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Wang Shenzhi, Sons Yanhan and Lin, and Lin’s Sons Jipeng, Yanxi, and Yanzheng
Wang Shenzhi [C.E. 862–925] had the courtesy name Xintong and was native to Gushi County, Guangzhou [Huainan circuit]. His father, Wang Ren, came from generations of farmers and elder brother Wang Chao [d. C.E. 897] a county scribe.
As bandit bands emerged in the waning Tang dynasty, Wang Xu of Shouzhou overran Gushi, where he learned of the chivalry of Wang Chao and his younger brothers. Inviting them into his army, he named Chao lieutenant. Qin Zongquan of Caizhou was in the throes of enlisting men to expand his military, at the time, and installed Xu as prefect of Guangzhou, drawing upon his armies for a joint sortie against rebel Huang Chao. Xu dallied without advancing, and Zongquan retaliated militarily, forcing Xu to flee south with his men, plundering at every turn. He felled Zhangpu [Zhangzhou] in the approach from Nankang to Linting, amassing a following of several tens of thousands. Yet his suspicious character caused many talented commanders in his divisions to be slain in assorted incidents, actions that rather intimidated Wang Chao. As the military advanced to Nan’an, Chao turned to the commander of his vanguard, saying, “It was under coercion from Xu that we left our wives and sons and abandoned the ancestral tombs to become bandits—we hardly acted of our own volition! He has now turned tempestuous and suspicious such that any officer or aide of ability faces certain death. From morning to night, we go without any sense of security. How can we possibly manage to contribute meaningfully to his cause?” A sudden awakening overcame the vanguard as he tearfully embraced Chao. He now selected several dozen stalwart warriors to lay in ambush in a bamboo thicket to monitor Xu’s approach, then scurry forth to seize him. Confined to a military compound, Xu later committed suicide.
Upon deposing Wang Xu, the vanguard supported the elevation of Wang Chao as leader, acknowledging, “I am alive through his virtue.” The prefect of Quanzhou at the time, Liao Yanruo, had wrought hardship on its people through corrupt and abusive practices. As elders there learned of Chao’s military operations in the area and the orderly discipline of his men, they intercepted him on the highway in hopes of retaining him. Chao now commanded men in surrounding Yanruo, overpowering him a year later.
In the second year of Guangqi [C.E. 886], Wang Chao was nominated prefect of Quanzhou by Chen Yan, the surveillance commissioner for Fujian. Yan died in the inaugural year of Jingfu [C.E. 892], whereupon son-in-law Fan Hui installed himself as interim regent. Chao sent brother Shenzhi to attack Hui. Unable to prevail after a long time and facing staggering injuries and deaths within his ranks, Shenzhi begged to retreat. Chao denied permission, so Shenzhi invited him personally to appear before soldiers while augmenting troop levels. “We have fully exhausted our soldiers and commanders, so I can only go myself,” Chao responded. Shenzhi hence supervised armies in person and successfully overpowered Hui’s army, killing him. The Tang court now named Chao surveillance commissioner for Fujian and selected Shenzhi as deputy.
Possessing an heroically imposing physical demeanor, Wang Shenzhi had a prominent nose and square mouth. He often rode a white horse, so the military dubbed him, “Third Gentleman on a White Horse.” He replaced Wang Chao as commissioner upon his death in the fourth year of Qianning [C.E. 897]. The court renamed Fuzhou¶ the Weiwu command and appointed Shenzhi its governor, conferring honors culminating in ministerial standing and investiture as Prince of Langye. After overturning Tang rule, Emperor Taizu of Liang honored Shenzhi as palace secretary, invested him as Prince of Min, and elevated Fuzhou¶ to grand protectorate. With the Huai and Yangzi River regions currently controlled by Yang Xingmi, Shenzhi employed the sea route to exchange envoys and tender tribute each year to the Liang, approaching via the [Shandong] prefectures of Deng‡ and Lai. The conduct of such missions by sea, however, often claimed three or four lives out of ten by drowning.
