Ministers › Remonstrators
Yang Lian
Late Ming censor of the Donglin group who impeached the eunuch Wei Zhongxian on twenty-four counts in 1624 and died under torture in prison the next year
Mural of the event “Purge of the Donglin Faction”, which this person took part in.
Under the Tianqi Emperor (1624–1627) the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke dominated the court; Donglin officials such as Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou died in the imperial prison, and Zhou Shunchang's arrest in Suzhou set off a townspeople's revolt. After the Chongzhen Emperor's accession Wei hanged himself, and in 1629 the court proclaimed the Traitors' Case.
Also known as Zi Wenru · Hao Dahong
Yang Lian, courtesy name Wenru, styled Dahong, came from Yingshan in Huguang (modern Guangshui, Hubei) and passed the jinshi examination in 1607. Rated the most upright magistrate in the empire while at Changshu, he was called to court as a supervising secretary. When Emperor Guangzong died in 1620, he and Zuo Guangdou insisted that the consort Li leave the Qianqing Palace so that Xizong could take the throne, the episode known as the Removal from the Palace case. In 1624, as vice censor-in-chief, he charged the eunuch Wei Zhongxian with twenty-four great crimes. The next year Wei used the Wang Wenyan case to accuse him of taking bribes from Xiong Tingbi, and he was thrown into the Embroidered Uniform Guard prison, where Xu Xianchun tortured him to death. Early in the Chongzhen reign he was posthumously made minister of war and named Zhonglie. He is counted among the Former Six Gentlemen who died in that purge.
Life and times
Dates 1572 CE–1625 CE
- 1624Purge of the Donglin FactionTook partage 52
- 1624Yang Lian Impeaches Wei Zhongxianage 52
- 1625Six Gentlemen Die in Imperial Prisonage 53