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Liang Ji
Eastern Han consort-family general who dominated the court for nearly twenty years, poisoned the boy Emperor Zhi, and was destroyed by Emperor Huan and his eunuchs in 159
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Bozhuo
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Liang Ji, courtesy name Bozhuo, came from Wushi in Anding; his father Liang Shang was regent-general and his sister Liang Na was empress to Emperor Shun. He succeeded his father as regent-general in 141. After Emperor Shun died in 144, he and his sister, now empress dowager, enthroned two child emperors in turn, Chong and Zhi, and in 146, when the eight-year-old Zhi called him an overbearing general before the court, he had poisoned cakes served to the boy and put Liu Zhi, Marquis of Liwu, on the throne as Emperor Huan. The next year he had Li Gu and Du Qiao framed and killed in prison. He ruled the court until 159, when another sister, Emperor Huan's empress, died and the emperor plotted with the eunuch Shan Chao and four others to surround his mansion with troops. Liang Ji and his wife Sun Shou killed themselves, their clan was executed, and the confiscated fortune of more than three billion cash let the court cut the empire's taxes by half.
Life and times
Dates c. 116 CE–159 CE