Jia Su

Jia Su (賈餗) (died December 17, 835 ), courtesy name Zimei (子美), formally the Baron of Guzang (姑臧男), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving briefly as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Wenzong. During Emperor Wenzong's reign, he became involved in a major power struggle between imperial officials and eunuchs known as the Ganlu Incident, and he was killed by the eunuchs along with three other chancellors, Li Xun, Wang Ya, and Shu Yuanyu.

Background and early career It is not known when Jia Su was born, but it is known that his family was from Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the region of the Tang dynasty eastern capital Luoyang). His family was originally from Guzang (姑臧, in modern Wuwei, Gansu). His grandfather's name was Jia Zhou , and his father's name was Jia Ning , and neither was listed with an office in the table of the chancellors' family trees in the New Book of Tang, suggesting that they were commoners. Jia Su had at least one older brother, Jia Song .

It was said that Jia Su lost his father early in life and travelled in the region between the Yangtze River and the Huai River. When his uncle Jia Quan became the governor of Zhedong Circuit (浙東, headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), Jia Su went to depend on Jia Quan. Jia Quan was impressed by his talents and treated him well.

At some point, Jia Su passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class — and did so well that he became well known. He also passed a special imperial examination for the talented and righteous, and thereafter was made the sheriff of Weinan County (渭南, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi) and an assistant at the Jixian Institute . He was eventually promoted to be Kaogong Yuanwailang , a low-level official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, Libu), and put in charge of drafting edicts. Jia was one of the imperial emissaries sent out to the circuits to announce Emperor Muzong's death, and he was sent to the Yangtze-Qiantang River region. While he was thus on tour in the region, he was made the prefect of Chang Prefecture (常州, in modern Changzhou, Jiangsu), ) Soon thereafter, he was also given the additional title as imperial scholar at Jixian Institute and put in charge of editing the imperial history.

In the subsequent reign of Emperor Wenzong's uncle Emperor Xuānzong, Jia's and Wang Ya's reputations and titles were posthumously restored.