梁商 (? ～141)，东汉大臣。梁统孙，梁雍子。汉顺帝国丈。永建元年 (126)，“袭父封乘氏侯” 。阳嘉元年 (132)，女儿被立为皇后，妹妹又封为贵人，自己也被加位特进、拜执金吾。三年，封为大将军，地位日益显赫。梁家自从梁竦衰败之后，到梁商时又开始重新崛起。
梁商 “少通经传，谦恭好士” 。在辅佐顺帝期间，“自以戚属居大位，每存谦柔，虚己进贤” 。顺帝先后封梁商长子梁冀为襄邑侯、少子梁不疑为步兵校尉，他都上书相辞，而是主张选贤任能。他起用陈龟、李固、周举等有才干的能人入朝担当重任，“于是京师翕然，称为贤辅，帝委重焉” 。
在对待少数民族的关系方面，梁商主张实行安抚政策，反对进行大规模的军事征讨，以缓和民族矛盾，维护统治阶级的根本利益。元初五年 (118)夏，南匈奴 “背畔” ，“率三千骑寇河西” 。梁商上书主张采取 “续深沟高壁，以恩信招降” ，尽量不要打仗，让边地安宁，减轻人民的负担。他常常教导边将们，对待少数民族要宽仁，使各民族和睦相处。永建四年 (129)，因镇压少数民族有功，马贤、来机、刘秉三位将领赴京受封领赏时，梁商曾对来机等说： “统领之道，亦无常法，临事制宜，略依其俗。……其务安羌胡，防其大故，忍其小过。”
梁商虽然身为大将军执掌朝廷军政，权倾一时，但是仍然做到居官清廉，并严格要求梁氏族人要严以律己，而不能以权干法。在他病危弥留之际，把儿子梁冀叫到病床前安顿说： 我死后要节俭办丧，及时落葬入土。送葬之日，皇帝命中宫亲自扶灵，皇帝自己也到宣阳亭上，目送他“上路” ，并追谥为“忠侯” 。
梁冀(? ～159)，东汉大臣。字伯卓。梁商子。两妹为顺帝、桓帝皇后。少年时代就依仗皇亲国戚的身份，游手好闲，酗酒斗殴，放鹰斗鸡，赌博嫖娼，是京城有名的纨绔恶少。其父梁商死后，继为大将军。梁家的富贵、荣华和权势甲于天下。
永和元年(136)，在担任河南尹时，贪赃枉法，无恶不作。当时担任洛阳令的吕放，是他父亲过去的门客，便把梁冀在河南的所作所为告诉了梁商。梁冀受到父亲的责骂之后，知道是吕放告的状，便将吕放给暗杀了。为了掩人耳目，又让吕放的弟弟接任洛阳令，并诬指吕放是仇人所害，又找了一个所谓的 “仇人” ，把其一家灭了门，无故枉杀一百多人。
永和六年(141)，父亲病故，梁冀又被汉顺帝特命为大将军，继承父职，执掌朝政。他又乘机把弟弟梁不疑提升为河南尹，帮他捂住在河南的恶政。当时有位光禄大夫名叫张纲，大胆上奏皇帝，举劾梁氏兄弟“外戚蒙恩” 、“专肆贪叨” 、“纵恣无极” ，不宜担当要职。梁冀对张怀恨在心，不久就找到借口，把张纲挤出京城，贬到广陵 (今江苏扬州西北)去当太守。
汉安三年 (144)，汉顺帝刘保病故。太子刘炳继位，改年号永嘉，史称汉冲帝，年仅二岁。梁冀的妹妹梁皇后成为皇太后，并临朝执政。但小皇帝不到一年就死了。当时朝廷为皇位继承问题发生争执，太尉李固主张皇位要由成年人、“高明有德”者来继承，以便亲自处理政事。而梁冀与梁太后经过秘密谋划，“定策禁中” ，选中渤海孝王的八岁幼子刘缵当了新的小皇帝，改年号本初，史称汉质帝。汉质帝虽然年少，但很聪慧，也比较勇敢，早已知道梁冀是奸臣，当今朝廷是梁氏专权，内心非常痛恨梁氏家族。有一次朝会群臣时，小皇帝突然两眼怒视梁冀，对满朝的文武大臣们说： “此跋扈将军也。”于是梁冀就让太监在食物中加毒药，把汉质帝害死了。又不到一年，朝廷再次讨论选择皇帝继承问题，当时太尉李固和大鸿胪杜乔等大臣主张迎立清河王刘蒜(质帝的哥哥)继承大统。但梁冀却在会上“意气汹汹” 、“言辞激切” ，十分霸道，大臣们都非常惧怕梁家一门的权势，大多数官员们因“惧慑” ，不得不表示 “唯大将军令” 。梁家兄妹便决定让汉章帝刘炟的曾孙刘志做新皇帝，改年号建和，史称汉桓帝。新皇帝也只有十五岁，梁太后仍然临朝执政，因而朝中军政大事仍然是梁氏兄妹把持。
