Ganlu Incident

The Sweet Dew Incident (Ganlu incident, Chinese: 甘露事變 or 甘露之變) refers to an incident on December 14, 835, where Emperor Wenzong of the Chinese Tang dynasty, angry about the power that the eunuchs had, conspired with the chancellor Li Xun and the general Zheng Zhu to slaughter the eunuchs. The plot failed, however, when the eunuchs realized what was happening and counterattacked with soldiers under their command. Li Xun, Zheng, as well as many of their associates and other officials were slaughtered, and thereafter, the eunuchs had an even firmer control over Emperor Wenzong and his government than before.

Both Li Xun (then named Li Zhongyan) and Zheng Zhu were associates of the powerful eunuch Wang Shoucheng initially, and it was Wang who introduced both to Emperor Wenzong. Nevertheless, as, over the years, Wenzong showed signs of resentment toward the eunuchs, Li Xun and Zheng, particularly because they were not suspected by the eunuchs due to their association with Wang, began plotting with Wenzong to destroy the powerful eunuchs. As of summer 835, Li Xun and Zheng had persuaded Wenzong with a detailed plan that included a three-phase plan for him to pacify the empire — first destroying the eunuchs, then recovering the lands lost to Tufan, and then destroying the warlords north of the Yellow River.

In the summer of 835, the plan began to go into action. Wenzong first diverted some of Wang's power by giving the command of one of the two Shence armies, under eunuch control, to Wang's rival, fellow eunuch Qiu Shiliang, and taking it away from another eunuch, Wei Yuansu (韋元素). Then, as Wei and the directors of palace communications (also eunuchs) Yang Chenghe (楊承和) and Wang Jianyan (王踐言) were also in conflict with Wang Shoucheng, to placate Wang Shoucheng and to eliminate Wei, Yang, and Wang Jianyan, Wenzong had Wei, Yang, and Wang Jianyan sent out of the capital Chang'an to serve as eunuch monitors of three different circuits, and later ordered them to commit suicide. Also as part of the plan, Zheng was sent out of Chang'an as well to serve as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), so that Zheng could gather troops to use against the eunuchs. Li Xun and Zheng also had six eunuchs who had conflicts with Wang Shoucheng previously, Tian Yuancao (田元操), Liu Xingshen (劉行深), Zhou Yuanzhen (周元稹), Xue Shigan (薛士幹), Sixian Yiyi (似先義逸), and Liu Yingchan (劉英, final character not in Unicode) to be sent out of Chang'an to survey six remote circuits, planning to eventually send edicts drafted by the imperial scholar Gu Shiyong (顧師邕) to the six circuits to order them to commit suicide later.

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