year of the Wanli reign. He was appointed a Palace Messenger. At the opening of the Tianqi reign he was promoted to censor and sent to inspect Huai and Yang. Vile, corrupt, cunning, and slippery, he kept none of a gentleman's standards. Seeing the Donglin faction in the ascendant, he was about to leave the capital when he loudly recommended Li Sancai and tried to join their ranks; the Donglin would not have him. In Huai and Yang his corruption ran wild. Zheng Yanzuo, magistrate of Huoqiu, was corrupt; Chengxiu was about to impeach him, but Yanzuo paid a thousand taels of silver and bought his way free. Yanzuo knew him for an easy mark and paid another thousand taels; Chengxiu at once recommended him for promotion. Most of what he did was of this kind.

四年九月還朝，高攀龍為都御史，盡發其貪汙狀。吏部尚書趙南星議戍之，詔革職候勘。呈秀大窘，夜走魏忠賢所，叩頭乞哀，言攀龍、南星皆東林，挾私排陷，復叩頭涕泣，乞為養子。當是時，忠賢為廷臣交攻，憤甚，方思得外延為助。涿州人馮銓，少年官侍從家居，與熊廷弼有隙，遺書魏良卿勸興大獄。忠賢冀假事端傾陷諸害己者，得呈秀，恨相見晚，遂用為腹心，日與計畫。明年正月，給事中李恒茂為呈秀訟冤。中旨即言呈秀被誣，復其官。呈秀乃首疏薦張鶴鳴、申用懋、王永光、商周祚、許弘綱等；而再疏請令京官自陳，由是清流多屏斥。尋督三殿工，忠賢以閱工故，日至外朝。呈秀必屏人密語，以間進《同志》諸錄，皆東林黨人。又進《天鑒錄》，皆不附東林者。令忠賢憑以黜陟，善類為一空。暮夜乞憐者，莫不緣呈秀以進，繩集蟻附，其門如市。累擢工部右侍郎並兼御史，督工如故。御史田景新言，侍郎兼御史非便，請改僉都御史，從之。

In the ninth month of the fourth year he returned to court; Censor-in-Chief Gao Panlong laid bare every detail of his corruption. Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing proposed banishing him; an edict removed him from office pending investigation. Desperate, Cui Chengxiu fled by night to Wei Zhongxian's house, kowtowed and begged for pity, saying Panlong and Nanxing were both Donglin men who had framed him out of private spite; he kowtowed again, weeping, and begged to be taken as a son. At that moment Wei Zhongxian was under siege from court officials and burned with anger; he was looking for allies in the outer court. Feng Quan of Zhuozhou, who had served as a young attendant and then lived at home, bore a grudge against Xiong Tingbi and wrote to Wei Liangqing urging a great purge. Wei Zhongxian hoped to seize on the moment to ruin his enemies; finding Cui Chengxiu, he cried that they had met too late and made him his closest confidant, meeting daily to scheme. In the first month of the following year, Supervising Secretary Li Hengmao memorialized in Cui Chengxiu's defense. A palace rescript at once declared that Cui Chengxiu had been slandered and restored him to office. Cui Chengxiu then led with a memorial recommending Zhang Heming, Shen Yongmao, Wang Yongguang, Shang Zhouzuo, Xu Honggang, and others. In a second memorial he asked that capital officials be made to submit self-assessments, and many upright men were driven from office. Soon he was put in charge of building the Three Halls; Wei Zhongxian, on the pretext of inspecting the work, came to the outer court every day. Cui Chengxiu always sent attendants away for secret talk and gradually submitted 《Records of Comrades》 and other registers naming Donglin men. He also submitted 《The Mirror of Heaven》, listing those who did not follow the Donglin. He had Wei Zhongxian use these lists to decide appointments and dismissals until no good men remained at court. Every man who came by night to beg for favor climbed to office through Cui Chengxiu; they roped themselves together and swarmed like ants until his gate was as crowded as a market. He was promoted in succession to Right Vice Minister of Works and concurrently censor, still supervising construction as before. Censor Tian Jingxin argued that holding a vice ministership together with a censor's duties was awkward and asked that the post be changed to Assistant Censor-in-Chief; the request was granted.

忠賢嘗修鄉縣肅寧城，呈秀首上疏稱美。六年二月，復疏頌忠賢督工功，請賜敕獎諭，末言：「臣非行媚中官者，目前千譏萬罵，臣固甘之。」疏出，朝野轟笑。閣臣顧秉謙輩撰敕八百餘言，褒忠賢，極口揚詡，前代九錫文不能過也。自是，中外章疏，無不頌忠賢功德者矣。時方創《三朝要典》，呈秀疏陳耍典之源，追論並封、妖書、之藩三事，凡擁衛光宗者，悉加醜詆。忠賢悅，宣付史館。其年七月，進本部尚書。十月，皇極殿成，加太子太保兼左都御史，仍督大工。母死，不奔喪，奪情視事。呈秀負忠賢寵，嗜利彌甚。朝士多拜為門下士，以通於忠賢。其不附己及勢位相軋者，輒使其黨排去之，時有「五虎」之目，以呈秀為魁。諸所傾陷，不可悉數，雖其黨亦深畏之。子鐸不能文，屬考官孫之獬，獲鄉薦。用其弟凝秀為浙江總兵官，女夫張元芳為吏部主事，妾弟優人蕭惟中為密雲參將，所司皆不敢違。明年八月冒寧、錦功，加太子太傅。俄敘三殿功，加少傅，世蔭錦衣指揮僉事。其月遷兵部尚書，仍兼左都御史，並綰兩篆，握兵權憲紀，出入烜赫，勢傾朝野。無何，熹宗崩，廷臣入臨。內使十餘人傳呼崔尚書甚急，廷臣相顧愕眙。呈秀入見忠賢，密謀久之，語秘不得聞。或言忠賢欲篡位，呈秀以時未可，止之也。

When Wei Zhongxian repaired Suining city in his home county, Cui Chengxiu was the first to memorialize in praise. In the second month of the sixth year he memorialized again, praising Wei Zhongxian's supervision of the works and begging an edict of commendation; he closed with: "I am no sycophant of palace eunuchs; let thousands revile and ten thousands curse me—I am content. The memorial appeared, and court and country erupted in laughter. Grand Secretaries Gu Bingqian and their colleagues drafted a commendation of more than eight hundred words, heaping praise on Wei Zhongxian with mouths opened wide—the nine-bestowals panegyrics of earlier ages could not have outdone it. Henceforth memorials from every quarter sang only of Wei Zhongxian's merit and virtue. While 《The Essential Records of Three Reigns》 was being compiled, Cui Chengxiu memorialized on the work's origins, rehashing the joint memorials, the demon book, and the princes' departure from the capital—all who had rallied to Guangzong he vilified without mercy. Wei Zhongxian was pleased and had the memorial proclaimed and forwarded to the Historiography Office. That July he was promoted to Minister of Works. In October, when the Hall of Imperial Zenith was completed, he was additionally made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and Left Censor-in-Chief, still overseeing the great construction projects. When his mother died he did not leave office to mourn; granted leave from mourning, he continued in his duties. Secure in Wei Zhongxian's favor, Cui Chengxiu grew ever more rapacious. Many court officials enrolled as his followers to reach Wei Zhongxian through him. Those who refused to join him, or whose power rivaled his own, he had his faction hound from office; people called them the "Five Tigers," with Cui Chengxiu at their head. The men they brought down were beyond counting, and even their own allies feared them deeply. His son Duo was no scholar; through examiner Sun Zhixie he secured provincial recommendation. He installed his brother Ningxiu as Zhejiang regional commander, his son-in-law Zhang Yuanfang as a principal secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, and his concubine's brother the actor Xiao Weizhong as Miyun deputy commander—and no one in those posts dared defy him. The following August he claimed credit for the Ningxia and Jinzhou campaigns and was made Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent. Shortly afterward, for the three halls he was made Junior Tutor and his heirs ennobled as assistant commanders in the Brocade Guard. That same month he was made Minister of War while retaining the Left Censor-in-Chiefship; with both seals in hand he held military power and censorial sway—his comings and goings blazed with glory, and his influence overshadowed court and realm. Before long the Tianqi Emperor died, and court ministers came to the palace to mourn. More than a dozen palace eunuchs called urgently for Minister Cui; the court officials exchanged stunned glances. Cui Chengxiu went in to see Wei Zhongxian; they plotted together in secret for a long while, and no one heard what was said. Some said Wei Zhongxian meant to seize the throne, and Cui Chengxiu dissuaded him—the moment was not yet ripe.

莊烈帝即位，其黨知忠賢必敗，內相攜。副都御史楊所修首請允呈秀守制，御史楊維垣、賈繼春相繼力攻，呈秀乞罷。帝猶慰留。章三上，溫旨令乘傳歸。已而言者劾呈秀及工部尚書吳淳夫、兵部尚書田吉、太常卿倪文煥、副都御史李夔龍，號稱「五虎」，宜肆市朝。詔逮治，籍其貲。時忠賢已死，呈秀知不免，列姬妾，羅諸奇異珍寶，呼酒痛飲，盡一卮即擲壞之，飲已自縊。詔戮其屍，子鐸除名，弟凝秀遣戍。後定逆案，以呈秀為首。

When the Chongzhen Emperor took the throne, the eunuch faction knew Wei Zhongxian was doomed and began to fracture among themselves. Vice Censor-in-Chief Yang Suoxiu was first to ask that Cui Chengxiu be allowed to leave office and observe mourning; Censors Yang Weiyuan and Jia Jichun pressed the attack in turn, and Cui Chengxiu begged to be dismissed. The emperor still sought to comfort him and keep him at post. After three memorials, a gracious edict ordered him home by relay horse. Then remonstrators impeached Cui Chengxiu together with Minister of Works Wu Chunfu, Minister of War Tian Ji, Court of Imperial Sacrifices Director Ni Wenhuan, and Vice Censor-in-Chief Li Kuilong—the "Five Tigers"—and demanded they be torn apart in the public square. An edict ordered their arrest and the seizure of their estates. Wei Zhongxian was already dead; knowing there was no escape, Cui Chengxiu gathered his concubines, laid out his strangest treasures, called for wine and drank deep—each emptied cup he hurled aside and smashed—and when the wine was done he hanged himself. An edict ordered his corpse torn apart in punishment; his son Duo was struck from the rolls; his brother Ningxiu was banished to the frontier. Later, when the Treason Case was finalized, Cui Chengxiu stood at its head.

吳淳夫倪文煥田吉李夔龍

Wu Chunfu, Ni Wenhuan, Tian Ji, Li Kuilong

淳夫，晉江人。萬曆三十八年進士。歷官陜西僉事，以京察罷。五年夤緣起兵部郎中，與文煥、吉、夔龍並由呈秀進，為忠賢義子。大學士馮銓釋褐十三年登宰輔，為忠賢所匿。呈秀妒之，淳夫即為攻銓。六年冬，擢太僕少卿，視職方事。旋擢太僕卿，歷工部添註右侍郎。冒寧、錦及三殿功，累進工部尚書，加太子太傅。歲中六遷，至極品。

Wu Chunfu was a native of Jinjiang. He received his jinshi degree in the thirty-eighth year of the Wanli reign. He served as Intendant in Shaanxi and was dismissed in the capital review. In the fifth year of Tianqi he wheedled his way to Bureau Director in the Ministry of War; he and Wenhuan, Ji, and Kuilong all rose through Cui Chengxiu and became Wei Zhongxian's adopted sons. Grand Secretary Feng Quan had reached the chancellor's seat only thirteen years after taking his jinshi degree, yet Wei Zhongxian kept him in the shadows. Cui Chengxiu envied him, and Wu Chunfu attacked Feng Quan at his bidding. In the winter of the sixth year he was promoted to Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud and put in charge of Personnel Bureau affairs. Soon he was made Director of the Imperial Stud and then additionally appointed Right Vice Minister of Works. For the Ningxia and Jinzhou campaigns and the three halls he rose in succession to Minister of Works and Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent. Six promotions within a single year—he reached the highest ranks.

倪文煥，江都人。由進士授行人，擢御史，巡視南城。山東多大猾，事發則走匿京師。參政王維章數牒文煥，文煥納其賄，反劾罷維章。嘗誤撻皇城守卒，為中官所糾，大懼，走謁呈秀求救，遂引入忠賢幕，為鷹犬。首劾兵部侍郎李邦華，御史李日宣，吏部員外郎周順昌、林枝橋。再劾戶部侍郎孫居相、御史夏之令及故吏部尚書崔景榮、吏部尚書李宗延等數十人。輕者削奪，重者拷死。呈秀首頌忠賢，文煥即繼之。出按畿輔，為忠賢建三祠。河南道缺掌印官，呈秀為懸缺待文煥，至越十餘人任之。冒寧、錦、殿功，加太僕卿，掌道如故。尋改太常卿。忠賢敗，文煥懼，乞終養歸。

Ni Wenhuan was a native of Jiangdu. After taking his jinshi he was appointed a courier, then promoted to censor and assigned to inspect the southern capital ward. Shandong swarmed with great scoundrels who, once exposed, fled to hide in the capital. Assistant Administrator Wang Weizhang repeatedly memorialized Ni Wenhuan, who took bribes and impeached Weizhang in return, removing him from office. Once he wrongly flogged an Imperial City guard and was impeached by palace eunuchs; terrified, he ran to Cui Chengxiu for rescue and was brought into Wei Zhongxian's circle as a trained attack dog. He was first to impeach Vice Minister of War Li Banghua, Censor Li Rixuan, and Department Vice Directors Zhou Shunchang and Lin Zhiqiao. He impeached again: Vice Minister of Revenue Sun Juxiang, Censor Xia Zhiling, former Minister of Personnel Cui Jingrong, Minister of Personnel Li Zongyan, and dozens more. Some lost their rank; others were beaten to death. When Cui Chengxiu led the praise of Wei Zhongxian, Ni Wenhuan followed at once. On inspection tour in the capital region he built three shrines to Wei Zhongxian. When the Henan Circuit post of seal-bearing censor fell vacant, Cui Chengxiu kept it open for Ni Wenhuan; more than ten others served in the role before him. For Ningxia, Jinzhou, and the hall construction he was made Director of the Imperial Stud, still holding his circuit duties. Soon he was made Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. When Wei Zhongxian fell, Ni Wenhuan panicked and begged leave to retire and care for his parents until their death.