东汉玉猪
Jade Pig of Eastern Han Dynasty
对于梁冀的种种倒行逆施，只有李固和杜乔等少数正直大臣敢于站出来说话，所以李、杜也就成为梁冀的眼中钉、肉中刺，必先除之而后快，经常想方设法对他们实行打击报复。先是以 “灾异”为借口，将他俩免了职，后又制造罪名把李固抓进牢狱。但是梁太后要梁冀放人，他不得不释放李固。李固出狱这一天，京师人民纷纷自动涌向街头去迎候，大家不约而同 “皆称万岁” 。梁冀看到了民心，非常害怕，对李固更加痛恨。他一不做二不休，借故再把李固抓起来。李固最终被迫害死在狱中。李固死前曾给朝中大臣留下遗言，他向同僚们提出了警示和忠告。他说： “汉家衰微，从此始矣。”杜乔也在梁冀的迫害下死在狱中，并被暴尸野外，还威胁不许家人和他人去收尸。梁家对外放风威胁说： “有敢临者，加其罪。”从此以后，梁冀在朝中一手遮天，再无一人敢于提出反对意见。文武官员如被提拔，都要先到梁府去谢恩，各地进献给朝廷和皇帝的贡品，总是先把好的送给梁冀，而将差的送往宫中。每年春节百官朝贺皇帝时，梁冀 “威仪不整” ，“恃贵不敬” ，根本不把皇帝放在眼里。梁冀与妻子孙寿，都是生活糜烂，穷奢极侈。梁家在京郊强占民田，大兴土木，修建的私家园林，方圆近千里，赛过皇家园林。他还抢掠平民数千人，强迫他们成为奴婢，对外谎称这些人是“自卖人”。
“多行不义必自毙” ，梁冀把持朝政，控制汉室长达二十余年，他穷凶极恶，作威作福，横行霸道，“百僚侧目，莫敢违命，天子恭己而不得有所亲豫” 。但是物极必反，梁冀恶贯满盈，终于走到了尽头。延熹二年(159)，梁太后、梁皇后相继死去，梁冀失去了靠山。不久，桓帝与宦官单超、具瑗、唐衡、左悺、徐璜等五人谋划诛冀办法，果断地收缴了梁冀的大将军印绶，夺回了兵权，以防不测。梁冀自知大势已去，在孤立无援的情况下，便与妻子一同自杀了，受他们牵连被处死及免职者数百人。家产被抄没，变卖 “合三十余万万，以充王府，同减天下税租之半” 。
Liang Shang (?-141)，a minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty，was Liang Tong'sgrandson and Liang Yong's son，and the father-in-law of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. In the first year of the Yongjian reign (126)，he succeeded his father tothe title Marquis Chengshi. In the first year of the Yangjia reign (132)，his daughter was chosen as Empress and then his younger sister was Noblewoman. Meanwhile，he himself was promoted to Tejin (an ancient official title) and Zhijinwu (an ancient official title). In the third year of the Yangjia reign，he was appointed as the general-inchief. So the Liang family began to grow up once more after its decline.
