Tian Yue
Tian Yue (
Background
Tian Yue was born in 751, during the reign of
Service under Tian Chengsi
By 775, when Emperor Xuanzong's grandson Emperor Daizong waged a campaign to remove Tian Chengsi, indeed, Tian Yue, as Tian Chengsi's chief assistant, was named in Emperor Daizong's edict as the only other person than Tian Chengsi who would not be allowed to keep his posts — as Emperor Daizong stated that even the other Tian clan members, if they abandoned Tian Chengsi, would be allowed to do so.[3] During the campaign, however, as part of Weibo's initial losses, Tian Yue suffered a defeat by several generals attacking Weibo from the south — Li Zhengji the military governor of Pinglu Circuit and Li Zhongchen the military governor of Huaixi Circuit (淮西, headquartered in modern Zhumadian, Henan) — at Chenliu (陳留, in modern Kaifeng, Henan). Subsequently, though, Tian Chengsi was able to exploit the ambitions of Li Zhengji and Li Baochen — themselves military governors who ruled their realms in de facto independent — to lead to the collapse of the imperial coalition, causing Emperor Daizong to abandon the campaign.
In 776, after the death of Tian Shenyu (田神玉) the acting military governor of Biansong Circuit (汴宋, headquartered in modern Kaifeng), his subordinate Li Lingyao (李靈曜) seized the circuit without imperial approval. Under Emperor Daizong's orders, the circuits around Biansong all launched forces against Li Lingyao, except for Weibo — indeed, Tian Chengsi decided to aid Li Lingyao and sent Tian Yue with an army to do so. Tian Yue had initial successes, defeating the forces of Li Zhengji's Pinglu Circuit and Li Mian's Yongping Circuit (永平, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan), enabling him to advance to Biansong's capital Bian Prefecture to try to lift the siege against Li Lingyao. However, once he arrived there, Li Zhongchen had his office Li Chongqian (李重倩) launch a surprise night attack against Tian Yue's forces, causing the Weibo relief force to collapse, and Tian Yue was forced to flee back to Weibo. Subsequently, Bian Prefecture fell to Li Zhongchen and Ma Sui, and Li Lingyao was captured in flight by Li Mian and executed.
As Jiedushi
In 779, Tian Chengsi died. At the recommendation of Li Baochen, Emperor Daizong allowed Tian Yue to inherit his post — initially as acting military governor, and then officially as military governor. Contrary to Tian Chengsi's defiant stance against the imperial government, Tian Yue was initially, on the surface, respectful and submissive, although he continued to rule his realm in a de facto independent manner. This continued after Emperor Daizong died later in 779 and was succeeded by his son Emperor Dezong, who took a harder line against military governors who had ambitions to rule independently. In 780, for example, when Emperor Dezong sent 11 officials as surveyors of the Tang realm, one of the surveyors Hong Jingguan (洪經綸) was responsible for surveying the Hebei region (河北, i.e., roughly modern Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin). When Hong visited Weibo and heard that Weibo had 70,000 troops, he issued an order that Weibo reduce its army by 40,000. Tian Yue pretended to follow his orders and also issued an order cutting 40,000 soldiers from his army and sending them to farm. He then summoned those soldiers to be cut and stated to them, "You have long been in the army, and you all have parents, wives, and children. Now, if the surveyor forces you to leave the army, how are you going to feed your families?" Tian then spent his own wealth to pay for these soldiers and kept the 40,000 in the army. It was said that thereafter, the army were grateful to Tian and resentful of the imperial government.[4] Nevertheless, pursuant to the customs of Emperor Daizong's time, when Emperor Dezong celebrated his birthday in summer 780, both Tian and Li Zhengji offered a large amount of silk to Emperor Dezong as a birthday gift. Emperor Dezong, instead of receiving them into the palace storage as his father would have, had the silk turned over to the imperial treasury for state use and announced that those were used to satisfy Weibo's and Pinglu's taxes — implicitly informing Tian and Li Zhengji that he was dissatisfied that Weibo and Pinglu were not paying taxes.
