Uncover the secret of Wei Zhongxian’s rise to the top: The eunuch also has a girlfriend

In the first year of Tianqi (1621 AD), from this year on, the Ming Dynasty ushered in a new era, which lasted for seven full years. Even Wei Zhongxian himself would never have imagined that this era would be named after the "Wei Zhongxian Era" in the writings of later historians! How did the turnaround happen? It was a woman who helped him turn the tide. This leads to a woman in Wei Zhongxian's political career and daily life - Hakka. According to Mr. Gao Yang's research, the surname "Ke" is extremely rare. Although it is included in "Singing Garden", no famous person in history has ever had the surname "Ke". Mr. Gao Yang also said honestly that he couldn't figure out how the word "qie" in the above item could be pronounced as "ke", so he could only copy it from "History of the Ming Dynasty" (see "The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty"). This Ke family was originally named Ke Yinyue. Her identity and occupation were that of a wet nurse from her youth to her death. But this wet nurse was the number one wet nurse in the history of China and even the history of the world. We will talk about the basis for this later.

She was the wet nurse of Emperor Tianqi when he was a child. For some reason, Emperor Tianqi kept calling her "Ke Baba", so she was also passed down by this name. This guest wet nurse was the wife of Hou Er, a common man in Dingxing County, Baoding Prefecture, Beizhili (now Hebei Province), and she had a son named Hou Xingguo. According to historical records, she was selected into the palace when she was 18 years old and worked as a wet nurse for Zhu Youxiao. However, some modern research shows that her actual age when she entered the palace should be around 25 years old. Outside the Dong'an Gate of the imperial city of the Ming Dynasty, there was a "ceremonial room", which was commonly known as the "*** Mansion" by the common people and was under the supervision of the Secretary of Ceremony. There are 40 wet nurses maintained all year round for royal use, and there are 80 registered wet nurses on call.

It is said that this Hakka became Zhu Youxiao’s wet nurse. There were dozens of wet nurses, but Yu Xiao recognized no one when he was born and could not feed her. The eunuchs were anxious and went all over the city to look for her, just catching the nursing women. In this way, Hakka was looking for a needle in a haystack. Although she had never been a wet nurse, Xiao Youxiao recognized her and entered the palace smoothly. Two years after she entered the palace, her husband died. This woman is said to be "sexually obscene and ruthless" in "Mingjian", and "Yan Shuo" also says that she is "rich in body and sexually obscene". What is the basis? It was the Hakka family who was on duty in the palace and would go home occasionally, claiming to be taking care of the children, but in fact she was having an affair. If this were considered now, it would be normal. The evaluation of the ancients was too harsh.

The one who is not normal is Zhu Youxiao. According to palace rules, when the prince is six or seven years old, the nanny must leave the palace, but after Yu Xiao grew up, she still couldn't do without the Hakka family. After he ascended the throne and became emperor, it was still the same, even if he didn't see him for a day, it wouldn't work. It is estimated that his biological mother died early, and this is also a phenomenon of transference compensation. The Hakka family took care of Youxiao's life, and Wei Zhongxian once served Youxiao's food twice. Such a line brought Wei and Ke together. A "surrogate father", a "surrogate mother", and a child whose mother died and the father did not take care of him, the three people formed a very strange "Bermuda Triangle" in the history of the late Ming Dynasty.

There is an important reason why the Hakka family wants to support Wei Zhongxian - because they are a "couple", a partnership. In ancient palaces, eunuchs and maids were unable to live a normal family life for a long time, resulting in physical and psychological imbalances. In order to solve this problem, a "food-to-food" relationship is popular. Literally, it means a man and a woman eat together, but in reality they are a temporary couple. Although the two of them can't really be "that", their meaning is better than nothing.

As early as the Han Dynasty, this kind of mutual help relationship between men and women in the palace was called "eating". By the Ming Dynasty, because the palace maids often cooked food and rice for a fixed eunuch, they also called the woman "caihu", which means "temporary wife". Single men have difficulty washing and cooking, while single women have difficulty fetching water and chopping firewood. When they complement each other, they coordinate and help stabilize the team of service personnel in the palace. Emperor Wanli originally hated the pairing of men and women in the palace, and had banned such incestuous relations, but how could he prohibit the basic needs of human beings? So he didn't care about it later. This Hakka family was originally "Xiao Wei" - the "caihu" of the Wei Dynasty, who was the steward of the Qianqing Palace and the eunuch in charge of the Military Staff Bureau. The Wei Dynasty was the first eunuch to serve and protect Youxiao, and he was a true bodyguard with meritorious services. You Xiao trusted the Wei Dynasty very much, and as soon as he came to the throne, he was assigned these two important positions. He and Hakka were both old friends from the school, and they were about the same age. It could be said that they were a very well-matched couple.

In this way, the Hakka family is still the younger brother and sister of Wei Zhongxian, the "Great Wei". But over time, Wei Zhongxian also fell in love with the Hakka family. After being promoted to an official in the Wei Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian took advantage of the opportunity and stepped in.

As stated in "Jiashen Dynasty Brief Notes", these two Wei "private guest families". However, the Wei Dynasty did not know this at first and wore a big cuckold on his head. Others in the palace knew the details and were waiting to see the joke. After all, the fire could not be contained in the paper. No matter how slow the Wei Dynasty was, they still noticed it. Only then did he realize: this "Brother Wei" whom he had tried so hard to save, turned out to be a white-eyed wolf! Wei Chao was furious and went to scold the Hakka family. But little did he know that the Hakka family was more optimistic about Wei Zhongxian, and they fell out with Wei Chao on the spot, and the two yelled at each other.

Now that the matter has become public, Wei Zhongxian must have an attitude. At this time, the Hakka family was at its peak. Wei Zhongxian weighed his weight, kicked off his younger brother who had relatively low utilization value, and openly formed a rivalry with the Hakka family. From then on, Ke and Wei kept close contact with each other without any taboos. Emperor Tianqi also trusted these two people more and more, and entrusted them with all the general affairs in the palace. "Only the guests and Wei's words are listened to" ("Zi Zhong Zhi"). The control of the inner court gradually changed hands invisibly. As for what benefits the Hakka family saw in Wei Zhongxian? In this regard, there are many speculations from later generations.

A very popular saying is that the surgery Wei Zhongxian performed on himself was very incomplete and "the remaining potential was not exhausted" (the thing was not cut cleanly), but he still had good sexual function and was proficient in it. "Surgery in the room". And Hakka was promiscuous by nature, so she chose Wei Zhongxian out of sexual needs. Of course this can be discussed. The morals of eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty were generally not very high. There were a few who had "unfinished potential" and even raped women of the people, and some even committed murders. But Wei Zhongxian is favored by the Hakka family, so I'm afraid it won't be that simple. As a female member of the Hakka family, no matter how high her status is, she cannot personally serve as the head of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Therefore, when she chose Wei Zhongxian, she was equivalent to choosing an agent. Of course, the interests of the two people later coincided so much that it didn't matter whether they were agents or not, they almost became one. In fact, Hakka is not a political figure. All she does is to "keep her favor". But the methods this woman adopted directly rewrote the political history of the late Ming Dynasty.