There are not many historical materials about Liu Jin's early years, only some important information can be sorted out: his real name is Tan, and later he became attached to the powerful minister Liu Shun and changed his surname to Liu; Liu Jin entered the palace as a eunuch during Xiao Zhonghe Hongzhi's reign in the Ming Dynasty, but was almost executed for committing a crime. Finally, Liu Jin escaped and entered the East Palace to serve the future Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao.
When Liu Jin entered the East Palace, Zhu Houzhao was still a teenager. Because Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty had only one living son, Zhu Houzhao was held in everyone's hands. And he himself is also gifted, vaguely revealing the temperament of shine on you rather than blue.
But at this time, there are not only the learned and upright Crown Prince, but also a lot of mercenary eunuchs in the East Palace. In addition to the new Liu Jin, there are seven eunuchs in the East Palace who are equally "smart", such as Ma Yongcheng, Zhang Yong, Gao Feng and Luo Xiang. These eight people regard making the prince happy as the top priority of their work. Liu Jin became the closest eunuch in Zhu Houzhao, that is, Ma Yongcheng, Zhang Yong, Gao Feng and other "Eight Tigers" by virtue of her extraordinary coaxing skills.
In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty died at the age of 36, and Zhu Houzhao, the only son of Zhu family, proclaimed himself emperor at the age of 0/5, that is, Emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty. As the saying goes, "One man gets the word, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven." Eight tigers also entered the palace and became officials in power. Liu Jin was even assigned to be in charge of the 5,000 battalion responsible for guarding Mingwuzong.
From a handyman eunuch to a powerful minister with real foreign power, Liu Jin won't let go even more when he tastes the sweetness. Zhu Houzhao has become emperor, but Liu Jin still encourages him to enjoy himself. Eagle dog, silk bamboo, delicate and even anonymous Liu Jin moved almost all the "things" that could make Zhu Houzhao "playthings" to the emperor. Ming Wuzong, still a teenager, is so biased.
The emperor doesn't concentrate on political affairs, but he can't give orders without them. So Liu Jin, who won Zhu Houzhao's trust, was promoted to the inner official prison with trepidation, and then became the eunuch of the Li Si prison, with the right to "take the title of God-given constitution" (the right to convey the emperor's will to foreign officials) and "the right to approve the red" (rather than the right of the emperor to read the letter).
Liu Jin became another "nine-year-old" almost at once because of his "fairy" and the right to criticize red. Passing the news gave him a certain chance to practice favoritism and malpractice. Criticizing Red means that Liu Jin directly owns the ruling power of some emperors.
Because Liu Jin's education level is not high, he can't handle many documents well. So he recruited an ordinary county student named Zhang Wenmian and named his niece Sun Cong. Every day, Liu Jin sends the official documents to the mansion outside the palace, and Zhang and Sun complete the red approval according to Liu Jin's instructions. Although this seems trivial, it weakened the role of the cabinet in the process of the emperor's approval of the red, and further weakened the cabinet that had been able to balance the eunuch group.
The cabinet is having a hard time, and a group of foreign civil servants are struggling under the hostility of Liu Jin. Liu Jin, who is regarded as "bullying others", is asked by the Royal Guards to register and record his daily activities every day. The foreign minister, who obviously didn't make any big mistakes, was often humiliated by Liu Jin with some trivial things. In the third year of Zheng De (1508), in June, more than 300 officials were punished by kneeling in public, and were imprisoned in the Royal Guards at night.
Liu Jin has no military and political talent, and his control of state affairs is harmful to the whole Daming. Even the most stable capital was thrown into chaos because Liu Jin forced many laborers to leave the city and forced the widows in the city to remarry against customs. Moreover, he humiliated and suppressed courtiers, especially civil servants, and placed a large number of personnel in the central, local, judicial, military and other departments or fields, so that people finally called him "the emperor of the site" behind his back (Liu Jin was always on standby when Zhu Houzhao was present in the Ming Dynasty).
Liu Jin's "site emperor" is full of style, not only the courtiers he suppressed gnashed their teeth, but also others in the imperial clan were unable to disperse. Zhu Houzhao was the only son of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty. It was not easy for Zhu Houzhao to stop him when he was a child. But Liu Jin's fox and tiger were cast by the king of Anhua.
It's unbearable. In the fifth year of Zheng De (15 10), Zhu Jian used Liu Jin to launch another mutiny. Although the mutiny was quickly suppressed, Ming Wuzong still felt the "beating" of the imperial clan. His trust in Liu Jin began to crack.
The last straw that crushed the camel was Liu Jin's "colleague" and Zhang Yong, one of the "Eight Tigers". Zhang Yongben has a good strength and is the only one among the "Eight Tigers" who can compete with Liu Jin. Liu Jin also knows Zhang Yong's ability, and vilifies him in front of Zhu Houzhao whenever he has the chance. When it was very noisy, Liu Jin even put up a notice at the entrance of the palace, forbidding Zhang Yong to enter.
The situation is the same as fire and water. Knowing that the mutiny of Anhua Wang was "promoted" by Liu Jin, he made decisive use of this news. When Zhu Houzhao and Liu Jin were drunk at the banquet when the troops returned to the DPRK, Zhang Yong visited Zhu Houzhao with a document full of Liu Jin 17 charges, and "madly hinted" that Liu Jin was interested in rebellion. Ming Wuzong was suspicious and dizzy about Liu Jin because of the mutiny, so he ordered the arrest of Liu Jin under the persuasion and persuasion of Zhang Yong.
The next day, the sober Ming Wuzong issued another imperial edict. In the imperial edict, he did not deny the fact that he was cheated, so that he trusted Liu Jin and made him on the cusp. But he did not kill Liu Jin, but removed his authority and let Liu Jin live in Fengyang, the capital.
Since the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs like Zhang Yong didn't want to go wild, and Li Dongyang, who was humiliated by Liu Jin, didn't want to be generous. Persuaded by others, Ming Wuzong personally visited Liu, and witnessed Liu Zhong's fake seal, more than 500 palace teeth-piercing cards for people to enter and leave the palace at will, and a large number of weapons and gold and silver jewelry. This time, Ming Wuzong finally had the determination to execute Liu Jin.
The emperor showed his attitude, and the censors and remonstrators who were forced to be silent for nearly ten years presented Liu Jin's crimes one after another. Finally, nineteen counts sent Liu Jin to the execution ground. It is said that after he was executed by Ling Chi, many people inside and outside the court wanted to buy Liu Jin's meat from the executioner to vent their anger.
It can be said that how beautiful Liu Jin was, how embarrassed he was when he died. But no one can blame all this. Whether playing with power or fighting against differences, Liu Jin did it all by himself. It was finally overthrown by Zhang Yong and others, which may be the final result when he was still playing with Zhu Houzhao.