The Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions (Chinese: 黨錮之禍) refers to two incidents in which a number of Confucian scholars who served as officials in the Han imperial government and opposed to powerful eunuchs, and the university students (太學生/弟子員) in the capital Luoyang who supported them (collectively referred to by the eunuchs as "partisans" [黨人, dangren]), were imprisoned.
[4] As a result, a number of Confucian officials who served in the imperial administration began a conscious effort to form a coalition to drive out the influence of the eunuchs.
[5] In the realm of public opinion, they were supported by university students in the capital, who admired them greatly and adored them as heroes against eunuch domination.
Zhang Cheng (張成), a fortuneteller in Luoyang, had foretold that a general pardon would be forthcoming, and he therefore instructed his son to commit a murder.
[7] Li Ying, one of the foremost Confucian scholars in government who was serving as the governor of the capital province, arrested the Zhangs, but at this time a general pardon was issued.
[13] Further, the eunuchs became concerned that the university students' interrogation logs often mentioned their own younger family members, and therefore also wanted the investigation to end.
When word got out, the eunuchs instead incarcerated Empress Dowager Dou to get her seal and mobilized the imperial guards and had Chen arrested and executed.
Many partisans hid, with the assistance of an underground network who largely remained anonymous even later, but included such eventually-important figures as Yuan Shao and Kong Rong.