Although he started as a brigand, Wang Shenzhi was a man of frugal ways and prone to treat underlings with courtesy. Entering public service under him, therefore, were men like Wang Dan, son of the Tang minister Wang Pu; Yang Yi, the younger brother of minister Yang She; and Xu Yin, the celebrated doctorate of the dynasty. Shenzhi also established schools of the “Four Gates” to educate the refined men indigenous to Min.1 He even lured barbarians from coastal countries to conduct trade. The coastal site of Huangqi, formerly obstructed by billowing waves, was suddenly opened as a port after a night of blistering rains, thunder, and lightning. Considered as a sign of Shenzhi’s virtuous governance, it came to be dubbed “Port of the Sweet Pear” by the people of Min. He died in the third year of Tongguang [C.E. 925], at sixty-four sui, and received the posthumous title “Loyal and Moral,” Zhongyi, his son Yanhan securing the succession.
Wang Yanhan [d. C.E. 926], courtesy-named Ziyi, was Shenzhi’s eldest son. The Later Tang court confirmed him as governor in the fourth year of Tongguang [C.E. 926], the same year that Zhuangzong fell to regicide and the Middle Kingdom faced innumerable problems. Yanhan showed his officers and their aides the biography of Wuzhu, the King of Min and Yue in Sima Qian’s Historical Records, then queried, “Min has held kingdom status since ancient times, but I am not king. What is the justification for waiting?” Officers and aides at the command promptly urged his elevation through petitions. Yanhan inaugurated a kingdom with him as King, in the tenth month, still acknowledging the calendar of Later Tang.
A tall and rugged man, Yanhan possessed features as fine as jade, while his vulgar and lewd wife, Woman Cui, proved uncontrollable. Formal mourning for Shenzhi was yet incomplete when Yanhan cast aside the food table of mourners, taking numerous women from upstanding families as concubines. An instinctively jealous Woman Cui would isolate those pedigreed beauties in a back room, bind them in heavy chains, beat their cheeks with a wooden stick shaped like a human hand, then stab them to death with a metal awl. Eighty-four women died in a single year in that way. Woman Cui later took ill herself, and observers attributed her death to possession by an evil spirit.
The adopted son of Shenzhi, the Jianzhou prefect Yanbin, was originally surnamed Zhou. Yanbin had strained relations with Yanhan, since the days of Shenzhi, however. Yanhan inherited power and assigned younger brother Yanjun as prefect of Quanzhou, an assignment inciting Yanjun as well. He now joined Yanbing in infiltrating the palace with armed forces, during the twelfth month, to apprehend and slay Yanhan. Succeeding him was Yanjun, who changed his personal name to Lin.
Wang Lin [Yanjun, r. C.E. 927–936] was the next surviving son of Shenzhi. The Later Tang court confirmed him as governor, extending honors culminating in honorary grand preceptor and palace secretary, and investiture as King of Min.
Previously conspiring with Lin to assassinate Yanhan [C.E. 926], Yanbin came to seize and murder Yanhan a full day before Lin’s men arrived. Yanbin nonetheless supported Lin’s succession owing to his own lesser standing as adopted son. During a suburban banquet for Yanbin preceding his return to Jianzhou, he delivered as parting words to Lin, “You should ably preserve your ancestor’s legacy and not trouble Elder Brother to come again!” The comments caused Lin to hold umbrage. In the second year of Changxing [C.E. 931], Yanbin led armies in a sally against Lin: he attacked the city’s western gates and deployed son Wang Jixiong to raid the southern gate from the sea. Lin ordered Wang Renda to repulse them. Concealing armored men in a ship, Renda guilefully hoisted a white flag, as if to surrender. Jixiong considered him genuine and boarded the ship, as Renda’s concealed men rallied to stab him to death. The spectacle of his head hanging from the western gate caused his men to scatter. With Yanbin also apprehended, Lin said scoffingly to him, “Alas, I ultimately could not preserve our ancestor’s legacy and needed to trouble Elder Brother to come again!” Speechless, Yanbin was slain. His son Jisheng, then defending Jianzhou, fled to Qiantang [Wu/Yue] after learning of the upset.
