Liu Jin

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Liu Jin was originally surnamed Tan and came from Xingping in Shaanxi. The History of Ming, vol. 304, states that he was “a man of Xingping, originally a son of the Tan clan; he entered service through a eunuch surnamed Liu and assumed that surname.” During the Jingtai era he reportedly castrated himself, attached himself to a eunuch surnamed Liu, and entered the palace, thereafter using the surname Liu. During the Chenghua reign he supervised the court entertainment establishment and gained imperial favor. During the Hongzhi reign, he committed an offense punishable by death but was pardoned and demoted to tend incense at Maoling. He was later transferred to the Eastern Palace to serve Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao. Liu Jin pleased the prince through theatrical entertainment and comic performance and gradually became one of his favored attendants.

Rise to Power

In 1505, the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming died and Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne as Emperor Wuzong of Ming, the Zhengde Emperor. Liu Jin took charge of the Bell and Drum Office. Together with Ma Yongcheng, Gao Feng, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin, Qiu Ju, Gu Dayong, and Zhang Yong, all favored because of their earlier service to the crown prince, he became one of the “Eight Tigers.” The source describes Liu Jin as cunning, violent, articulate, and fairly knowledgeable about past and present affairs, with a particular admiration for the eunuch Wang Zhen of the Zhengtong era. The group daily offered dogs, horses, hawks, hounds, music, dance, and wrestling entertainments and encouraged the emperor to leave the palace in disguise. Wuzong increasingly trusted Liu Jin and promoted him to the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs with authority over the camp troops.

Liu Jin obstructed implementation of Emperor Xiaozong's testamentary order to abolish eunuch supervision of firearms and gate agencies. He also persuaded Wuzong to require garrison eunuchs to contribute large sums and proposed the creation of imperial estates, which eventually numbered more than three hundred and caused serious disruption around the capital.

In the first month of 1506, Emperor Wuzong gave Liu Jin control of the Five-Thousand Camp. In the sixth month, Grand Secretaries Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang learned of the emperor's constant amusements with the Eight Tigers and repeatedly petitioned for their execution. Minister Zhang Sheng, Supervising Secretaries Tao Xie, Hu Yu, Yang Yiying, Zhang Xie, Censors Wang Huan and Zhao You, and Nanjing officials including Li Guanghan and Lu Kun all submitted remonstrances, but the emperor did not accept them. In the tenth month Yang Yuan, an astronomical official, used unusual celestial phenomena as grounds for remonstrance, and the emperor showed some hesitation. Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and others again submitted memorials. Minister of Revenue Han Wen drafted a joint petition signed by the Nine Ministers and other senior officials.

After receiving the memorial, Emperor Wuzong was shocked and wept, even refusing food. Liu Jin and the other eunuchs became frightened and requested assignment to Nanjing, while the Grand Secretariat insisted on execution. Minister of War Xu Jin warned that dismissal and removal would be sufficient and that forcing matters to an extreme might produce a crisis comparable to the Ganlu Incident.

At the time Wang Yue, a eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and former servant of the Eastern Palace, was known for upright conduct and strongly disliked Ma Yongcheng and the others. Together with Directorate eunuchs Fan Heng and Xu Zhi, he secretly supported Han Wen and the outer-court officials. Emperor Wuzong agreed that arrest warrants would be issued the next morning. Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang, however, was friendly with Liu Jin and disclosed the plan. That night Liu Jin and the other seven rushed before the emperor, knelt around him, and wept. Liu Jin blamed Wang Yue for the accusations and argued that ordinary amusements could not possibly interfere with imperial government. He claimed officials dared to protest only because the Directorate of Ceremonial lacked a sufficiently forceful leader. The emperor became furious and that same night placed Liu Jin in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the camp system, appointed Qiu Ju to the Eastern Depot and Gu Dayong to the Western Depot, and gave Zhang Yong and others responsibilities over the camps. Liu Jin immediately ordered Wang Yue, Fan Heng, and Xu Zhi beaten and exiled to Nanjing.

By the time officials gathered at court the next morning, edicts appointing Liu Jin's group and expelling Wang Yue's faction had already been issued. Liu Jian and others understood that the situation was lost and requested retirement. Liu Jin, acting in the emperor's name, forced Liu Jian and Xie Qian from office, leaving only Li Dongyang in the Grand Secretariat. He later issued false imperial orders to have Wang Yue and Fan Heng killed en route and Xu Zhi's arm broken.

Autocratic Rule and Abuse of Power

After gaining power, Liu Jin became increasingly arbitrary, searching for minor faults among officials and dispatching military police to spy on them. In the third month of 1507 he issued an order in the emperor's name summoning officials to kneel south of the Golden Water Bridge and announced a list of alleged members of a “treacherous faction.” The list included Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Han Wen, Yang Shousui, Zhang Fuhua, Lin Han, Li Mengyang, Wang Shouren, Wang Lun, Sun Pan, Huang Zhao, Liu Rui, and numerous Supervising Secretaries and Censors whom the source describes as widely regarded as upright men. He also required officials of the Six Offices of Scrutiny to attend court from the third watch of the morning until evening and made it harder for civil officials to receive honorific patents.