In spring 781, Li Baochen died. As there was an alliance between Weibo, Pinglu, Li Baochen's Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern
Tian gathered only some 1,000 soldiers and fled back to Wei Prefecture in the dark. It was said that Ma and Li Baozhen did not get along with each other, and they did not coordinate, making it impossible for them to immediately trail Tian. When Tian arrived at Wei Prefecture, the officer he left in Wei Prefecture's defense, Li Changchun (李長春), refused to let him in, hoping that imperial forces would arrive to allow him to submit. However, imperial forces did not appear, and Li Changchun was forced to open the gates in the morning. Tian entered, executed Li Changchun, and put up a defense. Weibo was then in a desperate shape — as within Wei Prefecture there were only several thousand soldiers, and the family members of the dead were all mourning, so the city was filled with wailing and tears. Tian, in fear and depression, decided to publicly plead his case in order to earn back the people's loyalty. He personally rode a horse and held a knife outside his headquarters and gathered the people. In tears, he stated:[5]
I, Tian Yue, lack talent, but it was with the endorsement of the two older gentlemen of Ziqing [(i.e., Pinglu)] and Chengde that I was able to inherit this post, and thus I did not measure my own strength before I decided to resist the will of the imperial government. It is because of me that we are in this lamentable state, with all these men suffering horrible deaths on my account. My old mother is still at home, so I cannot commit suicide. But I hope that you will take my sword, cut off my head, and surrender to General Ma. Seek your own fortunes, and do not die with me.
As he proclaimed this in sadness, he fell off his horse. The soldiers, hearing this, took pity on him and pledged to stay faithful to him. He thanked them and swore to treat them as brothers. He took out all of the wealth stored in the circuit treasury and gave them to the soldiers, and the hearts of the soldiers became more settled. He also summoned Xing Caojun and put him in charge of the defense, realizing that he should have listened to Xing earlier. Meanwhile, though, his subordinate Li Zaichun (李在春) surrendered Bo Prefecture (博州, in modern Liaocheng, Shandong) to imperial forces, and his cousin Tian Ang (田昂) did the same with Ming Prefecture (洺州, in modern Handan). When the imperial forces arrived at Wei Prefecture, however, Tian Yue had already readied his defenses for more than 10 days, and imperial forces were unable to easily capture Wei Prefecture.
Meanwhile, Li Weiyue was himself suffering heavy defeats at the hands of Zhu Tao the acting military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) and Zhang Xiaozhong — a former Chengde officer who had joined the imperial cause. He thus considered renouncing the alliance with Tian and Li Na and offering to surrender to the imperial forces. When Meng You heard this and reported it to Tian, Tian angrily demanded Li Weiyue to execute the staff member who advocated this plan, Shao Zhen (邵真). Li Weiyue, intimidated by Tian's demands, executed Shao and did not surrender. However, after yet another major defeat at Zhu's and Zhang's hands, Li Weiyue's officer Wang Wujun turned against him and executed him, submitting to the imperial forces.
It was Emperor Dezong's mishandling of the situation after Chengde's fall that would give Tian a chance to survive, as Emperor Dezong made a series of moves that simultaneously alienated Zhu and Wang. He refused to give Chengde's Shen Prefecture (深州, in modern
), to join the imperial forces already sieging Wei Prefecture. However, when aid from both sides arrived, the overly confident Li Huaiguang ordered an attack with some initial successes, but ultimately suffered a major defeat at Zhu's and Wang's hands. The imperial forces withdrew across the river from Wei Prefecture, lifting the siege.In the aftermaths of the imperial forces' defeat, Tian was grateful to Zhu, and offered to subjugate himself and Wang to Zhu — in effect, offering the emperor title to Zhu. Zhu declined, crediting Wang rather than himself for the victory. At the suggestion of Zhu's staff member Li Ziqian (李子千) and Wang's staff member Zheng Ru (鄭濡), they decided to each claim a princely title to show independence from imperial authority, but keep Tang's
As self-proclaimed Prince of Wei
Meanwhile, though, as Zhu Tao's and Wang Wujun's troops were continuing to battle Tang imperial troops on Tian Yue's soil, all three of them were becoming financially drained. They pinned their hopes on alliance with yet another military governor with greater pretensions -- Li Xilie the military governor of Huaixi Circuit (淮西, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan), whose circuit was then wealthy. They, along with Li Na, thus sent emissaries to Huaixi, suggesting to Li Xilie that he take imperial title. Li Xilie did not do so immediately, but began to claim titles greater than the ones bestowed him by Emperor Dezong. (Li Xilie would eventually declare himself to be the emperor of a new state of Chu in spring 784, although without further pledge of allegiance by the four.)
