Jing Xiang

Jing Xiang (敬翔) (died November 20, 923? ), courtesy name Zizhen (子振), formally the Marquess of Pingyang (平陽侯), was the chief strategist of the late Chinese Tang dynasty warlord Zhu Quanzhong, who assisted Zhu in his consolidation of central China, which Zhu eventually established as a new Later Liang (as its Emperor Taizu) to replace Tang. Jing served in prominent roles in Emperor Taizu's administration and later administrations of his sons Zhu Yougui and Zhu Zhen, although neither listened much to Jing. After Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin—the chief rival state to Later Liang—launched a surprise attack on the Later Liang capital Daliang in 923, Zhu Zhen, facing defeat and capture, committed suicide, ending Later Liang. Jing, hearing of the state's destruction, also committed suicide.

Background It is not known when Jing Xiang was born. His family was from Fengyi (馮翊, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi) and was descended from the middle-Tang dynasty chancellor Jing Hui. His great-grandfather Jing Wan and father Jing Gun both served as prefectural prefects, while his grandfather Jing Xin served as a prefectural governmental administrator. It was said that Jing Xiang, in his youth, was studious, and was particularly skillful at using knife-pens (i.e., knives that were used to carve text on bamboo). During the middle of Qianfu era (874–879) of Emperor Xizong, Jing submitted himself for imperial examinations but was not able to pass in the Jinshi class.

After the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao captured the Tang imperial capital Chang'an around the new year 881, Jing left the Guanzhong region (i.e., the region around Chang'an), eventually going to Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), where, after Huang was expelled from the Chang'an region by Tang forces, his former subordinate Zhu Quanzhong, who had turned against him and became a Tang general, had been made the military governor (jiedushi). Zhu's assistant in his role as governor (觀察使, Guanchashi), Wang Fa , was from the same locale as Jing, and Jing initially went to follow Wang. Wang treated him well, but had no opportunity to recommend him to Zhu. Jing, unable to distinguish himself, resorted to writing snippets of witty words and passing them around in Zhu's army. This impressed Zhu, who was not well-learned and did not like to read but who liked witty words. He thus summoned Jing to his presence and initially offered him an officer position. However, Jing did not want to be an army officer and requested a civilian position, and therefore was initially made the overseer of the communication station at Xuanwu, to be in charge of communiques with the imperial government and other circuits. During Zhu's subsequent campaigns against the rebel general Qin Zongquan, who declared himself emperor at Cai Prefecture (蔡州, in modern Zhumadian, Henan), Jing participated in the strategy sessions. Zhu was impressed by Jing's strategies, and after Qin's destruction became particularly trusting of Jing. For example, in 889, when two of Zhu's generals, Zhu Zhen (朱珍, not the same person as the later emperor) and Li Tangbin had a dispute while both were attacking Zhu Quanzhong's rival Shi Pu the military governor of Ganhua Circuit (感化, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) and Zhu Zhen killed Li in anger, Jing, after receiving the news, did not immediately inform Zhu Quanzhong (because he did not want Zhu Quanzhong to make a rash reaction). Rather, he waited to the night to inform Zhu Quanzhong and then suggested to Zhu Quanzhong that he should arrest Li's wife and children to first comfort Zhu Zhen, before carrying out any actions against Zhu Zhen. Zhu Quanzhong accepted this decision, and Zhu Zhen did not rebel at the time; it was only later, when Zhu Quanzhong visited the army personally that he ordered Zhu Zhen arrested and executed.

By 893, Zhu Quanzhong's army was worn out after having put Shi under siege at Ganhua's capital Xu Prefecture for years, and one of the staff members, Zhang Tao , had suggested to Zhu in a letter that the failure to capture Xu was the result of the army having been launched on a day of ill fortune. Zhu initially believed Zhang's words, but Jing pointed out that if these words spread, the army morale would collapse, so Zhu burned Zhang's letter. Subsequently, Zhu's general Pang Shigu was able to capture Xu, and Shi committed suicide.

