Ministers › Statesman / Official
Zhou Shunchang
Late Ming official of the Donglin circle whose arrest on Wei Zhongxian's orders set off a riot in Suzhou in 1626 and who was then tortured to death in prison
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 Jingwen · Hao Liaozhou
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Zhou Shunchang, courtesy name Jingwen, styled Liaozhou, of Wu county near Suzhou, passed the metropolitan examination in 1613, beginning his career as judge of Fuzhou. In the Tianqi reign he served as a vice-director in the Ministry of Personnel, then went home on leave. When the censor Wei Dazhong passed through Suzhou under arrest in 1625, Zhou kept him company on his boat for three days, cursed the eunuch Wei Zhongxian in public and betrothed his daughter to Wei Dazhong's grandson. In the third month of 1626 the Eastern Depot sent guards to seize him; tens of thousands of townspeople gathered, Yan Peiwei and others killed one of the guards, and five men were later executed for it. Taken to the capital and tortured in the Embroidered Uniform Guard prison by Xu Xianchun, he died in the sixth month. Early in the Chongzhen reign he was rehabilitated with the posthumous name Zhongjie, and Zhang Pu wrote the Inscription for the Tomb of the Five Men.
Life and times
Dates 1584 CE–1626 CE
- 1624Purge of the Donglin FactionTook partage 40
- 1626Suzhou Edict-Reading Riot and Five Executionsage 42