Liu Jin introduced severe use of the heavy cangue. Officials including Ji Shi, Wang Shizhong, Liu Yi, Zhang Wei, Gu Xuan, Yao Xiang, and Wu Tingju were punished for minor faults, kept in the cangue until close to death, and then sent to frontier garrisons. The source states that countless others died under such punishments and that the prisons of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were filled. Liu Jin disliked Mou Bin, an assistant officer of that guard, for treating prisoners leniently and had him flogged and permanently barred from office. Zhou Xi and Yang Yuan were beaten to death.

Liu Jin often chose moments when the emperor was engaged in games to present official business. Annoyed, Wuzong would wave him away and ask why he had been appointed if he still came to disturb the emperor. Liu Jin thereafter made decisions independently and ceased reporting many matters. The source describes him as poorly educated. He took memorial drafts home and discussed them with his brother-in-law Sun Cong, an administrative officer in the Ministry of Rites, and with Zhang Wenmian of Huating. Their wording was crude and verbose, Jiao Fang polished it, and Li Dongyang could do little more than acquiesce.

At the height of Liu Jin's power, nobles, meritorious officials, and imperial relatives did not dare confront him. When visiting him privately, many knelt. Memorials to the throne were first submitted to Liu Jin on red-covered notices called “red copies” and only afterward passed through the Office of Transmission as “white copies.” Officials referred to him in memorials simply as “Eunuch Liu,” avoiding his personal name. When the Censorate accidentally wrote his name in a legal memorial, Liu Jin angrily rebuked them and Chief Censor Tu Yong led his subordinates in kneeling apology.

Fall and Execution

In the fourth month of 1510, the fifth year of Zhengde, Zhu Zhifan, Prince of Anhua, rebelled in Ningxia under the slogan of attacking Liu Jin and circulated a proclamation listing Liu Jin's crimes. Liu Jin concealed the proclamation and ordered Chief Censor Yang Yiqing and Zhang Yong, another member of the Eight Tigers, to suppress the rebellion.

By this time Liu Jin's domination had alienated the other members of the Eight Tigers, and he had previously tried to force Zhang Yong out. Yang Yiqing himself had earlier been imprisoned because of Liu Jin's accusations. After the rebellion was suppressed, Yang encouraged Zhang Yong to move against Liu Jin. Before the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Zhang Yong entered the capital to present captives. That night, while Liu Jin was outside the palace, Zhang Yong showed the emperor Zhu Zhifan's proclamation and denounced Liu Jin; Ma Yongcheng and other former associates also supported the accusation. Emperor Wuzong ordered Liu Jin arrested and his residences sealed and searched.

Different sources give dramatically different totals for the treasure confiscated. Wang Ao's Long Discourses from Zhenze records more than twelve million taels of gold and nearly 260 million taels of silver. Zhao Yi's Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories records 2.5 million taels of gold and more than fifty million taels of silver. Zhang Han's Collected Summaries of Ming Memorials states only that “several million” in gold and silver were found at his home.

According to the History of Ming, Emperor Wuzong initially intended only to demote Liu Jin and send him to Fengyang. During the search of his residence, however, private seals, five hundred palace-entry plaques, military armor, bows and crossbows, a dragon robe, jade belts, and two sharp daggers concealed in a fan were discovered. The emperor became enraged and had Liu Jin imprisoned. During trial, Liu Jin implicated numerous officials who had depended on him and finally confessed under interrogation by Imperial Son-in-law Cai Zhen. On the twenty-fifth day of the eighth month of Zhengde 5, identified in the timeline as September 16, 1510, Liu Jin was executed by lingchi and his severed head displayed publicly. The sentence and images of the execution were circulated throughout the empire. Deng Zhicheng's Further Notes on Antiques records that he was cut 4,200 times. After his death, the Inner Branch Depot and Western Depot were abolished, leaving only the Eastern Depot. His followers were executed or demoted and the institutional changes associated with his rule were reversed.

His Surname, His Entry into the Palace and His Early Years There

Liu Jin was a man of Xingping in Shaanxi, originally of the Tan surname, by another account Dan; in the Jingtai period he castrated himself, and entering the palace in dependence on a eunuch surnamed Liu he took that surname. In the Chenghua period Liu Jin had charge of the music office. Under Emperor Xiaozong he was chosen to attend the heir apparent; and earlier he had been condemned to death by law and escaped, after which he came to attend the Wuzong emperor in the eastern palace. His father Liu Rong, originally named Tan Rong, by another account Dan, claimed the surname Liu by imperial gift, and in the third month of the third year of Zhengde was given posthumously the rank of deputy commander of the rear central army.

His Service of Emperor Wuzong in the Eastern Palace, the Eight Tigers, and His Advancement

When Wuzong came to the throne Liu Jin had charge of the bell and drum office, and with Ma Yongcheng, Gao Feng, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin, Qiu Ju, Gu Dayong and Zhang Yong he was favoured for old services, and men called them the eight tigers, Liu Jin being the craftiest and most cruel. He had admired the character of Wang Zhen, and daily offered falcons and hounds, songs and dances and wrestling, leading the emperor out in disguise; and Wuzong delighted in it greatly and came gradually to trust Liu Jin, promoting him to the palace directorate and to the command of the capital camps. The testament of Xiaozong had abolished the eunuch supervision of guns and of the several city gates and offices, and Liu Jin shelved it all and would not carry it out, but urged the emperor to have the eunuch governors each contribute ten thousand in gold; and he memorialised to set up imperial estates, which grew by degrees to more than three hundred, greatly disturbing the capital region. In the first month of the first year of Zhengde the emperor put Liu Jin, eunuch of the inner palace of the two central companies of the divine mechanism camp, in charge of the five thousand camp.

