Bai Minzhong

Bai Minzhong (白敏中; 792–861 ), courtesy name Yonghui (用誨), formally Duke Chou of Taiyuan (太原醜公), was a Chinese politician of the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Xuānzong and Emperor Xuānzong's son Emperor Yizong. He was a second cousin of the renowned poet Bai Juyi.

Background and early career Bai Minzhong was born in 792, during the reign of Emperor Dezong. His family was originally from Taiyuan. The family traced its ancestry to the great Qin general Bai Qi, but the traceable parts of the ancestry went back to the Northern Zhou official Bai Jian . Bai Minzhong's grandfather Bai Lin served as an officer at Yang Prefecture (揚州, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), while his father Bai Jikang served as a county magistrate. Bai Lin and the great poet Bai Juyi's grandfather Bai Huang were sons of Bai Wen , making Bai Minzhong and Bai Juyi, who was older than Bai Minzhong, second cousins.

Bai Minzhong lost his father early, and he apparently was effectively raised by his older brothers or cousins. Early in the Changqing era (821–824) of Emperor Dezong's great-grandson Emperor Muzong, he passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class, and he subsequently served on the staff of the general Li Ting , while Li Ting served three terms as circuit military governor (Jiedushi). He later served as Dali Pingshi , a judge at the supreme court (大理寺, Dali Si). In 833, during the reign of Emperor Muzong's son Emperor Wenzong, when Bai's mother died, he left governmental service and took up resident at Xiagui (下邽, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi). He was later made Zhongshu Sheren , a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng), and yet later made the deputy minister of defense (兵部侍郎, Bingbu Shilang) as well as chief imperial scholar (翰林學士承旨, Hanlin Xueshi Chengzhi). He was also created the Duke of Taiyuan.

In 851, when Emperor Xuānzong was becoming weary of repeated Dangxiang rebellions in the northwestern regions, Bai's fellow chancellor Cui Xuan suggested that a senior official be commissioned to oversee the operations against the Dangxiang. Emperor Xuānzong thus made Bai the military governor of Binning Circuit (邠寧, headquartered in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi) and the supreme commander of the operations against the Dangxiang. At Bai's request, citing the example of Pei Du, Bai was allowed to retain a number of talented imperial government officials to serve on his staff. However, he was concerned that once he left Chang'an, the imperial scholar Zheng Hao , the husband of Emperor Xuānzong's daughter Princess Wanshou, would defame him. (Previously, Zheng had contracted to marry a woman from one of the most honored clans at that time, the Lu clan, when Bai, in response to Emperor Xuānzong's question as to who could make an appropriate husband for Princess Wanshou, recommended Zheng. Zheng, who had departed Chang'an to marry Lady Lu, was subsequently summoned back to the capital and required to marry Princess Wanshou. As Zheng did not want to marry Princess Wanshou, he resented Bai from this point on.) Emperor Xuānzong, to allay his concerns, gave him a small wooden box containing accusations that Zheng had already submitted against Bai and pointed out that if he had believed Zheng, Bai would not have remained in power; it was said that Bai took the box home and offered incense to it in gratitude.

In 861, with the southwestern circuits under attack from Nanzhao, Emperor Yizong convened an imperial meeting to discuss responses, and Bai attended the meeting, with imperial guard soldiers assisting him in getting into the imperial hall. He was given posthumous honors, although the ceremonial scholar Cao Ye , arguing that Bai had not sincerely yielded the chancellor post after becoming ill and had instigated Wang's exile, gave him the unflattering posthumous name of Chou (醜, "abusive").

Notes and references

Old Book of Tang, vol. 166. New Book of Tang, vol. 119. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 246, 248, 249, 250.