In the third year of Changxing [C.E. 932], Wang Lin wrote to the court, “The now deceased Ma Yin (King of Chu) and Qian Liu (King of Wu/Yue) both formerly received honors as imperial secretary. Your Subject requests honors as secretary.” The Tang court failed to respond, and Lin suspended tribute. He held a curiosity for ghosts and spirits as well as Daoist beliefs. The Daoist adept Chen Shouyuan exploited his heretical proclivities to win Lin’s trust, Lin erecting a temple to the “Precious Emperor” for him to live in. Shouyuan once told him, “The Precious Emperor orders Your Highness to forfeit his position in youth. In this way, you can later rule as Son of Heaven for six full decades.” Lin gladly relinquished power and instructed son Jipeng to assume temporary governance. Once restored to power, Lin enlisted Shouyuan to inquire of the Precious Emperor, “Where will I go after sixty years?” “You should become the Immortal of the Heavens,” the Precious Emperor responded, according to Shouyuan.2
Lin now acceded the throne as Emperor, the ceremonies conducted at the temple to the Precious Emperor. He adopted the dynastic name of Min and the reign name of Longqi [Dragon’s Inaugural], as a yellow dragon had appeared at his residence at Zhenfeng. The posthumous title of the Luminous, Martial, and Filial Emperor was conferred on Wang Shenzhi, who received the temple name Taizu. Five ancestral temples were erected, a civil service established, and Fuzhou¶ renamed Changle, “Forever Happy” district. Min lands being secluded and revenues perennially inadequate, Xue Wenjie, the commissioner of palace armies, was named fiscal commissioner. He often probed the secret dealings of the people, the misdeeds of the wealthy causing their properties to be confiscated as subsidy for the state. The people of Min all loathed him in consequence. Wenjie even recommended the sorcerer Xu Yan, insisting that, “Many of Your Majesty’s closest aides are sinister men. Bedlam will come if you fail to consult the ghosts and spirits.” Lin thereby enlisted Yan to identify ghosts within the palace.
Xue Wenjie had a history of conflict with Wu Ying [Wu Xu], the palace’s military commissioner. Upon news of Ying’s illness, Wenjie told him, “His Majesty entrusts to you positions involving special trust and intimacy. Excusing yourself repeatedly for illness will cause him to dismiss you.” Ying asked for clarification and Wenjie advised, “The next time His Majesty’s messengers inquire of your illness, simply say, ‘I have merely a headache, no other malady.’” Ying agreed. On the next day, Wenjie prodded Lin to arrange for a sorcerer to evaluate Ying’s illness. The sorcerer told Lin, “Entering the northern temple, I witnessed the Prince of Chongshun3 strike Ying’s head with a golden cudgel, asking, ‘How dare you conspire to rebel?’” Lin conveyed the words to Wenjie, who added, “This is insufficient proof of sedition. You should rather ask Ying personally about his illness.” Lin sent a messenger to inquire and Ying admitted to an “aching head.” Lin now believed the sorcerer’s premonition and imprisoned Ying, directing Wenjie to vet the investigation. Ying fell into a trap of slanders to end up murdered. News of his death riled the military, as Ying was once chief overseer of Min armies and commanded their loyalties.
In the same year, armies from Wu attacked Jianzhou and Wang Lin charged commander Wang Yanzong with the relief effort. Troops took to the highways but refused to advance, insisting, “We must obtain [Ying’s murderer] Wenjie before proceeding.” Lin was reticent to relinquish him, until son Jipeng intervened with pleas to overcome the current impasse by doing so. Wenjie was now delivered to the military on a flat cart for prisoners. Skilled at numerology, Wenjie had divined his own augury, “In three days, you will be safe from peril.” His military escort learned of the prediction and scurried to arrive within two days, the troops deliriously leaping as they dismembered Wenjie at the marketplace. And the people of Min vied to toss ceramic tiles at his corpse, then devoured the entire body in short order. A pardon arrived a day later, delivered by messenger from Lin, but too late. Previously, the prisoner’s cart had been constructed at Wenjie’s behest, who insisted to Lin that the ancient style was archaic and should be altered: an opening now extended from top to bottom, and at the center were iron spikes that curled inward like hooks, digging into the victim at the slightest movement. Once the cart was complete, Wenjie was first to suffer from it.