田吉者，故城人。萬曆三十八年廷對懷挾，罰三科，以縣佐錄用。已，補試，由知縣歷兵部郎中。六年冬，遷淮揚參議，取中旨，擢太常少卿，視職方事。明年擢太常卿。未匝歲，連擢至兵部尚書，加太子太保。諸逆黨超擢，未有如吉者。

Tian Ji was a native of Gucheng. In the thirty-eighth year of Wanli he was caught smuggling notes into the palace examination; barred for three rounds, he was taken on as a county assistant. Later, after passing the supplementary examination, he rose from magistrate to Bureau Director in the Ministry of War. In the winter of the sixth year he became Assistant Administration Commissioner of Huai-Yang; by secret edict he was made Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and put over Personnel Bureau affairs. The following year he was made Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Within less than a year he rose in succession to Minister of War and Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Among the traitor faction's meteoric rises, none matched Tian Ji.

李夔龍，福建南安人。由進士歷吏部主事，被劾罷去。天啟五年夤緣復官，進郎中。專承呈秀指，引用邪人以媚忠賢。擢太常少卿，仍署選事。尋遷左僉都御史。三殿成，進左副都御史。

Li Kuilong was a native of Nan'an, Fujian. After taking his jinshi he rose to principal secretary in the Ministry of Personnel but was impeached and dismissed. In the fifth year of Tianqi he wheedled his way back into office and was promoted to Bureau Director. He did only as Cui Chengxiu directed, advancing corrupt men to curry favor with Wei Zhongxian. He was made Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices while still overseeing appointments. Soon he was made Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief. When the three halls were completed he was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief.

莊烈帝嗣位，淳夫、文煥、吉、夔龍，並以上林典簿樊維城、戶部員外郎王守履言，逮治論死。

When the Chongzhen Emperor succeeded, Chunfu, Wenhuan, Ji, and Kuilong were arrested and sentenced to death, together with Imperial Park Bureau chief Fan Weicheng and Revenue Department Vice Director Wang Shoulü, who had memorialized against them.

欽定逆案

The Treason Case as Determined by Imperial Command

方忠賢敗時，莊烈帝納廷臣言，將定從逆案。大學士韓爌、李標、錢龍錫不欲廣搜樹怨，僅以四五十人上。帝少之，令再議，又以數十人上。帝不懌，令以贊導、擁戴、頌美、諂附為目，且曰：「內侍同惡者亦當入。」爌等以不知內侍對，帝曰：「豈皆不知，特畏任怨耳。」閱日，召入便殿，案有布囊，盛章疏甚夥，指之曰：「此皆奸黨頌疏，可案名悉入。」爌等知帝意不可回，乃曰：「臣等職在調旨，三尺法非所習。」帝召吏部尚書王永光問之，永光以不習刑名對，乃詔刑部尚書喬允升、左都御史曹於汴同事，於是案名羅列無脫遺者。崇禎二年三月上之，帝為詔書頒示天下。

When Wei Zhongxian had just fallen, the Chongzhen Emperor heeded the court and set out to settle the cases of those who had followed the traitors. Grand Secretaries Han Kuang, Li Biao, and Qian Longxi did not wish to hunt widely and sow fresh grudges; they submitted only forty or fifty names. The emperor thought the list too short and ordered another deliberation; again they submitted only several dozen. The emperor was displeased and ordered them to sort the guilty by abetting, rallying, praising, and fawning—and said: "Palace attendants who shared their wickedness must be included as well. Han Kuang and the others answered that they did not know the palace attendants; the emperor said: "You all know perfectly well—you simply fear the blame. The next day he summoned them to the side hall. On the desk lay a cloth sack crammed with memorials. Pointing to it he said: "These are all eulogies from the traitor faction—take every name and include them. Knowing the emperor's mind could not be changed, Han Kuang and the others said: "Our duty is to draft rescripts; we are not versed in penal law. The emperor summoned Minister of Personnel Wang Yongguang, who likewise pleaded ignorance of penal matters; he then ordered Minister of Justice Qiao Yunsheng and Left Censor-in-Chief Cao Yubian to compile the cases together—and every name was listed, none escaped. In the third month of the second year of Chongzhen it was submitted; the emperor issued a proclamation to the whole realm.

首逆淩遲者二人：魏忠賢，客氏。

Two chief traitors sentenced to dismemberment: Wei Zhongxian and Madame Ke.

首逆同謀決不待時者六人：呈秀及魏良卿，客氏子都督侯國興，太監李永貞、李朝欽、劉若愚。

Six chief conspirators to be executed at once without delay: Cui Chengxiu and Wei Liangqing; Madame Ke's son, Commander Hou Guoxing; and the eunuchs Li Yongzhen, Li Chaoqin, and Liu Ruoyu.

交結近侍秋後處決者十九人：劉志選、梁夢環、倪文煥、田吉、劉詔、薛貞、吳淳夫、李夔龍、曹欽程，大理寺正許誌吉，順天府通判孫如冽，國子監生陸萬齡，豐城侯李承祚，都督田爾耕、許顯純、崔應元、楊寰、孫雲鶴、張體乾。

Nineteen who consorted with palace favorites, to be executed after autumn: Liu Zhixuan, Liang Menghuan, Ni Wenhuan, Tian Ji, Liu Zhao, Xue Zhen, Wu Chunfu, Li Kuilong, Cao Qincheng; Court of Judicial Review Director Xu Zhiji; Shuntian Vice Prefect Sun Rulie; National University student Lu Wanling; Marquis of Fengcheng Li Chengzuo; and Commanders Tian Ergeng, Xu Xianchun, Cui Yingyuan, Yang Huan, Sun Yunhe, and Zhang Tigan.

結交近侍次等充軍者十一人：魏廣微、周應秋、閻鳴泰、霍維華、徐大化、潘汝禎、李魯生、楊維垣、張訥，都督郭欽，孝陵衛指揮李之才。

Eleven who consorted with palace favorites at the next rank, sentenced to military exile: Wei Guangwei, Zhou Yingqiu, Yan Mingtai, Huo Weihua, Xu Dahua, Pan Ruzhen, Li Lusheng, Yang Weiyuan, Zhang Ne, Commander Guo Qin, and Xiaoling Guard Commander Li Zhicai.

交結近侍又次等論徒三年輸贖為民者：大學士顧秉謙、馮銓、張瑞圖、來宗道，尚書王紹徽、郭允厚、張我續、曹爾禎、孟紹虞、馮嘉會、李春曄、邵輔忠、呂純如、徐兆魁、薛風翔、孫傑、楊夢袞、李養德、劉廷元、曹思誠，南京尚書範濟世、張樸，總督尚書黃運泰、郭尚友、李從心，巡撫尚書李精白等一百二十九人。

Those who consorted with palace favorites at the rank below that, sentenced to three years' banishment commutable by ransom to commoner status: Grand Secretaries Gu Bingqian, Feng Quan, Zhang Ruitu, and Lai Zongdao; Ministers Wang Shaohui, Guo Yunhou, Zhang Woxu, Cao Erzhen, Meng Shaoyu, Feng Jiahui, Li Chunye, Shao Fuzhong, Lü Chunru, Xu Zhaokui, Xue Fengxiang, Sun Jie, Yang Menggun, Li Yangde, Liu Tingyuan, and Cao Sicheng; Nanjing Ministers Fan Jishi and Zhang Pu; Grand Coordinators Huang Yuntai, Guo Shangyou, and Li Congxin; Grand Secretary-Inspectors Li Jingbai; and one hundred twenty-nine others.

交結近侍減等革職閑住者，黃立極等四十四人。忠賢親屬及內官黨附者又五十餘人。

Those who consorted with palace favorites, reduced one grade and stripped of office to live in retirement: Huang Liji and forty-four others. Wei Zhongxian's kin and palace eunuch adherents numbered more than fifty besides.

案既定，其黨日謀更翻，王永光、溫體仁陰主之，帝持之堅，不能動。其後，張捷薦呂純如，被劾去。唐世濟薦霍維華，福建巡按應喜臣薦部內閑住通政使周維京，罪至謫戍。其黨乃不敢言。福王時，阮大鋮冒定策功，起用，其案始翻。於是太僕少卿楊維垣、徐景濂，給事中虞廷陛、郭如暗，御史周昌晉、陳以瑞、徐復陽，編修吳孔嘉，參政虞大復輩相繼而起，國亡乃止。

Once the case was settled, the faction plotted daily to overturn it; Wang Yongguang and Wen Tiren led the effort in secret, but the emperor held firm and they could not budge him. Later Zhang Jie recommended Lü Chunru and was impeached out of office. Tang Shiji recommended Huo Weihua; Fujian surveillance commissioner Ying Xichen recommended the idle Transmission Commissioner Zhou Weijing within his jurisdiction—and the offense earned them banishment to the frontier. The faction then dared not speak out. Under the Prince of Fu, Ruan Dacheng falsely claimed credit for settling the succession and was restored to office—and only then did the case begin to be overturned. Thereupon Vice Director of the Imperial Stud Yang Weiyuan and Xu Jinglian, Supervising Secretaries Yu Tingbi and Guo Ru'an, Censors Zhou Changjin, Chen Yirui, and Xu Fuyang, Compiler Wu Kongjia, Administration Commissioner Yu Dafu, and their kind rose in succession—only the fall of the dynasty put a stop to it.

劉志選

Liu Zhixuan

劉志選，慈谿人。萬曆中，與葉向高同舉進士。授刑部主事，偕同官劉復初、李懋檜爭鄭貴妃、王恭妃冊封事。後懋檜因給事中邵庶請禁諸曹言事，抗疏力爭，貶二秩。志選言：「陛下謫懋檜，使人箝口結舌，蒙蔽耳目，非國家福也。」帝怒，謫福寧州判官。稍遷合肥知縣，以大計罷歸，家居三十年。光宗、熹宗相繼立，諸建言得罪者盡起，志選獨以計典不獲與。會向高赴召，道杭州，志選與遊宴彌月。還朝，用為南京工部主事，進郎中，時已七十餘，嗜進彌銳，上疏追論「紅丸」，極詆孫慎行不道。魏忠賢喜，天啟五年九月召為尚寶少卿。在道，復力攻慎行，遂並及向高。忠賢益喜，出兩疏宣史館。

Liu Zhixuan was a native of Cixi. During the Wanli reign he received the jinshi degree in the same year as Ye Xianggao. He was appointed a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice and, with colleagues Liu Fuchu and Li Maogui, joined the fight over the investiture of Noble Consort Zheng and Consort Wang Gong. Later, when Supervising Secretary Shao Shu petitioned to silence memorials from the various offices, Li Maogui submitted a bold counter-memorial and was demoted two ranks. Liu Zhixuan said, "Your Majesty's punishment of Maogui silences men's tongues and blinds their ears and eyes—this can bring the state no good." The emperor was enraged and demoted him to assistant magistrate of Funing Prefecture. He was later transferred to magistrate of Hefei, then dismissed in the triennial evaluation and sent home, where he lived in retirement for thirty years. When the Guangzong and Xizong emperors succeeded in turn, every official punished for outspoken memorials was restored—Liu Zhixuan alone was passed over because of his evaluation record. When Ye Xianggao was summoned to court and passed through Hangzhou, Liu Zhixuan joined him in feasting and sightseeing for a full month. On returning to court he was made a principal clerk in the Nanjing Ministry of Works and promoted to bureau director. Though already past seventy, his hunger for office grew keener still; he memorialized to reopen the Red Pill affair and savagely denounced Sun Shenxing as a man of no principle. Wei Zhongxian was delighted, and in the ninth month of Tianqi 5 Liu Zhixuan was summoned to serve as Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Treasures. While still on the road he renewed his assault on Sun Shenxing and extended the attack to Ye Xianggao as well. Zhongxian was still more pleased and had both memorials circulated through the Historiographical Institute.

明年擢順天府丞。冬十月遂上疏劾張國紀。國紀者，後父也。忠賢忌後賢明，欲傾之。會有張匿名榜於厚載門者，列忠賢反狀，並其黨七十餘人。忠賢疑出國紀及被逐諸人手。邵輔忠、孫傑謀因此興大獄，盡殺東林諸人，而借國紀以搖中宮，事成則立魏良卿女為後，草一疏，募人上之。諸人慮禍不敢承。志選惑家人言，謂己老必先忠賢死，竟上之。極論國紀罪，而末言「毋令人訾及丹山之穴，藍田之種。」蓋前有死囚孫二言張後己所生，非國紀女也。疏上，事叵測。帝伉儷情篤，但令國紀自新而已。後為故司禮劉克敬所選，忠賢遷怒克敬，謫發鳳陽，縊殺之。未幾，志選疏頌《要典》，言：「命德討罪，無微不彰，即堯、舜之放四兇，舉元、愷，何以加焉，洵遊、夏無能贊一詞者。」因力詆王之寀、孫慎行、楊漣、左光鬥，而極譽劉廷元、嶽駿聲、黃克纘、徐景濂、範濟世、賈繼春並及傅櫆、陳九疇。且言：「慷慨憂時，力障狂瀾於既倒者，魏廣微也，當還之揆席，以繼五臣之盛事。赤忠報國，弼成巨典於不日者，廠臣也，當增入簡端，以揚一德之休風。」又言：「之寀宜正典刑，慎行宜加謫戍。」忠賢大悅，於是駿聲等超擢，之寀被逮，慎行遣戍，悉如志選言。

The following year he was promoted to assistant prefect of Shuntian. In the tenth month of winter he submitted a memorial impeaching Zhang Guoji. Guoji was the empress's father. Zhongxian resented the empress's intelligence and wished to bring her down. An anonymous placard appeared at Houzai Gate listing Zhongxian's acts of treason and naming more than seventy of his followers. Zhongxian suspected that Guoji and the men he had driven out were behind it. Shao Fuzhong and Sun Jie plotted to use the incident to launch a great purge, wipe out the Donglin faction, and through Guoji shake the inner palace; if the plan succeeded they would install Wei Liangqing's daughter as empress. They drafted a memorial and sought someone to submit it. The others feared the consequences and dared not take it on. Liu Zhixuan, swayed by his family's counsel that he was old and would surely die before Zhongxian, submitted the memorial in the end. He laid out Guoji's crimes at length and ended by saying, "Let no one speak ill of the cave of Dan Mountain or the seed of Lantian." For a condemned man named Sun Er had earlier claimed that the Zhang empress was born to another and was not Guoji's daughter. Once the memorial reached the throne, the outcome was impossible to foretell. The emperor's devotion to his consort ran deep; he merely ordered Guoji to mend his ways. The empress had been chosen through the former Director of Ceremonial Liu Kejing; Zhongxian turned his rage on Kejing, banished him to Fengyang, and had him strangled. Before long Liu Zhixuan submitted a memorial praising 《The Essential Records》, writing, "By imperial command and moral authority crimes were judged and no detail left hidden—even Yao and Shun's banishment of the Four Evils and elevation of Yuan and Kai could add nothing; truly even Ziyou and Xia could not have found a word of praise." He then savaged Wang Zhicai, Sun Shenxing, Yang Lian, and Zuo Guangdou while heaping praise on Liu Tingyuan, Yue Junsheng, Huang Kezuan, Xu Jinglian, Fan Jishi, Jia Jichun, Fu Yi, and Chen Jiuchou. He also wrote, "The man who grieved for the age and with all his strength held back the tide already turned is Wei Guangwei; he should be restored to the chancellor's seat to carry on the glory of the Five Worthies. The man whose loyal heart served the state and helped bring the great canon to completion in no time is the Depot Director; he should be named at the head of imperial documents to proclaim the virtue of unified rule." He further demanded that Wang Zhicai receive the full penalty of law and that Sun Shenxing be further demoted and sent to frontier garrison duty." Zhongxian was overjoyed. Yue Junsheng and the others were promoted out of turn, Wang Zhicai was arrested, and Sun Shenxing was sent into exile—all exactly as Liu Zhixuan had asked.

