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Qiu Shiliang
Qiu Shiliang (仇士良) (died 843), courtesy name Kuangmei (匡美), formally the Duke of Chu (楚公), was an eunuch official of the Chinese dynasty Tang dynasty, becoming particularly powerful after the Ganlu Incident—an event in which Emperor Wenzong tried, but failed, to seize power back from powerful eunuchs by slaughtering them.
It is not known when Qiu Shiliang was born, but it was known that he was from Xun Prefecture (循州, in modern Huizhou, Guangdong). During the brief reign of Emperor Shunzong (805), Qiu became a servant to Emperor Shunzong's crown prince Li Chun, and after Li Chun became emperor later that year (as Emperor Xianzong), he became an imperial attendant, and later served as the eunuch monitor of the army to such circuits as Pinglu (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) and Fengxiang (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi). On an occasion, when both he and the imperial censor Yuan Zhen happened to be at the imperial messenger outpost Fushui (敷水, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), he and Yuan got into a dispute over who had the right to use the main bedroom at the outpost, and he battered and injured Yuan. After the incident, Yuan's superior, the deputy chief imperial censor Wang Bo proposed that the matter be handled per the previous formal policy that whenever an imperial censor and an imperial messenger arrived at the same location, the one who arrived first should have precedence. Emperor Xianzong, favoring Qiu, demoted Yuan, rather than to look further into the matter. Through the rest of Emperor Xianzong's reign and the reigns of his son Emperor Muzong and grandson Emperor Jingzong, Qiu often served as the director of the imperial servants (五坊使, Wufangshi), and it was said that he was harsh to the people, often allowing his subordinates to pillage them.
Around new year 827, Emperor Jingzong was assassinated by a group of eunuchs and officers resentful of his harsh temperament. The conspirators initially tried to make Emperor Muzong's brother Li Wu the Prince of Jiàng emperor, but another group of eunuchs—led by the directors of palace communications Wang Shoucheng and Yang Chenghe (楊承和) and the commanders of the Shence Armies Wei Congjian (魏從簡) and Liang Shouqian (梁守謙), and Qiu, who was then a general of the Shence Army as well, was a part of this group—attacked the conspirators, killing them and Li Wu. This group of eunuchs made Emperor Jingzong's younger brother Li Han the Prince of Jiāng (note different tone) emperor (as Emperor Wenzong). Despite Qiu's participation in the counterattack, however, because Wang suppressed Qiu, Qiu was not rewarded, and from this point on he resented Wang.
As of 835, Emperor Wenzong was conspiring with the officials Zheng Zhu and Li Xun to slaughter the powerful eunuchs. They first wanted to target Wang Shoucheng, and as they knew that Wang and Qiu Shiliang were enemies, in summer 835 Emperor Wenzong made Qiu the commander of the Left Shence Army so that he would divert Wang's authority. Subsequently, after Wang retired, Emperor Wenzong had the eunuch Li Haogu (李好古) send poisoned wine to Wang, and Wang died shortly thereafter.
Wang Shoucheng's death, however, was only a small part of Emperor Wenzong's planning with Zheng Zhu and Li Xun—they planned to use the occasion of Wang's funeral to gather the eunuchs, and then have Zheng's troops (as Zheng was then the military governor (jiedushi) of Fengxiang Circuit) slaughter them. (Unknown to Zheng and Emperor Wenzong, Li Xun had, by this point, grown jealous of Zheng as well, and so was instead gathering troops commanded by his associates Guo Xingyu (郭行餘), Wang Fan (王璠), Luo Liyan (羅立言), Han Yue (韓約), and Li Xiaoben (李孝本) to carry out the slaughter; he planned to, after the slaughter, kill Zheng as well.)
On December 14, 835, six days before the scheduled funeral for Wang, Han reported to Emperor Wenzong, at the imperial meeting hall Zichen Hall (紫宸殿), that there had been sweet dew (甘露, ganlu in Chinese) that appeared on a pomegranate tree outside the headquarters of Zuo Jinwu (左金吾), one of the Wei Army (衛軍) headquarters—viewed as a sign of divine favor. Emperor Wenzong then went to nearby Hanyuan Hall (含元殿) and ordered the imperial officials, including Li Xun, to examine the purported sweet dew. Li Xun soon returned and stated that it appeared that there was no sweet dew; at Li Xun's suggestion, Emperor Wenzong ordered Qiu and his fellow Shence Army commander Yu Hongzhi (魚弘志) to lead the eunuchs in examining the sweet dew. When Qiu and Yu arrived at the Zuo Jinwu headquarters, however, Han had lost his composure, and Qiu realized that something was wrong when he saw soldiers converging and the noise of weapons clanging. He and the other eunuchs immediately ran back to Hanyuan Hall and seized Emperor Wenzong. The soldiers under Luo and Li Xiaoben battled the eunuchs, killing a number of them, but the eunuchs were able to escort Emperor Wenzong back to the imperial palace. Knowing that he had lost this gambit, Li Xun fled.
