CHAPTER II--THE FALL OF THE MINGS

It is almost a conventionalism to attribute the fall of a Chinese
dynasty to the malign influence of eunuchs. The Imperial court was
undoubtedly at this date entirely in the hands of eunuchs, who occupied
all kinds of lucrative posts for which they were quite unfitted, and
even accompanied the army, nominally as officials, but really as spies
upon the generals in command. One of the most notorious of these was Wei
Chung-hsien, whose career may be taken as typical of his class. He was a
native of Sun-ning in Chihli, of profligate character, who made himself
a eunuch, and changed his name to Li Chin-chung. Entering the palace,
he managed to get into the service of the mother of the future Emperor,
posthumously canonised as Hsi Tsung, and became the paramour of that
weak monarch's wet-nurse. The pair gained the Emperor's affection to an
extraordinary degree, and Wei, an ignorant brute, was the real ruler
of China during the reign of Hsi Tsung. He always took care to present
memorials and other State papers when his Majesty was engrossed in
carpentry, and the Emperor would pretend to know all about the question,
and tell Wei to deal with it. Aided by unworthy censors, a body of
officials who are supposed to be the "eyes and ears" of the monarch,
and privileged to censure him for misgovernment, he gradually drove all
loyal men from office, and put his opponents to cruel and ignominious
deaths. He persuaded Hsi Tsung to enrol a division of eunuch troops, ten
thousand strong, armed with muskets; while, by causing the Empress to
have a miscarriage, his paramour cleared his way to the throne. Many
officials espoused his cause, and the infatuated sovereign never wearied
of loading him with favours. In 1626, temples were erected to him in all