Liú Jĭn (? -1510) was a well-known Chinese eunuch during the reign of the Chinese Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 Zhengde Emperor

Zhengde Emperor

The Zhengde Emperor was emperor of China between 1505-1521. Born Zhu Houzhao, he was the Hongzhi Emperor's eldest son...

 (r. 1505-1521). Liu was famous for being one of the most corrupt officials in Chinese history and the emperor in all but name for some time. He was the leader of the "Eight Tigers

Eight Tigers

The Eight Tigers , sometimes referred to as the "Gang of Eight" , were a powerful group of eunuchs that controlled the Chinese imperial court during the reign of the Ming Dynasty Zhengde Emperor The Eight Tigers , sometimes referred to as the "Gang of Eight" (八党/八黨), were a powerful group of...

", a powerful group of eunuchs who controlled the imperial court.

Plotting against the emperor

The Zhengde Emperor 's dissolute lifestyle placed a heavy burden on the people of the empire. He would refuse to receive all his ministers and ignored all their petitions whilst sanctioning the growth of the eunuch community in the imperial palace. Liu made some reforms such as encouraging widows to remarry, a move which went against the Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism is an ethical and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, that was primarily developed during the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty....

 views of the time. Many officials and other eunuchs opposed Liu - the uprising of Prince Zhu Zhifan (安化王朱寘鐇) was a failed attempt to assassinate Liu and seize power. After officials suppressed the uprising an official called Yang Yiqing (楊一清) persuaded another eunuch Zhang Yong (张永/張永) to report Liu's plotting of rebellion. The Zhengde Emperor did not believe this report at first but took it seriously enough to consider expelling Liu to Fengyang County

Fengyang County

Fengyang County is a county of Anhui Province, China. It is under the administration of Chuzhou prefecture-level city.-Historical sites:During the Xia, Shang and early Zhou dynasties, the Dongyi peoples inhabited this area and were collectively known as the Huaiyi after the Huai River...

 (凤阳县/鳳陽縣) in Anhui Province but Zhang's discovery of many weapons in Liu's houses sealed his fate.

Death

The emperor ordered Liu executed by death by a thousand cuts over a period of three days, a process that resulted in Liu being cut 3,357 times. According to witnesses, onlookers in Beijing bought his flesh for one qian (the smallest available currency at the time) and consumed it accompanied with rice wine. Liu died on the second day of his punishment after three to four hundred cuts.

Personal wealth

According to one report, shortly before Liu was executed, 12,057,800 tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

s (449,750 kg) of gold and 259,583,600 taels (9,682,470 kg) of silver were taken from his residence. In 2001, the Asian Wall Street Journal placed Liu on its list of the fifty wealthiest persons in the past 1,000 years although the actual amount may in fact have been lower.

Further reading

• The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
• Frederick W. Mote & Denis Twitchett The Prince of Anhua Uprising.