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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.

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

  1. UnknownBornMing
  2. 1624Purge of the Donglin FactionTook partUnder the Tianqi Emperor the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke dominated the court; after Yang Lian's memorial of twenty-four crimes, Donglin officials were dismissed and died in prison until the Chongzhen Emperor's accession brought Wei's fall and suicide.
    1. Suzhou Edict-Reading Riot and Five Executions1626When Zhou Shunchang was arrested in Suzhou in 1626, crowds attacked the guardsmen reading the warrant, and five townsmen led by Yan Peiwei were later beheaded.
  3. 1626 CEDied