The Fall of Liu Jian, Xie Qian and Wang Yue

In the sixth month of the first year of Zhengde the grand secretary Liu Jian, learning that Wuzong was sporting without measure with Liu Jin and the seven others, memorialised again and again asking that they be put to death, in words most earnest and plain, but Wuzong gave no answer; and the minister Zhang Sheng, the supervising secretaries Tao Xie, Hu Yu, Yang Yiying and Zhang Hui, the censors Wang Huan and Zhao You, and the Nanjing supervising secretaries and censors Li Guanghan and Lu Kun and others memorialised one after another, and were not heeded either. The minister Han Wen, on the ground of a change in the stars, memorialised in remonstrance, at which Wuzong was somewhat moved; and Liu Jian and Xie Qian memorialised again and again asking the death of Liu Jin, and the minister of revenue Han Wen and others memorialised too. When the memorials had been presented Wuzong wept in horror and would not even eat, and Liu Jin and the other eunuchs were much afraid and asked of themselves to be settled at Nanjing; but the grand secretariat insisted on their death and would not agree to their being sent to Nanjing. At that time the eunuch of the directorate of ceremonies Wang Yue had also been an old servant of Wuzong in the eastern palace, and was by nature upright and much hated the doings of Ma Yongcheng and the rest, and with the eunuchs of the directorate Fan Heng and Xu Zhi he helped Han Wen and the others to speak secretly to the emperor, who agreed that on the morrow at dawn a decree should be issued arresting Liu Jin and the rest and putting them in prison. But the minister of personnel Jiao Fang had long been friendly with Liu Jin and disclosed the plan of Han Wen and the others to him; and Liu Jin and the rest, having also spied out the secret report of Wang Yue and the others, came by night before Wuzong, eight of them, and kneeling about him wept, saying that but for the emperor's grace they would have been cut to pieces and thrown to the dogs. Wuzong's countenance changed somewhat, and Liu Jin took the chance to say that it was Wang Yue who had ruined them, and asked whether Wang Yue had bought and presented any of the hounds and horses and falcons he spoke of, and whether the fault should be laid on them alone. Wuzong said in anger that he would arrest Wang Yue, and Liu Jin said that hounds and horses and falcons could do no harm to an emperor in the midst of ten thousand affairs, and that the officials dared to clamour so unrestrainedly because there was no man in the directorate of ceremonies; but that if there were, then the emperor might do as he pleased and who would dare speak. Wuzong in great anger that night made Liu Jin director of the directorate of ceremonies, Qiu Ju inspector of the Eastern Depot, Gu Dayong inspector of the Western Depot, and Zhang Yong with the rest in charge of the capital camps, each holding a key post; and Liu Jin by night had Wang Yue, Fan Heng and Xu Zhi tortured and banished to Nanjing, of which the outer court knew nothing. When the ministers next morning knelt below the court, the decree appointing Liu Jin and the rest and banishing Wang Yue and the others had already gone down. Liu Jian and the others, knowing that nothing could now be done, each memorialised asking to retire, and Liu Jin by forged decree compelled Liu Jian and Xie Qian to retire, only Li Dongyang remaining in office; and this was because in the council of the grand secretariat Liu Jian had overturned the table and wept and Xie Qian had cursed Liu Jin and the rest without ceasing, while Li Dongyang alone had kept somewhat silent, and so was left. Presently Liu Jin by forged decree had Wang Yue and Fan Heng killed on the road and Xu Zhi's arm broken, so that he escaped death.

