Zhang Dang 張當

When General-in-Chief Cao Shuang held power, Cao Shuang's biography records that his food, carriages and clothing rivaled the emperor's, and that he privately took seven or eight of the late emperor's Talented Ladies, along with generals and officials, musicians and craftsmen, drum-and-wind bands and 33 sons and daughters of good families, and made them all his entertainers and musicians. Apart from this, Zhang Dang gave Cao Shuang Talented Ladies he had privately picked out, the Ladies Zhang, He and others. Records, Wei 9 §77 · 87

In the 1st month of the 10th year of Zhengshi (249), when the emperor's carriage went to pay respects at the Gaoping Mausoleum and Cao Shuang and his brothers all went along, Sima Xuanwang (Sima Yi) marshalled his troops, seized the arsenal, camped at the floating bridge on the Luo River and submitted a memorial impeaching Cao Shuang. The memorial said that Cao Shuang overstepped his station at court by imitating the emperor and monopolized authority and power outside it, and went on to say that he had made Zhang Dang, a eunuch of the Yellow Gate, Superintendent and colluded with him alone, spying on the Most Honored, coveting the sacred vessels, sowing discord between the two palaces and harming flesh and blood. Records, Wei 9 §80–82

Persuaded by Xu Yun and Chen Tai, Cao Shuang sent the two to Sima Xuanwang to admit his guilt and ask for death, and the brothers were all dismissed and returned to their residences as marquises. The Annals of the Three Young Emperors record the visit to the Gaoping Mausoleum and the dismissal of Cao Shuang and his brothers on the day jiawu of the 1st month of the 1st year of Jiaping, and then record that on the day wuxu the officials in charge memorialized, arrested Zhang Dang, a eunuch of the Yellow Gate, and handed him over to the Commandant of Justice, and that when his testimony was examined it was found that Cao Shuang had plotted rebellion with him. Records, Wei 9 §85Records, Wei 4 §28

According to Cao Shuang's biography, Zhang Dang was arrested and put on trial on suspicion that there had been something improper with the Talented Ladies he had given Cao Shuang. Zhang Dang testified that Cao Shuang had secretly plotted rebellion with He Yan and others, had even drilled troops in advance, and meant to rise in the 3rd month, whereupon He Yan and the others were thrown into prison. In the court deliberation, the ministers and court officials declared that Cao Shuang had coveted the sacred vessels together with He Yan, Deng Yang, Zhang Dang and others, which amounted to great treason and depravity. Records, Wei 9 §87

Thereupon Cao Shuang, Cao Xi, Cao Xun, He Yan, Deng Yang, Ding Mi, Bi Gui, Li Sheng, Huan Fan, Zhang Dang and others were seized, all executed, and their three sets of kin exterminated. Records, Wei 9 §88

Five years later, Li Feng, plotting to kill the General-in-Chief by taking advantage of the investiture of an Honored Lady in the 2nd month of the 6th year of Jiaping (254), secretly told Su Shuo, Supervisor of the Yellow Gate, Yue Dun, Prefect of the Yongning Office, Liu Xian, Supervisor of the Attendants, and others, 'You men within the palace have done many unlawful things, and the General-in-Chief, stern and resolute, has spoken of it several times; the affair of Zhang Dang may serve as a warning.' Su Shuo and the others all agreed to follow his orders, but the General-in-Chief got wind of the plot, summoned Li Feng and killed him on the spot. Records, Wei 9 §123–124