Rambling around my ancestral Hainan
TRIP 2
2011 MAY
SUMMER
Chapter 7: Haikou once again
The aristocratic Feng family
Three months of research reveal more insights into the fate of some of Feng Ang’s descendants, hastening my burning quest for further information on the family that could possibly be my ancestors. Before he died, the Tang general could not have anticipated the severe and unjustified punishment that would be inflicted fifty years later on a grandson and his family by Wu Zhao, the scheming concubine of both second and third Tang emperor, during her untrammelled regency and ensuing reign. If he had been alive then, the general’s affected son would have been emotionally crushed by the capricious twist of history.
Chinese have a proverbial saying: a family’s fortune does not last more than three generations. It is generally true. The reason for the demise of the Feng family’s status and wealth becomes clearer to me when I examine the political tumult and tension during the second half of the seventh century, the period when an insecure concubine viciously clawed her way to the pinnacle of national power.
Upon his ascension in July 649 at an impressionable age of twenty-two, the third Tang emperor appointed Xu Jingzong as Minister of Ceremonies. Around this time, Xu was accused by some officials of accepting an excessive bestowal gift from Feng Ang for the marriage of their daughter and son respectively. As a result, he was demoted to be the prefect of Zheng Prefecture (modern Zhengzhou, Henan). He would be rehabilitated as Minister of Armoury Supply three years later.
3rd Tang emperor Li Zhi (Gaozong; Wade-Giles: Kao-tsung) took his father’s concubine Wu Zhao into his own harem
第三届唐皇帝李治（唐高宗）拿他父亲的妃武曌带入自己的后宫
Meanwhile, besotted by his young step-mother’s beauty and enticements, emperor Gaozong threw Confucian etiquette and caution to the wind, taking her out of the nunnery the following year. Inducted into a harem where each of the five preceding consorts was protective of her self-interest and limited influence, the twenty-five year old charmer soon mastered the art of manipulation and became its expert.
Her weapons were her four sons and two daughters, of whom three would be thoughtlessly sacrificed. Born in 652, Li Hong would be made crown prince in 656, displacing his disfavoured half-brother, but would die in 675, allegedly poisoned by his mother because of their constant conflicts. Younger by a year, Li Xian (李賢) would be given the position but he would be forced to commit suicide in 686. They were not their mother’s first victims.
Concubine Wu’s first victims were childless Empress Wang and mother-of-three Consort Xiao. Wu’s third child, a daughter born in 654, was the earliest familial sacrificial lamb. On friendly terms with the mother, the unsuspecting empress visited the baby. After she had left, the new-born was found dead by her mother, apparently distraught. Given her subsequent cruelties, even towards her own sons and grand-children, later historians inferred her role in her infant’s strangulation.
Wu Zetian’s children, genealogy
武則天的孩子
Tainted with innuendos, the empress and Consort Xiao were eventually accused, stripped of their imperial titles, and imprisoned by the bewitched emperor for their purported conspiracy to poison him, despite remonstrations from anti-Wu ministers. The emperor’s compassionate visits sealed their fate; they were brutally murdered on the newly-installed empress’ orders.
Wu’s list of victims included the former empress’ relatives, consorts, and officials who had opposed her royal elevation. Ex-empress Wang’s uncle Chancellor Liu Shi was dismissed. Restored to his post as Minister of Ceremonies, Xu Jingzong now became Wu’s principal ally. The empress’ next target was Consort Liu’s son, crown prince Li Zhong, who was deposed in 656 and replaced with three-year old Li Hong. The axed heir was ultimately exiled and forced into suicide. A eunuch, who had dobbed in Empress Wu for her witchcraft dabbling, was falsely accused and executed.
In 657, at Wu’s instigation, Xu and Chief Secretary Li Yifu accused three ministers of conspiracy, resulting in their demotion and banishment from the capital. As reward, Li Yifu was promoted to be the deputy head of the secretariat and Xu to head the examination bureau. The subsequent year, the latter was promoted to lead the legislative bureau. The screw tightened. In 659, Xu implicated Army Supreme Commander Zhangsun Wuji and the three banished ministers in a plot to seize power. They were exiled. When the emperor authorised a reinvestigation into Zhangsun’s alleged connivance, Xu delegated an official to coerce Zhangsun’s suicide. One of the exiled ministers was executed on the emperor’s directive.
