Wang Zhen

Wang Zhen was a Chinese court eunuch. As tutor and advisor to the underage Zhengtong Emperor, Wang Zhen rose to become the first Ming dynasty eunuch to wield significant political power, exercising dictatorial control over the court during the 1440s. He was killed in the Tumu Crisis of 1449 when Mongol forces defeated the Ming army he had advised the emperor to lead personally, resulting in the emperor's capture.

Prior to the death of the Xuande Emperor, Wang Zhen served as tutor to his son the crown prince, Zhu Qizhen.

Rise to power The sudden death of the Xuande Emperor in January 1435 at age thirty-seven created an institutional crisis. His eight-year-old son Zhu Qizhen succeeded him as the first child emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and thus there was no precedence on how the state would be governed, and his grandmother Grand Empress Dowager Zhang eventually emerged as leader of an informal regency that included three veteran grand secretaries - Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu (nicknamed the "Three Yangs") – who had served since the beginning of the Yongle reign, and three senior eunuch officials from the Directorate of Ceremonial, the highest office in the palace eunuch hierarchy. Wang Zhen joined this group in autumn 1435 when appointed to the Directorate at approximately age thirty-three, markedly younger than his colleagues but already influential through his close relationship with the new boy emperor, who viewed him as a mentor and confidant.

In 1449, during the Tumu Crisis campaign against the Northern Yuan, he was killed, and the Ming emperor Zhu Qizhen was captured by Oirat Mongols. According to some reports, Wang Zhen was killed by his own officers.