In fall 783, after a mutiny by the soldiers of Jingyuan Circuit (涇原, headquartered in modern Pingliang, Gansu) at the capital Chang'an forced Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian (奉天, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), the Jingyuan soldiers supported Zhu Tao's brother Zhu Ci as their leader. Zhu Ci soon declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qin and put Fengtian under siege. With Emperor Dezong himself now under siege by Zhu Ci, Li Huaiguang and Li Sheng headed for Fengtian to save him, while Ma Sui and Li Qiu also left Weibo and returned to their circuits. Li Baozhen was left alone on the Weibo front, and Tian asked Wang and Zhu Tao's general Ma Shi (馬寔) to aid him in sieging Linming, where Li Baozhen was at the time. Li Baozhen, however, was able to persuade Wang that such a battle would do him no good regardless of the outcome — that if they were successful, it only benefited Weibo, while it they were not, Hengji would suffer heavy losses. Wang therefore carefully declined and returned to Hengji. As both he and Ma Shi departed, Tian held a grand feast sending them off in gratitude. Meanwhile, Emperor Dezong also sent emissaries to Wang, Tian, and Li Na, persuading them to again submit to Tang authority. All three secretly agreed, but for the time being remained in apparent alliance with Zhu Tao. When Zhu Tao, unaware of the development, requested Tian's assistance in advancing south to capture the eastern capital Luoyang and join forces with Zhu Ci, Tian, still thankful to him and not willing to refuse, initially agreed. After further persuasion from Wang, however, Tian was resolved against the plan.
When Emperor Dezong declared a general pardon in spring 784 — the scope of which included even Zhu Tao, Wang, Tian, Li Na, and Li Xilie and implicitly promising them that if they submitted to nominal imperial authority again, he would not dare to interfere with them again — Wang, Tian, and Li Na all renounced their self-claimed princely titles. However, Zhu Tao, unaware of this development, began his plan of march toward Luoyang in early 784. He went through Hengji and Weibo with great ceremonies of welcome from Wang and Tian. Eventually, when Zhu reached Yongji (永濟, in modern Handan) and requested that Tian join him in advancing to Luoyang, Tian refused. This drew Zhu's anger, and he divided his troops, along with Huige troops, in attacking several different Weibo cities. Tian put up his defense at Wei Prefecture, waiting for aid.
Death
Meanwhile, Emperor Dezong had sent the imperial official Kong Chaofu (孔巢父) to Weibo to meet with Tian Yue, to thank him for his allegiance and to encourage the troops. He also created Tian the Prince of Jiyang. Meanwhile, though, on March 26, 784,
Notes and references
- ^ a b "中央研究院".
- ^ New Book of Tang, vol. 210 Archived 2009-02-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 225.
- ^ Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 226.
- ^ a b Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 227.
- ^ "中央研究院".
- ^ This version of Tian Xu's assassination of Tian Yue is per the Zizhi Tongjian. The Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang had somewhat different sequences of events, but all pointed to Tian Xu as Tian Yue's killer. Compare Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 230 with Old Book of Tang, vol. 141 Archived 2008-10-29 at the Wayback Machine and New Book of Tang, vol. 210.
- Old Book of Tang, vol. 141.
- New Book of Tang, vol. 210.
- Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230.