In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

c h a p t e r 3 Political Murders, 1625 . I N M I D - J U L Y 1 6 2 4 , the political stalemate in Beijing was blown apart by means of a verbal high explosive: the shattering “Twenty-four Crimes” memorial submitted by Yang Lian. The twenty-four crimes were imputed to palace eunuch Wei Zhongxian. The memorial was addressed to Tianqi, and it asked him, in effect, how he could continue to protect and abet a national criminal. The repercussions of this memorial were such as to bring on one of the darkest episodes of political repression in the long history of China, highlighted by the public arrests and secret murders of twelve leading figures of the Donglin faction , including Yang Lian, and the suicide of a thirteenth, Gao Panlong. It required uncommon courage—indeed utter recklessness, a willingness to court martyrdom—to send up to the throne an indictment as sweeping and as damning as the “Twenty-four Crimes” memorial, and incidents are related of Yang Lian in his youth that suggest a need, or at least an ability, to reach on occasion the requisite state of mental and spiritual exaltation. For instance, there was the occasion when, as a county student, on a snowy night he and a friend pledged themselves to become heroes (haojie) and then walked singing all through the county seat, now and then leaning on pillars and howling crazily, writing words in the snow, crying bitterly—strange behavior whose meaning onlookers could not grasp.1 Since his voluntary retirement in the wake of the Palace Case of late 1620—the event that secured his national leadership credentials—Yang Lian lived at home, in Yingshan county, Hubei, where he was active in local affairs and kept up with developments in Beijing when from time to time copies of the Capital Gazette (Dibao) reached him. People saw him weep and curse when reading about eunuch Wei Zhongxian’s latest outrages . Yang Lian had been right at Taichang’s bedside in 1620 when the dying emperor had laid a deathbed command (guming) on the emergency gathering of officials, begging them personally to help Tianqi be a good ruler. “If I could see [Tianqi] face-to-face,” vowed Yang to his comrades, “I’d break my head telling him about how his father had entrusted him 7 2 P O L I T I C A L M U R D E R S 7 3 to us. I must kill that bandit [Wei Zhongxian] to requite [the Taichang emperor’s] friendship!” Two comrades argued with Yang. Power, they said, now lay in enemy hands, and voicing “empty ideas” (kong yan) at this juncture would be fruitless and perhaps disastrous. To avoid argument Yang Lian agreed with them.2 In May 1622, the Palace endorsed a number of recalls of officials, among them Yang Lian. Earlier chief supervising secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for War, he was now assigned the same position in the Office of Scrutiny for Rites.3 His young sons were pleased, but Yang Lian set them straight about the matter. “Do you think I’m going back to serve like a horse or an ox?” he shouted at them. “We have a young, isolated ruler, a military crisis on the frontier, a eunuch in charge in the Palace, and all that could well be killing grounds for me. There’s no time even to fret. What are you pleased for?” The partisan struggle in Beijing was hot in 1622. The Three Cases were being reargued with vehemence. Yang Lian had of course been a chief actor in the Palace Case, and his behavior in it was being praised to the skies by his friends and denounced by his enemies.4 Furthermore, the Ming military collapse in Manchuria had led to the arrest of the commanders Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen, and partisan battles were raging over the question of who was more to blame and what punishments should apply. Yang asked friends to take care of his family. “When old Yang leaves the mountains this time,” he laughed, “who knows how the return trip will be?”5 In August 1622, Yang Lian was promoted to the post of vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He maintained a low profile. In March 1624 he was promoted again—to vice censor-in-chief, a more responsible, visible, and strategic position.6 The newly appointed vice censor-in-chief...

Share