At the time of Shi's death, Jing had just lost his wife. Meanwhile, one of Shi's beautiful concubines was a Lady Liu, who had previously been the wife of Shang Rang, a chancellor in Huang Chao's administration. Zhu initially took Lady Liu as a concubine himself, but later decided to award her to Jing as his new wife. However, after Lady Liu became Jing's wife, she continued to carry on close relationship, perhaps sexual, with Zhu; as a result, Jing initially distanced himself from her. She, in anger, pointed out to Jing that she had been the wife of a chancellor (i.e., Shang) and the concubine to an honored military governor, and that her relationship with Zhu was to ensure that he would continue to trust Jing deeply, and she offered to let him divorce her if he wanted to. Jing saw the wisdom and also did not want to offend Zhu, and therefore remained married to her. (Thereafter, during the time that Zhu was still a Tang warlord, Lady Liu was said to be just as influential on his policies as Jing was.) Zhu returned Emperor Zhaozong to Chang'an, and Emperor Zhaozong bestowed on Jing and a number of Zhu's subordinates honors for their participation in Zhu's campaign; he also personally welcomed Jing and another key staff member of Zhu's, Li Zhen, to the palace.

In 905, Zhu conquered the domains of two brothers who were warlords opposing him—Zhao Kuangning the military governor of Zhongyi Circuit (忠義, headquartered in modern Xiangyang, Hubei) and Zhao Kuangming the military governor of Jingnan Circuit (荊南, headquartered in modern Jingzhou, Hubei). He then, without initially planning it, decided to head east to attack Yang Xingmi the military governor of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu). Jing advised him against it, pointing out that he had terrorized the other warlords already through his quick victory over the Zhaos, and that a failed campaign against Huainan would damage his reputation. Zhu, however, did not listen to Jing on this occasion, and regretted it after his attacks were repelled by Yang.

During Emperor Taizu's reign In 907, Zhu Quanzhong had Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai yield the throne to him, ending Tang and establishing Later Liang as its Emperor Taizu.

After Emperor Taizu's reign Zhu Yougui, after taking the throne, believed that, since Jing Xiang was a close associate of his father's, leaving Jing in charge of the office of palace communications would be dangerous, but as Jing had a good reputation, he did not want to cause the people to be disappointed in seeing Jing demoted. Therefore, he gave Jing a technical promotion—to be a chancellor with the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi —and also Zhongshu Shilang , but removed him from the office of palace communications, replacing him with Li Zhen. Jing, realizing that Zhu Yougui did not trust him, often claimed to be ill and did not involve himself in policy decisions.

In 917, Zhu Zhen, who had moved the capital from Luoyang to Daliang, prepared for a grand ceremony to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth south of Luoyang at Zhao's suggestion, against Jing's advice that given Later Liang was locked in a war with its major rival Jin, the resources should be better conserved. When Zhu was at Luoyang, Jin's prince Li Cunxu took the opportunity to capture the border outpost Yangliu (楊劉, in modern Liaocheng, Shandong), on the south bank of the Yellow River, which largely formed the boundary between Later Liang and Jin at that time (Later Liang to the south, Jin to the north), after Later Liang had lost large amounts of territory north of the Yellow River in the preceding years. News of Yangliu's fall reached Luoyang, along with rumors that Jin forces had already captured Daliang. Zhu, terrified, cancelled the ceremony and returned to Daliang. After Zhu returned to Daliang, Jin forces withdrew from the region after pillaging Yun (鄆州, in modern Tai'an, Shandong) and Pu (濮州, in modern Heze, Shandong) Prefectures. In light of this surprise attack, Jing submitted a petition to Zhu:

However, Zhao and the Zhangs argued that Jing was simply full of frustration, and persuaded Zhu not to follow Jing's suggestion.

