Why the Deng Clan Rose and Fell in Eastern Han Politics

Empress Dowager Deng held the court together, but the Deng family's power also accumulated heavily around the throne.

After Deng Sui began ruling as empress dowager, Eastern Han once again depended on a combination of palace regency and maternal relatives.

The fall of the Dou clan was still fresh. If the Deng family wanted to survive, it could not simply repeat the Dou pattern.

The Deng Family Reached High Office

After Emperor He died, Deng Sui enthroned the infant Liu Long as Emperor Shang.

In the first year of Emperor Shang's reign, she appointed her elder brother Deng Zhi as General of Chariots and Cavalry with honors equivalent to the Three Excellencies, the highest civilian ministers of the Han state.

That honorific rank later became famous in later dynasties. In Eastern Han, it began with Deng Zhi.

Other Deng brothers also entered important posts near the palace. Deng Kui, Deng Hong, and others served as palace guards, attendants, and high-ranking aides.

Then Emperor Shang died in infancy. Deng Sui enthroned Liu Hu as Emperor An, and because Emperor An was young, she continued to govern as regent.

The Deng family was now fixed near the center of government.

The Empress Dowager Restrained Her Family

Deng Sui understood the danger.

The Dou family had not fallen long before. She knew that powerful relatives could anger officials, harm the people, and eventually become a threat to the throne itself.

Soon after Emperor An took the throne, she issued an order to officials responsible for public order in Luoyang and Nanyang. In earlier times, she said, relatives and guests of empresses had relied on influence to disturb local government and injure the common people because officials did not enforce the law.

The Deng family was large. Its relatives and clients would inevitably include people who broke rules. Deng Sui ordered officials to investigate them openly and show no protection.

That command mattered. Officials now had a clear imperial backing to prosecute Deng relatives if they committed crimes.

The Deng clan's beginning was therefore more restrained than the Dou clan's.

Deng Zhi Kept a Sense of Measure

Every powerful maternal family needed a leading figure. For the Deng, that figure was Deng Zhi.

Deng Zhi was not Dou Xian. He was mild, cautious, and aware of appearances.

When Emperor He first died and the situation was unstable, Deng Zhi and his brothers stayed inside the palace to coordinate with the empress dowager. But outer ministers were not supposed to live in the inner palace for long.

If they stayed, people would talk.

So Deng Zhi and his brothers repeatedly asked to leave the palace and return home. Deng Sui understood the criticism that would come if her brothers remained inside, and she allowed them to go.

After Emperor An's accession, the court offered heavy enfeoffments to Deng Zhi, Deng Kui, Deng Hong, and others. Deng Zhi also received an additional grant for helping decide the succession.

The brothers repeatedly refused. When court envoys came to invest them, they avoided the envoys, went by another route to the palace gate, and submitted memorials asking not to receive the added honors.

Only after five or six refusals did Deng Sui agree.

In 108, Deng Zhi defeated Qiang forces and was appointed General-in-Chief, ranking below the Grand Tutor and above the Three Excellencies. The Deng brothers also received the privilege of attending court discussions on major affairs.

The family had reached the highest level of honor, but it tried to keep a posture of humility.

Ban Zhao's Advice

One year, Deng Sui's mother died. Deng Zhi and his brothers asked to resign their offices and observe mourning.

Deng Sui did not want to allow it at first. She needed her brothers to help support the regency, and the frontiers were unsettled.

Before deciding, she asked Ban Zhao for advice.

Ban Zhao, the learned historian and court woman, submitted that humility was a virtue. The empress dowager's uncles were insisting on loyalty and filial duty. If Deng Sui refused them because the frontier was unstable, then future criticism might destroy the Deng family's reputation for restraint.

Deng Sui accepted the argument and allowed Deng Zhi and the others to mourn.

When mourning ended, she summoned Deng Zhi back and wanted to restore the earlier grants. Deng Zhi again bowed and refused. This time she let the matter drop.

Because of these repeated refusals, the Deng family preserved its name for a time. It did not immediately suffocate the court the way the Dou family had.

Yang Zhen and the Four Knows

Among the men recommended by Deng Zhi, the most famous was Yang Zhen.

Yang Zhen was deeply learned in the classics. People later called him the Confucius of the western passes. He became famous for integrity, and especially for the story of the "Four Knows."

While traveling to a new post, Yang Zhen passed through Changyi. The county magistrate Wang Mi had once been promoted by him.

Wang Mi came at night with ten catties of gold to thank him.

Yang Zhen refused and asked how an old acquaintance could fail to know his principles.

Wang Mi said that it was late at night and no one would know.

Yang Zhen answered that Heaven knew, the spirits knew, Wang Mi knew, and he himself knew. How could that be called no one knowing?

Wang Mi withdrew in shame.

That sentence spread widely. Yang Zhen became remembered as the gentleman of the Four Knows.

That Deng Zhi could recommend a man like this helped the Deng family's reputation. Under Deng Sui, the Deng relatives held high office, but their public image was not yet rotten.

Eunuchs Moved Closer

Deng Sui also relied on eunuchs around the palace.

Zheng Zhong and Cai Lun had already handled palace secrets under Emperor He. Under the empress dowager, they gained titles and rewards and became important helpers in managing affairs.

Later readers often remember Cai Lun for paper and for the title Marquis of Longting. But he also belonged to the early stage in which Eastern Han eunuchs moved closer to political power.

