Eight Tigers
The Eight Tigers were a group of powerful eunuchs in the Ming imperial court during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, almost all of whom were members of the Chinese Rite of the Templar Order.
History[edit | edit source]
Rise to power[edit | edit source]
Originally led by Liu Jin, who was not a Templar himself, the group leadership was taken over by Zhang Yong in 1510, when the latter betrayed Liu Jin by denouncing a plot against the Zhengde Emperor, leading to his execution via lingchi.[2]
After the heir-less Emperor died in 1521, the Tigers rose to power and planned to place their own puppet on the throne.[3] During the interregnum, they learned that the Neo-Confucian philosopher and general Wang Yangming was an Assassin and started to spy on him, identifying many of his allies. Due to the absence of a declared Emperor and the confusion that reigned in court, the Tigers believed it was the perfect moment to make their move against the Assassins and purge their enemies from Beijing.[4]
However, the Tigers made a mistake and word of their plot leaked to the Imperial concubines. One concubine, Shao Jun, warned Wang Yangming,[5] allowing him to call his best Assassins into the Forbidden City in an attempt to stop the Tigers; however, they were defeated.[6] After the Zhengde Emperor was succeeded by his cousin, the Jiajing Emperor, the Tigers ruled in his stead and made important decisions while the Emperor spent his time in brothels and palaces. They would even choose his consorts to better control him.[7]
During the Great Rites Controversy, the Tigers sought to eliminate anyone who opposed their reign. The purge was overseen by Zhang Yong and executed by his minions: Wei Bin, Qiu Ju, and Ma Yongcheng. The Tigers hunted down Assassins all across China, forcing Wang Yangming to go into hiding[8] and the Brotherhood's allies in the Forbidden City to evacuate the palace. Although some, like Shao Jun, managed to escape,[6] others like Hong Liwei were not as fortunate and were either executed or sent to the Maijishan Grottoes, a former Assassin stronghold which the Templars had converted into a secret prison for their enemies.[9]
By 1524, with the Chinese Assassins all but wiped out, the Tigers became confident that they controlled China and retreated to luxurious places to enjoy their new power and put another puppet in place. Yan Song was to be the public face of the administration while the Jiajing Emperor turned himself completely towards private affairs. In the shadows, the Tigers continued to hunt the few surviving Assassins in China and started a search for various Isu artifacts, all the while also consolidating their grip over the country.[10]
Hearing that the Assassin Mentor Zhu Jiuyuan and his apprentice Shao Jun had left the country to seek aid from the Brotherhood in Italy,[11] the Tigers sent mercenaries to kill them, resulting in the Mentor's death.[12] Shao Jun, however, managed to escape and was trained by the Italian Assassins' renowned former Mentor Ezio Auditore.[13]
Revenge of the Assassins[edit | edit source]
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Shao Jun returned to China in 1526 to rebuild her Brotherhood. Reuniting with Wang Yangming, they began exacting revenge on the Tigers, tracking them one after the other. Using the Precursor box given to her by Ezio, Shao Jun tricked the Tiger Gao Feng into imprisoning her in the Maijishan Grottoes. She escaped her cell, freed Hong Liwei, retrieved the remaining Assassin scrolls, and killed Gao Feng.[9] Meanwhile, Wang Yangming eliminated Ma Yongcheng, who served the Tigers as a torturer, though the Assassins failed to retrieve the box.[14]
Later that year, an Assassin spy in Macau learned that the Precursor box had been given to the Tiger and slaver Gu Dayong and managed to inform Yangming before he was discovered and captured by the Templars. Shao Jun infiltrated Dayong's stronghold and freed the spy at the request of his young son, Kotetsu, though he soon succumbed to injuries he had received while being tortured.[15] Vowing revenge on Dayong, Shao Jun assassinated the Tiger and retrieved the box,[16] though in retaliation, Qiu Ju ordered that the port of Macau be set ablaze, resulting in many civilian casualties.[17]
In 1529, Shao Jun and Wang Yangming tracked Wei Bin, Zhang Yong's second-in-command, to Nan'an.[18] While Shao Jun infiltrated the Tiger's stronghold and killed him,[19] Yangming went to meet with a contact for information on the Precursor box. Aware of Yangming's intentions, Zhang Yong and Qiu Ju ambushed him during the meeting[20] and killed him, recovering the box.[21] After Shao Jun arrived too late to save her Mentor, Qiu Ju attempted to kill her as well, but was stopped by a monk from a nearby Buddhist temple, who ordered the Templars to leave.[22]
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Upon their discovery of Shao Jun's friendship with Empress Zhang in 1530, the remaining Tigers used her to lure the last Chinese Assassin into a trap.[23] However, their plan was in vain for Shao Jun managed to kill Qiu Ju in combat and Zhang Yong was forced to escape, leaving a fire in his wake which nearly destroyed the Imperial Palace.[24] He then sent the Precursor box to other Templars outside China to keep it out of the Assassins' hands.[1]
In 1532, Zhang Yong, desperate to maintain his grip on power, allied himself with the Mongols and their leader Altan Khan and offered to help them invade China.[25] However, before he could open the gates of the Great Wall and start the invasion, Shao Jun and Kotetsu interfered and helped the Ming soldiers to thwart the Mongol attack.[26] Shao Jun then assassinated Zhang Yong, marking the end of the Tigers and of Templar influence in China.[1]
Members[edit | edit source]
- Liu Jin (leader; ? – 1510)
- Zhang Yong (leader; 1510 – 1532)
- Gao Feng
- Ma Yongcheng (The Butcher)
- Gu Dayong (The Slaver)
- Qiu Ju (The Demon)
- Wei Bin (The Snake)
- Luo Xiang
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
The Eight Tigers are historical characters first introduced as the main group of antagonists in the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China. They later appeared in the game's 2019 manga adaptation, Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun, where their role is largely unchanged, although the story does feature several alterations, such as Qiu Ju being to one to kill Wang Yangming instead of Zhang Yong, and Shao Jun failing to retrieve the Precursor box from the Templars in Macau. The manga also includes the first mention of the group's eighth member, Luo Xiang, who passed away several decades before the story's events.[27]
Although both the game and the manga portray the Eight Tigers as influencing the Jiajing Emperor and playing a major role in the Great Rites Controversy, historically, most of the Tigers had already died or retired from the Imperial court by the time of the Jiajing Emperor's ascension to the throne.[28]
Several members of the Eight Tigers have beards. While a eunuch loses his ability to secrete male hormones, which is essential for beards to grow, a eunuch’s beard grown before being neutered can still be kept, such as in the example of Tong Guan, a prominent eunuch during the Song Dynasty. However, the majority became eunuchs at a very young age, which is too early for a beard to grow. Zhang Yong, according to historical records, became a eunuch at an age of 10, which is highly unlikely for him to have such a beard.
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
- Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
- Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game (mentioned only)
- Echoes of History – Chinese Chronicles (mentioned only)
Non-canonical appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm
- Assassin's Creed: The Desert Threat
- Assassin's Creed: Turbulence in the Ming Dynasty
References[edit | edit source]
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