七年擢右僉都御史，提督操江。其年，熹宗崩，忠賢敗，言官交劾，詔削籍。後定逆案，律無傾搖國母文，坐子罵母律，與梁夢環並論死。志選先自經。

In the seventh year he was promoted to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and placed in command of Yangtze defense. That same year the Xizong Emperor died, Zhongxian fell from power, censorial officials impeached Liu Zhixuan in a body, and an edict struck him from the rolls. When the Treason Case was later settled, the code contained no statute for undermining the empress dowager's honor; he was sentenced under the law against a son reviling his mother and, together with Liang Menghuan, condemned to death. Liu Zhixuan hanged himself before the sentence could be carried out.

梁夢環劉詔邵輔忠孫傑

Liang Menghuan, Liu Zhao, Shao Fuzhong, Sun Jie

夢環，廣東順德人。舉進士。歷官御史。父事忠賢，興汪文言獄，殺楊漣等。出巡山海關，會寧遠敘功，崔呈秀不獲與，夢環力敘其賢勞，遂進侍郎。劾熊廷弼乾沒軍資十七萬，廷弼已死，家益破。志選之劾國紀也，忠賢意未逞。夢環偵知之，七年二月馳疏極論國紀罪，且故詰「丹山、藍田」二語，冀傾後。顧事重，忠賢亦不能驟行，而國紀竟勒還籍。夢環建祠祀忠賢，三疏頌功德。寧、錦之役，復稱忠賢「德被四方，勛高百代」，於是有安平之封，夢環擢太僕卿。

Liang Menghuan was a native of Shunde in Guangdong. He passed the jinshi examination. He rose through service as a censor. He treated Zhongxian as a father; he engineered the Wang Wenyin prosecution and helped bring about the deaths of Yang Lian and others. While on inspection beyond Shanhaiguan, when honors for Ningyuan were being distributed and Cui Chengxiu was left out, Menghuan forcefully argued for Chengxiu's merit and service, and Chengxiu was promoted to vice minister. He impeached Xiong Tingbi for embezzling 170,000 taels of military funds; Tingbi was already dead, and his family was ruined still further. When Liu Zhixuan impeached Guoji, Zhongxian's purpose had not yet been fulfilled. Menghuan learned of the affair and, in the second month of the seventh year, hurried in a memorial denouncing Guoji at length and deliberately pressing the phrases "Dan Mountain" and "Lantian," hoping to bring down the empress. The matter was too grave for Zhongxian to move at once, yet Guoji was ultimately forced to return to his native place. Menghuan built a shrine to honor Zhongxian and submitted three memorials praising his merit and virtue. During the Ningyuan and Jinzhou campaigns he again hailed Zhongxian as one "whose virtue covered the four quarters and whose merit towered over a hundred generations"; there followed the enfeoffment as Duke of Anping, and Menghuan was promoted to Director of the Court of Imperial Stud.

又劉詔者，杞縣人。萬曆四十七年進士。授盧龍知縣。天啟二年超擢山東僉事。七年代閻鳴泰總督薊、遼、保定軍務。尋進兵部尚書，加太子太保。詔嗜利無恥，父事忠賢。釋褐九年，驟至極品。建四祠祀忠賢。忠賢敗，僅罷官聽勘。御史高弘圖言：「傾危社稷，搖動宮闈，如詔及劉志選、梁夢環三賊者，罪實浮於『五虎』『五彪』，而天討未加。且詔建祠薊州，迎忠賢像，五拜三稽首，呼九千歲。及聞先帝彌留，詔即整兵三千，易置將領，用崔呈秀所親蕭惟中主郵騎，直接都門，此其意何為。」由是三人皆被逮，論死。

There was also Liu Zhao, a native of Qixian. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign. He was appointed magistrate of Lulong. In Tianqi 2 he was promoted out of turn to administration vice commissioner of Shandong. In the seventh year he replaced Yan Mingtai as grand coordinator of military affairs in Ji, Liaodong, and Baoding. Before long he was promoted to Minister of War and given the additional title Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Liu Zhao was greedy and without shame, treating Zhongxian as a father. Only nine years passed from his first appointment to the highest rank. He built four shrines to honor Zhongxian. When Zhongxian fell, Liu Zhao was merely dismissed pending investigation. Censor Gao Hongtu said, "Men who endangered the altars of state and shook the inner palace—villains such as Liu Zhao, Liu Zhixuan, and Liang Menghuan—are in truth guiltier than the Five Tigers and Five Leopards, yet Heaven's judgment has not fallen on them. Moreover Liu Zhao built a shrine at Jizhou, welcomed Zhongxian's image, performed five bows and three kowtows, and cried, "Nine thousand years!" And when he heard that the late emperor lay dying, Liu Zhao at once assembled three thousand troops, replaced the commanders, and put Cui Chengxiu's protégé Xiao Weizhong in charge of the courier relays leading straight to the capital gates—what did he intend by this?" On this account all three were arrested and sentenced to death.

邵輔忠，定海人。萬曆二十三年進士。為工部郎中，首劾李三才貪險假橫四大罪。尋謝病去，久之起故官。天啟五年附忠賢，驟遷至兵部尚書，視侍郎事。諸奸黨攻擊正人，多其所主使。七年三月護桂王之藩衡州，加太子太保。還朝，時事已變，移疾歸。尋麗逆案，贖徒為民。

Shao Fuzhong was a native of Dinghai. He received his jinshi degree in the twenty-third year of the Wanli reign. As a bureau director in the Ministry of Works he was the first to impeach Li Sancai on four counts—greed, treachery, hypocrisy, and tyranny. He soon resigned citing illness; after a long interval he was restored to his former post. In Tianqi 5 he attached himself to Zhongxian and was suddenly promoted to Minister of War, performing the duties of a vice minister. Many of the faction's assaults on upright officials were instigated by him. In the third month of the seventh year he escorted the Prince of Gui to his fief at Hengzhou and was given the additional title Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. When he returned to court the political tide had already turned; he pleaded illness and went home. Soon he was named in the Treason Case and sentenced to banishment commutable to commoner status.

孫傑，錢塘人。萬曆四十一年進士。官刑科右給事中，以附忠賢劾劉一燝、周嘉謨，為清議所棄。出為江西參議，引疾歸。忠賢召為大理丞，累擢工部右侍郎。大學士馮銓由李魯生、李蕃擁戴為首輔，素與崔呈秀璫。而傑與霍維華以呈秀最得忠賢歡，欲令入閣，謀之吳淳夫等，先擊去銓。又恐王紹徽為吏部，不肯推呈秀，令袁鯨疏攻紹徽，而龔萃肅上閣臣內外兼用疏以堅之。自是，魯生、蕃與傑等分途，其黨日相輒矣。傑官亦至尚書，加少保。忠賢誅，傑被劾罷，名麗逆案，贖徒三年。輔忠、傑本謀搖中宮，而事發於志選、夢環，故得輕論云。

Sun Jie was a native of Qiantang. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-first year of the Wanli reign. He served as Right Supervising Secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for Justice; for siding with Zhongxian and impeaching Liu Yihuan and Zhou Jiamo he was cast out by respectable opinion. He was sent out as administration commissioner of Jiangxi and cited illness to return home. Zhongxian summoned him back as assistant director of the Court of Judicial Review and promoted him step by step to Right Vice Minister of Works. Grand Secretary Feng Quan, installed as chief minister by Li Lusheng and Li Fan, had long been allied with Cui Chengxiu. But Sun Jie and Huo Weihua, seeing that Chengxiu enjoyed Zhongxian's favor above all others, wished to put him in the Grand Secretariat; they conspired with Wu Chunfu and others to strike first at Feng Quan. They also feared that Wang Shaohui, as Minister of Personnel, would not recommend Chengxiu; they had Yuan Jing submit a memorial attacking Shaohui, while Gong Cuisu submitted a memorial urging that inner and outer ministers be used together to fix the plan. From that point Li Lusheng, Li Fan, Sun Jie, and the rest went their separate ways, and the faction daily turned on itself. Sun Jie's rank also rose to minister, with the additional title Junior Guardian. When Zhongxian was executed Sun Jie was impeached and dismissed, named in the Treason Case, and sentenced to three years' banishment commutable by ransom. Shao Fuzhong and Sun Jie had originally plotted to shake the inner palace, but because the affair broke through Liu Zhixuan and Liang Menghuan they received lighter sentences.

曹欽程

Cao Qincheng

曹欽程，江西德化人。舉進士。授吳江知縣，贓汙狼籍，以淫刑博強項聲。巡撫周起元劾之，貶秩，改順天教授，調國子助教。諂附汪文言，得為工部主事。及文言敗，欽程力擠之，由座主馮銓父事魏忠賢，為「十狗」之一。銓欲害御史張慎言、周宗建，令李魯生草疏，屬欽程上之，因及李應升、黃尊素，而薦魯生及傅櫆、陳九疇、張訥、李蕃、李恒茂、梁夢環輩十餘人。慎言等四人並削籍。欽程於群小中尤無恥，日夜走忠賢門，卑諂無所不至，同類頗羞稱之。欽程顧驕眾人以忠賢親己。給事中吳國華劾之，忠賢怒，除國華名，欽程益得誌。給事中楊所修緣忠賢指，力薦其賢，遂由員外郎擢太僕少卿。後忠賢亦厭之，六年正月為給事中潘士聞所劾。忠賢責以敗群，削其籍。瀕行猶頓首忠賢前曰：「君臣之義已絕，父子之恩難忘。」絮泣而去。忠賢誅，入逆案首等，論死。系獄久之，家人不復饋食，欽程掠他囚餘食，日醉飽。李自成陷京師，欽程首破獄出降。自成敗，隨之西走，不知所終。福王時，定從賊案，欽程復列首等。

Cao Qincheng was a native of Dehua in Jiangxi. He passed the jinshi examination. Appointed magistrate of Wujiang, he plundered without restraint and built a reputation for ruthlessness through cruel punishments. Grand Coordinator Zhou Qiyuan impeached him; he was demoted, reassigned as an instructor in Shuntian, and transferred to assistant instructor at the Directorate of Education. He fawned on Wang Wenyin and won appointment as a principal clerk in the Ministry of Works. When Wang Wenyin fell, Qincheng turned on him and drove him out; through his patron-examiner Feng Quan he treated Wei Zhongxian as a father and became one of the Ten Dogs. Feng Quan wished to destroy Censors Zhang Shenyan and Zhou Zongjian; he had Li Lusheng draft a memorial and entrusted Qincheng to submit it, thereby implicating Li Yingsheng and Huang Zunsu while recommending Li Lusheng and more than ten others, including Fu Yi, Chen Jiuchou, Zhang Ne, Li Fan, Li Hengmao, and Liang Menghuan. Zhang Shenyan and the other three were all struck from the rolls. Among the petty men Cao Qincheng was the most shameless; day and night he ran to Zhongxian's gate, groveling without limit, and even his fellows were ashamed to claim him. Yet Qincheng swaggered before others because Zhongxian favored him. When Supervising Secretary Wu Guohua impeached him, Zhongxian flew into a rage and struck Wu Guohua from the rolls; Qincheng was more pleased than ever. Supervising Secretary Yang Suoxiu, acting on Zhongxian's orders, vigorously praised his talent, and Qincheng was promoted from bureau vice director to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Stud. Later Zhongxian grew weary of him as well; in the first month of the sixth year he was impeached by Supervising Secretary Pan Shiwen. Zhongxian rebuked him for wrecking the faction and struck him from the rolls. As he was about to leave he still kowtowed before Zhongxian and said, "The bond between monarch and minister is ended, but the debt between father and son is hard to forget." He went away weeping and muttering. When Zhongxian was executed Cao Qincheng was placed in the first rank of the Treason Case and sentenced to death. Held in prison for a long while, he received no more food from his family; Qincheng robbed other inmates of their scraps and spent his days drunk and gorged. When Li Zicheng seized the capital, Qincheng was the first to break open the jail and surrender. When Zicheng was routed, Qincheng fled west with him; nothing more is known of his fate. Under the Prince of Fu, when the cases of those who had sided with the rebels were adjudicated, Qincheng was once again listed among the ringleaders.

當忠賢盛時，其黨爭搏擊清流，獻諂希寵。最著者，石三畏、張訥、盧承欽、門克新、劉徽、智鋌。

In Zhongxian's heyday, his followers competed to strike down the upright faction, fawning and scheming for imperial favor. The most notorious among them were Shi Sanwei, Zhang Ne, Lu Chengqin, Men Kexin, Liu Hui, and Zhi Ting.