Pandering to Wu’s whim, the third emperor commissioned a new “Record of Surnames and Clans”, which naturally exalted the clans of his empress and consorts to the highest rank. When his health was deteriorating around 660, thirty-five year old Wu amassed even more influence. In 662, the ailing emperor made Xu chancellor and adviser to the young crown prince. The following year, Li Yifu, who had succumbed to extreme corruption, was exiled.
As she aged, her husband philandered. Forty-one year old Wu discovered Gaozong’s affair. Her potential rival, the daughter of her deceased older sister, was poisoned during a banquet, the blame pinned on her (Wu’s) disrespectful cousins. The food, allegedly adulterated by them, was intended for the empress but had inadvertently killed their niece instead, it was claimed. They were executed. In 670, Xu retired; he died two years later. Empress Wu sought new allies.
As Wu Zetian aged, her husband Gaozong philandered
当武則天老大时，丈夫唐高宗有婚外情
Successfully petitioning the emperor to release his older half-sisters, who had been under house arrest on his mother’s instructions for two decades, the kind-hearted twenty-three year old heir apparent Li Hong mysteriously fell ill and died in 675. Wu’s second son Li Xian was appointed as the new heir. Serving only four years, he too fell out of favour. Accused of concocting a coup, he was imprisoned, his rank revoked. Exiled later, he was compelled by his mother to commit suicide. His supporters and sympathetic officials were banished.
In 680, third son Li Zhe was slotted as the crown prince. Born in 656, his original name was 李顯 (Li Xian). But homophonic to his older brother’s name, it was changed to prevent confusion.
Emperor Gaozong died in co-capital Luoyang at the age of fifty-six in December 683 from an illness that had left him blind. Empress Wu was fifty-nine. January 684 heralded the reign of a new emperor, the fourth Tang emperor. When twenty-eight year old Li Zhe manifested signs of independence, making his father-in-law the chancellor, his fall was inevitable. Emperor Zhongzong’s reign lasted barely two months. He was accused - falsely - of treason: intending to surrender the throne to his father-in-law. Imprisoned, he was soon exiled by his mother. Eight years earlier, his first wife (posthumously honoured as Empress Zhao) was accused by his callous mother of some crimes and imprisoned. When she died of starvation, her parents were exiled.
Li Dan was only twenty-two when he was installed. Emperor Ruizong was merely a puppet. His sixty-year old mother was the de facto ruler, terrorising the empire with a spy network directed by Lai Junchen (來俊臣; Wade-Giles: Lai Chun-ch’en) and Zhou Xing (周興; Wade-Giles: Chou Hsing). In the dynastic history of biographies, these two officials from the Board of Justice and Censorate were classified under the category of “Evil” officials. Forgery and torture were their tools to elicit convictions against critics of their paymistress. With them around, the dowager was safe enough to pursue a clandestine affair with a Buddhist monk, who was showered with awards.
Officials fiercely loyal to the Li clan were incensed by the dowager’s shenanigans. Her conferment of the “Prince” title upon her deceased Wu ancestors violated Confucian tradition, thus aggravating their wrath. One of the discontented Li loyalists was Xu Jingye, Prefect of Meizhou (modern Meishan, Sichuan). Demoted to be military adviser to the prefect of Liuzhou (Guangxi), he gathered a group of supportive bureaucrats, together hatching a plan to overthrow the dowager. Their avowed aim was to restore the throne to Li Zhe, the rightful heir; their strategy was to initiate their operation from Yangzhou (in Jiangsu). Adhering to the plan, an assistant imperial censor travelled to Yangzhou on the official duty of investigating conspiracies there.
Under the protective cover of that official assignment, the conspirators framed and executed the unsuspecting Yangzhou military adviser. Claiming to be the new adviser, Xu gained access to the military depot. On the pretext of an imperial military action against Feng Ziyou (冯子猷), who was the tribal chief of Gaozhou and an alleged rebel, the actual rebel swiftly raised an army of conscripts. (Hong Kong Chinese University historian He Xi identified Ziyou as the grandson of Feng Ang through the latter’s eldest son Feng Zhidai.) After recruiting a hundred thousand soldiers within ten days, Xu openly demanded the restoration of the deposed emperor. Due to poor co-ordination, the rebellion faltered and failed. In December 684, the fleeing Xu was assassinated by a subordinate.
