Twice ToldVeritable Records of Emperor Xianzong, juan 162, Chenghua 13, 2nd month, 8th day: a note on Wang Zhi
- Language
- Chinese
- Reading
- OCR, checked against the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 6 October 2026
Within a long entry on the arrest of Yang Ye (a Jianning guard commander) and his kin, the Shilu stops to say who Wang Zhi was. This is the earliest document we found that connects the creature to him. Only the two stretches below were read in the Academia Sinica database; the sentences between them are in the same entry (the Shidian Guji transcription of juan 162, https://www.shidianguji.com/book/LS0026/chapter/1k6tnwvdohel6, gives them). Our punctuation. No page image was seen.
……瑛紿曅盡得其所投營觧情，因傾取其貲，執送西廠行事太監汪直，詞連及其叔父兵部主事仕偉、姊夫……
……去歲九月，因黑𤯝之異，侯得權之誅，命出外詗察物議。初出布衣小帽，時乘驢或騾，往來……
From the Shidian Guji transcription, between and after the two stretches (traditional characters supplied by us from its simplified text): 汪直，昭德宮內使也，年幼最得寵，陞御馬監太監。……往來京城內外，人皆不之重。至是得瑛執曅，以取信於上，且謗及諸大臣。上益委任之，遂權寵赫奕，都人側目。
Translation
”…Wei Ying got out of Ye everything about whom he had approached to arrange his release, then took his money, and handed him over to Wang Zhi, the eunuch in charge at the Western Depot, and the confession implicated his uncle, Shi Wei, a secretary in the Ministry of War, and his brother-in-law…”
”…Last year in the ninth month, because of the black [creature] anomaly and the execution of Hou Dequan, [Wang Zhi] was ordered to go out and gather talk about what people were saying. At first he went out in plain clothes and a small cap, sometimes on a donkey or a mule, and went around inside and outside the capital…”
From the Shidian Guji text: Wang Zhi was a palace attendant of the Zhaode Palace, young and the most favoured, promoted to eunuch of the Imperial Horse Directorate. […] “…and people did not take him seriously. Now that Wei Ying had seized Ye, he used it to win the emperor’s trust, and he also slandered many senior ministers. The emperor trusted him more and more, and so his power and favour blazed, and people in the capital looked at him sideways.”
Notes
- The database prints the word as 黑𤯝, with a rare character in place of 眚 and a collation note: “舊校改𤯝作眚” (“the old collation changed 𤯝 to 眚”). So the manuscript reads 𤯝, and the editors, like earlier ones, took it as 眚.
- “Last year in the ninth month” is the ninth month of Chenghua 12 (which began on 18 September 1476, Julian). The Shilu entry for the 9th day of that month (26 September 1476) records the execution of Hou Dequan, called Li Zilong (documents/shilu-xianzong-157-1476-09-li-zilong.md).
- The entry is dated the 8th day of the 2nd month of Chenghua 13: 21 February 1477 Julian (Academia Sinica converter). It already calls Wang Zhi the eunuch “in charge at the Western Depot”. Our search of the database for 西廠 finds no earlier Xianzong entry, and juan 161 (1st month, Chenghua 13) has none; so the Shilu as we read it has no entry for the Depot’s founding. The Ming Shi annals date the founding to the 1st month, day jisi (13 February 1477).
- Xia Xie’s Ming tongjian (j. 37, kaoyi note) quotes a “Xianzhang lu” with almost the same words: “last year in the ninth month, because of the black creature anomaly and the execution of Hou Dequan, he was first ordered to go out and investigate”. We have not seen that book.
- 詗察 (xiong cha) means to spy on or scout out; 物議 means what people say, public talk.
- Checked 2026-10-06 against the page image (file page 42): both stretches and the Shidian Guji sentences between them read as printed here, from 執送西廠行事太監汪直 to 都人側目. The disputed character after 黑 is written in the manuscript like 青 with an extra stroke at the left, which fits the editors’ reading as 眚.