The Killing and Expulsion of the Court Officials, and the Inner Depot

The supervising secretary of the criminal section, Lü Chong, and others memorialised to impeach Liu Jin for flattering his way to power and driving out the testamentary ministers of the late emperor, asking that Liu Jian and Xie Qian be kept and Liu Jin brought to justice; and the six offices of supervising secretaries at Nanjing, Dai Xian and others, memorialised asking that the monopolizing eunuch be dismissed to set the state's law right and the assisting grand secretaries kept. Liu Jin by forged decree sent guards of the embroidered-uniform guard to arrest Dai Xian, Bo Yanhui and the rest and put them in the guard prison; and presently Lü Chong, Liu Yu with Dai Xian and Bo Yanhui, twenty in all, were each given the court beating and reduced to commoners. Liu Jin begrudging Han Wen, sent men to watch for his faults daily; and it happening that among the commuted silver paid into the inner treasury some was false, Liu Jin by forged decree said that Han Wen had failed to guard against wickedness, and had him dismissed to live at leisure, and Han Wen's sons, the prefect of Gaotangzhou Han Shicong and the secretary of the ministry of justice Han Shiqi, were both reduced to commoners. The defender of Nanjing, the earl of Wujing Zhao Chengqing, the prefect Lu Heng and the minister Lin Han were all in trouble for passing on the memorials of Lü Chong and the others, and Lu Heng and Lin Han were compelled to retire and Zhao Chengqing had half his stipend cut; and the vice censor-in-chief of Nanjing Chen Shou, the censors Chen Lin and Wang Liangchen and the secretary Wang Shouren were again variously punished and beaten for saving Dai Xian and the others. Liu Jin's power grew daily more arrogant: he picked out the trifling faults of the officials, sent guards far and near to spy, and would not let men save or plead for one another, so that he wielded majesty and favour at will and sent his party of eunuchs to hold the frontier garrisons; and in reckoning the merit of Datong he advanced officers and guards to more than a thousand five hundred and sixty, and by decree gave the rank of the embroidered-uniform guard to several hundred. When the Essentials of the Mirror was finished Liu Jin falsely accused the Hanlin compilers of careless copying and had them all reproved, and then had the writing-office officers of the Wenhua hall, Zhang Jun and the others, copy it again and promoted them out of course, Zhang Jun being raised from the chief ministership of the palace banquets to be minister of rites, several others being given high capital offices, and even the mounting craftsmen and menial servants being given office. He invented the use of the cangue: the supervising secretary Ji Shi, the censor Wang Shizhong, the directors Liu Yi and Zhang Wei, the master of the seal Gu Xuan, the deputy commissioner Yao Xiang and the consultant Wu Tingju were all seized on trifling faults and cangued until near death, and only then released and sent to the frontier, while those cangued to death were beyond counting; and the guard prison was crowded with prisoners, Liu Jin hating the assistant commander of the guard Mou Bin for treating the prisoners well and having him beaten and confined, while the assistant of the prefecture Zhou Xi and the fifth watch observer Yang Yuan were beaten to death, Yang Yuan being the man who had once spoken on the change in the stars and offended Liu Jin. Whenever Liu Jin memorialised he would make sure it was a time when the emperor was at his sport, and the emperor, wearied, would wave him off and ask what he was there for, to come and disturb him; and from this Liu Jin decided everything himself and reported no more. In the sixth month of the third year of Zhengde someone dropped a letter on the stone steps before the palace, and the emperor had it picked up and presented, and it proved to accuse Liu Jin of lawless deeds; and Liu Jin in great anger by forged decree had the hundred officials kneel below the Fengtian gate while he stood at the left of the gate and questioned them, and the weather being then fiercely hot more than ten fell from sunstroke, whom Liu Jin had dragged away, and at dusk he put all the officers of the fifth rank and below into the guard prison; and the next day Li Dongyang memorialised to save them, and Liu Jin, learning somewhat that the letter was written by a eunuch, at last released the imprisoned officials, while the secretary He Yi, the judge of Shuntian Zhou Chen and the presented scholar Lu Shen had already died of sunstroke. That day of great heat the eunuch Li Rong gave the ministers iced melon, which Liu Jin resented; and the eunuch Huang Wei in great anger told the ministers that what the letter said was all for the state and the people, and that whoever wrote it should stand up and own it, for even in death he would be a good man, and asked why others should be wrongfully involved; and Liu Jin in great anger that day had Li Rong dismissed to live at leisure and drove Huang Wei to Nanjing. At that time the searchers of the Eastern and Western Depots went everywhere and the roads were in dread, and Liu Jin further set up the inner depot, which was yet more cruel, wounding men by the finest points of the law so that none escaped; he drove out all the sojourners and hired labourers of the capital, ordered all widows to remarry and had the unburied dead burned, so that the capital was in confusion and well nigh in disorder; and the supervising secretary of the general office, Xu Tianxi, wishing to impeach Liu Jin and fearing he could not, embraced his memorial and hanged himself. The inner depot was set up in the eighth month of the third year of Zhengde and was held directly by Liu Jin, and the people of the capital thought its punishments more cruel than those of the Eastern and Western Depots.

