Consort Clans and Eunuchs Take Power in Turn

From the middle of the Eastern Han, most emperors came to the throne very young, one, Emperor Shang, when only a little over a hundred days old, and could not rule themselves, so power fell to the empress dowager. The empress dowager often relied on her father, brothers and other relatives, so the consort clans swelled in power and took control of government. When the emperor grew up he resented being managed by them and wished to exercise power himself, but could only rely on the eunuchs who attended him daily, and plotted with them to remove the consort clan; the eunuchs thereby won trust and power. A new emperor would often repeat the cycle, producing the alternation of consort clans and eunuchs in the middle and late Eastern Han. For example, Emperor He relied on the eunuch Zheng Zhong to remove Dou Xian of the Dou clan; Liang Ji of the Liang clan successively enthroned Emperors Chong, Zhi and Huan and monopolized power for over twenty years, and when Emperor Zhi called him an “arrogant general,” he poisoned the boy emperor; later Emperor Huan joined five eunuchs including Shan Chao to kill Liang Ji, and all five were made marquises on the same day. With consort clans and eunuchs taking turns holding power, appointing cronies, selling offices and killing opponents, government grew thoroughly rotten, upright officials were shut out and framed, taxes and corvée mounted, and the people suffered. Officials and Imperial Academy students who attacked the eunuchs were slandered as a “partisan faction,” and two “Partisan Prohibitions” under Emperors Huan and Ling saw many scholars killed, exiled or barred from office. This vicious cycle badly shook the Eastern Han's foundations and sent it into decline, until it fell apart in the Yellow Turban Rebellion and warlord wars.