The Deng relatives and eunuchs used by Deng Sui had not yet reached the later level of open violence. The state did not collapse in her hands.

Still, an entrance had opened. Imperial relatives, eunuchs, and palace attendants all began sharing power around a court ruled for a child emperor.

The Empress Dowager Would Not Release Power

Deng Sui could restrain her family. She could not easily put power down.

Soon after Emperor He died, an official named Zhou Zhang judged that the court did not truly support the empress dowager. He plotted to close the palace gates, kill the Deng brothers and eunuchs such as Zheng Zhong and Cai Lun, force the Secretariat to draft an edict, depose Deng Sui, demote Emperor An, and enthrone the Prince of Pingyuan.

The plot leaked. Deng Sui was furious, and Zhou Zhang eventually killed himself.

Later, as Emperor An grew older, an official named Du Gen submitted a memorial asking the empress dowager to return government to the emperor.

Deng Sui exploded. She had Du Gen arrested, sewn into a sack, and beaten in the palace hall. Another man who joined the memorial was beaten to death.

Du Gen survived only because the executioners secretly held back. He pretended to be dead for three days, escaped Luoyang, and spent fifteen years as a wine shop worker under another identity.

Deng Sui was just as hard on members of her own family.

In 121, her cousin Deng Kang repeatedly argued that she had governed too long and that Deng power had become excessive. He urged her to strengthen the authority of the court and reduce private family power.

Deng Sui refused. After Deng Kang broke with her, he was removed from office, sent back to his fief, and even expelled from the clan register.

The Deng family might be restrained, but the empress dowager herself would not surrender control. The relationship between Emperor An and Deng Sui grew increasingly tense.

Sixteen Years of Regency

Deng Sui's regency faced droughts, floods, frontier wars, local rebellions, powerful landholders, and displaced people.

She continued some policies from the Ming and Zhang reigns. She repeatedly relieved disaster victims, reduced rents and labor duties, and cut palace expenses.

When Deng Zhi held power, he also emphasized frugality and the review of unjust cases.

In the first year of Emperor Shang, Deng Sui personally ordered officials to investigate failures to carry out amnesties for prisoners. Some prisoners were released into commoner status.

Over sixteen years of regency, she issued six general amnesties, reviewed prisoners, and corrected miscarriages of justice. The histories record death penalties and heavy sentences being reconsidered, and they say that order later returned.

That language praises her, but it also shows that social pressure had eased at least somewhat.

When later historians wrote about Deng Sui and the Deng clan, they did not only record family power. They also remembered policy work.

But once Emperor An ruled for himself, the court would look at a different set of accounts.

Emperor An Took Power

In 121, Empress Dowager Deng died. Emperor An finally took personal control.

That was the moment of danger for the Deng clan.

When Emperor An was young, Deng Sui had chosen him because she thought him intelligent and virtuous. As he grew, she became disappointed by his conduct and even considered replacing him with Liu Yi, Prince of Pingyuan.

By rule, princes should return to their fiefs. Deng Sui kept Liu Yi in the capital.

That rumor terrified the people around Emperor An. While Deng Sui lived, they could only wait. Once she died and the emperor took power, they moved at once.

Soon someone accused Deng Sui's brothers of planning to depose Emperor An and enthrone the Prince of Pingyuan.

Emperor An already wanted to strike the Deng family. He ordered a strict investigation. Deng relatives were stripped of titles and reduced to commoner status. Deng Zhi, because he had not joined the alleged plot, was only removed from special rank and sent back to his fief. Other Deng relatives were dismissed and returned to their home commanderies.

But the matter did not stop there.

Local officials followed the wind and persecuted the Deng family. Deng Zhi understood that the emperor had made up his mind. He and his son starved themselves to death.

Deng Bao, Deng Zun, Deng Chang, and other Deng family members also killed themselves.

Liu Yi, the Prince of Pingyuan whom Deng Sui had supposedly considered, was demoted to Marquis of Duxiang and sent back home.

The Deng clan fell with startling speed.

A New Empty Space

The fall of the Deng family did not make the court clean.

Emperor An now needed new intimate supporters. The Geng family of Consort Geng, the Song family of Consort Song, and the Yan family of the empress all moved closer to power.

At the same time, the emperor's wet nurse, eunuchs, and palace attendants became more active.

Emperor An had been raised by his wet nurse Wang Sheng and felt deep attachment to her. Palace struggle and private interest tangled together, and Wang Sheng and her daughter began interfering in affairs, accepting requests, and abusing favor.

Yang Zhen could not bear it. He urged Emperor An to send the wet nurse out of the palace and keep her away from government. Wang Sheng, he said, came from humble origins, yet she was greedy, took bribes, colluded with outsiders, and disturbed the court.

Emperor An ignored him. Worse, he showed the memorial to the people around him.

Wang Sheng's faction hated Yang Zhen even more.

Wang Sheng's daughter Bo Rong also used imperial favor to act arrogantly, even interfering in succession within a princely state. When Wang Sheng and her daughter traveled to Ganling to sweep family tombs, local officials rushed to welcome them, and even princes came out beyond their suburbs to receive them.

Emperor An did not suppress this. Instead, he made Wang Sheng Lady of Yewang.

The Deng family had only just fallen. New imperial relatives, eunuchs, and wet-nurse power had already surged into the opening.

Eastern Han politics was becoming more crowded, more personal, and more unstable. The next crisis would begin with eunuchs in Emperor An's own court.