Late Tang, Part 3: The Sweet Gory Trap: 晚唐之初- 甘露事变
WEILDING THE SPIDER WEB
The first part of the plan had succeeded swimmingly. The 3 conspirators had successfully unseated Wang Shoucheng: who had been the eunuchh kingmaker in the imperial palace. With him gone came the 2nd and most ambitious part of Emperor Wenzong's plot to restore rule back to his imperial family. With Wang Shoucheng's death, they shall make his funeral into a grand event to attract all of the eunuchs from across the empire and place them under one roof in the imperial palace.
In the winter of 835, the 3 conspirators of Emperor Wenzong, Zheng Zhu, and the talented minister Li Xun had the kingmaker of Tang killed. But instead of damning the chief eunuch, Wenzong plied the dead eunuch with lamentations. The emperor also lavished heaps and heaps of tributes in his honor. The pretext for the grand funeral of the eunuch would serve as a beacon to draw in all of the eunuchs from across the empire under 1 room in the imperial palace.
Despite his keen skills Li Xun was a haughty man- was always desperate for high appointments and be in the limelight, was eager to receive sole credit for the purging of the eunuchs, before Zheng was able to arrive with his guards, Li Xun tried to replicate the same results with his own soldiers and personally move the time table forward by a weak. Worse yet, he had decided to do so without Wenzong's knowledge.
Under the next part of Li Xun's and Zheng's plan, as Wang was set to be buried on December 20. Zheng Zhu would ride back with his personal guards back to Chang An to attend the funeral, which the eunuchs were all expected to be attending. Zheng's guards would then catch the eunuchs by surprise and- like a descending sword of Damocles slaughter them all. However, Li Xun, who by this point was a chancellor and who actually had become jealous of Zheng, had different plans — as he felt that this plan would in fact cause Zheng to receive all the credit for the plot. He thus decided to act before Zheng.
THE MIRACULOUS SWEET DEW
By December, nearly all of the important eunuchs across the empire had gathered in the Daming Palace to pay their respects to Wang Shoucheng. The date of burial was set to December 20, the day where Zheng Zhu would attend with large cohort of guards under his personal command. However, Li Xun's own private plan would be sprung a week before he arrives.
On December 14, Wenzong was hosting an imperial meeting at Daming Palace's Zichen Hall (紫宸殿) with the imperial officials. Han Yue, who was the general of the Left Jinwu Corps (左金吾), instead of giving the customary report that everything was well that the Left Jinwu and Right Jinwu generals were to give, instead the general stated that in the previous night, there was sweet dew (甘露, ganlu in Chinese) that descended on a pomegranate tree outside the Left Jinwu headquarters.
He bowed to Wenzong, and the chancellors immediately led the other officials in congratulating the Emperor (as sweet dew was considered an auspicious sign of divine favor). Li Xun and Shu Yuanyu (another chancellor who was part of Li Xun's plot) suggested that Wenzong go observe the sweet dews himself so that he could receive the blessings from heaven. Wenzong agreed, and the officials proceeded to Hanyuan Hall (含元殿), near the Left Jinwu headquarters. Wenzong himself took a litter to Hanyuan Hall. Wenzong of course had no idea that the whole "Sweet Dew" was but a clever fabrication to get all of the eunuchs in one courtyard.
Once the Emperor and the officials arrived at Hanyuan Hall, Wenzong ordered the chancellors, as well as officials of the examination bureau (门下省, Menxia Sheng) and legislative bureau (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng) to examine the sweet dews at the Left Jinwu headquarters.
After they did so, Li Xun returned and announced, "After we took our examinations, it appeared to me that those were not real sweet dews. This should not be announced immediately; otherwise, the empire would prematurely congratulate you." Wenzong- who legitimately was not privy of Li Xun's secret plot expressed surprise, and ordered Qiu Shiliang- (if you recall, the eunuch head of the Shence Army he had appointed by striping away from Wang Shoucheng) and a fellow Shence Army commander to lead the other eunuchs to examine the sweet dews.
After the eunuchs left Hanyuan Hall, Li Xun immediately summoned two of his sub commanders to Hanyuan Hall and stated, "Be ready to receive the edict." One of them was fearful, and he did not proceed into Wenzong's presence, but the 2nd commander did and knelt before the Emperor. Meanwhile, it was said that the 2 commanders had several hundred soldiers with them; initially, the soldiers stood outside Danfeng Gate (丹凤门), outside Hanyuan Hall. Li Xun had them summoned inside Danfeng Gate to receive the edict, but in the confusion, only ONE of the commander and his soldiers went in, and the other commander's soldiers did not.
