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entity Updated 2026-08-26

阳球 / Yang Qiu (late Han)

Hanji 907 adds Yang Qiu’s pre-anti-eunuch local-office marker. The transcript renders him as “杨求”; this page normalizes to 阳球 because the Pingyuan chancellor harsh-law case matches the later canonical official. The source says he is summoned to the tingwei for severe penal practice, then pardoned because of earlier merit against bandits in Jiujiang and appointed yilang.

Hanji 912 adds a source-scoped antecedent before Yang Qiu’s Hongdu memorial and anti-eunuch prosecution branches. The transcript renders the name as “杨球” and calls him jiangzuo dajiang; this page links the actor to Yang Qiu because the Cheng Huang/Cai Yong retaliation field matches the later canonical page. The source says Cai Yong’s uncle Cai Zhi had an old grievance with Yang Qiu, and that Cheng Huang used an affinal or household tie to turn the leak of Cai Yong’s memorial into an anonymous accusation.

Hanji 914 backfills Yang Qiu before the Wang Fu prosecution. As shangshu ling, he memorializes against 鸿都门学, arguing that favored writers such as the Hongdu literary group rise through elite attachment, decorative writing, and imperial favor rather than public competence.

This makes Yang Qiu an appointment-order critic before he becomes the harsher anti-eunuch prosecutor in Hanji 915. His warning is not adopted by 汉灵帝, so the episode frames him inside 君臣反馈失灵 before his later successful and then overreaching use of enforcement power.

Hanji 915 supplies Yang Qiu’s prosecutorial high point before his Hanji 916 transfer. After denouncing 王吉’s cruelty, he becomes sili xiaowei, uses 杨彪’s evidence against 王甫’s retainers, and persuades 汉灵帝 to authorize arrests against Wang Fu, 段熲, Wang Ji, and 王萌.

The episode also complicates Yang Qiu’s anti-eunuch profile. His attack exposes a corrupt network, but his prison methods include torture, mouth-stopping, beatings, corpse display, confiscation, and family exile. His plan to continue against 曹节 and the Yuan elite sets up the overconfidence that later sources punish.

Hanji 916 backfills Yang Qiu’s loss of the sili xiaowei position before Hanji 917-918. After 曹节 uses 王甫’s roadside corpse to rally the eunuch side, 汉灵帝 transfers Yang Qiu to weiwei; Yang Qiu begs for another month to make the “奸臣” confess, but the eunuchs shout him down and the transfer sticks.

The episode therefore shows Yang Qiu’s anti-eunuch leverage being stripped before his later overconfident target list. He remains dangerous, but his removal from sili xiaowei gives Cao Jie and 朱瑀 room to recover.

Hanji 917 places Yang Qiu just before the failed anti-曹节 plot. The source says that as 司隶校尉 he had already destroyed 王甫 and pulled 段熲 into the same prosecution field, then wanted to continue against Cao Jie and 朱瑀.

That setup makes Yang Qiu a dangerous anti-eunuch instrument rather than only a victim. Hanji 917 presents him as overreading one successful strike as proof that the same method can be used against favorites closer to 汉灵帝, which sets up the rebound in Hanji 918.

阳球 was Weiwei in Hanji 918 and the operational link in the failed plot against 曹节.

The episode’s crucial detail is domestic: Yang Qiu’s concubine has a connection to 程璜, who is bribed and threatened until he tells Cao Jie. Yang Qiu therefore makes the anti-eunuch plan an example of lethal plan leakage risk: a plot can fail through household access before the formal political move begins.

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