Dou Wu - Career During His Daughter's Regency and Death

Career During His Daughter's Regency and Death

Early in 168, Emperor Huan died without an heir. Empress Dou became empress dowager and regent. She consulted her father and Chen Fan with regard to who to be the new emperor. They eventually decided on the 12-year-old Liu Hong (劉宏), the Marquess of Jieduting. Later that year, he became emperor (as Emperor Ling). Empress Dowager Dou continued to serve as regent.

With Empress Dowager Dou as regent, Dou Wu and Chen became the most important officials in the imperial government. Dou Wu was given a larger march, while his son and two nephews were also created marquesses. Dou and Chen recalled the partisans and made many of them important officials. Meanwhile, though, they became concerned that the emperor and the empress dowager were being surrounded by eunuchs, the ladies in waiting, and Emperor Ling's wet nurse Zhao Rao (趙嬈), who flattered them and were trusted by them. Chen and Dou therefore started a plot to exterminate all of the powerful eunuchs. When Dou Wu presented the plan to his daughter, however, she refused—reasoning that not all of the powerful eunuchs deserved death. Dou Wu therefore sought to execute four—Guan Ba (管霸), Su Kang (蘇康), Cao Jie (曹節), and Wang Fu (王甫). As Empress Dowager Dou was still pondering this proposal, another eunuch, Zhu Yu (朱瑀), while Dou Wu was on vacation, opened up Dou Wu's proposal and found out that Dou Wu proposed a mass extermination plan and became enraged. He gathered 17 other eunuchs and took Emperor Ling into custody (managing to persuade him that they did it for his own protection) and kidnapping Empress Dowager Dou. They then sent forces to arrest Dou Wu and Chen. Chen was quickly captured and killed, but Dou gathered his forces and resisted. The eunuchs tricked the general Zhang Huan (張奐), who was battle tested as the former commander of the northern border defense forces, into believing that Dou was committing treason, and Zhang led his forces to defeat Dou Wu. After defeat, Dou Wu committed suicide, and his entire clan was slaughtered.