Ministers › Remonstrators
Zhou Zongjian
Wujiang censor who opposed the return of the emperor's wet nurse to the palace, attacked Wei Zhongxian by name, and died in the eunuch's prison in 1626
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
Also known as Zi Jihou · Hao Laiyu
- Roles
- Remonstrators
Zhou Zongjian, courtesy name Jihou, came from Wujiang and gained his jinshi in 1613, governed the counties of Wukang and Renhe, and then became a censor. In the winter of 1621, when the Tianqi emperor's wet nurse Lady Ke was brought back into the palace after being sent out, he was the first to protest. In 1622 he charged that Wei Zhongxian, who could not read a word, was directing appointments and policy, and the next year he accused Wei of working with the supervising secretary Guo Gong to frame officials; Wei wanted him flogged at court, and only the grand secretaries' protests reduced the penalty to a fine. Struck from the rolls on false charges in 1625, he was arrested the next year and tortured by Xu Xiansheng in the imperial prison, accused of taking bribes from Xiong Tingbi, and died there. After Wei's fall he was honoured posthumously and later given the name Zhongyi.
Life and times
Dates 1582 CE–1626 CE