Liang Shang was good at Confucian classics in his childhood，and was courteous and liked to consort together with young able men. In assisting Emperor Shun in governing the country，he，as a relative of Emperor，held important office. Once he met talents，he would introduce them to the court. Emperor Shun ever successively conferred Marquis of Xiangyi on his elder son，Liang Ji，and Major Officer of Infantry，his younger son，Liang Buyi，but he declined the offer in his letters to the emperor. He insisted that only the able and the virtuous should take on the important tasks in the royal court，such as Chen Gui，Li Gu，Zhou Ju，etc. Thus，the capital city was stable and the people regarded Liang Shang as judicious assistance，hence，he was appointed to important positions.
When dealing with national conflicts，Liang Shang argued against the massive military action but persisted in Conciliation Policy in order to relax the national conflicts and safeguard the essential interest of the ruling class as well. In the summer of the fifth year of the Yuanchu reign (118)，South Xiongnu rebelled and came to the west of the Yellow R iver with three thousand cavalrymen. At this moment，Liang Shang wrote a letter to the emperor，putting forward that deep ditch should be dug and high wall should be built and Xiongnu be summoned to surrender through kindness and trust to them. All in all，war should be avoided in order to keep the border area peaceful and alleviate people's burden. He often taught officers and soldiers on the border to treat the ethnic minorities clemently and make all the people of different nationalities live in harmony. In the fourth year of the Yongjian reign (129)，when Ma Xian，Lai Ji and Liu Bing who were going to the capital city to accept their largess and titles because of their achievements in suppressing the ethnic minorities，Liang Shang said to them，"The management of the ethnic minorities varies; their customs should taken into consideration...Your main task is to appease them by avoiding major accidents and tolerate their defects."
As a greatly powerful general who held the military and state affairs，Liang Shang was clean-handed and he asked Liang family to be self-disciplined and not to intervenein legal affairs. At the moment when he was dying，he summoned his sons to his bed and told them that his funeral must be handled thriftily. On the funeral service day，the emperor sent his empress to support Liang Shang's coffin with her hands in person，and he himself not only came to Xuanyang pavilion to see Liang Shang off but also posthumously admitted him as Marquis Zhong (Loyal Marquis).
Liang Ji (?-159)，style name Bozhuo，was a minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the son of Liang Shang's. Relying on his being a relative of the emperor's，he idled about all day，indulging in excessive drinking，fighting，cockfight，gambling，visiting prostitutes in his childhood. As a result，he was called a notorious playboy and young ruffian. His father，Liang Shang，was ranked as Great General after his death. At that time，the Liang family was the richest and most influential one in the country.
In the first year of the Yonghe reign (136) when he held the post of Yin (an ancient official) of Henan，Liang Ji committed all manners of crimes. Then，Lu Fang，once Liang Shang's hanger-on，who assumed office as Ling (an ancient official title) of Luoyang then，informed Liang Shang of what his son had done in Henan Province.After Liang Ji was scolded seriously and told that it was all because of Lu Fang's complaint against，he had Lu Fang assassinated. In order to deceive the public，he appointed Lu Fang's younger brother to Ling of Luoyang; meanwhile，he spread falseinformation that Lu Fang was murdered by his personal enemy. He found a so-called enemy and killed his family of more than 100 people.
Five years later (141)，for his father passed away，Liang Ji was appointed generalin-chief by Emperor Shun，and thus he began to control the state affairs. He promoted his younger brother Liang Buyi to Yin of Henan，so as to conceal his evildoings there.At that time，the Guanglu Dafu (an ancient official title) Zhang Gang reported bravely to the emperor exposing the vice of the two Liang brothers and suggesting that they should be removed from the crucial positions. Liang Ji，when he learned that，began to nurse hatred toward Zhang. Shortly afterwards，he squeezed Zhang Gang out of the capital city in some excuse，and demoted him to be the provincial governor of Guangling (in the northwest of present-day Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province).