石三畏張訥盧承欽門克新劉徽智鋌

Shi Sanwei, Zhang Ne, Lu Chengqin, Men Kexin, Liu Hui, Zhi Ting.

三畏，交河人。知文登、曹二縣，大著貪聲。以御史陳九疇薦，得行取。趙南星秉銓，出為王府長史。故事，外吏行取無為王官者，三畏以是大恨。及忠賢得誌，三畏諂附之，遂授御史。首劾都給事中劉弘化護熊廷弼，太僕卿吳炯黨顧憲成，兩人獲嚴譴。追論京察三變，力詆李三才、王圖、孫丕揚、曹於汴、湯兆京、王宗賢、顧憲成、胡忻、王元翰、王淑抃、趙南星、張問達、王允成、塗一榛、王象春等十五人，而薦喬應甲、徐兆魁等十三人。於是三才等生者除名，死者追奪。已，極論三案，請以其疏付史館，而劾禮部侍郎周炳謨、南京尚書沈儆炌、大理丞張廷拱，三人亦獲譴。三畏為忠賢「十孩兒」之一。又倚呈秀為薦主，鍛成楊、左之獄，咆哮特甚。一日，赴戚畹宴，魏良卿在焉。三畏醉，誤令優人演《劉瑾酗酒》一劇。忠賢聞，大怒，削籍歸。忠賢殛，借忤璫名，起故官，為南京御史朱純所劾，罷去。

Sanwei was a native of Jiaohe. As magistrate of Wendeng and Cao counties, he earned a notorious reputation for corruption. On the recommendation of Censor Chen Jiuchou, he was selected for promotion from the provinces to the capital. While Zhao Nanxing controlled the Ministry of Personnel, Sanwei was sent out to serve as chief secretary of a princely household. By established practice, local officials promoted to the capital were never assigned to princely households; Sanwei therefore bore a deep grudge. When Zhongxian at last had his way, Sanwei attached himself with flattery and was made a censor. He opened by impeaching Chief Supervising Secretary Liu Honghua for protecting Xiong Tingbi, and Grand Minister of the Stud Wu Jiong for aligning with Gu Xiancheng; both were severely punished. He revisited the three rounds of Beijing inspection, savaging Li Sancai, Wang Tu, Sun Piyang, Cao Yubian, Tang Zhaojing, Wang Zongxian, Gu Xiancheng, Hu Xin, Wang Yuanhan, Wang Shubian, Zhao Nanxing, Zhang Wenda, Wang Yuncheng, Tu Yizhen, and Wang Xiangchun—fifteen men in all—while recommending Qiao Yingjia, Xu Zhaokui, and a dozen others. Thereupon those still living, including Sancai, were removed from office, and the dead were stripped of honors posthumously. He then pressed hard on the three cases, requesting that his memorial be deposited in the historiographical office, and impeached Vice Minister of Rites Zhou Bingmo, Nanjing Minister Shen Jiaochang, and Assistant Director of the Court of Judicial Review Zhang Tinggong; all three were censured. Sanwei was one of Zhongxian's "Ten Boys." He also leaned on Rui Xiang as his patron, forged the cases against Yang and Zuo, and raged with particular savagery. One day he went to a banquet at a kinsman's of the empress, where Wei Liangqing was also in attendance. Drunk, Sanwei mistakenly ordered the players to perform the play "Liu Jin Drunk." Zhongxian heard of it and flew into a rage; Sanwei was stripped of office and sent home. After Zhongxian's execution, Sanwei was reinstated on the pretext that he had defied the eunuch faction; Censor-in-Chief Zhu Chun of Nanjing impeached him and he was removed from office.

訥，閬中人。由行人擢御史，承忠賢指，首劾趙南星十大罪，並及御史王允成，吏部郎鄒維璉、程國祥、夏嘉遇。忠賢大喜，立除南星等名，且令再奏。乃羅織兵部侍郎李邦華，湖廣巡撫孫鼎相，舊給事中毛士龍、魏大中，光祿少卿史記事等十七人，誣以賄南星得官，諸人並獲罪。尋請毀東林、關中、江右、徽州諸書院。痛詆鄒元標、馮從吾、余懋衡、孫慎行並及侍郎鄭三俊、畢懋良等，亦坐削奪。復劾罷江西巡撫韓光祐。訥為忠賢鷹犬，前後搏擊用力多。忠賢深德之，用其兄太僕少卿樸至南京戶部尚書，加太子太保。樸官宣大總督，為忠賢建四祠。兄弟並入逆案。

Ne was a native of Langzhong. Raised from Courier to censor, he followed Zhongxian's cue and was first to impeach Zhao Nanxing on ten capital crimes, also dragging in Censor Wang Yuncheng and Section Chiefs Zou Weilian, Cheng Guoxiang, and Xia Jiayu. Zhongxian was delighted; Nanxing and the rest were at once removed from the rolls, and Ne was told to memorialize again. He then wove a net around Vice Minister of War Li Banghua, Huguang Governor Sun Dingxiang, former Supervising Secretaries Mao Shilong and Wei Dazhong, and Vice Minister of the Imperial Household Shi Jishi—seventeen men in all—accusing them of buying office from Nanxing; all were condemned. Before long he petitioned to raze the academies of the Donglin, Guanzhong, Jiangyou, and Huizhou factions. He viciously attacked Zou Yuanbiao, Feng Congwu, Yu Maohui, and Sun Shensheng, and extended his charges to Vice Ministers Zheng Sanjun and Bi Maoliang; they too were stripped of honors. He further impeached Han Guangyou, Governor of Jiangxi, and had him removed from office. Ne served as Zhongxian's hawk and hound, throwing himself into attack after attack. Zhongxian repaid him handsomely, promoting Ne's elder brother Pu from Vice Minister of the Stud to Minister of Revenue in Nanjing and adding the title Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. As Grand Coordinator of Xuanhua, Pu erected four shrines to Zhongxian. Both brothers were entered in the treason cases.

承欽，餘姚人。由中書舍人擢御史，首劾罷戶部侍郎孫居相等，因言：「東林自顧憲成、李三才、趙南星而外，如王圖、高攀龍等謂之副帥，曹於汴、湯兆京、史記事、魏大中、袁化中謂之『先鋒』，丁元薦、沈正宗、李樸、賀烺謂之『敢死軍人』，孫丕揚、鄒元標謂之『土木魔神。』請以黨人姓名、罪狀榜示海內。」忠賢大喜，敕所司刊籍，凡黨人已罪未罪者，悉編名其中。承欽官至太僕少卿卒。

Chengqin was a native of Yuyao. Raised from Central Drafting Clerk to censor, he opened by impeaching Vice Minister of Revenue Sun Juxiang and others out of office, then declared: "Beyond Gu Xiancheng, Li Sancai, and Zhao Nanxing, the Donglin counts Wang Tu and Gao Panlong as its deputy chiefs, Cao Yubian, Tang Zhaojing, Shi Jishi, Wei Dazhong, and Yuan Huazhong as its 'shock troops,' Ding Yuanjian, Shen Zhengzong, Li Pu, and He Lang as its 'suicide soldiers,' and Sun Piyang and Zou Yuanbiao as its 'demons of earth and timber. He asked that the names and offenses of the faction be published across the empire. Zhongxian was overjoyed and commanded the offices to compile and print a register; every faction member, whether already punished or not, was entered by name. Chengqin reached the post of Vice Minister of the Stud and died in office.

克新，汝陽人。由青州推官擢御史，劾右庶子葉燦、光祿卿錢春、按察使張光縉倚傍門戶，且請速誅熊廷弼。忠賢大喜，立傳旨行刑。以閣臣固爭，乃令俟秋後，而除燦等名。御史吳裕中，廷弼姻也，憤曰：「廷弼已死人，何必疏促。」與克新絕，逆黨由此銜之。廷弼之禍，大學士丁紹軾有力焉。馮銓因使人嗾裕中劾紹軾，而先報忠賢曰：「裕中必為廷弼報仇。」裕中疏上，遂命於午門杖之百，舁至家死。魏廣微將謝政，克新言：「廣微砥柱狂瀾，厥功甚偉，宜錫之溫綸，優以禮數。」以是稍失忠賢意。太倉人孫文豸，與同里武進士顧同寅嘗客廷弼所。廷弼死，文豸為詩誄之，同寅題尺牘亦有追惜語，為邏卒所獲。克新遽以誹謗聞，兩人遂棄市，連及同郡編修陳仁錫、故修撰文震孟，並削籍。克新尋巡按山東，崇禎初，引疾去。

Kexin was a native of Ruyang. Raised from investigating prefect of Qingzhou to censor, he impeached Right Companion Reader Ye Can, Grand Minister of the Household Qian Chun, and Surveillance Commissioner Zhang Guangjin for sheltering behind factional patronage, and demanded that Xiong Tingbi be put to death at once. Zhongxian was delighted and at once transmitted an order for execution. The grand secretaries protested vigorously, so execution was postponed until autumn, and Ye Can and the others were removed from office. Censor Wu Yuzhong, who was related to Tingbi by marriage, said in fury: "Tingbi is already dead—why urge his execution in a memorial?" He broke with Kexin, and the faction thereafter nursed a grievance against him. Grand Secretary Ding Shaozhi had done much to bring about Tingbi's ruin. Feng Quan therefore had a man goad Yuzhong into impeaching Shaozhi, and told Zhongxian in advance: "Yuzhong is sure to avenge Tingbi." When Yuzhong's memorial reached the throne, he was ordered flogged one hundred strokes at the Meridian Gate and died on the litter being carried home. Wei Guangwei was preparing to leave office; Kexin said: "Guangwei stood like a pillar against the raging flood—his service was magnificent; he should be sent a gracious edict and honored with full ceremony." For this he fell somewhat from Zhongxian's favor. Sun Wenzhi of Taicang and his fellow townsman, military jinshi Gu Tongyin, had once lodged with Tingbi. After Tingbi's death, Wenzhi wrote an elegy for him and Tongyin inscribed words of mourning on a letter; both were caught by border patrols. Kexin at once reported them for slander; both were executed in the marketplace, and Compiler Chen Renxi of the same prefecture and former Compiler Wen Zhenmeng were stripped of office as well. Kexin soon toured Shandong as censor; at the beginning of the Chongzhen reign he resigned on grounds of illness.

徽，清苑人。由臨淮知縣擢御史。陳朝輔劾馮銓，徽出疏繼之，且曰：「臣與銓同鄉，痛惡群小之誤銓，不忍銓坐失燕、趙本色。」聞者笑之。出督遼餉，乾沒不貲。初，梁夢環巡關，誣熊廷弼侵盜軍貲十七萬。徽言：「廷弼原領帑金三十萬，茫無所歸。其家貲不下百萬，而僅以十七萬還公家，何以申國法？」因誣給事中劉弘化、毛士龍，御史樊尚燝、房可壯贓賄事。忠賢喜，削弘化等籍，敕所司徵廷弼贓。尋加徽太僕少卿，先後頌忠賢至十一疏。忠賢敗，被劾回籍。

Hui was a native of Qingyuan. He was promoted from magistrate of Linhuai to censor. When Chen Chaofu impeached Feng Quan, Hui followed with a memorial of his own, saying: "I am Quan's fellow townsman; I hate the petty men who have misled him and cannot bear to see Quan stripped of the true mettle of Yan and Zhao on their account." Those who heard it laughed. Posted to oversee Liaodong supplies, he embezzled on a vast scale. Earlier, when Liang Menghuan inspected the frontier passes, he had falsely accused Xiong Tingbi of embezzling 170,000 taels of military funds. Hui said: "Tingbi originally received 300,000 taels from the treasury, yet they vanished without a trace. His family fortune was no less than a million, yet he returned only 170,000 to the state—how can this satisfy the law of the realm?" He then fabricated charges of bribery against Supervising Secretaries Liu Honghua and Mao Shilong and Censors Fan Shangcan and Fang Kezhuang. Zhongxian was pleased; Honghua and the others were removed from the rolls, and the offices were ordered to recover Tingbi's ill-gotten gains. Hui was soon made Vice Minister of the Stud and across eleven memorials successively extolled Zhongxian. When Zhongxian fell, Hui was impeached and sent back to his native place.

鋌，元氏人。舉鄉試，受業趙南星門，授知縣。由魏廣微通於忠賢，得擢御史，遂疏詆南星為元惡。先後劾罷禮部侍郎徐光啟等。鋌以乙榜起家，欲得忠賢歡，搏擊彌銳。忠賢大喜，加太僕少卿，以憂歸。崇禎初，禮部主事喬若雯劾鋌及陳九疇、張訥為魏廣微爪牙，詔奪職。後與三畏、訥、承欽、克新、徽並入逆案，訥遣戍，三畏等論徒。

Ting was a native of Yuanshi. He passed the provincial examination, studied under Zhao Nanxing, and served as magistrate. Through Wei Guangwei he reached Zhongxian, was raised to censor, and memorialized denouncing Nanxing as the arch-villain. In succession he impeached and removed Vice Minister of Rites Xu Guangqi and others from office. Ting, having risen through the provincial examination rather than the palace degree, courted Zhongxian's favor all the more eagerly and struck with ever greater ferocity. Zhongxian was delighted and made him Vice Minister of the Stud; he then went home to observe mourning. At the beginning of the Chongzhen reign, Section Chief Qiao Ruowen impeached Ting together with Chen Jiuchou and Zhang Ne as Wei Guangwei's claws and fangs; an edict removed them from office. Later Ting, together with Sanwei, Ne, Chengqin, Kexin, and Hui, was entered in the treason cases; Ne was banished to frontier service, and Sanwei and the others were sentenced to penal servitude.

當忠賢橫時，宵小希進幹寵，皆陷善類以自媒。始所擊皆東林也，其後凡所欲去者，悉誣以東林而逐之。自四年十月迄熹宗崩，斃詔獄者十餘人，下獄謫戍者數十人，削奪者三百餘人，他革職貶黜者不可勝計。

While Zhongxian ruled unchecked, petty men scheming for promotion and favor destroyed the upright to advance themselves. At first their targets were all Donglin men; afterward anyone they wished gone was falsely branded a Donglin partisan and driven out. From the tenth month of the fourth year until the Xizong Emperor's death, more than ten perished in the Imperial Prison, several tens were jailed or sent into exile, more than three hundred were stripped of honors, and those merely dismissed or demoted were beyond number.