His Overweening Power

At that time Liu Jin's power overshadowed the realm and he dealt out majesty and favour at will. A criminal having drowned, he had the censor Kuang Yi convicted. He once sought a bribe of the academician Wu Yan and not getting it, and listening to the slander of the censor-in-chief Liu Yu, was angry with the censor Yang Nanjin, and in the memorial on the assessment of provincial officials had both dismissed; he made Yang Bin, the native chief of Bozhou, assistant commissioner of Sichuan, and had the husband of his slave's daughter, Lü Jie, supervise the schools of Shandong. From the dukes and marquises, the meritorious ministers and the consort kin downward, none dared treat him as an equal, and all who came privately to see him bowed to him in turn; the memorials of officers and people were first sent to Liu Jin on a red-covered sheet, called the red copy, and then to the office of transmission, called the white copy, and all addressed him as the eunuch Liu without his name; and when the censorate in memorialising on a case mistakenly wrote Liu Jin's name, Liu Jin cursed them, and the censor-in-chief Tu Yong with his subordinates knelt and apologised before he desisted. He sent envoys to inspect the frontier granaries, and the censor-in-chief Zhou Nan, Zhang Nai, Ma Zhongxi, Tang Quan and Liu Xian, and officers from the provincial administrators down, Sun Lu, Mao Zheng, Fang Ju, Hua Fu, Jin Xianmin, Liu Xun, Guo Xu and Zhang Yi, with the directors Liu Yi and Wang Jin, were all on their former offences put in prison and made to make up frontier grain, Liu Xian dying in prison; and he inspected the salt dues, beating the salt censor Wang Run and arresting the former transport commissioners Ning Ju and Yang Qi; and he inspected the inner Jia treasury, degrading the minister Wang Zuo and a hundred and seventy-three others. He invented again the law of fines in grain, and all who had ever crossed him were discovered and made to send grain to the frontier, so that the former ministers Yong Tai, Ma Wensheng, Liu Daxia, Han Wen and Xu Jin, the censors-in-chief Yang Yiqing, Li Jin and Wang Zhong, the vice-ministers Zhang Jin and the supervising secretaries Zhao Shixian and Ren Liangbi, the censors Zhang Jin, Chen Shun, Qiao Shu, Nie Xian and Cao Laixun, several tens of men in all, were ruined, and those who had died had their wives and children imprisoned. He sent his party to measure the frontier garrison lands, with harsh exactions, and the frontier troops could not bear it and burned the public offices, and only the persuasion of the defending ministers quieted them. He also changed the old system and ordered the grand coordinators of the realm to come to the capital to receive their commissions and pay him bribes: the grand coordinator of Yansui, Liu Yu, not coming, was arrested and imprisoned, and the grand coordinator of Xuanfu, Lu Wan, arriving late, was near being punished and only after a bribe was allowed to hold office on trial. When commanders of the guard and below sought promotion Liu Jin wrote on a slip of paper that So-and-so be given such an office, and the ministry of war carried it out at once and dared not memorialise again; and frontier commanders who broke the law, if a bribe came in, were not questioned and some were even promoted. He openly sought bribes of the court officials, and every officer who came to court or went on a mission made him a rich present, the supervising secretary Zhou Yue killing himself when he had no gold on returning from a mission; and his partisan Zhang Cai told him that what the realm gave him was not all private wealth, for men would borrow in the capital and repay from the public stores when they got home, and asked him why he should gather resentment and leave trouble behind; and Liu Jin agreed with him, and when the censor Ouyang Yun and more than ten others came with the customary gifts Liu Jin exposed them all and had them convicted; and he then sent fourteen supervising secretaries and censors to audit the several circuits, and the officers concerned vied in collecting wealth to fill the treasuries. Those sent all fell in with Liu Jin's mind and did nothing but strike, impeaching the ministers Gu Zuo, Lü Zhong, Han Wen and several tens of others downward; the Zhejiang salt transport commissioner Yang Qi being dead and still owing the dues, his granddaughter was even sold; and the supervising secretaries An Kui and Pan Xizeng and the censors Zhao Shizhong, Ruan Ji, Zhang Yu and Liu Zili were put in prison for not producing a major impeachment, and An Kui and Zhang Yu being cangued near death, only Li Dongyang's memorial saved them and they were released to be commoners, while Pan Xizeng and the rest were also beaten and dismissed. He forged decrees to confiscate the houses of the former censor-in-chief Qian Yue, the vice-minister of rites Huang Jing and the minister Qin Hong; and of all whom Liu Jin arrested, if one in a household offended, the whole neighbourhood was punished, and those who lived by the river had the people on the further bank punished with them. He raised great cases again and again, so that cries of wrong filled the roads. When the Veritable Record of Xiaozong was finished the Hanlin who had taken part should have been promoted, but Liu Jin, hating the Hanlin for never having bowed to him, transferred the expositor Wu Yipeng and fifteen others to the six ministries at Nanjing.

The Rising of the Prince of Anhua and the Killing of Liu Jin by Zhang Yong

In the fourth month of the fifth year the prince of Anhua, Zhu Zhifan, rebelled and sent out a proclamation numbering Liu Jin's crimes; and Liu Jin began to be afraid, hid the proclamation, and employed the censor-in-chief Yang Yiqing and the eunuch Zhang Yong as commanders to go against him. At first those who with Liu Jin had made the eight tigers, when Liu Jin held power, had their requests mostly refused, and Ma Yongcheng and Gu Dayong and the rest all resented him; and Liu Jin wished also to drive out Zhang Yong, who only escaped by a trick; and when Zhang Yong returned from the campaign he meant to take the chance to kill Liu Jin, and Yang Yiqing framed the plan for him, and Zhang Yong made up his mind. Liu Jin loved to gather magicians, and one Yu Riming falsely said that Liu Jin's great-nephew Erhan would be greatly honoured; the eunuch of the ordnance bureau Sun He several times sent him armour and weapons, and the garrison eunuchs of the two Guangs, Pan Wu and Cai Zhao, made him crossbows, all of which Liu Jin kept in his house. Zhang Yong's report of victory came to court and the captives were to be presented on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, and Liu Jin had him put off the date; and Zhang Yong, fearing a change, came to the capital before the time, and when the presentation was over the emperor set wine to thank him with Liu Jin and the rest in attendance. At night, when Liu Jin had withdrawn, Zhang Yong brought out Zhu Zhifan's proclamation and memorialised on seventeen lawless acts of Liu Jin; and the emperor, already somewhat drunk, bowed his head and said that Liu Jin had failed him, and Zhang Yong said it could not wait, and Ma Yongcheng and the others helped him. So the emperor ordered Liu Jin's arrest and had him held in the vegetable yard, sending officers and guards to seal his houses within and without. The next day after the morning audience the emperor showed Zhang Yong's memorial to the grand secretariat and degraded Liu Jin to be an attendant of the imperial household, to live at Fengyang. The emperor then confiscated his property with his own hand, taking a false seal, five hundred palace passes and armour, bows and crossbows, robes and jade belts and other forbidden things, and in the fan he always carried two sharp daggers; and only then was the emperor angry, saying that the slave would indeed rebel, and had him hurried to prison. The case being complete, the emperor decreed that he be torn apart in the market and his head hung up, and that the record of the case and a picture of the execution be proclaimed through the realm; his clan and his party were all put to death, Zhang Cai dying in prison and his body being torn apart, and of the grand secretaries Jiao Fang, Liu Yu and Cao Yuan and below, the ministers Bi Heng and Zhu En and more than sixty in all, all were degraded. Afterwards the court officials memorialised that the laws Liu Jin had changed numbered twenty-four in the ministry of personnel, more than thirty in the ministry of revenue, eighteen in the ministry of war and thirteen in the ministry of works, and the emperor decreed that all be set right as before.

