Li Song

Li Song (died December 12, 948 ), nickname Dachou , was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han, as well as the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. He was particularly prominent during Later Jin, when he served as chief of staff (Shumishi) and chancellor. During Later Han, he was falsely accused of treason and executed.

Background It is not known when Li Song was born, but it is known that he was from Raoyang (饒陽, in modern Hengshui, Hebei). His father Li Shunqing was the tactical officer at Shen Prefecture (深州, in modern Hengshui), which Raoyang belonged to. He had at least two younger brothers, Li Yu and Li Yi (李㠖). Li Shunqing was a descendant of Li Lin (李𬭸). Li Lin said to be 6th generation descendant of Li Yuanyi, Prince Zhenghui (鄭惠王, 李元懿), who was a 13th son of Emperor Gaozu of Tang. It was said that he was intelligent in his youth, and was writing artful texts even when he was in his teenage years, surprising his family members. Once he reached adulthood, he became an officer at Shen Prefecture. (Historical descriptions do not give dates, or even the sovereigns that he was under, during these events.)

During Later Tang

During Li Cunxu's reign However, it is known that by 923 — at which time Li Cunxu had declared himself emperor of a new Later Tang and had commissioned his oldest son Li Jiji the defender of Zhending (真定, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) and the director of Xingsheng Palace — Li Song was serving on Li Jiji's staff as an officer. At that time, Li Jiji's secretary Li Rao was in charge of Li Jiji's correspondences. Li Song had seen some of Li Rao's writings and considered them poorly written, He secretly spoke with the head of Li Jiji's household, Lü Rou , stating, "The Lord Chancellor [(as Li Jiji carried an honorary chancellor title)] is the Emperor's son. The whole realm looks at him. Both his correspondences and his records need to be logically and properly written. The drafts written by Censor Li [(as Li Rao carried an honorary censor title)] lacked perfection." Lü asked Li Song to try to write for Li Jiji on a trial basis, and then showed what Li Song had written to Li Cunxu's secretaries Lu Zhi and Feng Dao, both of whom praised Li Song's writing. Li Song was therefore soon promoted to be the surveying officer for Xingsheng Palace, and put in charge of Li Jiji's correspondences. Li Jiji made Li Song his secretary on the campaign.

The deaths of Guo and, subsequently, his ally and fellow major general Zhu Youqian, however, spawned a number of mutinies in the Later Tang army.

During Li Siyuan's reign Ren Huan subsequently became a chancellor for Li Siyuan. He also was in charge of the three financial agencies (taxation, treasury, and salt and iron monopolies), When Shi became aware that it was Li Song who advocated for his commission, he sent Li Song a message of appreciation.

Li Congke and Shi had long disliked each other.

Li Congke then considered moving Shi to another circuit. Then-chief of staff Fang Gao and Li Song (and Lü, prior to Lü's departure from his inner circle) all strenuously opposed, believing that would provoke Shi into a rebellion. However, one night, when Li Song had the night off and Xue was on duty, Li Congke consulted Xue by himself, and Xue argued that Shi would eventually rebel anyway — that having him rebel earlier was better than having him rebel later. Li Congke agreed. Shortly after, he issued an edict moving Shi from Hedong to Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong). Shi, as expected, rebelled and sought aid from Khitan's Emperor Taizong. Emperor Taizong launched an army to aid him, and their joint forces defeated the Later Tang army Li Congke sent, under the command of the general Zhang Jingda. Zhang was killed by his deputy Yang Guangyuan, who then surrendered to the joint Khitan/Hedong forces. Emperor Taizong declared Shi the emperor of a new Later Jin, and they advanced south. Believing the situation to be hopeless, Li Congke committed suicide with his family, ending Later Tang. Shi entered Luoyang and took over Later Tang territory.

