Ministers › Statesman / Official
Ju Wenzhen
Powerful Tang eunuch who forced Emperor Shunzong to name a crown prince and abdicate, ending the Yongzhen Reform.
Mural of the event “Yongzhen Reform”, which this person took part in.
In 805, under the ailing Emperor Shunzong, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi directed the court, abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers, and tried to take command of the Shence Army from the eunuchs. Shunzong abdicated in the eighth month, the reform ended and its leaders were demoted and sent away: the Two Wangs and Eight Adjutants.
Also known as Liu Zhenliang (later name)
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Ju Wenzhen was a mid-Tang eunuch who later took his adoptive father's surname and became Liu Zhenliang. Once army supervisor of the Xuanwu command under Emperor Dezong, he rose to General of the Right Guard and head of the Palace Domestic Service. When the Yongzhen Reform of 805 threatened the eunuchs' control of the armies and the palace markets, he plotted with fellow eunuchs such as Liu Guangqi and Xue Wenzhen to have the Prince of Guangling, Li Chun, named crown prince, and coordinated memorials from regional governors such as Wei Gao, forcing the ailing Shunzong to abdicate in the eighth month. Under the new Emperor Xianzong, Wang Shuwen, Wang Pi and their allies were exiled and the reform collapsed. He died in 813, the chief eunuch opponent of the reform.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Tang - 805Yongzhen Reform
Took partAfter Emperor Shunzong took the throne in 805, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers and sought to take the Shence Army from the eunuchs, but eunuch and regional opposition ended the reform with Shunzong's abdication that August.- Emperor Shunzong Abdicates to Li ChunIn the eighth month of 805 the ailing Emperor Shunzong handed the throne to Crown Prince Li Chun, who became Emperor Xianzong, an event known as the Yongzhen abdication.
- Emperor Shunzong Abdicates to Li Chun
- 813Died