Major Activities

Political Activities

During Liu Jin's period of power, he altered a number of Ming administrative practices, changes sometimes collectively called the “Liu Jin reforms.” He sent commissioners to inspect frontier granaries. Officials including Zhou Nan, Zhang Nai, Ma Zhongxi, Tang Quan, Liu Xian, Sun Lu, Mao Zheng, Fang Ju, Hua Fu, Jin Xianmin, Liu Xun, Guo Xu, Zhang Yi, Liu Yi, Wang Jin, and others were charged with old and new offenses, imprisoned, and ordered to make up grain shortages; Liu Xian died in prison. Liu Jin also investigated salt revenues, had Salt Censor Wang Run flogged, and arrested former salt administrators Ning Ju and Yang Qi. When he inspected the Inner Jia Storehouse, 173 officials from Minister Wang Zuo downward were demoted.

In the eighth month of 1508 Liu Jin introduced a grain-fine system. Officials who had opposed him were ordered to supply grain to frontier areas. Former ministers Yong Tai, Ma Wensheng, Liu Daxia, Han Wen, Xu Jin, Chief Censors Yang Yiqing, Li Jin, Wang Zhong, Vice Minister Zhang Jin, Supervising Secretaries Zhao Shixian and Ren Liangbi, Censors Zhang Jin, Chen Shun, Qiao Shu, Nie Xian, Cao Laixun, and dozens of others were financially ruined. Even after an official died, his wife and children could be detained.

Because of his hostility toward Xie Qian, Liu Jin ordered that men from Yuyao could not receive capital appointments. Because Jiao Fang disliked Peng Hua, Liu Jin used the alleged conspiracy of the Champa envoy Yaliu to reduce the Jiangxi provincial examination quota and bar Jiangxi candidates from capital appointments. At the same time he increased quotas in Shaanxi and Henan to favor candidates from his own and Jiao Fang's home regions.

Secret-Police Rule

To strengthen control over the eunuch establishment, Liu Jin created the Inner Branch Depot in 1508, placing its authority above the Eastern Depot and Western Depot. The source states that officials, soldiers, and civilians were frequently punished for minor legal matters and that several thousand were killed outside normal legal procedure, while major prison cases produced extensive collective punishment and miscarriages of justice. In the summer of 1507, after an anonymous letter attacked Liu Jin, he forged an imperial edict summoning the officials to kneel in extreme heat outside Fengtian Gate. By evening all officials below the fifth rank were jailed. They were released only after Li Dongyang intervened and it was learned that the letter had been written by a eunuch; three officials had already died from heatstroke.

Conduct and Political Connections

At the height of Liu Jin's power, Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning, who was planning rebellion, bribed Liu Jin to restore his former guards. Liu Jin granted the request, helping create conditions for Zhu Chenhao's later revolt. Liu Jin demanded a bribe from the scholar Wu Yan and, when refused, accepted slander from Chief Censor Liu Yu and used the evaluation of provincial officials to remove Wu Yan and Censor Yang Nanjin. He also appointed Yang Bin, a native chieftain of Bozhou, as Surveillance Commissioner of Sichuan and placed Lü Jie, the son-in-law of one of his household slaves, in charge of educational supervision in Shandong.