王紹徽

Wang Shaohui

王紹徽，咸寧人，尚書用賓從孫也。舉萬曆二十六年進士。授鄒平知縣，擢戶科給事中。居官強執，頗以清操聞。湯賓尹號召黨與，圖柄用。吏部尚書孫丕揚以紹徽其門生，用年例出為山東參議，紹徽辭疾不就。泰昌時，起通政參議，遷太僕少卿，被劾引疾。尋以拾遺罷。

Wang Shaohui was a native of Xianning and a grandnephew of Minister Wang Yongbin. He passed the jinshi examination in Wanli 26. Appointed magistrate of Zouping, he was promoted to Supervising Secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. In office he was forceful and unyielding and enjoyed a reputation for clean conduct. Tang Binyin rallied his faction and plotted to seize power. Minister of Personnel Sun Piyang, because Shaohui was his protégé, transferred him out by seniority to Assistant Administrator of Shandong; Shaohui pleaded illness and refused the appointment. Under Taichang he was recalled as Assistant Director of the Office of Transmission, promoted to Vice Minister of the Stud, impeached, and resigned on grounds of illness. Before long he was dismissed for a remonstrance offense.

天啟四年冬，魏忠賢既逐去左光鬥，即召紹徽代為左僉都御史。明年六月進左副都御史。尋進戶部侍郎，督倉場，甫視事，改左都御史。十二月拜吏部尚書。忠賢為從子良卿求世封，紹徽即為奏請良卿封伯。請推崇其三世，紹徽亦議如其言。至忠賢遣內臣出鎮，紹徽乃偕同官陳四不可。王恭廠、朝天宮並災，紹徽言誅罰過多。忤忠賢意，得譙讓。已復上言：「四方多事，九邊缺餉，難免催科，乞定分數，寬年限，以緩急之宜付撫按。正殿既成，兩殿宜緩，請敕工部裁省織造、瓷器諸冗費，用佐大工。奸黨削除已盡，恐藏禍蓄怨，反受中傷。逮系重刑，加於封疆、顯過、三案巨奸，則人心悅服，餘宜少寬貸。」復忤忠賢意。

In the winter of Tianqi 4, after Wei Zhongxian had driven out Zuo Guangdou, Shaohui was summoned to replace him as Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief. In the sixth month of the following year he was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief. He was soon made Vice Minister of Revenue to oversee the granaries; he had barely assumed the post when he was transferred to Left Censor-in-Chief. In the twelfth month he was appointed Minister of Personnel. Zhongxian sought a hereditary title for his nephew Liangqing; Shaohui at once memorialized asking that Liangqing be enfeoffed as a count. When Zhongxian asked that honors be extended to three generations of his line, Shaohui likewise endorsed the request. Only when Zhongxian sent palace eunuchs to command the armies did Shaohui join his colleagues in memorializing that this must not be allowed. When the Wang Gongchang Arsenal and Chaotian Palace both suffered disasters, Shaohui said that punishments and executions had grown excessive. This offended Zhongxian, and Shaohui was rebuked. He later memorialized again: "Trouble presses on every side; the nine frontiers lack funds, and tax collection cannot be avoided—I beg that fixed quotas and extended deadlines be set, leaving governors and censors to judge what is urgent and what may wait. Now that the main hall is finished, work on the two secondary halls should be slowed; I beg that the Ministry of Works be ordered to cut redundant expenses for weaving, porcelain, and the like to help fund the great project. The wicked faction has already been purged to the last man; I fear that hidden resentments may yet bring slander in return. If heavy punishment and arrest are reserved for frontier crimes, conspicuous offenses, and the great villains of the three cases, the people will be satisfied; the rest should be treated with greater leniency." This again offended Zhongxian.

初，紹徽在萬曆朝，素以排擊東林為其黨所推，故忠賢首用居要地。紹徽仿民間《水滸傳》，編東林一百八人為《點將錄》，獻之，令按名黜汰，以是益為忠賢所喜。既而奸黨轉盛，後進者求速化，妒諸人妨己，擬次第逐之。孫傑乃謀使崔呈秀入閣，先擊去紹徽，令御史袁鯨、張文熙詆紹徽朋比。鯨再疏列其鬻官穢狀，遂落紹徽職，而以周應秋代。逆案既定，紹徽削籍論徒。

From the Wanli era on, Wang Shaohui had made his name attacking the Donglin, and his faction had backed him for it; Wei Zhongxian therefore placed him first among his appointments to positions of real power. Shaohui took the popular Water Margin as his model, listed 108 Donglin men in a Roll of Commanders, and presented it with orders to purge them by name. Wei Zhongxian was pleased beyond measure. Before long the wicked faction swelled; latecomers hungry for rapid promotion resented anyone who blocked their path and plotted to remove them in turn. Sun Jie then schemed to install Cui Chengxiu in the Grand Secretariat. First he had to remove Shaohui, and set Censors Yuan Jing and Zhang Wenxi to denounce him for clique-making. Yuan Jing memorialized again, cataloguing Shaohui's bribery and corruption in office sales; Shaohui was stripped of his post and Zhou Yingqiu took his place. When the treason cases were settled, Shaohui was removed from the register and sentenced to penal servitude.

周應秋

Zhou Yingqiu

應秋，金壇人。萬曆中進士。歷官工部侍郎，生平無持操。天啟三年避東林謝病去。明年冬，魏忠賢起為南京刑部左侍郎。五年召拜刑部添註尚書。時忠賢廣樹私人，悉餌以顯爵，故兩京大僚多添註。尋改左都御史。家善烹飪，每魏良卿過，進豚蹄留飲，良卿大歡，時號「煨蹄總憲」。明年七月代紹徽為吏部尚書，與文選郎李夔龍鬻官分賄。清流未盡逐者，應秋毛舉細故，削奪無虛日。忠賢門下有「十狗」，應秋其首也。冒三殿功，屢加太子太師。初，楊漣等拷死，應秋夜半叩戶，語其館客曰：「天眼開，楊漣、左光鬥死矣。」莊烈帝嗣位，被劾歸。已，入逆案，遣戍死。弟維持。天啟中為御史，請刊黨籍，盡毀天下書院。俄劾兵部尚書趙彥等，並削籍。以兄應秋在位，引嫌歸。崇禎初，起按浙江，被劾罷。兄弟並麗逆案。

Zhou Yingqiu was a native of Jintan. He passed the jinshi examination during the Wanli reign. He rose to Vice Minister of Works, yet in life he stood for nothing. In the third year of Tianqi he pleaded illness and quit office to keep clear of the Donglin. The following winter Wei Zhongxian recalled him as Left Vice Minister of Justice at Nanjing. In the fifth year he was summoned and appointed adjunct Minister of Justice. Zhongxian was then planting his own men everywhere, luring them with glittering titles, and many senior posts in both capitals were filled by adjunct appointees. Before long he was made Left Censor-in-Chief. He was a gifted cook at home; whenever Wei Liangqing called, he would serve braised pig's trotters and keep him drinking. Liangqing was delighted, and people nicknamed him the "Commissioner of Braised Trotters." The following July he replaced Shaohui as Minister of Personnel and, with Bureau Director Li Kuilong, sold offices and divided the spoils. For upright men not yet fully driven out, Yingqiu hunted up trivial offenses; scarcely a day passed without demotion or confiscation. Wei Zhongxian's inner circle included the "Ten Dogs," and Yingqiu was their leader. He claimed merit for the three halls and was repeatedly promoted to Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent. When Yang Lian and the others were tortured to death, Yingqiu knocked at his door in the dead of night and told a house guest, "Heaven's eye has opened—Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou are dead." When the Chongzhen Emperor succeeded to the throne, he was impeached and sent home. He was later listed in the treason cases, exiled, and died in banishment. His younger brother Zhou Weichi. During the Tianqi reign he served as a censor, petitioning that faction registers be published and every academy in the empire torn down. Before long he impeached Minister of War Zhao Yan and others, and they were all struck from the register. Because his brother Yingqiu still held office, he withdrew on grounds of conflict of interest. Early in the Chongzhen reign he was recalled to inspect Zhejiang, impeached, and dismissed. Both brothers were named in the treason cases.

霍維華

Huo Weihua

霍維華，東光人。萬曆四十一年進士。除金壇知縣，徵授兵科給事中。天啟元年六月，中官王安當掌司禮監印，辭疾居外邸，冀得溫旨即視事。安與魏忠賢有隙，閹人陸藎臣者，維華內弟也，偵知之以告。維華故與忠賢同郡交好，遂乘機劾安，忠賢輒矯旨殺之。劉一燝、周嘉謨咸惡維華，用年例出為陜西僉事。其同官孫傑言，維華三月兵垣無過失，一燝、嘉謨仰王安鼻息，故擯於外。忠賢大喜，立逐兩人，而維華亦以外艱歸。

Huo Weihua was a native of Dongguang. He passed the jinshi examination in the forty-first year of Wanli. He was appointed magistrate of Jintan, then summoned as supervising secretary in the Office of Scrutiny for War. In the sixth month of Tianqi 1, the palace eunuch Wang An was to take charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial seal. He pleaded illness and remained at an outer residence, hoping a warm edict would let him assume duty at once. Wang An and Wei Zhongxian were at odds. The eunuch Lu Genchen, Weihua's brother-in-law, learned of it and informed him. Weihua had long been on friendly terms with Zhongxian as a fellow townsman. He seized the moment to impeach Wang An, and Zhongxian forged an edict and had him killed. Liu Yipao and Zhou Jiamo both detested Weihua and, invoking the seniority rule, had him sent out as Assistant Commissioner in Shaanxi. His colleague Sun Jie argued that Weihua had done nothing wrong in three months on the military desk, but Yipao and Jiamo lived at Wang An's whim and therefore pushed him out. Zhongxian was delighted and immediately drove out both men; Weihua, for his part, went home to observe mourning for a parent.

四年冬，朝事大變，南京御史呂鵬雲以外轉請告。忠賢傳旨令與被察徐大化、年例外轉孫傑俱擢京卿，維華及王誌道、郭興治、徐景濂、賈繼春、楊維垣並復故官。維華得刑科。諸為趙南星斥者，競起用事。維華益銳意攻東林，劾罷御史劉璞、南京御史塗世業、黃公輔、萬言揚。追論三案，痛詆劉一燝、韓爌、孫慎行、張問達、周嘉謨、王之寀、楊漣、左光鬥，而譽範濟世、王誌道、汪慶百、劉廷元、徐景濂、郭如楚、張捷、唐嗣美、嶽駿聲、曾道唯。請改《光宗實錄》，宣其疏史館。忠賢立傳旨削一燝等五人籍，逮之寀，免李可灼戍，擢濟世巡撫、誌道等京卿，嗣美以下悉起用，實錄更撰，而以閣臣言免一燝等罪。尋言，總督張我續宜罪，尚書趙彥宜去，御史方震孺不宜逮，韓敬宜復官，湯賓尹宜雪。忤忠賢意，傳旨譙責之。五年冬擢太僕少卿。明年擢本寺卿。尋擢兵部右侍郎，署部事。每陳奏，必頌忠賢。七年，延綏奏捷，進右都御史，蔭子錦衣千戶。寧、錦敘功，進兵部尚書，視侍郎事，蔭子如之。俄敘三殿功，加太子太保。

In the winter of the fourth year the court turned sharply; Nanjing Censor Lu Pengyun, transferred outside the capital, requested leave. Zhongxian transmitted an edict promoting Xu Dahua, who had failed inspection, Sun Jie, transferred outside by seniority rule, and others to capital ministerial posts; Weihua, Wang Zhidao, Guo Xingzhi, Xu Jinglian, Jia Jichun, and Yang Weiyuan were all restored to their former offices. Weihua was given the Military Affairs supervising secretariat. Men whom Zhao Nanxing had driven out scrambled to take power again. Weihua redoubled his assault on the Donglin, impeaching and dismissing Censor Liu Pu, Nanjing Censor Tu Shiye, Huang Gongfu, and Wan Yanyang. He reopened the Three Cases, savaging Liu Yipao, Han Kuang, Sun Shenxing, Zhang Wenda, Zhou Jiamo, Wang Zhichao, Yang Lian, and Zuo Guangdou while praising Fan Jishi, Wang Zhidao, Wang Qingbai, Liu Tingyuan, Xu Jinglian, Guo Ruchu, Zhang Jie, Tang Simei, Yue Junsheng, and Zeng Daowei. He petitioned to rewrite the Veritable Records of Emperor Guangzong and had his memorial circulated at the Historiography Office. Zhongxian transmitted an edict stripping Yipao and four others from the register, arresting Wang Zhichao, exempting Li Kezhuo from exile, promoting Fan Jishi to grand coordinator and Wang Zhidao and others to capital posts, restoring Tang Simei and those below, and ordering the Veritable Records rewritten—yet the Grand Secretaries interceded and Yipao and the rest were spared. Before long he memorialized that Governor Zhang Woxu should be punished, Minister Zhao Yan removed, Censor Fang Zhenru left unarrested, Han Jing restored to office, and Tang Binyin exonerated. This crossed Wei Zhongxian's wishes, and an edict rebuked him sharply. In the winter of the fifth year he was promoted to Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud. The following year he was promoted to Director of the Imperial Stud. Before long he was promoted to Vice Minister of War and directed the ministry in the minister's stead. Every memorial he submitted sang Wei Zhongxian's praises. In the seventh year, after victory was reported in Yan-sui, he was promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief and his son ennobled as a thousand-household of the Brocade Guard. When rewards were granted for Ningyuan and Jinzhou, he was promoted to Minister of War while still serving as vice minister, and his son received the same ennoblement. Before long, for merit in the three halls, he was made Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent.