Feng genealogy: Feng Zhidai, Feng Ziyou, Feng Junheng, & Gao Lishi
冯家谱: 冯智戴, 冯子猷, 冯君衡, & 高力士
Another group of conspirators had their own plan. If they had combined forces with the Li loyalists, perhaps Empress Wu would have been overthrown. But the Li descendants were fearful that Xu might seize the throne after Wu’s deposition. The first Tang emperor’s grandson lead a rebellion four years later (688) but his forces were easily vanquished by Wu’s stronger and more experienced army. She then continued her systematic extermination of the Li royal family. Earlier in June 687, Deputy Head of Secretariat Liu Yizhi (刘祎之; Wade-Giles: Liu Wei-chih), who had initially supported her during her eviction of her third son, committed suicide under her behest. His mistake was to express an opinion to a colleague on the suitability of restoring government to Li Zhe.
Emperor Xuanzong’s confidante, Eunuch Gao Lishi
China’s only female “Emperor” (皇帝; Huangdi) ascended the throne in 690 when her fourth son abdicated under her coercion. Ruling in her own right until 705, sixty-five year old Wu Zetian even invested in her own Zhou dynasty. (For convenience, I shall refer to her as “Empress”. Chinese historians, however, treat her merely as a regent for her son, as an empress-dowager.) Her fifteen-year reign was one of terror.
With the entire Li family antagonistic towards her, Wu promoted her Wu clan relatives as a security measure. The two sons of her deceased half-brothers were made Prince of Wei (and chancellor) and Prince of Liang. The former schemed to become the crown prince and, in the process, destroyed officials who stood in his path. His deviousness proved too much even for her. In September 692, he was removed from power.
Successful in securing the death of Li Dan’s wife and a concubine (the mother of future emperor Xuanzong) for practising witchcraft, Empress Wu’s trusted maid audaciously attempted even to implicate Li Dan himself in 693 for treason. Investigated by spy chief Lai Junchen, the crown prince was saved by a courageous retainer who sliced his stomach to show his “sincere” heart during his court testimony to his master’s integrity. The loyal servant was miraculously saved by a physician.
Wu Zetian was brutal and merciless. She had a chancellor beaten to death in the Hall of Audience for his collection of brocades; she had two officials publicly sawn in half for visiting the crown prince.
Fear of conspiracies clouded her life, kindling her dependency on the ruthless spy chief. Under him and his coterie, purges continued relentlessly. Rebellions against Wu’s savagery arose. Compounding her woes, the wars against the invading Tufans (Tibetans) and the Khitans (Qidans) in 696 were unsuccessful. During a purge in 697 against the alleged conspiracy of Liu Sili (Wade-Giles: Liu Ssu-li), thirty-six landowners were killed and more than one thousand of their relatives and friends exiled and then murdered.
Qidan (Khitan) established the Liao Dynasty (907-1125 A.D.)
契丹人建立了辽代 (907-1125 公元)
A secret agent claimed that the royal exiles and their supporters in Guangdong and Guangxi were planning a rebellion. Lai’s henchman (Wan Guojun) hurried to Guangzhou, rounded more than a thousand of them, and drowned more than three hundred. The empress then dispatched more of Lai’s henchmen to the south. To boost his prestige, one investigator exterminated seven hundred alleged conspirators. Another slaughtered five hundred. Three others murdered a total of over three hundred. The indiscriminate killings appalled provincial officials and even the hardened empress, who prudently called a halt. With no more victims, the spies soon became preys of one another; Lai and Zhou Xing received their just desert.
If royalty and kinship could not save many from the tyrant’s machinations, what hope did past loyalty and the living mortals have? Feng Ang, the commander-in-chief of Gaozhou, had been dead for almost five decades. Two of his thirty sons were prefects of Gaozhou and Enzhou. Another was the prefect of Panzhou (Pan Prefecture, now Maoming City in southwestern Guangdong Province), whose post was inherited by Feng Junheng (冯君衡). Feng Junheng was the father of Feng Yuanyi (冯元一), better known in history as chief eunuch Gao Lishi (高力士).
