Emperor Xianzong of Tang

Background

Li Chun was born in 778, during the reign of his great-grandfather Emperor Daizong, at the Eastern Palace (i.e., the palace of his grandfather, then-Crown Prince Li Kuo). His father Li Song was Li Kuo's oldest son, and he himself was Li Song's oldest son. His mother was Li Song's concubine Consort Wang. When Li Chun was five or six, by which time Li Kuo was emperor (as Emperor Dezong), there was an occasion when Emperor Dezong held Li Chun on his lap and asked, "Who are you, such that you are in my lap?" His response of, "I am the third Son of Heaven" surprised Emperor Dezong, who thereafter showed him much favor.

As the Prince of Guangling and Crown Prince

In 788, by which time Li Song (Shunzong) was crown prince, Li Chun was created the Prince of Guangling. In 793, he married Lady Guo, a daughter of the deceased general Guo Ai (郭曖) and Emperor Daizong's daughter Princess Shengping, as his wife and princess.

In 804, Li Song (Shunzong) suffered a stroke and became unable to speak. When Emperor Dezong fell gravely ill in spring 805, Li Song was unable to visit him, and Emperor Dezong, distressed over this, died soon thereafter. After Emperor Dezong's death, the eunuchs in the palace initially considered supporting another person as emperor, but due to the objections of the imperial scholars Wei Cigong (衛次公) and Zheng Yin, Li Song was able to assume the throne (as Emperor Shunzong), although during Wei and Zheng's discussion with the eunuchs, the possibility of having Li Chun take the throne directly was mentioned.

As Emperor Shunzong continued to be seriously ill and unable to speak, a group of his close associates—the eunuch Li Zhongyan (李忠言), his concubine Consort Niu, the imperial scholars Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi, and the chancellor Wei Zhiyi—became the key decision-makers. It was said that this group of individuals feared Li Chun for his intelligence and decisiveness, and initially, Li Chun was not created crown prince. However, the eunuchs Ju Wenzhen (俱文珍), Liu Guangqi (劉光琦), and Xue Yingzhen (薛盈珍), all of whom were favored by Emperor Dezong and who lost their power in the new regime, summoned the imperial scholars Zheng, Wei Cigong, Li Cheng, and Wang Ya to the palace to draft an edict for Emperor Shunzong creating Li Chun as crown prince, anyway. Zheng showed a piece of paper to Emperor Shunzong reading, "The Crown Prince should be the oldest son." Emperor Shunzong, who was unable to speak, nodded, and an edict was thereafter issued in late spring 805 creating Li Chun crown prince. The edict also changed Li Chun's name (from 淳 to 純—both rendered "Chun" in modern Mandarin). It was said that Wang Shunwen was so concerned about Li Chun that he was heard reading from Du Fu's poem about the Shu Han regent Zhuge Liang—"He had not even succeeded in his campaigns when he died. This often caused heroes to weep onto their collars." Wang Shuwen and Wei Zhiyi tried to see if their group could persuade Li Chun to favor their positions by having their associate Lu Zhi (陸質) serve as the attendant to Li Chun's studies. However, it appeared that Li Chun disliked Wang Shunwen and his associates, and whenever Lu tried to speak to him on political matters, Li Chun angrily responded, "His Imperial Majesty commissioned you, sir, to teach me about the classics. Why do you discuss other matters?"

As Emperor

Early reign

Immediately after Emperor Xianzong's ascension to the throne, he purged the government of Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi's associates, exiling them. (He would later order Wang Shuwen to commit suicide.) Emperor Xianzong's father Emperor Shunzong died in spring 806. Some later historians would come to believe that Emperor Shunzong did not die of natural causes, but was murdered by the same eunuchs who had supported Emperor Xianzong's ascension.

Meanwhile, Wei Gao died late in 805, and his deputy Liu Pi seized power of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan), which Wei had governed, rejecting the replacement that Emperor Xianzong sent, Yuan Zi. Emperor Xianzong, believing himself to lack the power to attack Liu at this point, initially made Liu the acting military governor. However, Liu then made further demands to be given two neighboring circuits—Dongchuan (東川, headquartered in modern Mianyang, Sichuan) and Shannan West (山南西道, headquartered in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi)—as well. When Emperor Xianzong refused his demand, he launched an attack on Dongchuan's capital prefecture Zi Prefecture (梓州) in spring 806. At the suggestion of the chancellor Du Huangchang, Emperor Xianzong commissioned the general Gao Chongwen to attack Liu, assisted by the generals Li Yuanyi (李元奕) and Yan Li (嚴礪). In fall 806, Gao captured Xichuan's capital Chengdu and delivered Liu to the capital Chang'an to be executed.