In the third year of Longqi [C.E. 935], the reign was changed to Yonghe. Wang Renda had assisted Lin to assassinate Yanbin, his merit leading to posting as manager of the Imperial Bodyguard. Lin harbored suspicions toward him, all the same, and once inquired of Renda, “The legend that Zhao Gao ‘pointed to a deer and called it a horse’ to befuddle the Second Emperor—did it actually happen?” He responded, “Gao could represent a deer as a horse because the Second Emperor of Qin was himself muddled. It is not that he could make the Emperor muddleheaded. Today, Your Majesty is intelligent and his courtiers number fewer than a hundred. Their daily movements and activities are all known to Your Majesty, so anyone daring to presume upon your august powers can simply be liquidated.” Embarrassed by his former suspicions, Lin reassured Renda with gifts of gold and silk. He told others once Renda withdrew, “The deft strategies of Renda should be exploited during my own reign to prevent peril from visiting later generations.” In the end, slanders caused him to fall from grace and die.
The formal wife of Wang Lin died early on. Her successor, the Woman Jin, proved worthy yet received no recognition from Lin. Shenzhi had a female slave known as Jinfeng and surnamed Chen, a woman later favored by Lin and installed as empress. Originally, Lin was partial to aide Gui Shouming because of his physical appeal, dubbing him the “Youth Gui.” During Lin’s subsequent incapacity with pneumonia, Youth Gui and Woman Chen had illicit relations, and he even facilitated Woman Chen’s fornication with Li Keyin, the master of imperial crafts. Thus, when Lin commissioned brocade craftsmen to produce a curtain with nine dragons, his subjects chanted a song, “To what does the ‘nine-dragons curtain’ refer—Youth Gui’s hiding place!”
Wang Lin owned a female slave of considerable beauty, Chunyan. His son Jipeng had improper relations with her. Lin was ill when Jipeng sought permission to marry her, based on precedent for Empress Chen [Lin’s onetime slave]. He consented, albeit with consternation. Younger son Jitao became angry at Jipeng and conspired to murder him. Jipeng now nervously conspired with Li Fang, commissioner of the imperial city. In the tenth month of the same year, as Lin banqueted troops at Dapu Hall, he sat in a stupor and reported seeing [the deceased] Yanbin approach him. Fang thereby realized the severity of his illness and deployed stalwart soldiers first to Li Keyin’s home to kill him. Lin arrived at morning audience a day later, seemingly free of sickness, and asked Fang about the cause for Keyin’s murder. Fang left in terror to meet Jipeng, then led imperial city guards into the palace. Lin ran to hide behind the curtain with nine dragons upon hearing the clamor. The guardsmen stabbed him short of death, leaving palace women to finish the deed, as they could not bear his anguish. Further perishing at Fang’s hands were Jitao, Empress Chen, and Youth Gui. Lin was assassinated after ten years in power. He was posthumously entitled the Charitable Emperor, Hui, his temple name Taizong.
Wang Jipeng [Chang, r. C.E. 935–939] was Lin’s eldest son. He changed his personal name to Chang and reign to Tongwen, upon accession. Li Fang became administrator over the Six imperial guards.
Having committed the crime of regicide against his ruler, Li Fang often felt precarious in the wake of Chang’s installation and cultivated a cohort of diehard warriors in anticipation of the unforeseen. This presented a threat to Chang, who arranged for armored men to lie in ambush during a large banquet for troops and apprehend Fang, killing him and hanging his head at the marketplace. A thousand men in Fang’s personal regiments later mutinied, setting the Qisheng gate afire and reclaiming his head before absconding for Qiantang [the Wu/Yue kingdom].
In the second year of Tianfu [C.E. 937], by the Jin calendar, Wang Chang sent envoys to present tribute in the northern capital. Gaozu reciprocated by deputizing Lu Sun, his cavalier for palace remonstrance, to invest Chang as Prince of Min and his [younger brother] Jigong, as Prince of Linhai. On the pretext of illness, Chang declined to meet Sun upon arrival in Min, ordering Jigong to preside over events. He also directed drafting official Liu Yi to pay respects to Sun at his guesthouse. Yi looked magnificent in his official garb, an abundance of child servants attending him. On another day on the highway, Sun saw Yi in simple commoner’s clothes and straw sandals and had someone revile him, saying, “How has the drafting official of Phoenix Pavilion succumbed to such dire conditions?” Thoroughly embarrassed, Yi absconded with face covered by his hands. Chang learned of Sun’s callous humiliation of Yi and, in anger, refused to address him upon his return to court.