Feng Junheng and Feng Yuanyi (Gao Lishi), Gaozhou Lady Xian Temple,
Gaozhou City, Guangdong Province
冯君衡和高力士在冼太夫人庙, 高州市广东省
Although Feng Yuanyi’s date of birth was recorded in historical biographies as 684 and death in 762 at the age of seventy-nine, his recently-unearthed epitaph stated, perhaps more accurately, that he died in 762 at the age of seventy-three sui. Since the age “sui” begins at conception, and not birth in Chinese reckoning, Feng Yuanyi was born in 691, in Pan Prefecture, about one hundred kilometres northeast of Haikou. That was the home and administrative centre of Feng Bao and his wife, Lady Xian.
During the 697 purge, Prefect Feng Junheng was framed in a survelliance commissioner’s secret report, which lead to his execution and the enslavement of his family members. Feng Yuanyi, the youngest of his three sons, was castrated by the local military commissioner and sent to the imperial palace as tribute that year. As I delve into Wu Zetian’s era of excesses, I feel outraged. Feng Yuanyi, who could be my ancestral kin, was only six years of age. His world crumbled around him. First, he lost his father and siblings; then he was castrated. It must have been the most terrifying and traumatic experience for the young boy.
Gao Lishi's tomb and epitaph in Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province
The origin in China of this hideous practice is uncertain. As early as the Zhou Kingdom, castrated slaves were labouring in palaces, the emperors obviously fearing being cuckooed by unfaithful empresses and concubines. After restoring the Han dynasty, emperor Guangwu (25-57 A.D.) insisted on castrating male attendants of palace ladies, thus entrenching the practice. During the closing years of the Ming dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century, the court had more than ten thousands eunuchs, an extravagance compared to only the thousand at the end of the Qing dynasty.
Historian Sima Qian (c. 145-86 B.C.) chose castration over death. His father was Western Han emperor Wudi’s chief librarian. Wudi reigned from 141 to 87 B.C. Aspiring to follow in his father’s footsteps, Sima became an imperial official. His folly was to contradict the emperor, who blamed General Li Ling for surrendering to the Xiongnu warriors during an unsuccessful campaign against them.
His nuanced comment interpreted as an outright insult, Sima was sentenced to death, a sentence commutable by castration or a hefty cash payment. As a mendicant employee, Sima walked the humiliating path to fulfil his father’s dream of completing a history book, although an honourable death was his preference. In Confucian China, castration meant the inability to perpetuate the family lineage, a disgraceful and despicable act. Many were involuntary eunuchs, sold by poor families. Some, however, chose that route, with the favoured and talented few rising in rank, power, and wealth.
Han emperor Wu (Liu Che) sentenced Sima Qian to death for an allegedly insulting remark
汉武帝（刘彻）因司马迁所谓的侮辱性言论，判处司马迁死刑
At six years of age in 697, the barely recovered Feng Yuanyi arrived timidly at the palace. By then, Wu Zetian had pranced as “emperor” for seven years. She would continue for eight more years. The young slave was briefly introduced to the seventy-three year old vixen, the ogress indirectly responsible for his plight. She allotted the frail and distressed kid a new name “Lishi” (“guardian”), and permitted him sufficient time to recover before putting him to work. To ensure his efficiency, the lad was taught martial art and literary studies. An empress’ servant, Feng Lishi would have spoken to every royal family member who entered the inner sanctum. He would one day serve one of them, the son of Li Dan.
The following year, the repulsive empress was unable to attract and enlist recruits to fight the Khitan armies from Mongolia. At the urgings of her officials, she recalled forty-two year old Li Zhe and appointed him as crown prince, thus replacing his younger brother Li Dan. Given rein over the army too, the popular third son easily mustered fifty thousand men.
Because of a minor infraction, Lishi was beaten on the wicked empress’ order and then expelled from the palace. Fortunately, the frightened boy was adopted by a benevolent senior eunuch. Gao Yanfu (660-724) recommended his adopted son to his previous master, Wu Sansi, the nephew of Empress Wu. The Prince of Liang was an extremely powerful man. He was the Minister of Rites in 695 and the head of the Legislative Bureau (the de facto chancellor) in 700 (for a year).