維華性憸邪，與崔呈秀為忠賢謀主。所親為近侍，宮禁事皆預知，因進仙方靈露飲。帝初甚甘之，已漸厭。及得疾，體腫，忠賢頗以咎維華。維華甚懼，而慮有後患，欲先自貳於忠賢，乃力辭寧、錦恩命，讓功袁崇煥，乞以己蔭授之。忠賢覺其意，降旨頗厲。無何，熹宗崩，忠賢敗，維華與楊維垣等彌縫百方。其年十月，以兵部尚書協理戎政。

Weihua was sly and corrupt by nature; with Cui Chengxiu he served as Wei Zhongxian's chief strategist. His intimates were inner attendants; he learned palace affairs before they happened and presented an elixir called Spirit-Dew Drink. At first the emperor drank it with relish, but in time he tired of it. When the emperor fell ill and his body swelled, Zhongxian largely blamed Weihua. Weihua was terrified. Fearing what might follow, he tried to break with Zhongxian first: he forcefully declined the honors from Ningyuan and Jinzhou, yielded the credit to Yuan Chonghuan, and begged that his own ennoblement be transferred to Yuan. Zhongxian saw through him and issued a stern edict. Before long the Xizong Emperor died, Zhongxian fell, and Weihua, with Yang Weiyuan, patched over his record by every means they could. That October he served as Minister of War with charge over military affairs.

崇禎改元，附璫者多罷去，維華自如。遼東督師王之臣免，代者袁崇煥未至，維華謀行邊自固。帝已可之，給事中顏繼祖極論其罪，言「維華狡人也，璫熾則借璫，璫敗則攻璫。擊楊、左者，維華也。楊、左逮，而陽為救者，亦維華也。以一給事中，三年躐至尚書，無敘不及，有賚必加，即維華亦難以自解。」乃寢前命。頃之，言者踵至，維華乃引退。逆案既定，維華戍徐州，氣勢猶盛。七年，駱馬湖淤，維華言於治河尚書劉榮嗣，請自宿遷抵徐州，穿渠二百餘里，引黃河水通漕，冀敘功復職。榮嗣然其計，費金錢五十餘萬，工不成，下獄論死，維華意乃沮。九年，邊事急，都御史唐世濟薦維華邊才，至，下獄遣戍。維華遂憂憤死。

When the Chongzhen reign began, many who had clung to the eunuch faction were cast out, yet Weihua held on as before. Liaodong commander-in-chief Wang Zhichen was removed; his successor Yuan Chonghuan had not yet arrived, and Weihua planned a border tour to shore up his position. The emperor had already assented, but Supervising Secretary Yan Jizu laid out his crimes at length: "Weihua is a crafty man—when the eunuchs are ascendant he rides their power; when they fall he turns on them. The man who struck down Yang and Zuo was Weihua. When Yang and Zuo were seized, the man who feigned rescue was also Weihua. From supervising secretary to minister in three years—every leap in rank, every gift from the throne—even Weihua cannot account for himself." The earlier order was set aside. Before long accusers came in waves, and Weihua resigned. When the treason cases were settled, Weihua was exiled to Xuzhou, yet he carried himself as proudly as ever. In the seventh year Luoma Lake silted up; Weihua proposed to River Works Minister Liu Rongsi a canal of more than two hundred li from Suqian to Xuzhou to draw Yellow River water into the grain route, hoping the work would win him restoration. Liu Rongsi approved the plan. More than five hundred thousand taels were spent, the work failed, Rongsi was imprisoned and sentenced to death, and Weihua's hopes collapsed. In the ninth year, with the frontier in crisis, Censor-in-Chief Tang Shiji recommended Weihua as a border expert; upon arrival he was thrown into prison and sent into exile. Weihua died of grief and rage.

福王時，楊維坦翻逆案，為維華等訟冤，章下吏部。尚書張捷重述三朝舊事，力稱維華等忠，追賜恤典。贈蔭祭葬謚全者，維華及劉廷元、呂純如、楊所修、徐紹吉、徐景濂六人。贈蔭祭葬不予謚者，徐大化、範濟世二人。贈官祭葬者，徐揚先、劉廷宣、嶽駿聲三人。復官不賜恤者，王紹徽、徐兆魁、喬應甲三人。他若王德完、黃克纘、王永光、章光嶽、徐鼎臣、徐卿伯、陸澄源，名不麗逆案，而為清議所抑者，亦賜恤有差。

Under the Prince of Fu, Yang Weiyuan reopened the treason cases and petitioned to vindicate Weihua and others; the memorial went to the Board of Personnel. Minister Zhang Jie rehearsed the old scandals of three reigns and declared Weihua and the others loyal men; posthumous honors followed. Those granted posthumous office, ennoblement, sacrifices, burial, and a full posthumous title were Weihua, Liu Tingyuan, Lu Chunru, Yang Suoxiu, Xu Shaoji, and Xu Jinglian—six men in all. Those granted posthumous office, ennoblement, sacrifices, and burial but no posthumous title were Xu Dahua and Fan Jishi—two men. Those granted posthumous office and burial honors were Xu Yangxian, Liu Tingxuan, and Yue Junsheng—three men. Those restored to office without condolence honors were Wang Shaohui, Xu Zhaokui, and Qiao Yingjia—three men. Others—Wang Dewan, Huang Kezuan, Wang Yongguang, Zhang Guangyue, Xu Dingchen, Xu Qingbo, and Lu Chengyuan—though not named in the treason cases, had been held down by upright opinion; they too received honors in varying degrees.

徐大化

Xu Dahua

徐大化，會稽人，家京師。由庶吉士改御史，以京察貶官，再起再貶，至工部主事。孫丕揚典京察，坐不謹落職。故事，大計斥退官無復起者。萬曆末，群邪用事，文選郎陸卿榮破例起之。天啟初，屢遷刑部員外郎，結魏忠賢、劉朝，為之謀主。給事中周朝瑞劾其奸貪，御史張新詔抉其閨房之隱，大化頗愧沮。已，承要人指，力詆熊廷弼。及廷弼入關，又請速誅，與朝瑞相訐，尚書王紀劾罷之。尋復罹察典，削職。四年冬，中旨起大理丞，益與魏廣微比，助忠賢為虐。疏薦邵輔忠、姚宗文、陸卿榮、郭鞏等十三人，即召用。俄遷少卿。左僉都御史楊漣等之下獄也，大化獻策於忠賢曰：「彼但坐移宮罪，則無贓可指。若坐納楊鎬、熊廷弼賄，則封疆事重，殺之有名。」忠賢大悅，從之，由是諸人皆不免。尋進左副都御史，歷工部左、右侍郎。皇極殿成，加尚書，貪恣無忌，忠賢亦厭之。七年四月挪移金錢事發，遂勒閑住。後入逆案，戍死。

Xu Dahua was a native of Kuaiji, though his family lived in the capital. From Hanlin academician he was transferred to censor; demoted in the capital inspection, revived and demoted again, he sank to secretary in the Ministry of Works. When Sun Piyang conducted the capital inspection, Dahua was dismissed for inattention. By precedent, officials expelled in the grand review were never restored to office. Late in Wanli, with wicked men holding sway, Bureau Director Lu Qingrong broke precedent and brought him back. Early in Tianqi he rose repeatedly to Vice Director of the Ministry of Justice, allied with Wei Zhongxian and Liu Chao, and became their chief strategist. Supervising Secretary Zhou Chaorui impeached him for wicked greed; Censor Zhang Xinzhao laid bare secrets of his private life; Dahua was shamed and disheartened. Then, at the bidding of powerful men, he savaged Xiong Tingbi. When Xiong Tingbi entered the pass, Dahua again demanded swift execution, quarreled with Zhou Chaorui, and Minister Wang Ji impeached and dismissed him. Before long he again failed the inspection cycle and was stripped of office. In the winter of the fourth year an imperial order revived him as Assistant Director of the Court of Judicial Review; he grew closer to Wei Guangwei and helped Zhongxian in his cruelties. He memorialized recommending Shao Fuzhong, Yao Zongwen, Lu Qingrong, Guo Gong, and thirteen others in all; they were summoned at once. Before long he was promoted to Vice Director. When Left Assistant Censor Yang Lian and the others were thrown into prison, Dahua offered Zhongxian a stratagem: "If they are charged only with the Palace Shift offense, no graft can be pinned on them. Charge them with taking bribes from Yang Hao and Xiong Tingbi, and the weight of frontier affairs will give the executions a righteous name. Zhongxian was delighted and took his advice—and none of the prisoners escaped execution. Before long he was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief and served in turn as Left and Right Vice Minister of Works. When the Huangji Hall was completed he was made Minister; his greed knew no bounds, and even Zhongxian grew weary of him. In the fourth month of the seventh year his embezzlement came to light, and he was compelled to retire. He was later listed in the treason cases, banished to frontier service, and died in exile.

李蕃李魯生李恆茂

Li Fan, Li Lusheng, Li Hengmao

李蕃，日照人。與李魯生皆萬曆四十一年進士。蕃由廬江知縣入為御史，魯生亦方居垣中，皆為魏忠賢心腹。孫承宗請入朝，蕃以王敦、李懷光為比，承宗遂還鎮。朱國禎當國，不為忠賢所喜，蕃希指劾去之。同官排擊忠良，多其代草。始與魯生諂事魏廣微，廣微敗，改事馮銓，銓寵衰，又改事崔呈秀，時號兩人為四姓奴。出督畿輔學政，建祠天津、河間、真定，呼忠賢九千歲。加太僕卿，視御史事。忠賢敗，被劾罷。

Li Fan was a native of Rizhao. He and Li Lusheng both received their jinshi degrees in the forty-first year of Wanli. Fan entered the Censorate from his post as magistrate of Lujiang; Lusheng too was then serving there—both were trusted agents of Wei Zhongxian. When Sun Chengzong asked to come to court, Fan likened him to Wang Dun and Li Huai Guang; Chengzong thereupon returned to his frontier post. Zhu Guozhen was directing state affairs and had fallen out of Zhongxian's favor; Fan divined his intent and impeached him from office. When his colleagues joined in driving out upright officials, he drafted many of their memorials. At first he and Lusheng fawned on Wei Guangwei; when Guangwei fell they transferred their loyalty to Feng Quan, and when Quan's star faded they attached themselves to Cui Chengxiu—people of the time called the pair "slaves of four surnames." Sent out to supervise education in the capital region, he built shrines at Tianjin, Hejian, and Zhending and hailed Zhongxian as "Nine Thousand Years." He was promoted to Director of the Imperial Studs while continuing to perform censorial duties. When Zhongxian fell, he was impeached and removed from office.

魯生，沾化人，知邢臺、邯鄲、儀封、祥符四縣。擢兵科給事中，由座主廣微通於忠賢，卑汙奸險，常參密謀。周起元劾朱童蒙，魯生希忠賢指，攻罷起元。時中旨頻出，朝端以為憂。魯生獨上言：「執中者帝，用中者王，旨不從中出而誰出？」舉朝大駭。內閣缺人，詔舉老成幹濟者。馮銓資淺，年未及四十，魯生、蕃欲令入閣。魯生遂上言：「成即為老，而非必老乎年。幹乃稱濟，而即有濟於國。」銓果柄用。時有「十孩兒」之號，魯生其一也。嘗薦阮大鋮、陳爾翼、張素養、李嵩、張捷輩十一人，悉其私黨。疏詆家居大學士韓爌，削其籍。主事呂下問治徽州吳養春獄，株累者數百家，知府石萬程不能堪，棄官去。魯生反劾罷萬程。遷左給事中，典試湖廣，發策詬楊漣，因歷詆屈原、宋玉等。冒寧、錦功，進太僕少卿。莊烈帝即位，魯生知禍及，疏請免漣等追贓。給事中汪始亨、顏繼祖，御史張三謨交章發其奸，始罷去。御史汪應元再劾之，乃削籍。

Lusheng was a native of Zhanhua and had served as magistrate of Xingtai, Handan, Yifeng, and Xiangfu. Promoted to supervising secretary of the Bureau of Military Affairs, he gained access to Zhongxian through his chief examiner Guangwei—base, corrupt, and treacherous, he was often party to secret plots. When Zhou Qiyuan impeached Zhu Tongmeng, Lusheng divined Zhongxian's wishes and attacked until Qiyuan was driven from office. Direct edicts from the inner court were issuing with growing frequency, and the court looked on with alarm. Lusheng alone memorialized: "He who holds the center is the emperor; he who applies the center is the king—if edicts do not come from the center, from whom should they come? The whole court was appalled. When the Grand Secretariat had vacancies, an edict called for nominations of seasoned and capable men. Feng Quan's credentials were thin and he was not yet forty, yet Lusheng and Fan wanted to install him in the Grand Secretariat. Lusheng then memorialized: "To be seasoned is to be mature in conduct—not necessarily mature in years. To be capable is to be useful—and that is what truly benefits the state. Quan was duly given power. At the time they were called the "Ten Boys," and Lusheng was one of them. He once recommended eleven men—Ruan Dacheng, Chen Eryi, Zhang Suyang, Li Song, Zhang Jie, and others—all members of his private faction. In a memorial he vilified Han Kuang, the Grand Secretary then at home on leave, and had him struck from the register. Chief clerk Lü Xiawen handled the Wu Yangchun case in Huizhou; hundreds of families were swept up in it, and Prefect Shi Wancheng could bear it no longer and resigned his post. Lusheng turned around and impeached Wancheng out of office. Promoted to Left Supervising Secretary, he served as chief examiner for Huguang and set examination questions denouncing Yang Lian, then went on to revile Qu Yuan, Song Yu, and others. By falsely claiming credit for the Ningyuan and Jinzhou campaigns, he was promoted to Vice Director of the Imperial Studs. When the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, Lusheng knew the reckoning was near and memorialized asking that the demand for restitution from Lian and the others be dropped. Supervising secretaries Wang Shiheng and Yan Jizu and censor Zhang Sanmo submitted a barrage of memorials exposing his crimes, and he was finally dismissed. Censor Wang Yingyuan impeached him again, and he was struck from the register.

又有李恒茂者，邢臺人。為禮科給事中，薦呈秀復官，與深相得。劾罷侍郎扶克儉、太僕少卿孫之益、太常少卿莊欽鄰，皆不附忠賢者也。恒茂、魯生、蕃日走吏、兵二部，交通請托，時人為之語曰：「官要起，問三李。」後忽與呈秀交惡，削籍歸。忠賢敗，起故官，為御史鄒毓祚劾罷。逆案既定。魯生遣戍，蕃、恒茂贖徒為民。

There was also Li Hengmao, a native of Xingtai. As supervising secretary of the Bureau of Rites, he recommended Chengxiu's restoration to office and was on the closest terms with him. He impeached and removed Vice Minister Fu Kejian, Vice Director of the Imperial Studs Sun Zhiyi, and Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices Zhuang Qinlin—all men who refused to attach themselves to Zhongxian. Hengmao, Lusheng, and Fan daily haunted the Ministries of Personnel and War, trading favors and pulling strings; people had a saying: "If you want an appointment, ask the Three Lis. Later he suddenly broke with Chengxiu, was struck from the register, and went home. When Zhongxian fell, he was restored to his former post, only to be impeached and dismissed by censor Zou Yuzuo. When the treason cases were settled, Lusheng was banished to frontier service; Fan and Hengmao redeemed their sentences and returned to common life.