An aide of Wang Chang’s brother Jigong, Zheng Yuanbi, was sent to escort Lu Sun back to the northern capital to present local products as tribute. A letter conveyed to high officials of the Jin expressed Chang’s wish, in future exchanges, to adopt the peer protocol accorded rival states. The request offended Gaozu as a sign of irreverence, so he issued an edict denouncing Chang’s crimes and refusing his tribute items, which were to be returned. Assisting minister of war Li Zhisun memorialized the court seeking the confiscation of Min tribute and incarceration of its envoy. Once confined to prison and confronted with its contraptions of torture, Yuanbi fell prostrate on the ground and declared in desperation, “Chang is ruler of a barbarian land, a man ignorant of rites and propriety. Precisely as Your Majesty evinces profound trust before this man from afar, Your Subject carries instructions involving indecencies. I therefore willingly submit to the guillotine as atonement for Chang’s crimes.” Gaozu subsequently pardoned him to return home.
Like predecessors, Wang Chang favored the occult, honoring the Daoist adept Tan Zixiao as the “Orthodox Gentleman” and Chen Shouyuan as the “Celestial Teacher.” The perverse Lin Xing acquired favor through command of the occult, needing only to invoke the name of the Precious Emperor to act upon all matters, great and small. On instructions from Shouyuan, Chang erected the Paradise of Immortals Pavilion, a three-story structure containing statues of [Daoist icons] the Precious Emperor, Primal Deity, and Supreme Sovereign.4 The statues cost several thousand catties in gold. Burned daily were several catties of incense such as longnao and xunlu. And beneath the pavilion, Chang and his friends made music without stop from day to night, justifying this as part of their pursuit of an elixir for the “grand return” to immortality.
A rainbow appeared in the royal palace, during the summer of the third year [C.E. 938]. “This is an omen of impending mutiny by the imperial clan,” so said the spirits as conveyed by Lin Xing. Chang now directed him to lead a band of stalwart soldiers in assassinating the sons of Shenzhi, Yanwu and Yanwang, along with their five sons. And when the scheme backfired, Xing himself was murdered. By now, Chang grew even more drawn down the path to turmoil, installing the slave of his father, Chunyan, as Pure Consort and later Empress. He also authorized a doctor, Chen Jiu, to sell official posts, providing a store of blank documents without names.
Wang Jiyan, Chang’s younger brother, was administrator of the Six Armies before suspicions prompted Chang to replace him with youngest brother Jiyong. Chang entrusted his personal security to a special palace brigade composed of exceptionally courageous recruits, largess for which far exceeded the other armies. The practice provoked the ire of soldiers under Lian Chongyu, chief commander of the Crane-Commanding Guard, and Zhu Wenjin of the Palace-Saluting Guard. That summer, prognosticators warned Chang of a catastrophe striking the main palace, so he relocated to the southern palace to elude the menace. When fires did erupt within the palace, Chang suspected Chongyu’s men of setting the fire. Eunuch academician Chen Tan, who held the confidences of Chang through sycophancy, was informed by him of suspicions about the fire, and he turned around to inform Chongyu. A nervous Chongyu led guardsmen by night in setting afire the southern palace, forcing Chang to join beloved concubines, children, and eunuch guardsmen in smashing the locks on the city gates to flee, camping in the wilds.
Lian Chongyu invited Yanxi to assume power, and he in turn directed his own son Jiye to lead a sortie against Chang.5 After catching up with Chang’s entourage, several were hit with arrows and killed. Chang now realized peril as inescapable and tossed his bow to the ground, Jiye seizing and slaying him. Wife and sons all perished as well, leaving no survivors. Chang received the posthumous title of Kangzong upon Yanxi’s installation.
Wang Yanxi [Xi, r. C.E. 939–944], Shenzhi’s youngest son, changed his personal name to Xi after installation. He sent envoys to offer tribute to the Jin, adopted the reign name Yonglong [C.E. 939], and minted large iron coins, exchanging one of the new for ten of the old.