In the third year of the Han'an reign (144)，Emperor Shun，LiuBao，passed away.The 2-year-old crown prince Liu Bing succeeded to the throne and his reign title was Yongjia. He was called Emperor Chong in history. Thus Liang Ji's younger sister，Empress Liang，became Empress Dowager，and came into power. However，the little emperor died less than one year later，which caused an argument on the issue of the inheritor. Li Gu，Taiwei (an military commander-in-chief in ancient China)，held that the emperor should be a sagacious adult who could handle the state affairs in person.But Liang Ji and his sister designed secretly and chose Liu Zuan，an eight-year-old son of Duke Fealty of Bohai to be the new emperor，who was historically recorded as Emperor Zhi of Han Dynasty and whose reign title was Benchu. The new emperor wasyoung but bright and brave. He had long known that Liang Ji was a treacherous court official and the court had been in the control of the Liang family，so he hated the family very much. Once in a court meeting，he glared at Liang Ji and said to all his civil and military ministers Liang Ji was a domineering general. Then Liang Ji ordered one eunuch to poison Emperor's food and murdered him eventually. No more than one year later，the issue of choosing a new emperor was put forward again. Many ministers headed by Li Gu，Taiwei (an military commander-in-chief in ancient China) of the time and Du Qiao，Dahonglu (an ancient Chinese official handling foreign affairs)expected to have Duke Qinghe，Liu Suan，who was Emperor Zhi's elder brother to mount the throne. However，most ministers were frightened by the power of the Liang family into expressing that they would follow Liang Ji，who was ever extremely arbitrary in the royal court. Then Liang Ji and his younger sister determined to make Liu Zhi，the great-grandson of late Emperor Zhang the emperor. In history，he was called Emperor Huan of Han Dynasty and his reign title was Jianhe. Since the little Emperor was only 15 years old，Empress Dowager Liang continued to control the state affairs，namely，the court was still held in the hands of the Liang family.
As for all the perverse acts of Liang Ji，only few upright ministers such as Li Guand Du Qiao dared to stand out to complain，so they were regarded as a thorn in Liang Ji's flesh. Liang Ji tried all means to make vindictive attacks on them. At the beginning，he made an excuse to dismiss Li Gu and Du Qiao. Then，he put Li Gu into jail with some framed crimes. But later he could not but set Li Gu free as Empress DowagerLiang ordered. On the day when Li Gu was released，the people in the capital city turned out to greet Li Gu shouting to him，"Your Majesty" simultaneously. Seeing the common aspiration of the people，Liang Ji was astonished and his abhorrence increased，and then he imprisoned Li Gu once more and persecuted him in the jail. Li Gu left his last words to the ministers，warning and suggesting them，"This is the start of declination of Han Dynasty". Du Qiao was also killed in the prison under Liang Ji 's persecution.Worsely，his body was exposed in the open，and his family and others were threatened not to collect his body. From then on，Liang Ji began to hide the truth from the masses，and all the ministers choked with silent fury. Any civil and military officials who got promoted must visit Liang Ji's mansion expressing their appreciation. They always gave the best presents to Liang Ji and the second-class ones to the royal court. Every Spring Festival when all the officials went to court to pay a formal visit to the emperor as required，Liang Ji would not pay any respect to the emperor. He and his wife，Sun Shou，lived in dissipation and luxury. The Liang family encroached private field and launched immense construction projects. His private garden with an area of about one thousand Li (about 500 kms) was larger than the royal garden. In addition，he robbed thousands of civilians and forced them to be his slaves and in public he falsely claimed they were voluntary.
As a saying goes，he who is unjust is doomed to destruction. Liang Ji hadcontrolled the Han Dynasty for more than 20 years，doing all kinds of extremely vicious deeds，which caused the officials not to look at him directly or disobey him. Even the emperor was humble before him. But just as things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme，so his good luck came to an end. In the second year of the Yanjia reign (159)，Empress Dowager Liang and Empress Liang died one by one，and Liang Ji lost his backers. Soon afterwards，Emperor Huan，along with Zhonhchangshi (an ancient official title) Shan Chao，Ju Yuan，Tang Heng，Zuo Guan and Xu Huang schemed how to get rid of Liang Ji. Firstly，they took over Liang Ji's official seal and the ribbon attached to it and re-seized his military leadership in order to be prepared for all contingencies. When Liang Ji knew that the situation was hopeless for him，he committed suicide with his wife. There were hundreds of people who were sentenced to death or dismissed for his case. Liang Ji's family property worth three thousand million liang silver was sold off and confiscated，thus，the national taxation was halved that year.Ⓔ