Once the eunuchs took Emperor Wenzong back to the palace, they realized that Emperor Wenzong was complicit in this plot to slaughter them, and they cursed him and held him. Qiu then ordered the Shence Army officers Liu Tailun (劉泰倫) and Wei Zhongqing (魏仲卿) to search and arrest Li Xun. The Shence Army soldiers took this chance to slaughter many imperial officials and Wei Army soldiers. Eventually, Li Xun and his conspirators were found and executed, along with the chancellors Wang Ya, Jia Su, and Shu Yuanyu, who were not involved in the plot but whom Qiu and the other eunuchs held responsible as well. At Qiu's order, Zheng was killed by the eunuch monitor of Fengxiang, Zhang Zhongqing (張仲卿). From this point on, Qiu was the leading figure at the imperial court, with even Emperor Wenzong under the eunuchs' control. Qiu was given an honorary general title as well as the honorific title of Tejin (特進).
From thereon, few officials dared to stand up to Qiu Shiliang, although late in 835, there was an incident in which Xue Yuanshang (薛元賞) the mayor of Jingzhao Municipality (京兆, i.e., the region of the capital Chang'an) executed a Shence Army officer who was being disrespectful to the chancellor Li Shi, and then met Qiu to apologize. Qiu, knowing that the officer could not be brought back to life, feasted with Xue. In 836, Qiu suggested that Shence Army soldiers guard the palace, instead of the Jinwu Corps (i.e., Zuo Jinwu and You Jinwu), but at the opposition of the advisory official Feng Ding (馮定), Qiu's suggestion was not carried out. At one point, Qiu and Yu Hongzhi were so resentful of Emperor Wenzong that they considered deposing him. They summoned the imperial scholar Cui Shenyou (崔慎由) and asked him to draft an edict in the name of Emperor Wenzong's grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Guo deposing Emperor Wenzong on excuses of his being too ill to govern. Cui resisted, pointing out that it would be inappropriate and that he was willing to risk his own life, but not those of his household of 300 people (i.e., if he committed treason, his household would be slaughtered). Qiu and Yu then led Cui to Emperor Wenzong and, in Cui's presence, made various accusations against Emperor Wenzong, and Emperor Wenzong did not dare to respond. Qiu then stated, "If it were not for the imperial scholar, you would not be allowed to remain on this throne." At Qiu's order, Cui kept this matter secret, but wrote secret records of this incident and left them for his son Cui Yin. (It was said that it was because of this incident that Cui Yin, who would later become chancellor under Emperor Zhaozong, was determined to exterminate eunuchs.)
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Qiu Shiliang
Qiu Shiliang (仇士良) (died 843), courtesy name Kuangmei (匡美), formally the Duke of Chu (楚公), was an eunuch official of the Chinese dynasty Tang dynasty, becoming particularly powerful after the Ganlu Incident—an event in which Emperor Wenzong tried, but failed, to seize power back from powerful eunuchs by slaughtering them.
It is not known when Qiu Shiliang was born, but it was known that he was from Xun Prefecture (循州, in modern Huizhou, Guangdong). During the brief reign of Emperor Shunzong (805), Qiu became a servant to Emperor Shunzong's crown prince Li Chun, and after Li Chun became emperor later that year (as Emperor Xianzong), he became an imperial attendant, and later served as the eunuch monitor of the army to such circuits as Pinglu (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) and Fengxiang (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi). On an occasion, when both he and the imperial censor Yuan Zhen happened to be at the imperial messenger outpost Fushui (敷水, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), he and Yuan got into a dispute over who had the right to use the main bedroom at the outpost, and he battered and injured Yuan. After the incident, Yuan's superior, the deputy chief imperial censor Wang Bo proposed that the matter be handled per the previous formal policy that whenever an imperial censor and an imperial messenger arrived at the same location, the one who arrived first should have precedence. Emperor Xianzong, favoring Qiu, demoted Yuan, rather than to look further into the matter. Through the rest of Emperor Xianzong's reign and the reigns of his son Emperor Muzong and grandson Emperor Jingzong, Qiu often served as the director of the imperial servants (五坊使, Wufangshi), and it was said that he was harsh to the people, often allowing his subordinates to pillage them.
Around new year 827, Emperor Jingzong was assassinated by a group of eunuchs and officers resentful of his harsh temperament. The conspirators initially tried to make Emperor Muzong's brother Li Wu the Prince of Jiàng emperor, but another group of eunuchs—led by the directors of palace communications Wang Shoucheng and Yang Chenghe (楊承和) and the commanders of the Shence Armies Wei Congjian (魏從簡) and Liang Shouqian (梁守謙), and Qiu, who was then a general of the Shence Army as well, was a part of this group—attacked the conspirators, killing them and Li Wu. This group of eunuchs made Emperor Jingzong's younger brother Li Han the Prince of Jiāng (note different tone) emperor (as Emperor Wenzong). Despite Qiu's participation in the counterattack, however, because Wang suppressed Qiu, Qiu was not rewarded, and from this point on he resented Wang.
