阳球 / Yang Qiu (late Han)
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.
Connections
- Hanji 915, 王甫, 王吉, 王萌, 段熲, and 杨彪 - first major prosecution and its brutal method.
- Hanji 916, 曹节, 王甫, 朱瑀, and 汉灵帝 - transfer from sili xiaowei to weiwei after eunuch regrouping.
- Hanji 917, 王甫, 段熲, 曹节, and 朱瑀 - earlier prosecution success and next-target overconfidence.
- 刘郃 / Liu He (late-Han situ), 陈球 / Chen Qiu (late Han), and 刘纳 / Liu Na (late Han) — co-conspirators killed after the exposure.
- 程璜 / Cheng Huang (late Han) — intermediary whose connection to Yang Qiu’s household leaks the plan.
- 曹节 / Cao Jie (late Han eunuch) — target who converts the warning into an accusation.
- Adversity Silence Discipline / 逆境守口 — source concept sharpened by Yang Qiu’s inability to keep a dangerous matter contained.