Wang Zhen (eunuch)

Wang Zhen hailed from Shanxi Province, and was possibly originally one of a group of Confucian teachers whom the Yongle Emperor had persuaded to undergo voluntary castration in order to instruct the palace women. If accurate, this background would have given him significant advantages when he entered the palace school for eunuchs (neishutang), which had been established by the Xuande Emperor in 1426. Wang received thorough literary education and administrative training at this school, becoming among the earliest chief eunuchs to benefit from formal education—a development that directly contradicted the Hongwu Emperor's policies against both educating eunuchs and allowing their participation in politics. Prior to the death of the Xuande Emperor, Wang Zhen served as tutor to his son the crown prince, Zhu Qizhen. == Rise to power ==

The sudden death of the Xuande Emperor in January 1435 at age thirty-seven created an institutional crisis. His eight-year-old son Zhu Qizhen succeeded him as the first child emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and thus there was no precedence on how the state would be governed, and his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Zhang eventually emerged as leader of an informal regency that included three veteran grand secretaries - Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu (nicknamed the "Three Yangs") – who had served since the beginning of the Yongle reign, and three senior eunuch officials from the Directorate of Ceremonial, the highest office in the palace eunuch hierarchy. Wang Zhen joined this group in autumn 1435 when appointed to the Directorate at approximately age thirty-three, markedly younger than his colleagues but already influential through his close relationship with the new boy emperor, who viewed him as a mentor and confidant. In 1449, during the Tumu Crisis campaign against the Northern Yuan, he was killed, and the Ming emperor Zhu Qizhen was captured by Oirat Mongols. According to some reports, Wang Zhen was killed by his own officers. == References ==