Mao Wenxi

Mao Wenxi (毛文錫), courtesy name Pinggui (平珪), was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Former Shu state, serving as the director of palace communications (Shumishi).

Background It is not known when Mao Wenxi was born. His family was originally from Gaoyang (高陽, in modern Baoding, Hebei), although he was probably not born there, as his father Mao Guifan (毛龜範) served as the minister of husbandry for the Tang dynasty imperial government. Mao Wenxi was said to have passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class at the young age of 13. At one point, he went to Chengdu and became an official under Wang Jian, the founding emperor of Former Shu, although historical accounts do not indicate whether that was before or after the founding of Former Shu.

Service under Wang Jian Sometime during Wang Jian's reign as emperor of Former Shu, Mao Wenxi became the chief imperial scholar (翰林學士承旨, Hanlin Xueshi Chengzhi).

In 914, after Wang Jian executed an adoptive son, Wang Zongxun (王宗訓) the military governor of Wutai Circuit (武泰, headquartered in modern Chongqing) for disrespecting him, he made Pan the military governor of Wutai and made Mao the minister of rites (禮部尚書, Libu Shangshu), as well as acting Shumishi. In or around that year, Wang Jian contemplated a plan suggested to him for conquest of rival Later Liang's Jingnan Circuit (荊南, headquartered in modern Jingzhou, Hubei) — by destroying a dam on the Yangtze River and use the water to flood Jingnan's capital Jiangling Municipality. Mao urged against the plan, stating:

Wang Jian agreed and did not carry out the plan.

After Wang Jian's reign At some point, Mao Wenxi must have been recalled to the Former Shu imperial government, for he was described to be among the officials who, along with Wang Jian's son and successor Wang Zongyan, surrendered to the invading army of Later Tang (which had earlier destroyed Later Liang) in 925. Mao appeared to have done the latter, for he was described to have served under Meng Zhixiang, the Later Tang military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu), who would eventually the founding emperor of an independent state of Later Shu. In particular, Meng favored him, along with Ouyang Jiong and three others, for their poetic abilities. Mao wrote two volumes on the history of Former Shu, one volume on the art of tea, and a number of poems, and was said to have written a particularly famous poem about Mount Wu (巫山, in modern Chongqing). Traditional histories did not indicate when he died, including whether it was before or after Meng's establishment of Later Shu.

Notes and references

Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms (十國春秋), vol. 41. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 268, 269, 270.