His Changes to the Institutions

In Liu Jin's time many changes were made in the institutions. In the intercalary first month of the second year of Zhengde the eunuch Li Rong conveyed a decree that the ministry of personnel should list the offices added since Tianshun, and thereafter the court abolished a great number of posts added since that time; the more important abolitions were three. The first was in the second month of the second year of Zhengde, when the ministry of personnel memorialised that the posts great and small added since Tianshun numbered a hundred and twenty-nine, of which seventy could not be abolished for the weight of their ground and the multitude of their business and fifty-nine, not being in vital places and their business being simple, could be; and a hundred and twenty-four were in fact abolished. The second was in the third month of the same year, when four hundred and forty-five posts of assistant prefects and the like added since Tianshun were abolished. The third was in the third year of Zhengde, when Liu Jin, holding that the grand coordinatorship was not in the old system, wished to abolish all the grand coordinators of the realm, and being dissuaded by the grand secretariat, abolished only those of the interior, leaving those of the grain transport and the frontier; and the grand coordinators abolished in his time were those of Yunnan, Guizhou, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Yunyang, Jizhou, Baoding, Susong and Fengyang, eleven in all. Besides these, in the third year posts of assistant magistrates and recorders added in some local governments and certain flowing offices in minority regions were abolished. In the restraint of hereditary privilege the measures were chiefly of two kinds: in posthumous grants to officials and consort kin the range was narrowed, so that in the second year of Zhengde only those of the first and senior first rank with merit might have their grants added, while those from the second to the fifth rank were not to receive them whatever their merit, and the meritorious ministers must have military merit and the civil officers of the second rank and above conspicuous merit; and in the hereditary enrolment of sons the standards were made strict, the third month of the second year fixing the limits and ordering the officers to examine the old cases and memorialise. In promotion the Hanlin, whose advancement had been by the grand secretariat's choice, were now to be listed by the ministry of personnel for the emperor's decision, and many Hanlin officers were transferred to posts in the ministries or the provinces. In the first month of the third year the ministry of personnel and the censorate were ordered to assess the officers of the realm, and eighteen were retired, thirty-three given nominal rank and thirty-three reduced, five made commoners, fifty-six in all dismissed, for such causes as overstaying mourning, arriving late at a post or overlong sick leave, all punished alike whatever their rank. In the examination quotas, in the third year of Zhengde on the advice of the ministry of rites and the Hanlin the provincial quota of Shaanxi was raised from sixty-five to a hundred, of Henan from eighty to ninety-five, of Shandong from seventy-five to ninety and of Shanxi from sixty-five to ninety; and in the first month of the fifth year the Jiangxi provincial quota was cut by fifty. The metropolitan quota was also changed: Sichuan was taken out of the southern roll with ten places added and moved into it, and the middle roll of Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and the two prefectures of Fengyang and Luzhou with the three departments of Chu, Xu and He was moved into the northern roll, each roll taking a hundred and fifty; and because what Sichuan gained was far less than what the rest of the middle roll gained, the candidates of the northern roll benefited greatly, its places rising to equal the southern roll's. In military posts the assistant commander of Shaanxi was restored: there had been none there originally, and in the sixteenth year of Hongzhi, the frontier being then quiet, the assistant commander, the assistant general and the guerrilla of Shaanxi had been abolished; and in the fifth month of the fifth year of Zhengde, the ministry of war asking to restore the assistant commander, Liu Jin had the ministry find out who had proposed its abolition, and holding that the abolition proposed by Liu Daixia and Qin Hong had been a change of the old system, restored the office with a fixed establishment and heavy penalties for any who asked to abolish it; and the defender of Dezhou too was restored. By the Wanli gleanings, at the metropolitan examination of the third year it was said that Liu Jin put the names of fifty men on a slip of paper into the examination hall, and that the examiners demurring he added fifty places for them, among whom were the sons of his partisans Jiao Fang and Liu Yu and others.

His Auditing of the Frontier Stores and His Restraint of Trade and Military Farming

From the second year of Zhengde Liu Jin organized great bodies of officers to audit the grain, fodder and horses of Xuanfu, Datong, Ningxia, Sichuan, Guizhou, Huguang, Liaodong, Gansu and Yansui, chiefly Xuanfu, Datong, Gansu and Liaodong and secondarily Guizhou and Huguang, making a strict reckoning of the frontier military stores; and the auditing officers, having found the amounts, reported to the court, and there followed the punishment of those concerned, the local officers being mostly convicted of lax law, bad management, no method in direction and carelessness in inspection which had caused the grain to rot, and being arrested, imprisoned, dismissed, sent to the frontier, made commoners or fined in grain. In the salt administration, in the autumn of the third year Liu Jin memorialised to send supervising secretaries and censors to oversee the transport officers and sell up all the salt hoarded by merchants and send the silver to the capital, and the ministry of revenue agreed that one supervising secretary and one censor should go by post to the Lianghuai transport office. In military farming the frontier grain had fallen sharply: in Liaodong, for instance, the garrison fields of the early Zhengde period were more than eighteen thousand qing and the grain more than forty-six thousand shi fewer than under Yongle, because most of the garrison soldiers had fled; and Liu Jin from the third year sent officers everywhere to measure the frontier garrison lands to recover them, and in the ninth month of the fourth year had also the lands of the frontier commanders measured, and after the measuring decreed standards for the land the local commanders might hold and strictly proclaimed that any who asked for or swallowed land would be heavily punished; and having achieved some effect, in the fourth month of the fifth year the court recalled the land-measuring officers. In the annual frontier subsidy, in the third month of the third year the ministry of revenue asked that the annual silver be sent as of old to Datong, Xuanfu, Liaodong, Ningxia, Yansui and Gansu; and Liu Jin held that in Hongwu and Yongle there had been no such annual silver, and that the frontier garrisons having military farms and the offices and prefectures their yearly grain and fodder there was enough for frontier expenses, and that the frontier officers who repeatedly memorialised that money was lacking were suspected of conspiring with officers within and without to steal the treasury's silver and of waste; and so the annual silver was abolished and the officers concerned punished. In the hereditary rank of meritorious ministers, in the eleventh month of the first year the censor Li Xi memorialised that the sons and grandsons of dukes, marquises and earls due to inherit should be sent to the military school and that those who failed for three years should have their rank reduced step by step; and the ministry of war, holding that this touched the rule that rank was inherited undiminished, changed it to testing only, so that he who failed the test might inherit but with half his stipend, this being carried out until Liu Jin's fall in the fifth year when it was corrected as one of his changes of the old system. In the garrison eunuchs, in the first month of the second year the eunuch defender of Sichuan, Luo Yue, asked for discretionary powers and the other garrison eunuchs memorialised the same, and that month it was decreed that the garrison eunuchs might take part in criminal cases; and they not only meddled in local government but held military charges elsewhere, as in the fourth month of the second year when the assistant of the Zhiyong commission, Wang Jinghe, defender of Huai'an and elsewhere, asked to hold Shengchuan too, and the ministry of war holding it improper the decree nevertheless granted it; and when in the third year Liu Jin withdrew the grand coordinators of the interior provinces the power of the garrison eunuchs grew accordingly, and to strengthen it the court had seals cast for them, though the local great officers had always had seals and the eunuchs commanding troops had had none, so that in the fourth month of the fifth year when the eunuch of the imperial use commission Zhang Yong was made commander of the military affairs of Ningxia and elsewhere and the eunuch of the imperial horse commission Lu Yin was given charge of the divine guns, seals were specially made for the eunuchs by way of exception.