An overbearing Wang Xi had been obstinate and uncontrollable since the days of Wang Chang, although the counselor under Chang, Wang Tan, made some progress such that Xi dared not act on impulse for fear of him. An emissary from Silla once presented a decorative sword to Chang; he showed it to Tan, asking, “What am I to do with this sword?” “Decapitate the disloyal and unfilial,” Tan responded. Xi’s face changed color as he stood nearby. Another sword from Silla envoys was presented to Xi after inheriting powers, reminding him of Tan’s former words. Now already dead, Tan’s body was exhumed from the grave: his face seemed lifelike and body covered in blood.
Quanzhou prefect Yu Tingying once forged directives in Wang Xi’s name to abduct young women from upstanding families, causing an incensed Xi to vet a formal investigation at the Censorate. Tingying now presented ten million strings of cash to subsidize palace banquets, as Xi pressed further, “What about local tribute for the Empress?” After presenting another ten million strings to her, Tingying escaped prosecution. Upon the marriage of Wang Xi’s daughter, courtiers who did not tender gifts of felicitation were to be flogged with light rod. Deputy censor Liu Zan now faced an imminent flogging for failing thoroughly to prosecute such cases, prompting a strident rebuke from Zheng Yuanbi, the master of admonitions. Xi fired back to him, “How dare you censure me with the stridency of the Gentleman Wei!” Yuanbi countered, “When Your Majesty assumes the traits of the Tang Emperor Taizong, I will gladly be your Wei Zheng!”6 The response humored Xi, who released Zan without flogging.
From the outset of his installation, Wang Xi had strained relations with younger brother Yanzheng, the governor of Jianzhou with noble standing as Prince of Fusha. The two repeatedly raised armies against the other, as Xi developed contempt for the imperial clan and executed many clansmen for assorted reasons. Master of admonitions Huang Jun was vehement in remonstrance against Xi, going to audience chambers with a coffin carried behind him. A furious Xi banished him to fiscal adjutant for Zhangzhou. Imperial diarist Chen Guangyi wrote him a letter enumerating his more than fifty “excesses,” and Xi directed an imperial guardsman to administer a hundred lashes of the horsewhip. Guangyi still did not die, so he was suspended from a wooden beam with rope around his neck: a long time still elapsed before death.
The commissioner of revenues collection, Chen Kuangfan, once presented new regulations to increase tax assessments on merchants. “Kuangfan is a gem among men,” Xi said in his praise. Later, annual receipts failed to reach estimated levels, causing Kuangfan to meet the shortfall by borrowing from the people and creating such emotional stress as to kill him. After learning of such loans from the people, Xi had his corpse exhumed and dismembered before tossing it into the water.
Xi was debauched and sadistic by nature, while Woman Li proved a ruthless wife and raging alcoholic. The Worthy Consort Shang was favored for physical appeal, and nephew Li Renyu won favor similarly for his attractiveness, rising to counselor. Xi often drank like an ox. When entertaining officials with wine, those with a low tolerance might complain or furtively dispose of the wine, causing Xi to murder them on the spot. When son Jirou threw out his wine, Xi had him killed along with his herald.
Lian Chongyu had long feared reprisals from others in the empire for having slain Wang Chang. To secure himself, he arranged a marriage with the family of Zhu Wenjin. Xi nonetheless harbored suspicions toward him, often speaking derisively of Chongyu and cohort, as they in tearful desperation tried to defend themselves. Meanwhile, Woman Li remained jealous of Xi’s favor for Consort Shang and wished to scheme against him to secure the succession of her own son, Yacheng. She thus conveyed a message to Chongyu and cohort: “His Majesty’s heart is perturbed by the two of you. What can be done?” Her words haunted Chongyu and ally [Zhu Wenjin]. In the third month of the sixth year [C.E. 944], as Xi returned drunk after out-of-town travels, stalwart soldiers unleashed by Chongyu threw him from his horse to murder him. His posthumous title was Jingzong.
Wang Yanzheng [r. C.E. 943–946] was the son of Shenzhi. Wang Xi’s debauched depravity after his own accession incited Yanzheng to write in repeated remonstrance. An embittered Xi dispatched Du Jianchong to assume oversight over his armies. Yanzheng expelled Jianchong and Xi retaliated by raising armies against him, only to lose. Yanzheng established a kingdom at Jian Prefecture called Yin and adopted the reign name Tiande [C.E. 943].