Also in spring 806, Yang Huilin, the nephew of the general Han Quanyi (韓全義) the military governor of Xiasui Circuit (夏綏, headquartered in modern Yan'an, Shaanxi), seized control of the circuit after Han had been ordered to retire and resisted imperial orders. With imperial forces approaching Xiasui's capital Xia Prefecture (夏州), Yang was quickly killed by his own subordinate Zhang Chengjin (張承金), ending his rebellion. Around the same time, the warlord Li Shigu, the military governor of the powerful Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), died, and his subordinates supported his brother Li Shidao to succeed him. Du advocated trying to divest Pinglu of some of its territory, but Emperor Xianzong, believing that with the campaign against Liu not over by that point, that he should not wage another campaign, and therefore allowed Li Shidao to inherit Pinglu.

After Liu's and Yang's destruction, another warlord, Li Qi the military governor of Zhenhai Circuit (鎮海, headquartered in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) became apprehensive, and, as a means of showing loyalty, requested to go to Chang'an to pay homage to Emperor Xianzong. He did not actually intend to do so, however, and after Emperor Xianzong not only approved, but issued an edict summoning him when he did not depart Zhenhai immediately, rebelled against the imperial government. Before imperial troops could attack him, however, he was captured by his own subordinates and delivered to Chang'an to be executed. Around that time, another warlord, Yu Di the military governor of Shannan East Circuit (山南東道, headquartered in modern Xiangfan, Hubei), fearing Emperor Xianzong, went to Chang'an and yielded control of the circuit to the imperial government, after Emperor Xianzong had ensured Yu's loyalty by marrying his daughter Princess Puning to Yu's son Yu Jiyou (于季友).

Middle reign

After the end of the Chengde campaign, Zhang Maozhao (張茂昭) the military governor of Chengde's neighboring Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei), who had inherited his position from his father Zhang Xiaozhong, offered to yield the circuit to imperial control, and Emperor Xianzong agreed, sending the official Ren Dijian (任迪簡) to replace Zhang Maozhao. (After Zhang's departure from Yiwu, however, the Yiwu soldiers mutinied against Ren and put him under house arrest, although eventually another group of soldiers then countered their mutiny and restored Ren, allowing Yiwu to be in imperial hands from this point on.) Also in the aftermaths of the Chengde campaign, Tutu Chengcui was demoted and, later, after he was involved in a corruption scandal, sent out of the capital to serve as the eunuch monitor for Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu).

In 811, at Li Jifu's suggestion, Emperor Xianzong appointed several officials—Duan Pingzhong (段平仲), Wei Guanzhi, Xu Mengrong (許孟容), and Li Jiang—to review the governmental structure, to streamline it, reduce the number of officials who were not carrying out any crucial tasks, and revise the officials' wage scale. Later in the year, with Emperor Xianzong believing that Li Jifu had often used his own personal likes and dislikes to decide on his policies, he promoted Li Jiang to be a chancellor as well, to counterbalance Li Jifu.

Around the new year 812, Li Ning died. In fall 812, Emperor Xianzong created another son Li You the Prince of Sui, born of his wife, Consort Guo (formerly the Princess of Guangling), crown prince and changed Li You's name to Li Heng, even though he had an older son, Li Kuan (李寬) the Prince of Li, as it was viewed by officials such as Cui Qun that Li Heng, born of a wife rather than a concubine, was the proper heir. Still, despite repeated petitions by the officials to create Consort Guo empress, Emperor Xianzong was apprehensive that, because of the prominent bloodlines that Consort Guo represented (being the granddaughter of the great general Guo Ziyi and the daughter of a princess), if she were created empress, other consorts would not dare to have sexual relations with him, and therefore repeatedly formed excuses with regard to not being able to find the right date to do so. He would eventually never create her (or any other consort) empress.

Later in 812, the warlord Tian Ji'an the military governor of Weibo Circuit died. With Tian Ji'an's son and designated successor Tian Huaijian being young, soon thereafter, the soldiers mutinied and supported Tian Ji'an's relative Tian Xing. Tian Xing offered to subject Weibo to imperial commands, and soon thereafter, Emperor Xianzong made Tian Xing the military governor of Weibo and changed his name to Tian Hongzheng. With Tian Hongzheng as Weibo's military governor, for the rest of Emperor Xianzong's reign, Weibo became obedient to the imperial government.