閻鳴泰

Yan Mingtai

閻鳴泰，清苑人。萬曆中進士。除戶部主事，屢遷遼東參政，拾遺被劾罷歸。久之，起僉事，分巡遼海。開原既失，經略熊廷弼遣撫沈陽，半道慟哭而返。尋托疾謝歸。天啟二年，起故官，監軍山海關。旋進副使，受知孫承宗，屢疏推薦，而鳴泰實無才略，工諂佞，以虛詞罔上而已。其年八月，廷推鳴泰遼東經略，會承宗自請督師，乃擢右僉都御史，巡撫遼東。自王化貞棄地後，巡撫罷不設。至是承宗以重臣當關，事權獨操，鳴泰不能有所為。明年五月復移疾去，家居三年。魏忠賢竊柄，鳴泰潛結之，用御史智鋌薦，召為兵部右侍郎。

Yan Mingtai was a native of Qingyuan. He received his jinshi degree during the Wanli reign. Appointed a secretary in the Ministry of Revenue, he rose repeatedly to Administer of Liaodong; after submitting a remonstrance he was impeached and sent home. After a long interval he was restored as Assistant Surveillance Commissioner with responsibility for Liaohai. After Kaiyuan fell, Military Commissioner Xiong Tingbi dispatched the Grand Coordinator toward Shenyang; Mingtai turned back halfway along the road, weeping bitterly. Before long he pleaded illness and resigned to go home. In the second year of Tianqi he was restored to his former post to oversee troops at Shanhaiguan. Soon promoted to Vice Commissioner, he won Sun Chengzong's favor and was repeatedly recommended in memorials—yet Mingtai in truth had no gift for strategy; he was adept at flattery and deceit, offering nothing but empty words to mislead his superiors. That year in the eighth month the court deliberation proposed Mingtai as Liaodong military commissioner; but as Chengzong himself requested supreme command, Mingtai was instead promoted to Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and appointed Grand Coordinator of Liaodong. Since Wang Huazhen had abandoned the territory, the post of Grand Coordinator had been left unfilled. Now Chengzong held the pass as a senior minister with sole command of affairs; Mingtai could do nothing. The following year in the fifth month he again pleaded illness and withdrew; he remained at home for three years. When Wei Zhongxian seized power, Mingtai secretly allied with him; through censor Zhi Ting's recommendation he was summoned back as Right Vice Minister of War.

六年正月，寧遠告警，畿輔震驚。內閣顧秉謙等以順天巡撫吳中偉非禦侮才，薦鳴泰代之。未幾，代王之臣總督薊、遼、保定軍務。寧遠敘功，進本部尚書。以繕修山海關城，進太子太傅。尋召還，協理戎政。敘錦州功，加少保。三殿成，加少師兼太子太師。熹宗崩，代崔呈秀為兵部尚書。鳴泰由忠賢再起，專事諂諛。每陳邊事，必頌功德，於薊、遼建生祠，多至七所。其頌忠賢，有「民心依歸，即天心向順」語，聞者咋舌。崇禎初，為言者劾罷。後麗逆案，遣戍死。

In the first month of the sixth year news of danger at Ningyuan sent shock through the capital region. Grand Secretaries Gu Bingqian and others judged that Wu Zhongwei, Grand Coordinator of Shuntian, lacked the talent to repel invasion and recommended Mingtai to replace him. Before long he replaced Wang Zhichen as supreme commander of military affairs in Ji, Liaodong, and Baoding. When merit from Ningyuan was recorded, he was promoted to Minister of War. For overseeing repairs to the walls of Shanhaiguan, he was made Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent. Soon recalled to court, he was put in charge of coordinating military affairs. When credit for Jinzhou was recorded, he was given the title Junior Guardian. When the three main halls were completed, he was made Junior Preceptor and Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent. When Emperor Xizong died, he replaced Cui Chengxiu as Minister of War. Mingtai had been restored through Zhongxian's patronage and devoted himself entirely to flattery. Whenever he spoke of border affairs he always extolled Zhongxian's merit and virtue; in Ji and Liaodong he built living shrines to him—as many as seven. In praising Zhongxian he wrote that "when the people's hearts turn to him, Heaven's will turns in accord"—listeners were left speechless with astonishment. At the outset of the Chongzhen reign he was impeached and driven from office by memorialists. He was later listed in the treason cases, banished to frontier service, and died in exile.

生祠之建

The Building of Living Shrines

生祠之建，始於潘汝禎。汝禎巡撫浙江，徇機戶請，建祠西湖。六年六月疏聞於朝，詔賜名「普德」。自是，諸方效尤，幾遍天下。其年十月，孝陵衛指揮李之才建之南京。七年正月，宣大總督張樸、宣府巡撫秦士文、宣大巡按張素養建之宣府、大同，應天巡撫毛一鷺、巡按王珙建之虎丘。二月，鳴泰與順天巡撫劉詔、巡按倪文煥建之景忠山，宣大總督樸、大同巡撫王點、巡按素養又建之大同。三月，鳴泰與詔、文煥，巡按御史梁夢環建之西協密雲丫髻山，又建之昌平、通州，太僕寺卿何宗聖建之房山。四月，鳴泰與巡撫袁崇煥又建之寧前，宣大總督樸、山西巡撫曹爾禎、巡按劉弘光又建之五臺山，庶吉士李若琳建之蕃育署，工部郎中曾國禎建之盧溝橋。五月，通政司經歷孫如冽、順天府尹李春茂建之宣武門外，巡撫朱童蒙建之延綏，巡視五城御史黃憲卿、王大年、汪若極、張樞、智鋌等建之順天，戶部主事張化愚建之崇文門，武清侯李誠銘建之藥王廟，保定侯梁世勛建之五軍營大教場，登萊巡撫李嵩、山東巡撫李精白建之蓬萊閣、寧海院，督餉尚書黃運泰，保定巡撫張鳳翼、提督學政李蕃、順天巡按文煥建之河間、天津，河南巡撫郭增光、巡按鮑奇謨建之開封，上林監丞張永祚建之良牧、嘉蔬、林衡三署，博平侯郭振明等建之都督府、錦衣衛。六月，總漕尚書郭尚友建之淮安。是月，順天巡按盧承欽、山東巡按黃憲卿、順天巡按卓邁，七月，長蘆巡鹽龔萃肅、淮揚巡鹽許其孝、應天巡按宋禎漢、陜西巡按莊謙，各建之所部。八月，總河李從心、總漕尚友、山東巡撫精白、巡按黃憲卿、巡漕何可及建之濟寧，湖廣巡撫姚宗文、鄖陽撫治梁應澤、湖廣巡按溫臯謨建之武昌、承天、均州。三邊總督史永安。陜西巡撫胡廷晏，巡按謙、袁鯨建之固原太白山。楚王華奎建之高觀山。山西巡撫牟誌夔，巡按李燦然、劉弘光建之河東。

The building of living shrines began with Pan Ruzhen. As Grand Coordinator of Zhejiang, Ruzhen indulged a petition from local workshop operators and built a shrine at West Lake. In the sixth month of the sixth year the memorial reached court, and an edict bestowed the name "Pude." From then on every region followed suit, until the practice had spread nearly across the entire empire. That year in the tenth month, Li Zhicai, commander of the Xiaoling Guard, built one in Nanjing. In the first month of the seventh year, Xuan-Da Governor Zhang Pu, Xuanfu Grand Coordinator Qin Shiwen, and Xuan-Da touring censor Zhang Suyang built shrines at Xuanfu and Datong; Yingtian Grand Coordinator Mao Yilu and touring censor Wang Gong built one at Tiger Hill. In the second month, Mingtai together with Shuntian Grand Coordinator Liu Zhao and touring censor Ni Wenhuan built one at Jingzhong Mountain; Xuan-Da Governor Pu, Datong Grand Coordinator Wang Dian, and touring censor Suyang built another at Datong. In the third month, Mingtai together with Zhao and Wenhuan and touring censor Liang Menghuan built one at Yajishan in western Miyun; others followed at Changping and Tongzhou, and Director of the Imperial Studs He Zongsheng built one at Fangshan. In the fourth month, Mingtai and Grand Coordinator Yuan Chonghuan built one in the Ning-Qian region; Xuan-Da Governor Pu, Shanxi Grand Coordinator Cao Erzhen, and touring censor Liu Hongguang built one at Mount Wutai; Hanlin academician Li Ruolin built one at the Fanyu Office, and Bureau Director Zeng Guozhen built one at Lugou Bridge. In the fifth month, Secretariat clerk Sun Rulie and Shuntian prefect Li Chunmao built one outside Xuanwu Gate; Grand Coordinator Zhu Tongmeng built one in Yansui; the five-city touring censors Huang Xianqing, Wang Danian, Wang Ruoji, Zhang Shu, and Zhi Ting built one in Shuntian; Revenue secretary Zhang Huayu built one at Chongwen Gate; Marquis Li Chengming built one at the Medicine King Temple; Marquis Liang Shixun built one at the Five Armies Grand Drill Ground; Deng-Lai Grand Coordinator Li Song and Shandong Grand Coordinator Li Jingbai built shrines at Penglai Pavilion and Ninghai Courtyard; Grain Transport Minister Huang Yuntai, Baoding Grand Coordinator Zhang Fengyi, Education Intendant Li Fan, and Shuntian touring censor Wenhuan built them at Hejian and Tianjin; Henan Grand Coordinator Guo Zengguang and touring censor Bao Qimo built one at Kaifeng; Upper Forest supervisor Zhang Yongzuo built them at the Livestock, Fine Vegetables, and Forestry offices; Marquis Guo Zhenming and others built them at the Chief Military Commission and the Embroidered-Uniform Guard. In the sixth month, Grain Transport Minister Guo Shangyou built one at Huai'an. That month, Shuntian touring censor Lu Chengqin, Shandong touring censor Huang Xianqing, and Shuntian touring censor Zhuo Mai; in the seventh month, Changlu salt censor Gong Cuisu, Huai-Yang salt censor Xu Qixiao, Yingtian touring censor Song Zhenhan, and Shaanxi touring censor Zhuang Qian—each built one within his jurisdiction. In the eighth month, Grand Canal Director Li Congxin, Grain Transport Minister Shangyou, Shandong Grand Coordinator Jingbai, touring censor Huang Xianqing, and grain-transport censor He Keji built one at Jining; Huguang Grand Coordinator Yao Zongwen, Yunyang pacification commissioner Liang Yingze, and Huguang touring censor Wen Gaomo built shrines at Wuchang, Chengtian, and Junzhou. Three-front supreme commander Shi Yong'an. Shaanxi Grand Coordinator Hu Tingyan and touring censors Qian and Yuan Jing built one at Mount Taibai near Guyuan. Prince of Chu Hua Kui built one at Mount Gaoguan. Shanxi Grand Coordinator Mou Zhikui and touring censors Li Ranran and Liu Hongguang built one in Hedong.

每一祠之費，多者數十萬，少者數萬，剝民財，侵公帑，伐樹木無算。開封之建祠也，至毀民舍二千餘間，創宮殿九楹，儀如帝者。參政周鏘、祥符知縣季寓庸恣為之，巡撫增光俯首而已。鏘與魏良卿善，祠成，熹宗已崩，猶抵書良卿，為忠賢設滲金像。而都城數十里間，祠宇相望。有建之內城東街者，工部郎中葉憲祖竊嘆曰：「此天子幸辟雍道也，土偶能起立乎！」忠賢聞，即削其籍。上林一苑，至建四祠。童蒙建祠延綏，用琉璃瓦。詔建祠薊州，金像用冕旒。

Each shrine cost as much as several hundred thousand taels and no less than tens of thousands, stripping the people's wealth, draining the public coffers, and felling trees beyond reckoning. When the shrine was built at Kaifeng, more than two thousand commoners' homes were torn down, a palace of nine bays was raised, and the ceremonial arrangements rivaled those reserved for an emperor. Administer Zhou Qiang and Xiangfu magistrate Ji Yuyong carried it out without restraint; Grand Coordinator Zengguang merely bowed his head and let them have their way. Qiang was on friendly terms with Wei Liangqing; when the shrine was finished—Emperor Xizong had already died—he still wrote to Liangqing to commission a mercury-gilded golden image of Zhongxian. Within several tens of li of the capital, shrines stood one within sight of the next. One was built on East Street inside the inner city; Bureau Director Ye Xianzu sighed to himself: "This is the road the Son of Heaven takes when visiting the Imperial Academy—can a clay idol rise to receive him? When Zhongxian heard of it, he immediately had Xianzu struck from the register. In the Upper Forest preserve alone, four shrines were built. Tongmeng built a shrine in Yansui roofed with glazed tiles. An edict ordered a shrine built at Jizhou, its gilded statue crowned with the regalia of an emperor.