A year later, the infamous empress recalled Lishi, who - being more judicious - eventually rose in rank. He cautiously served her during the last five years of her reign, proximately observing palace intrigues while breathing in fear and awe of the elderly granny whose spies had executed his father, enslaved his brothers, and indirectly castrated him.
In 701, one of Li Zhe’s sons was carelessly gossiping with his sister and her husband about the empress’ strange relationship with two advisers; the two brothers were her latest lovers. Another self-promoting son overheard and relayed the gist of the conversation to the Casanovas, who transmitted it. Fuming from the slight, the heartless grandmother commanded the suicide of the three unfortunate royal offenders and banishment of the stirrer. Few dared to oppose the two courtiers, whose greed and nepotism was well-known, except for the brave and popular chancellor. After a show trial, they successfully obtained his banishment.
Commoners and royals were now firmly united against the two. Slowly and surely, the officials fired the first salvos: they brought corruption charges against the culprits’ brothers, who were consequently banished. When the empress fell ill in early 705, the new chancellor and some officials seized the golden opportunity. After killing the two aides for treason, they coerced her abdication.
Third son Li Zhe resumed his interrupted reign. Ousted by his mother after a fleeting moment in power seventeen years earlier, the former fourth Tang emperor was probably relieved. She had executed his first wife twenty-five years ago and had, in a fit of anger, recently killed two of his children. Perhaps in his mind, she was a deranged woman, who deserved her belated death in the second half of 705 at the age of eighty. Did the young fourteen-year old Gao Lishi, who lived through the harrowing last eight years of her erratic rule, mourn her political plunge?
Emperor Zhongzong died suddenly after five years, allegedly from poisoning by his adulteress and domineering wife. Her only son killed by Wu Zetian nine years earlier for making snipe remarks, Empress Wei secretly enthroned sixteen-year old Li Chongmao, the emperor’s son through a concubine, and appointed herself as regent, aspiring to be another backroom despot.
However, with the assistance of sympathetic officials, Prince Li Longji (the son of Li Dan) and Princess Taiping (the sister of both Li Dan and deceased Li Zhe) seized the throne and re-instated fifty-year old Li Dan. Emperor Ruizong resumed his reign, creating twenty-four year old Li Longji as his heir. Having previously cultivated a friendship with Li Longji, the nineteen-year old eunuch Gao found himself as the crown prince’s trusted servant. Two years later, the fifth Tang emperor, believing in peaceful succession, abdicated.
Li Longji became the sixth Tang emperor. (Wu Zetian’s usurpation and rule was one of regency, not reign, in the eyes of Chinese historians.) At the very young age of twenty-one, Gao was entrusted by the new emperor to manage the Palace Domestic Service. The trust was perhaps founded on an unspoken bond between them, a bond that lasted through the forty-four years of Li Longji’s reign. Both shared a common sadness: both had lost a parent from Wu Zetian’s cruelty. The emperor lost his mother Consort Dou; the slave, his father.
Like her mother Wu Zetian, retired-emperor Ruizong’s younger sister Princess Taiping yearned for power. In 713, rumours of an impending rebellion by her and her supporters reached Li Longji, who preempted with the aid of his half-brothers, some officials and generals, and also eunuch Gao. Most of the conspirators were executed. When Ruizong publicly supported his son, the fleeing and cornered princess committed suicide.
Gao Lishi was duly rewarded for his role. Made General of the imperial guards and the acting head of the Eunuch Bureau, he was the first eunuch to reach the third rank in the Tang dynasty’s nine-rank system. In 714, Ruizong died.
Built around 670, the imperial Fengxian Monastery and the Great Vairocana Image Shrine of nine colossal figures in Longmen Grottoes (twelve kilometres south of Luoyang) were damaged by a devastating flood from the overflowing Yi River in 722. The subsequent year, emperor Xuanzong instructed the monks to shift temporarily to Longhua Monastery. During the refurnishment, the court eunuchs took the opportunity to add forty-eight smaller Amitabhas around the nine giants.
On a stele at the site was engraved a dedication by Xuanzong and a list of one hundred and eleven donors, all from the Palace Domestic Service. Leading the list was Gao Lishi. His position was given as “General of the Palace Gate Guard of the Right, in charge of the affairs of the Palace Domestic Service, Supreme Pillar of State, and Dynasty-founding Duke of Bohai Commandery, Palace Servitor Gao Lishi”.