In the next year [C.E. 944], Lian Chongyu gathered the Min kingdom’s official rank and file, in the wake of assassinating Wang Xi, informing them, “Formerly, the Martial Emperor Taizu [Wang Shenzhi] personally withstood the arrows and catapults of war to inaugurate Min rule, but his sons and grandsons are debauched and depraved beyond all description. Heaven now repudiates the Wang house, whose common people and capable men should join in elevating a man of virtue to calm their land.” Courtiers in attendance dared not respond, whereupon Chongyu thrust Zhu Wenjin up the chamber platform as he led ranked officiary in facing north, affirming fealty as subjects of Wenjin. Chongyu was subsequently appointed administrator of the Six Armies, while all sons and brothers of Wang royals at Fuzhou¶ were liquidated, young and old alike. Huang Shaopo received the command at Quanzhou, Cheng Yun received the command at Zhangzhou, and Xu Wenzhen the command at Tingzhou. In recognition of the Jin calendar, the reign reverted to the inaugural year of Kaiyun.
A commander at Quanzhou, Liu Congxiao, created a ruse for the prefecture’s soldiers, arguing, “Alas, armies of the Prince of Fusha have claimed Fuzhou¶. We were subjects of the Wang house for generations. How can we simply cross our arms in service to a renegade?” Local men now banded together to assassinate Huang Shaopo, inviting Wang Jixun to become prefect. Once news of the incident reached Zhangzhou, they similarly murdered Cheng Yun and invited Wang Jicheng to become prefect—both Wang men were scions of the royal house. Now nervous, Xu Wenzhen decided to surrender Tingzhou to Wang Yanzheng. With three prefectures now in Yanzheng’s hands, Lian Chongyu murdered Zhu Wenjin and forwarded his head to Jianzhou, symbolizing his conversion to Yanzheng. He was killed, however, by Lin Renhan, an assistant commander at Fuzhou¶, who planned to invite Yanzheng to govern the prefecture.
Reports of such tumult in Min caused Li Jing of the Southern Tang to issue armies for an offensive. Wang Yanzheng responded by dispatching nephew Jichang to defend Fuzhou¶. In the midst of an intense pummeling of Yanzheng by Tang armies, Fuzhou¶ commander Li Renda warned underlings, “The Prince of Fusha cannot even preserve his position at Jianzhou, now under Tang assault. How can he possibly secure this site?” He promptly apprehended Jichang to slay him. Renda initially wished to install himself. Worried that his warriors might not coalesce, a monk from Xuefeng Monastery, Zhuo Yanming, was presented to them to pronounce, “This is no ordinary man!” Renda now thrust imperial robes upon Yanming, leading commanders and aides in facing north and declaring themselves his subjects. He later murdered Yanming and installed himself. Renda also made peace overtures to Li Jing, who in turn confirmed him as governor of the Weiwu command [Fuzhou¶] with the new personal name of Hongyi. The armies of Li Jing now felled Jianzhou. Yanzheng and his family were relocated to Jinling, and he was invested Prince of Poyang. This was the fourth year of Baoda, by Jing’s calendar [C.E. 946].
Liu Congxiao responded to news of Yanzheng’s surrender to Tang by seizing Wang Jixun for transfer to Jinling. He was rewarded by the Tang with the governorship of Quanzhou, now renamed the Qingyuan command. Li Jing sent a messenger to summon Li Renda to Jinling, in the wake of Yanzheng’s rout, but he refused and subsequently surrendered to Wu/Yue. Meanwhile, Congxiao occupied the two prefectures of Quan and Zhang, having expelled Jing’s defending armies; Jing now invested Congxiao as Prince of Jinjiang. During the reign of Shizong of Zhou, Congxiao sent military attaché Cai Zhongxing to the capital, along side-roads and in the guise of a merchant, to confirm a place of residence for him as subject of the Zhou dynasty. The border between the empires of Shizong and Jing had been only recently redrawn along the Yangzi River, so the envoy was turned away. Congxiao consequently assumed vassal relations with the Southern Tang. For later events, see the “national histories.”i
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