Late reign

The imperial forces sent against Zhangyi and Chengde were unsuccessful in quickly achieving final victory against them, however. In 817, with suggestion from the chancellor Li Fengji that he should concentrate on one campaign, Emperor Xianzong called off the campaign against Chengde (although he did not pardon Wang). Meanwhile, Pei Du volunteered to head to the Zhangyi front to oversee the operation, and Emperor Xianzong agreed. Later in the year, Li Su the military governor of Tangsuideng Circuit (唐隨鄧, headquartered in modern Zhumadian) launched a surprise attack against Zhangyi's capital Cai Prefecture (蔡州), catching its defenders off guard and capturing it, seizing Wu Yuanji. Wu was subsequently delivered to Chang'an to be executed, and the imperial troops under Pei took over Zhangyi.

After Wu Yuanji's execution, Li Shidao and Wang Chengzong both became fearful. In 818, Wang offered to surrender two prefectures to imperial control and send his two sons to Chang'an to serve as hostages. He also sought intercession from Tian Hongzheng. With Tian also requesting that Emperor Xianzong accept his offer, Emperor Xianzong did so, merging the two prefectures that Wang surrendered into neighboring Henghai Circuit (橫海, headquartered in modern Cangzhou, Hebei), which had been obedient to the imperial government. Li Shidao also offered to surrender three of his 12 prefectures to imperial control and send his son as a hostage—but soon reneged on the offer. Emperor Xianzong thus declared a general campaign against his Pinglu Circuit, and soon, the imperial forces were repeatedly dealing defeats to Pinglu troops.

Meanwhile, it was said that after the victory over Zhangyi, Emperor Xianzong began to be arrogant and extravagant in his lifestyle, and he favored such officials as Huangfu Bo and Cheng Yi, whom he believed to be capable of increasing revenues for palace use. He eventually made both Huangfu and Cheng chancellors, despite earnest pleas by Pei and Cui Qun, who was a chancellor by this point as well, against the move. It was said that Huangfu soon was speaking against Cui and Pei, causing both to be sent out of the capital. In spring 819, there was an occasion when Emperor Xianzong had what was alleged to be Gautama Buddha's finger bone escorted from a temple in Fengxiang (鳳翔, in modern Baoji, Shaanxi) to the palace in a grand ceremony, kept the bone in the palace for three days, and encouraged the people to worship it and make donations to the temples. When the official Han Yu spoke against it, Han was exiled to be the prefect of Chao Prefecture (潮州, in modern Chaozhou, Guangdong).

Chancellors during reign

Du You (805–812)

Jia Dan (805)

Wei Zhiyi (805)

Du Huangchang (805–807)

Yuan Zi (805)

Zheng Yuqing (805–806)

Zheng Yin (805–809)

Wu Yuanheng (807, 813–815)

Li Jifu (807–808, 811–814)

Yu Di (808–813)

Pei Ji (808–810)

Li Fan (809–811)

Quan Deyu (810–813)

Li Jiang (811–814)

Zhang Hongjing (814–816)

Wei Guanzhi (814–816)

Pei Du (815–819)

Li Fengji (816–817)

Wang Ya (816–818)

Cui Qun (817–819)

Li Yong (817–818)

Li Yijian (818)

Huangfu Bo (818–820)

Cheng Yi (818–819)

Linghu Chu (819–820)

Han Hong (819–820)

Family

Empress Yi'an, of the Guo clan of Huayin (懿安皇后 華陰郭氏/懿安皇后 华阴郭氏; d. 851), first cousin once removed, personal name Nianyun (念雲/念云)

Li Heng, Muzong (穆宗 李恆; 795–824), third son

Princess Qiyang Zhuangshu (岐陽莊淑公主/岐阳庄淑公主; d. 837), 11th daughter

Married Du Cong of Jingzhao, Duke Bin (京兆; 794–873) in 814, and had issue (two sons, two daughters)

Li Wu, Prince Jiang (絳王 李悟/绛王 李悟; 797–827), sixth son

Empress Xiaoming, of the Zheng clan (孝明皇后 鄭氏; d. 865)

Li Chen, Xuanzong (宣宗 李忱; 810–859), 13th son

Princess Anping (安平公主)

Married Liu Yi (劉異/刘異)

Able Consort, of the Wang clan (王贤妃)

Taiyi, of the Xu clan (太儀 許氏/太仪 许氏)

Princess Nankang (南康公主)

Married Shen Fen (沈汾)

Taiyi, of the Yang clan (太仪 杨氏)

Li Yue, Prince Qiong (瓊王 李悅/琼王 李悦; d. 840), ninth son

Meiren, of the Ji clan (美人 纪氏)

Li Ning, Crown Prince Huizhao (惠昭皇太子 李寧/惠昭皇太子 李宁; 793–812), first son

Lady, of the Du clan (杜氏)

Li Xun, Prince Mian (沔王 李恂; 808–844), tenth son