After twenty-five years of service in the palace, including twelve years to Xuanzong, the once slave had achieved the rank of royalty: “Duke of Bohai Commandery”. According to Amy McNair, Gao Lishi was “the first eunuch in the Tang Dynasty to attain a position of real power and the first for whom emperor Taizong’s rule about eunuchs not being appointed to offices above rank 4 was broken.” Gao achieved the highest office possible for a eunuch. In 748, Gao was even conferred the honorary first-rank military title “Grand General of Calvary” (骠骑大将军; Piaoqi Da Jiangjun). Historians rank him as one of the two most powerful eunuchs during Xuanzong’s reign.
When the emperor grew wary of General Wang Maozhong’s influence, Gao advised a preemptive strike. As a result, the general and his friends were exiled in 731. Wang was in due course forced to commit suicide. According to court histories, Gao received all the petitions and made decisions on those of minor significance. That the chief eunuch could even do so on the emperor’s behalf reveals the extent of the latter’s faith. Yet, apparently, his decisions did not anger many officials. The emperor praised, “With Lishi working for me, I can sleep soundly.”
Honorary-General Gao was extremely wealthy. With power, status, and wealth he was able to acquire a family. It was not unusual for eunuchs to marry. His wife was Lady Lu, whose father rapidly rose in rank. They had two adopted children, a daughter and a son. He did not forget his adopted parents. He was generous to them. He successfully searched for his biological mother Lady Mai, brought her to the capital, and provided for her.
Gao Lishi’s advice, which indirectly contributed to his downfall, was on the issue of succession in 737. The emperor had about twenty-two concubines. Through them, he sired thirty sons and twenty-nine daughters. His favourite Consort Wu was promoting her son, Prince Li Mao, who had married Yang Yuhuan (better known as Yang Guifei) two years earlier. In her endeavour, she accused Crown Prince Li Ying and two other princes of treason. The trio were forced to commit suicide. Although the consort died shortly in 737, her plea was reiterated by the chancellor.
The emperor was torn by indecision; for he favoured Prince Li Yu (renamed later as Li Heng, the future emperor Suzong). Gao’s advice was: choose the oldest son. Thus, Li Yu became Crown Prince. Gao shielded the heir apparent from palace skulduggery, and was highly respected by the other princes.
Emotionally devastated by his favourite concubine’s death, the sixth Tang emperor was most vulnerable. Three thousand beautiful ladies comprised his harem; yet he became enamoured with his young daughter-in-law when she was led by Gao Lishi into the palace. Historically hailed as one of the “Four Beauties of Ancient China”, Yang Yuhuan was born in mid-719. Her father, a minor official, died when she was young, and she was raised by an uncle. At sixteen, she was married off to Prince Li Mao. The emperor compelled his son’s divorce, and Yang was ostensibly meditating in a nunnery for five years.
Yang Yuhuan (杨玉环; Concubine Yang: 杨贵妃; Yang Guifei)
Secretly, she was in and out of the imperial chamber. The trusted chief eunuch was the obvious intermediary. When she was twenty-six, the sixty-year old emperor publicly made her a concubine, a concubine with the highest rank of “Guifei”. To the dismay of other concubines, he gradually heaped honours on members of her family. Eunuch Director Gao often attended to Yang Guifei’s wishes. He was the conciliator whenever the royal couple had tiffs.
Gallivanting extensively throughout the country from his home town in Gansu and later Sichuan, a forty-two year old poet landed at the capital in 742, and was interviewed for a job by the emperor. At the newly-established Hanlin Academy, where he stayed for three years, wine connoisseur Li Bai (Li Po) composed some impromptu love verses alluding to the romance between the infatuated monarch and his favorite concubine. Unfortunately, during an effusive moment in the emperor’s presence, an inebriated Li instructed Gao to take off his (Li Bai’s) shoes.