Personal Relations

• Sun Cong: brother-in-law; administrative officer in the Ministry of Rites who helped handle memorials
• Jiao Fang: Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary; warned Liu Jin of the plan against him and polished official documents
• Zhang Cai: Minister of Personnel and member of Liu Jin's faction
• Liu Yu: Chief Censor and member of Liu Jin's faction
• Zhang Wenmian: man of Huating who helped handle memorials
• Ma Yongcheng, Gu Dayong, Zhang Yong, Gao Feng, Luo Xiang, Wei Bin, Qiu Ju: fellow members of the Eight Tigers
• Liu Jian: Grand Secretary; called for the execution of the Eight Tigers and was forced to retire
• Xie Qian: Grand Secretary; called for the execution of the Eight Tigers and was forced to retire
• Han Wen: Minister of Revenue; organized the Nine Ministers' impeachment and was dismissed
• Wang Yue: eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial; supported the outer court and was killed while in transit
• Fan Heng: eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial; killed while in transit
• Xu Zhi: eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial; had his arm broken
• Wang Shouren: ministry secretary; demoted after defending Dai Xian
• Yang Yiqing: Chief Censor; imprisoned after Liu Jin's accusation and later helped plan Liu Jin's overthrow
• Li Dongyang: Grand Secretary; remained in office but had little freedom of action
• Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao of Ming, the Zhengde Emperor: Liu Jin's former crown-prince master and later ruler
• Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youcheng of Ming, the Hongzhi Emperor: emperor under whom Liu Jin earlier served

Historical Assessment

Ming / Contemporary Views

• The History of Ming describes Liu Jin as exceptionally cunning and cruel, states that countless people died under his cangue punishments, and says that at the height of his power he exercised rewards and punishments entirely according to personal will.
• Wang Ao's Long Discourses from Zhenze records enormous quantities of treasure confiscated from Liu Jin, reflecting contemporary perceptions of extreme corruption.
• Contemporaries called him the “standing emperor” and “upright emperor”; nobles and imperial relatives knelt during private audiences, illustrating the extent of his authority.

Early and High Qing

• Zhao Yi's Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories records the scale of Liu Jin's fortune and discusses the broader problem of eunuch power under the Ming.
• The compilers of the History of Ming placed Liu Jin in the biographies of eunuchs alongside Wang Zhen, Wang Zhi, and Wei Zhongxian, treating him as a major example of eunuch domination of government.
• Gu Yingtai's Major Events in Ming History, chapter “Liu Jin in Power,” gives a focused account of his rise and fall and describes the harm he spread throughout the realm.

Late Qing and Republican Period

• Meng Sen's Lectures on Ming and Qing History treated Liu Jin's domination as a turning point in the Ming problem of eunuch government, after which eunuch political influence became increasingly serious.
• Deng Zhicheng's Further Notes on Antiques records the tradition that Liu Jin suffered 4,200 cuts in his execution, illustrating the severity of Ming penal practices.

Modern Period

• In 2001, the Asian Wall Street Journal included Liu Jin in a list of fifty of the wealthiest people of the previous thousand years, reflecting the scale traditionally attributed to his accumulation of wealth.
• Modern scholarship offers a somewhat more varied assessment: while continuing to emphasize his corruption, brutality, and usurpation of authority, some studies also note that measures such as frontier-granary inspections, salt-revenue investigations, and grain fines touched genuine fiscal problems of the mid-Ming. The source nevertheless presents their failure as inseparable from Liu Jin's methods and personal conduct.