In 941, Shi made his general Liu Zhiyuan, who was then the commander of the imperial guards, the military governor of Hedong. At the recommendations of Li Song and Feng Dao (who was then also chancellor), Shi's brother-in-law Du Chongwei, whom Liu despised, succeeded Liu as the commander of the imperial guards. It was said that Liu resented Li and Feng from this point on. Li accompanied Shi to Yedu (鄴都, i.e., Tianxiong's capital, also known as Wei Prefecture later in the year, as Shi was then anticipating a rebellion by An Chongrong the military governor of Chengde. Apparently while Li was at Yedu, his father died, and he left governmental service briefly to observe a mourning period, but Shi immediately recalled him to the imperial government without a lengthy mourning period. (who had changed his state's name from Khitan to Liao by this point). Shi Jingtang had earlier, not only submitted to Liao as a subject, but referred to Emperor Taizong as "father emperor" while referring to himself as "son emperor." In late 945, Shi finally removed Sang as chief of staff and chancellor, making him the mayor of then-capital Kaifeng. Li Song was made chief of staff to replace Sang in that capacity, while Zhao Ying, who already carried a chancellor title but was acting as mayor of Kaifeng, was made full chancellor to replace Sang in that capacity.

In 946, Emperor Taizong decided to create a trap for Later Jin. He spread false news that Zhao Yanshou was intending to defect to Later Jin, rumors that were believed by Feng and Li Song. They had Du Chongwei (whose name had been changed to Du Wei by that point due to naming taboo for Shi Chonggui's name), who was then the military governor of Tianxiong, write a secret letter to Zhao, to see if Zhao intended to defect. Zhao, who was part of Emperor Taizong's plan, wrote back and indicated that, indeed, he wanted to defect, along with his Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in Beijing — which had previously been Later Tang territory but which Shi Jingtang, as part of the agreement in which Emperor Taizong aided him to become emperor, ceded to Emperor Taizong); in his letter, he asked for a major Later Jin army to be launched to support his defection. After discussions between Shi Chonggui, Feng, and Li Song, it was agreed that a large army would be launched, commanded by Du, with Li Shouzhen serving as his deputy. (This was opposed by Zhao Ying, who believed that Du was untrustworthy due to his unthankful nature, but Zhao Ying was not listened to.) Emperor Taizong made the comment, "All I gained by destroying the southern dynasty was Li Song."

Emperor Shizong's succession to the Liao throne was immediately contested by his grandmother (the mother of both Emperor Taizong and his father, Yelü Bei), who wanted another son of hers, Yelü Lihu, to succeed to the throne. Emperor Shizong headed back to Liao's main territory to engage his grandmother's army, while leaving a Khitan army, along with the remainder of the captured Han army, as well as most of the Han officials (including Li Song and fellow captured chancellors Feng Dao and He Ning), at Heng, leaving Emperor Taizong's cousin Yelü Mada in charge at Heng. Yelü Mada mistreated both the people of the region and the Han soldiers. When Emperor Shizong subsequently sent emissaries to summon Feng, He, and Li Song to join him for Emperor Taizong's funeral, the Han soldiers decided to mutiny, and a street battle developed in Heng. The battle initially did not go well for the Han mutineers, but the official Li Gu persuaded Feng, Li Song, and He to appear at the battle. When the Han soldiers saw the chancellors, their morale was greatly increased, and they eventually defeated the Khitan soldiers under Yelü Mada, who fled back to Liao territory. In the aftermaths of the battle, the city became controlled by the officer Bai Zairong , who had the soldiers surround Li Song's and He's residences, demanding treasury. Li Song and He surrendered all their treasure, but Bai then considered killing them to prevent reprisal later, but Li Gu talked him out of it, pointing out that the new emperor (i.e., Liu Zhiyuan, who had established Later Han and taken over the Central Plains by this point) would punish him if he frivolously killed the chancellors. Bai therefore did not kill them.

In 948, by which time Liu Zhiyuan had died, and his son Liu Chengyou was emperor, there was a time when Li Yu had discovered his servant Ge Yanyu to be embezzling from him, and was trying to force Ge to return the embezzled funds. Ge thus decided to, in conjunction with Su's servant Li Cheng , accuse Li Yu of treason. Su then put Li Song under arrest as well. Subsequently, under torture, Li Yu wrote out a confession in which he implicated not only himself, but Li Song and Li Yi, as well as his nephew Wang Ning , of plotting a rebellion at Kaifeng, in conspiracy with Li Shouzhen, who had earlier rebelled at Huguo Circuit (護國, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), and Liao. Li Song, believing that he could not escape, also confessed. His entire family was executed, and the people lamented for them.

Notes and references

Old History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 108. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 57. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 274, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288.