100

幾疏詞揄揚，一如頌聖，稱以「堯天帝德，至聖至神。」而閣臣輒以駢語褒答，中外若響應。運泰迎忠賢像，五拜三稽首，率文武將吏列班階下，拜稽首如初。已，詣像前，祝稱某事賴九千歲扶植，稽首謝。某月荷九千歲拔擢，又稽首謝。還就班，復稽首如初禮。運泰請以遊擊一人守祠，後建祠者必守。其孝等方建祠揚州，將上梁，而熹宗哀詔至，既哭臨，釋缞易吉，相率往拜。監生陸萬齡至謂：「孔子作《春秋》，忠賢作《要典》。孔子誅少正卯，忠賢誅東林。宜建祠國學西，與先聖並尊。」司業朱之俊輒為舉行，會熹宗崩，乃止。而華奎、誠銘輩，以藩王之尊，戚畹之貴，亦獻諂希恩，祝厘恐後。最後，巡撫楊邦憲建祠南昌，毀周、程三賢祠，益其地，鬻淡臺滅明祠，曳其像碎之。比疏至，熹宗已崩，莊烈帝且閱且笑。忠賢覺其意，具疏偽辭，帝輒報允。無何，忠賢誅，諸祠悉廢，凡建祠者概入逆案雲。

Memorial after memorial praised him in the tones of imperial panegyric, calling him "Yao's heavenly virtue—most holy, most divine." The Grand Secretaries answered in polished parallel prose, and inside and outside the court the chorus rang as one. Yuntai received Zhongxian's image with five bows and three prostrations, then led civil and military officers to rank themselves below the steps and bow and prostrate in the same manner. Then he went before the image, declared that such-and-such a matter had owed everything to the Nine Thousand Years' patronage, and prostrated in thanks. In such-and-such a month he had been raised in rank by the Nine Thousand Years; again he prostrated in thanks. He returned to his place in the ranks and prostrated once more as at the opening ceremony. Yuntai requested that a mobile-detachment commander be posted to guard the shrine; thereafter every man who built a shrine had to do the same. Xu Qixiao and others were raising a shrine at Yangzhou and were about to perform the ridge-beam ceremony when the Xizong Emperor's mourning edict arrived; after the public lament they cast off hemp for bright dress and went in a body to pay homage. Supervising student Lu Wanling even declared: "Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals; Zhongxian wrote the Essential Canon. Confucius executed Shao Zhengmao; Zhongxian destroyed the Donglin. A shrine should be built west of the Imperial Academy, and he should be honored on a par with the Sage." Vice Rector Zhu Zhijun immediately set the plan in motion, but when the Xizong Emperor died it was abandoned. Meanwhile Prince Hua Kui, Cheng Ming, and their like—by the dignity of princes of the blood and the eminence of imperial in-laws—also fawned for imperial favor, scrambling to be first at the blessing rites. Last of all, Grand Coordinator Yang Bangxian built a shrine at Nanchang, tore down the shrine to the sages Zhou and Cheng, expanded the grounds, sold the shrine of Dantai Mieming, dragged out its image, and smashed it. By the time the memorial arrived, the Xizong Emperor was already dead; the Chongzhen Emperor read it and smiled. Zhongxian read his mind and submitted a memorial with a show of declining; the emperor at once assented. Before long Zhongxian was executed, every such shrine was torn down, and every man who had built one was swept into the treason cases.

101

賈繼春

Jia Jichun

102

賈繼春，新鄉人。萬曆三十八年進士。歷知臨汾、任丘二縣，入為御史。李選侍移噦鸞宮，一時頗逼迫，然故無恙也。繼春聽流言，上書內閣方從哲等，略言：「新君禦極，首導以違忤先皇，逼逐庶母，通國痛心。昔孝宗不問昭德，先皇優遇鄭妃，何不輔上取法？且先皇彌留，面以選侍諭諸臣，而玉體未寒，愛妾莫保。忝為臣子，夫獨何心。」給事中周朝瑞駁之，繼春再揭，謂「選侍雉經，皇八妹入井」，至稱選侍為未亡人。楊漣乃上移宮始末疏，謂：「宸宮未定，先帝之社稷為重，則平日之寵愛為輕。及宸居已安，既盡臣子防危之忠，即當體聖主如天之度。臣所以請移宮者如此。而蜚語謂選侍踉蹌徒跣，屢欲自裁，皇妹失所投井。恐釀今日之疑端，流為他年之實事。」帝於是宣敕數百言，極言選侍無狀，嚴責廷臣黨庇。

Jia Jichun was a native of Xinxiang. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-eighth year of Wanli. He served successively as magistrate of Linfen and Renqiu, then entered the capital as a censor. When Consort-select Li was moved from Qianqing Palace, the moment was harsh enough, yet in the end no harm came of it. Jichun listened to rumor and memorialized the Grand Secretariat and Fang Congzhe and the rest, saying in summary: "The new ruler has just ascended the throne, yet is first led to defy the late emperor and drive out his stepmother—the whole realm is heartsick. Emperor Xiaozong once spared Lady Zhao any inquisition, and the late emperor treated Consort Zheng with favor—why not counsel the throne to follow that example? Moreover, when the late emperor lay dying he spoke face to face with his ministers about the Consort-select, yet before his body had even cooled his beloved concubine could not be protected. We disgrace ourselves as his subjects—what hearts can we claim?" Supervising Secretary Zhou Chaorui rebutted him; Jichun submitted again, claiming "the Consort-select tried to hang herself and the emperor's eighth sister threw herself into a well," going so far as to call the Consort-select a widow. Yang Lian thereupon submitted a memorial recounting the whole Palace Shift affair, saying: "While the imperial residence was unsettled, the late emperor's altars of soil and grain were the weightier concern, and his daily favor the lighter. Once the imperial residence was secure, having done all a subject could to ward off peril, one should then embody the sage ruler's heaven-like magnanimity. That is why your subject asked for the move. Yet rumor says the Consort-select staggered about barefoot, repeatedly tried to take her life, and the emperor's sister, lost and desperate, cast herself into a well. I fear this will brew today's suspicions into tomorrow's accepted facts." The emperor thereupon issued an edict of several hundred words, declaring at length the Consort-select's misconduct and sternly rebuking the court for shielding her.

103

時繼春出按江西，便道旋裏，馳疏自明上書之故，中有「威福大權，莫聽中涓旁落」語。王安激帝怒，嚴旨切責，令陳狀。於是御史張慎言、高弘圖連章為求寬。帝益怒，下廷臣雜議。尚書周嘉謨等言：「臣等意陛下篤念聖母，不能忘選侍。及誦敕諭，知聖心自體恤。而繼春誤聽風聞，慎言等又連疏瀆奏。然意本無他，罪當宥。」未報。御史王大年、張捷、周宗建、劉廷宣，給事中王誌道、倪思輝等交章論救，給事、御史復合詞為請，諸閣臣又於講筵救之，乃停慎言、弘圖、大年俸，宥誌道等。既而繼春回奏，詞甚哀，且隱「雉經、入井」二語。帝嚴旨窮詰，令再陳。嘉謨等復力救，帝不許。繼春益窘，惶恐引罪，言得之風聞。乃除名永錮，時天啟元年四月也。其後言者屢請召還，帝皆不納。

At the time Jichun was on inspection tour in Jiangxi; he took a detour home and hurried in a memorial explaining why he had written, including the phrase "the great power of favor and punishment must not be allowed to fall to palace eunuchs on the side." Wang An stirred the emperor to fury; a stern edict sharply rebuked him and ordered a full statement. Thereupon Censors Zhang Shenyan and Gao Hongtu submitted memorial after memorial asking leniency. The emperor grew angrier still and referred the matter to the court for joint deliberation. Minister Zhou Jiamo and the rest said: "We thought Your Majesty deeply cherished the Empress Dowager and could not forget the Consort-select. When we read the edict, we knew the sacred heart already showed compassion of its own. Jichun wrongly listened to rumor, and Shenyan and the rest again submitted repeated memorials in disrespect. Yet their intent was otherwise blameless; the offense should be pardoned." No reply came. Censors Wang Danian, Zhang Jie, Zhou Zongjian, and Liu Tingxuan, and Supervising Secretaries Wang Zhidao and Ni Sihui and others submitted memorials in turn pleading for mercy; the supervising secretaries and censors jointly petitioned again, and the Grand Secretaries also interceded at the lecture audience—only then were Shenyan, Hongtu, and Danian suspended from salary, while Zhidao and the rest were pardoned. Before long Jichun submitted his reply memorial; the language was very plaintive, and he concealed the two phrases "hanged herself" and "threw herself into a well." The emperor issued a stern edict pressing him to the limit and ordered him to state the matter again. Jiamo and the rest again pleaded forcefully for mercy; the emperor would not agree. Jichun grew all the more cornered, confessed in fear and accepted guilt, saying he had heard it on rumor. He was struck from the register and permanently imprisoned; this was in the fourth month of the first year of Tianqi. Afterward memorialists repeatedly asked that he be recalled; the emperor never assented.

104

四年冬，魏忠賢既逐楊漣等，即以中旨召復官。至則重述移宮事，極言：「漣與左光鬥目無先皇，罪不容死。且漣因傅櫆發汪文言事，知禍及，故上劾內疏，先發制人，天地祖宗所必殛。而止坐納賄結黨，則漣等當死之罪未大暴天下。宜速定爰書布中外，昭史冊，使後世知朝廷之罪漣等以不道無人臣禮也。」疏娓娓數百言，且請用楊所修言，亟修《三朝要典》，忠賢大喜。

In the winter of the fourth year, after Wei Zhongxian had driven out Yang Lian and the rest, he recalled Jichun to office by secret edict. On arrival he rehearsed the Palace Shift affair at length, declaring: "Lian and Zuo Guangdou looked on the late emperor with contempt; their crime brooked no death. Moreover, when Lian, through Fu Kai, exposed the Wang Wenyan affair and knew disaster was coming, he submitted an impeachment memorial from within the palace first, striking before being struck—an offense Heaven, Earth, and the imperial ancestors would surely smite. Yet to charge them only with taking bribes and forming factions would leave their capital crimes not fully exposed to all under Heaven. The written verdict should quickly be fixed and published at home and abroad, inscribed in the histories, so that later ages will know the court condemned Lian and the rest for treason and breach of a subject's rites." The memorial ran on eloquently for several hundred words; he also asked that Yang Suoxiu's words be adopted and the Three Reigns Essential Canon be compiled at once—Zhongxian was delighted.

105

莊烈帝即位，繼春方督學南畿，知忠賢必敗，馳疏劾崔呈秀及尚書田吉、順天巡撫單明詡、副都御史李夔龍，群小始自貳。旋由太常少卿進左僉都御史，與霍維華輩力扼正人。崇禎改元五月，給事中劉斯球極言其反覆善幻，乃自引歸。已，楊漣子之易疏訐之，詔削籍。初，繼春以移宮事詆漣結王安圖封拜，後見公議直漣，畏漣向用，俯首乞和，聲言疏非己意。還朝則極詆漣。及忠賢殛，又極譽高弘圖之救漣，且薦韓爌、倪元璐，以求容於清議。帝定逆案，繼春不列名，帝問故。閣臣言繼春雖反覆，持論亦可取。帝曰：「惟反覆，故為真小人。」遂引交結近侍律，坐徒三年，自恨死。

When the Chongzhen Emperor succeeded, Jichun was supervising education in the Southern Capital region; knowing Zhongxian must fall, he hurried in a memorial impeaching Cui Chengxiu and Ministers Tian Ji, Grand Coordinator of Shuntian Shan Mingxu, and Vice Censor-in-Chief Li Kuilong—only then did the petty men begin to waver. Soon he was promoted from Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief and, with Huo Weihua and their like, strove to suppress upright men. In the fifth month of the first year of Chongzhen, Supervising Secretary Liu Siqiu denounced him at length for fickleness and deceit; he thereupon withdrew on his own. Before long Yang Lian's son Zhiyi submitted a memorial denouncing him, and an edict struck him from the register. At first, over the Palace Shift affair Jichun had slandered Lian for colluding with Wang An to win titles and rewards; later, seeing public opinion vindicate Lian, fearing Lian might return to favor, he bowed his head and sued for peace, claiming the memorial had not expressed his own intent. Back at court he savaged Lian all the more. When Zhongxian was executed, he in turn lavishly praised Gao Hongtu for saving Lian and even recommended Han Kuang and Ni Yuanlu, seeking acceptance among the upright. When the emperor settled the treason cases, Jichun's name was not listed; the emperor asked why. The Grand Secretaries said that though Jichun was fickle, his arguments could still be valued. The emperor said: "It is precisely because he is fickle that he is a true petty man." He then invoked the statute on consorting with close attendants, sentenced him to three years' penal servitude, and Jichun died of remorse.

106

田爾耕

Tian Ergeng

107

許顯純

Xu Xianchun

108

顯純，定興人，駙馬都尉從誠孫也。舉武會試，擢錦衣衛都指揮僉事。天啟四年，劉僑掌鎮撫司，治汪文言獄，失忠賢指，得罪，以顯純代之。顯純略曉文墨，性殘酷，大獄頻興，毒刑鍛練，楊漣、左光鬥、周順昌、黃尊素、王之寀、夏之令等十餘人，皆死其手。諸人供狀，皆顯純自為之。每讞鞫，忠賢必遣人坐其後，謂之聽記，其人偶不至，即袖手不敢問。

Xu Xianchun was a native of Dingxing, grandson of the Commandant-in-Chief of the Horse Guard Congcheng. He passed the military metropolitan examination and was promoted to Vice Commander of the Brocade Guard. In the fourth year of Tianqi, Liu Qiao headed the Surveillance Bureau and handled the Wang Wenyan case; he missed Zhongxian's intent and fell from favor, and Xianchun replaced him. Xianchun had some slight learning but a cruel nature; great cases arose one after another, and under torture and forced confession Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Zhou Shunchang, Huang Zunsu, Wang Zhicai, Xia Zhiling, and more than ten others all died by his hand. The confessions of all these men were written by Xianchun himself. At every trial Zhongxian would send a man to sit behind him, called a listening scribe; if that man happened not to come, Xianchun would fold his arms and dare not question.

109

崔應元孫雲鶴楊寰

Cui Yingyuan, Sun Yunhe, Yang Huan

110

應元，大興人。市井無賴，充校尉，冒緝捕功，積官至錦衣指揮。雲鶴，霸州人，為東廠理刑官。寰，吳縣人。隸籍錦衣，為東司理刑。凡顯純殺人事，皆應元等共為之。而寰為田爾耕心腹。及顯純論死，法司止當應元、雲鶴、寰戍。後定逆案，三人並論死，寰先死戍所。

Cui Yingyuan was a native of Daxing. A market ruffian, he served as a guard, falsely claimed merit in arrests, and rose by degrees to Brocade Guard commander. Sun Yunhe was a native of Bazhou and served as judicial officer of the Eastern Depot. Yang Huan was a native of Wu County. Registered with the Brocade Guard, he served as judicial officer of the Eastern Bureau. Every killing Xianchun carried out was done together with Yingyuan and the rest. Huan was Tian Ergeng's trusted man. When Xianchun was sentenced to death, the judicial offices judged only Yingyuan, Yunhe, and Huan fit for exile. Later, when the treason cases were settled, all three were sentenced to death; Huan died first in exile.

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