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Yan Peiwei
Late Ming Suzhou townsman executed in 1626 for leading the riot against the eunuch's agents who came to arrest Zhou Shunchang.
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 One of the Five Men · The Five Righteous Men
Yan Peiwei was a townsman of Wu county in late Ming Suzhou. In the third month of 1626, when Wei Zhongxian's guards came to arrest the Donglin scholar Zhou Shunchang, crowds rose at the reading of the warrant; Yan, with Ma Jie, Shen Yang, Yang Nianru and Zhou Wenyuan, attacked and killed guardsmen in what became known as the Kaidu Incident. The five then came forward as sole ringleaders and were executed. After the eunuch faction fell, Suzhou buried them at Shantang below Tiger Hill on the site of Wei's demolished shrine, and Zhang Pu wrote 'Inscription for the Tomb of the Five Men', which names Yan first.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–1626 CE