Second Partisan Prohibition
The Second Partisan Prohibition (第二次党锢之祸) was the great purge of scholar-officials carried out by the eunuch faction of the Eastern Han court, beginning in 169 1 • 2. More than a hundred leading partisans died in prison and several hundred more were barred from office, exiled, or killed 2 • 3.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 169, triggered by a denunciation of Zhang Jian (张俭) 1 • 2 |
| Principal victims | Li Ying (李膺), Du Mi (杜密), Fan Pang (范滂), and other leading partisans, over 100 died in prison 2 • 3 |
| Scale of the purge | Between 600 and 700 people killed, exiled, dismissed, or banned from office 2 • 3 |
| Escalation | 172: over 1,000 Taixue (太学) students arrested 4 • 5 |
| End | 184 (中平元年), when the Yellow Turban rising brought a general amnesty for the partisans 1 |
| Duration | Ten-odd years of prohibition 6 |
Background and causes
The purge grew out of a long confrontation between the eunuchs who dominated the court under Emperor Huan (桓帝) and Emperor Ling (灵帝) and the scholar-official class 7.
The social base of the partisans was wide. According to the Zhongguo Tongshi, the students of the Imperial Academy numbered more than 30,000 after the reign of Emperor Zhi, and eunuch patronage, which placed clients and their sons in offices "all over the realm," blocked their path to careers 7.
Course of events
The trigger came in 169. The eunuch Hou Lan (侯览) had Zhu Bing (朱并), a fellow townsman of Zhang Jian, accuse him and twenty-four others of having formed a faction and plotted to endanger the state altars.
The purge that followed was the Second Partisan Prohibition proper. Li Ying, Du Mi, Fan Pang, Wei Lang (魏朗), and more than a hundred others died in prison; those killed, exiled, dismissed, or banned numbered six or seven hundred 2 • 3.
Repression continued after 169. In 172 (熹平元年) the eunuchs prompted the colonel of the capital Duan Jiong (段颎) to arrest more than 1,000 Imperial Academy students 4 • 5.
Outcome
The prohibition ended only when the Yellow Turban rebellion broke out. The palace attendant Lv Qiang (吕强) warned Emperor Ling that a long-accumulating proscription might drive the partisans to conspire with the Yellow Turbans, "and repentance would avail nothing"; the emperor, alarmed, pardoned them all 2 • 6.
Political influence
The purge removed from government the officials and students who had criticized eunuch power, and the sources describe its immediate consequence directly: after the prohibition the eunuchs' power grew, government darkened, and social contradictions sharpened 5.
One institutional legacy ran longer. The organized ranking of famous scholars, drawing on the self-discipline and social authority of the scholar community, has been seen as an important feature of the aristocratic house system that followed the Han 1.
Assessment
One recent study argues that the proscription was at bottom the suspicion and revenge of Emperor Huan against the scholar-officials who had opposed his accession, so that the opposing side the court proclaimed did not exist 2.
The sources themselves are contested. Lv Simian (吕思勉) called the Ganling rhymes the work of idle hangers-on "with nothing to do with the main current" 8. According to a study of mid-Han social forces centered on the scholar-official stratum, Kawakatsu Yoshio (川胜义雄) rejected Ganling as the starting point and read the proscription as a conflict between the pure stream (The 'clean' faction of upright scholar-officials in Han politics) and a distorted state order 9, while Yu Yingshi (余英时) saw it as the product of the scholars' awakened group consciousness confronting the eunuch faction 9.
References
- 牟发松〈范晔《后汉书》对党锢成因的认识与书写〉, 《华东师范大学学报》2012年第6期. https://xbzs.ecnu.edu.cn/CN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=10528
- 〈溯源与追忆：东汉党锢新论〉, 上海社会科学院. https://ih.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/66/31/52122b6a40969a0ecd4f93000c71/11b4f46d-e043-4a28-94ba-567663b2dd6e.pdf
- 〈东汉末年的「党人」与「清议」〉, 中国社会科学网. https://www.cssn.cn/skgz/bwyc/202401/t20240108_5726301.shtml
- 白寿彝主编《中国通史》第四卷, 第三节「反宦官斗争和『党锢』事件」. https://www.dushu.com/showbook/101155/1037640.html
- 〈党锢之祸〉, 《中国中学教学百科全书·历史卷》. http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/c1b8731f703bc8d5ef9e9f62490ea0df/816d8e3b0694f1248361b2ebd78d12a7.md
- 〈影响巨大的第二次「党锢之祸」，是如何兴起，又是如何结束的〉. https://t.x21.cn/lishi/2022/0808/0859580082022.html
- 白寿彝主编《中国通史·第四卷》第三节（电子版）. http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/f74ef74351b80aae836cdb8899f87912/7d313515a7318f34e1d1a69c97eae3cd.md
- 〈范晔对汉末「党的牢狱」成因的认识与写作〉. https://www.lw33.cn/article/c435ae4139d26986e52c5501.html
- 《两汉中坚社会势力研究：以士大夫阶层为中心》, 国家图书馆数字资源. https://www.sklib.cn/booklib/databasedetail?ID=11414244&LgS=&SiteID=122&Type=literature&fromSubID=729
Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Xin and Eastern Han (9 to 184) › Rebellions, wars, and events
Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026
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