In spring 923, Li Cunxu, who had declared himself the emperor of a new Later Tang (as its Emperor Zhuangzong), sent his adoptive brother Li Siyuan to capture Yun Prefecture in a surprise attack—thus leaving no natural defenses between Yun Prefecture and Daliang. Jing, seeing that the empire was in danger, went to see Zhu and showed him a rope, stating that if the emperor would not accept his suggestion—making the general Wang Yanzhang the commander of the operations resisting Later Tang—he would hang himself in the emperor's presence. Zhu agreed this time and made Wang the commander of the forces against Jin. Wang was subsequently able to recapture Desheng (德勝, in modern Puyang, Henan), another important outpost on the Yellow River, from Later Tang and briefly cut off the communications between Li Siyuan and the main Later Tang territory, hoping to force Li Siyuan to flee. However, Zhao and the Zhangs, who supported the general Duan Ning instead, continuously defamed Wang, and Zhu thereafter replaced Wang with Duan, despite repeated objections from Jing and Li Zhen. Subsequently, Later Tang was able to retain Yun Prefecture, despite its precarious communication line.

Once in command, Duan drew an ambitious plan to counterattack against Later Tang advances. Under Duan's plans, Duan and Du Yanqiu would lead the main forces and confront Later Tang's Emperor Zhuangzong; Huo Yanwei would take an army and head toward Later Tang's Anguo (安國, headquartered in modern Xingtai, Hebei) and Chengde (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei, i.e., formerly Zhao territory) Circuits; Dong Zhang would launch an attack from Kuangyi Circuit (匡義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi)—formerly Jin territory, but which had become Later Liang territory after Emperor Zhuangzong's cousin Li Jitao, who ruled it, defected to Later Liang earlier in the year—toward Later Tang's main territory around Taiyuan; and Wang Yanzhang and Zhang Hanjie would head toward Yun Prefecture. In winter 923, before Duan was able to actually implement his four-pronged attack, however, Emperor Zhuangzong took his army south of the Yellow River to rendezvous with Li Siyuan; together, they defeated and captured Wang and Zhang Hanjie (whose army was the weakest of the four prongs), and then directly headed for Daliang, with Duan's main force trapped north of the Yellow River (having crossed it earlier in the year in preparation of launching the four-prong attack) and unable to come to Daliang's aid.

Hearing of Wang's defeat, Zhu, desperate by this point, summoned Jing to the palace and apologized to him for not listening to him, asking him whether he had any strategies left for defending Daliang. Jing wept and responded:

Both he and Zhu cried bitterly, but could think of nothing else to say. Subsequently, Zhu had his imperial guard officer Huangfu Lin kill him, ending Later Liang. (Huangfu then killed himself.)

Upon Emperor Zhuangzong's arrival at Daliang, he issued an edict generally pardoning the Later Liang officials. Hearing of the edict, Li Zhen went to see Jing and suggested that they go see Emperor Zhuangzong together to beg for pardon. Jing responded, "Both of us were Liang chancellors. We could not correct the emperor's poor governance, and we could not save the dynasty from destruction. If the new emperor questions us on these grounds, how are we going to respond?" The next morning, Jing's servants informed him that Li Zhen had already gone to the palace. Jing sighed and stated, "Li Zhen is no man. The Zhus and the new emperor have been enemies for generations. Now, the empire has been destroyed, and the emperor is dead. Even if the new emperor would spare us, how can we still enter the Jianguo Gate [(建國門, the gate to the Later Liang imperial palace)]?" He therefore hanged himself. Within a few days, Emperor Zhuangzong issued another edict which, while generally confirming the pardon, ordered that Jing (whose death he apparently did not know), Li Zhen, Zhao, the Zhangs, the Later Liang general Zhu Gui , and the Khitan prince Yelü Sala'abo (the brother of the Khitan emperor Emperor Taizu of Liao, who had previously rebelled against the Khitan emperor and fled to Emperor Zhuangzong, and then re-defected to Later Liang) be put to death, along with their families. Jing's family was therefore slaughtered.

Notes and references

History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 18. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 21. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 257, 258, 259, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272.