Eunuch Gao Lishi taking off poet Li Bai’s (Wade-Giles: Li Po’s) shoes
while Yang Guifei (Concubine Yang) holds ink-stone
太监高力士起义诗人李白的鞋子，而杨贵妃持有墨水
Naturally, the highest-ranking eunuch, who had been treated respectfully for three decades under Xuanzong, were offended. In revenge, Gao insinuated to Consort Yang a different interpretation of one of Li Bai’s poems: “Pray who in the glorious Han palaces/Can we compare to our own Emperor’s Lady/Save Flying Swallow in all freshness/Of her incomparable loveliness?” Lady Flying Swallow (Fei Yan), the famous beauty to whom Guifei was compared, deceived the Han Emperor and fell into disgrace. Guifei complained to her lover. Denied an expected promotion, Li Bai quitted the Academy in frustration. During his subsequent travels, he encountered fellow poet Du Fu twice.
Li Bai and Du Fu, two of the Tang Dynasty’s most famous poets
李白和杜甫, 两位唐代最着名的诗人
Meanwhile, a military commander from the northern region visited Chang’an in 747. Of Turkic descent, An Lushan ingratiated himself with the emperor and his favourite consort. In 751, he revisited, to attend a feast held in honour of his birthday. His gaiety delighted the ageing emperor, who even made him a prince, while the young consort playfully adopted him as her “son”. The following year, Guifei’s cousin Yang Guozhong was appointed chancellor after the incumbent’s death. When his troops and Wang Hong’s failed to crush a mutiny in the capital, Gao Lishi successfully led a eunuch calvary. Accused of complicity in the cabal, Wang Hong and his brother were executed.
In 755, the Turkic general started a rebellion, which caught the court unaware. From his base (the seat of modern Beijing), he advanced and easily captured Luoyang, the eastern capital. He then marched towards the western capital. In danger of being besieged, Xuanzong and his retinue secretly fled in July 756, leaving Chang’an unopposed to the enemy.
On their way to Chengdu (in Sichuan Province), the dispirited troops slew the prime minister for his corruption and incompetence. They also demanded the death of thirty-seven year old Guifei for her “adopted son’s” rebellion. The emperor was reluctant. But confronting the overwhelming mutinous troops was not a viable option for bodyguard Gao Lishi. He was now sixty-five and helpless. His priority was to guard the life of his emperor and the lives of the royal children and grandchildren. That was the aim of his early training. He persuaded his master to yield.
How and whether Consort Yang died is still a mystery. She could have been strangled by her constant mediator, as instructed, at the nearby temple or she could have hung herself. When he brought her lifeless body before them, the appeased soldiers dispersed. She was hastily buried in Mawei (modern Xianyang in Shaanxi). But her body could not be found after the war. At this juncture, the crown prince separated and left for Lingzhou (modern Lingwu, Ningxia) while the others continued on their journey. On reaching Chengdu, the grateful emperor made General Gao the Duke of Qi.
Over in Lingzhou, Li Heng proclaimed himself as emperor. Receiving the news, the exhausted and defenceless Xuanzong announced his retirement. Emperor Suzong only managed to re-capture Chang’an at a price: an alliance with the Mongolian Uighurs, who exacted a heavy tribute for their military assistance. After his success, Suzong invited his father to their old capital. There the retired emperor rewarded Gao with a further title for his loyalty.
The war against the rebels dragged on for ten year until 766, even though An Lushan and his son had been assassinated earlier. From then on, the Tang dynasty could not recover its earlier glory. Limping another one hundred and two years, the tired dynasty collapsed.
A retired ruler had limited power and influence, and the loss of a strong political patron often resulted in a person’s ruination. The immense influence of a eunuch of General Gao Lishi’s stature naturally evoked envy in subordinate eunuchs and officials. His demise was inevitable. Suzong’s chief eunuch was instrumental in withdrawing Gao’s titles as well as exiling him in 760 to Wu Prefecture (in modern Hunan). Falling seriously ill in early 762, Suzong declared a general pardon.
Seventy-one year old Gao prepared for his return to the capital. In May, Xuanzong died, followed shortly by his fifty-one year old son. While passing through Lang Prefecture (in Hunan), the old eunuch heard the tragic news. So devastated was he that he fell ill, and died shortly thereafter. Suzong’s son, Emperor Daizong posthumously restored the titles to Gao and buried him near Xuanzong.
Is this notable eunuch a distant kin of mine?
Copyright 2015
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