Wang Fu (; died 31 May 179 CE) was a powerful eunuch in the court of

Emperor Ling of Han Emperor Ling of Han (156/157 – 13 May 189), personal name Liu Hong, was the 12th emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was also the last Eastern Han emperor to exercise effective power during his reign. Born the son of a lesser marquis who ...

. After Ling took the throne in 168 at the age of twelve,

Dou Wu Dou Wu (; died 25 October 168), courtesy name Youping (), was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was known as a Confucian scholar and served as a low-level official during the reign of Emperor Huan until his ...

—father of the regent, Empress Dowager Dou Miao—sought to consolidate his power and neutralize that of the eunuch faction. So he drew up a list of four powerful eunuchs to be executed: Guan Ba, Su Kang, Cao Jie, and Wang Fu. But the list was discovered by another eunuch, Zhu Yu, resulting in a complete foiling of the plot and the subsequent death of Dou Wu. Later, in 172, when Empress Dowager Dou Miao died, an unknown vandal wrote on the palace door:

All that is under the heaven is in upheaval. Cao and Wang murdered the empress dowager. The key officials only know how to be officials and had nothing faithful to say.

This accusation angered the eunuchs referred to, Cao Jie and Wang Fu, who had more than 1,000 people arrested in an unsuccessful investigation to find the culprit. Also in this year, Wang Fu falsely accused Prince of Bohai Liu Kui of treason after Liu failed to pay him promised bribes. The prince was forced to commit suicide and his entire household—wife, concubines, children, assistants, and principality officials—was executed. But thereafter, Wang Fu and his confederates were constantly concerned that if Empress Song, wife of Emperor Ling, gained more power at court, she would avenge the death of her aunt, the prince's consort. They therefore joined with the concubines to falsely accuse the empress of using witchcraft to take the emperor's life. This smear campaign eventually achieved its aim, and Empress Song died in 178 CE after being deposed. In 179, Wang Fu was imprisoned in a case which implicated many eunuchs, including Cao Jie and Yuan She.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol.57 and ''Houhanshu'', vol.77 He and his son Wang Meng (王萌) died under torture, while another son, Wang Ji (王吉), died in prison in

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

References

{{reflist *'' Book of the Later Han'', volumes 77 and 78. 2nd-century Chinese people Han dynasty eunuchs 179 deaths