As of 835, Emperor Wenzong was conspiring with the officials Zheng Zhu and Li Xun to slaughter the powerful eunuchs. They first wanted to target Wang Shoucheng, and as they knew that Wang and Qiu Shiliang were enemies, in summer 835 Emperor Wenzong made Qiu the commander of the Left Shence Army so that he would divert Wang's authority. Subsequently, after Wang retired, Emperor Wenzong had the eunuch Li Haogu (李好古) send poisoned wine to Wang, and Wang died shortly thereafter.
Wang Shoucheng's death, however, was only a small part of Emperor Wenzong's planning with Zheng Zhu and Li Xun—they planned to use the occasion of Wang's funeral to gather the eunuchs, and then have Zheng's troops (as Zheng was then the military governor (jiedushi) of Fengxiang Circuit) slaughter them. (Unknown to Zheng and Emperor Wenzong, Li Xun had, by this point, grown jealous of Zheng as well, and so was instead gathering troops commanded by his associates Guo Xingyu (郭行餘), Wang Fan (王璠), Luo Liyan (羅立言), Han Yue (韓約), and Li Xiaoben (李孝本) to carry out the slaughter; he planned to, after the slaughter, kill Zheng as well.)
On December 14, 835, six days before the scheduled funeral for Wang, Han reported to Emperor Wenzong, at the imperial meeting hall Zichen Hall (紫宸殿), that there had been sweet dew (甘露, ganlu in Chinese) that appeared on a pomegranate tree outside the headquarters of Zuo Jinwu (左金吾), one of the Wei Army (衛軍) headquarters—viewed as a sign of divine favor. Emperor Wenzong then went to nearby Hanyuan Hall (含元殿) and ordered the imperial officials, including Li Xun, to examine the purported sweet dew. Li Xun soon returned and stated that it appeared that there was no sweet dew; at Li Xun's suggestion, Emperor Wenzong ordered Qiu and his fellow Shence Army commander Yu Hongzhi (魚弘志) to lead the eunuchs in examining the sweet dew. When Qiu and Yu arrived at the Zuo Jinwu headquarters, however, Han had lost his composure, and Qiu realized that something was wrong when he saw soldiers converging and the noise of weapons clanging. He and the other eunuchs immediately ran back to Hanyuan Hall and seized Emperor Wenzong. The soldiers under Luo and Li Xiaoben battled the eunuchs, killing a number of them, but the eunuchs were able to escort Emperor Wenzong back to the imperial palace. Knowing that he had lost this gambit, Li Xun fled.
Once the eunuchs took Emperor Wenzong back to the palace, they realized that Emperor Wenzong was complicit in this plot to slaughter them, and they cursed him and held him. Qiu then ordered the Shence Army officers Liu Tailun (劉泰倫) and Wei Zhongqing (魏仲卿) to search and arrest Li Xun. The Shence Army soldiers took this chance to slaughter many imperial officials and Wei Army soldiers. Eventually, Li Xun and his conspirators were found and executed, along with the chancellors Wang Ya, Jia Su, and Shu Yuanyu, who were not involved in the plot but whom Qiu and the other eunuchs held responsible as well. At Qiu's order, Zheng was killed by the eunuch monitor of Fengxiang, Zhang Zhongqing (張仲卿). From this point on, Qiu was the leading figure at the imperial court, with even Emperor Wenzong under the eunuchs' control. Qiu was given an honorary general title as well as the honorific title of Tejin (特進).
From thereon, few officials dared to stand up to Qiu Shiliang, although late in 835, there was an incident in which Xue Yuanshang (薛元賞) the mayor of Jingzhao Municipality (京兆, i.e., the region of the capital Chang'an) executed a Shence Army officer who was being disrespectful to the chancellor Li Shi, and then met Qiu to apologize. Qiu, knowing that the officer could not be brought back to life, feasted with Xue. In 836, Qiu suggested that Shence Army soldiers guard the palace, instead of the Jinwu Corps (i.e., Zuo Jinwu and You Jinwu), but at the opposition of the advisory official Feng Ding (馮定), Qiu's suggestion was not carried out. At one point, Qiu and Yu Hongzhi were so resentful of Emperor Wenzong that they considered deposing him. They summoned the imperial scholar Cui Shenyou (崔慎由) and asked him to draft an edict in the name of Emperor Wenzong's grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Guo deposing Emperor Wenzong on excuses of his being too ill to govern. Cui resisted, pointing out that it would be inappropriate and that he was willing to risk his own life, but not those of his household of 300 people (i.e., if he committed treason, his household would be slaughtered). Qiu and Yu then led Cui to Emperor Wenzong and, in Cui's presence, made various accusations against Emperor Wenzong, and Emperor Wenzong did not dare to respond. Qiu then stated, "If it were not for the imperial scholar, you would not be allowed to remain on this throne." At Qiu's order, Cui kept this matter secret, but wrote secret records of this incident and left them for his son Cui Yin. (It was said that it was because of this incident that Cui Yin, who would later become chancellor under Emperor Zhaozong, was determined to exterminate eunuchs.)