Court eunuch leaders of the Directorate of Ceremony, such as Wei Zhongxian in the 1620s, have acted as virtual, de facto dictators of the state, since the assumption of power by court eunuchs under the Wanli emperor.
Wei Zhongxian, considered by most historians as the most powerful and notorious eunuch in Chinese history, had taken the step of becoming a eunuch and entering palace service to escape from his creditors, taking the name Li Jinzhong.
After entering the palace, he had become attached to the service of Madam Ke, the wet-nurse of the future emperor.
The couple had begun manipulating the Tianqi Emperor, who had renamed him Wei Zhongxian.
Zhu Youxiao had become the Tianqi emperor at the age of fifteen, on the death of his father who had ruled less than a month.
He pays little attention to affairs of state, and is accused of failing in his filial duties to his dead father by not continuing his father's wishes.
It is possible that Zhu Youxiao suffers from a learning disability or something more: he is illiterate and shows no interest in his studies.
Because he is unable to read memorials and uninterested in the affairs of state, his head eunuch, Wei Zhongxian has usurped the power along with Madam Ke.
The young emperor apparently devotes his time to carpentry.
Wei has taken advantage of the situation and begun appointing the people he trusts to important positions in the palace.
Meanwhile Madam Ke seeks to retain power by removing all other women from the emperor's harem by locking away the concubines of the emperor and starving them to death.
The emperor's favor had soon given Wei absolute power over the court, enabling Wei to persecute anyone who opposes his decisions, resulting in the death and imprisonment of many officials.
One Confucian moralist group, the Donglin Party, had expressed distress at the conditions of the Imperial State.
In response, the palace had covertly ordered the execution of a number of officials associated with the Donglin.
Living conditions have worsened during Tianqi’s reign and he has faced several popular uprisings.
Wei Zhongxian had eventually proclaimed himself to be Nine-Thousand Years, which means that he is symbolically the second most important person in the country, just after the emperor, who is called the Ten-Thousand Years.
Wei also builds many shrines and erects god-like statues of himself in them.
His control of the court ends in 1627 with the death of the Tianqi Emperor, whose brother and successor promptly eliminates him.
He is forced to commit suicide (some sources say executed by strangulation) and his corpse is disemboweled.
