Wang Zhen (Ming)

Wang Zhen ( Chinese  王振 , Pinyin Wáng Zhèn ; † 1449 ) was a eunuch at the court of the Ming emperors with significant powers and considerable influence over the emperor.

Wang Zhen was one of the first students at the palace school founded in 1426 for the education of eunuchs. Under the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu , who ruled from 1368 to 1398, the eunuchs had lost their influence over the imperial court under threat of the death penalty. The founding of the school was a sign of the increasing importance that the eunuchs were regaining at the imperial court. After completing his education, Wang Zhen rose to become one of the three officials in charge of the court ceremony . As a teacher, he first taught the women living at court, and eventually he became the tutor of the young heir to the throne, Zhengtong . When he had to ascend the throne at the age of eight, Wang Zhen was the first eunuch who again exercised considerable influence on the politics of the imperial court, since he in fact led the affairs of state in place of the child emperor.

Wang Zhen played a pivotal role in the Battle of Tumu Fortress in 1449 - known in China as the Tumu Crisis , the greatest military debacle of the Ming period. During this campaign, which he led, which was supposed to defend against the Mongols ( Oirats ) under Esen Taiji , the 500,000-strong Chinese army was defeated by a small, war-tested Mongolian cavalry unit. The emperor was captured and the Mongols made heavy ransom demands. All senior civil and military officials, including Wang Zhen, were executed.

literature

• Kai Filipiak: War, State and Military in the Ming Period (1368–1644). Effects of military and armed conflicts on power politics and the ruling apparatus of the Ming Dynasty. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05852-0 , pp. 114-119, esp. 118 f.
• Kenneth James Hammond: The Eunuch Wang Zhen and the Ming Dynasty. In: Kenneth James Hammond (Ed.): The Human Tradition in Premodern China (= Human Tradition Around the World. Volume 4). Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Del. 2002, ISBN 978-0-842-02959-9 , pp. 143-156.

Web links

• Wang Zhen . In: Encyclopædia Britannica (accessed July 19, 2016).