A VILE GUST OF WIND AT THE JINWU HEADQUARTERS
Meanwhile, Qiu the Shence Army's commander and the other eunuchs were at the Left Jinwu headquarters. Han Yue, the commander of Jinwu who had first summoned all of them to see the dew however, had become fearful and was nervous and sweating. Qiu began to sense that something was wrong. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew up a screen, and Qiu saw many armed soldiers and heard the sounds of clanging weapons.
Qiu and the other eunuchs were surprised and quickly ran outside. The guards at the Left Jinwu headquarters were about to close the gate to close them in, but Qiu yelled at them, and they, surprised, were unable to close the gates. Qiu and the other eunuchs ran back to Hanyuan Hall, preparing to report to Wenzong what was happening.
THE EMPEROR ACCIDENTALLY KIDNAPPED
When Li Xun saw the eunuchs running back to Hanyuan Hall, he yelled at the Jinwu guards for them to protect the emperor and promised them rewards. The eunuchs, however, yelled that there was an emergency and the emperor must return to the palace at once. They grabbed Emperor Wenzong's litter, put him on it, and ran north through the roped screen behind Hanyuan Hall toward the palace. Li Xun- seeing his patron being whisked away by the eunuchs ran after the litter and grabbed it, yelling, "I have not finished my report, and Your Imperial Majesty should not return to the palace!"
"BATTLE" AT HANYUAN HALL
At this time, the Jinwu guards were in Hanyuan Hall, along with the Jingzhao Municipal government police and office of imperial censors' guards and they began to kill the eunuchs. More than 10 eunuchs were killed or injured, but this attack was unable to prevent the eunuchs from carrying Emperor Wenzong's litter through Xuanzheng Gate (宣政门), back into the walled inner palace compound.
Li Xun, who was still holding on to the litter, urged Emperor Wenzong to stop, but the confused Emperor Wenzong yelled at him to stop yelling. The eunuch Chi Zhirong (郗志荣) battered Li Xun's chest, and Li Xun fell onto the ground. The litter then entered Xuanzheng Gate, and the gate was closed. The eunuchs were cheering. Unknowingly to Wenzong, he had became the eunuch's hostage and there were no way that the conspirator's Jinwu guards were enough against the full might of Shence Army.
Seeing the fortified walls of the palace close in front of them, Li Xun's officers lined up at Hanyuan Hall paused for a moment, and then fled. Li Xun, knowing that he had failed, put on a green uniform belonging to his staff members, got onto a horse, and fled. No one on the road of the capital suspected him of being Li Xun. Meanwhile, Shu Yuanyu, along with other chancellors Wang Ya and Jia Su who were part of Li Xun's plot returned to the office of the chancellors, and believed that soon Emperor Wenzong would summon them to congratulate them on the aftermath. When the officials under them came to inquire what had occurred, the unaware chancellors told those subordinates to keep working and not to worry. In a stunning and almost Ludacris twist of events, Li Xun's own leadership had decapitated itself right when the true killing was about to wash over the imperial palace.
SLAUGHTER OF THE IMPERIAL OFFICIALS
Meanwhile, by this point, the eunuch commander Qiu Shiliang and the other eunuchs had realized that Emperor Wenzong was complicit with this plot, and they were openly cursing the emperor in his presence. It was said that Emperor Wenzong was so fearful that he was unable to speak. Meanwhile, Qiu and the other eunuchs sent the Shence Army officers Liu Tailun (刘泰伦) and Wei Zhongqing (魏仲卿), with 500 soldiers each, armed with swords, to attack those they considered to be associates of Li Xun and Zheng Zhu.
At that time, chancellor Wang Ya and the other chancellors were ready to have their regular lunch conference. A staff member informed them, "Soldiers are coming out of the palace and killing everyone they were meeting!" The chancellors, unable to get on horses quickly, fled on foot. The officials of the legislative and examination bureaus, and the Jinwu soldiers, numbering over 1,000 people, were also trying to flee, but they were bottlenecked at the gate to the office of the chancellors, and eventually, the gates were closed with some 600 of them still trapped inside, and the Shence Army soldiers slaughtered them.
SLAUGHTER OF THE PALACE
Qiu and the other eunuchs also sent Shence Army soldiers to close all gates to the imperial city and enter various governmental offices to attack the officials. It was said that the officials and their guards, and civilians who happened to be in the offices, were all slaughtered — over 1,000 people. Various files, seals, books, and other equipment owned by the government were destroyed in the process. The eunuchs also sent cavalry soldiers outside the imperial city to try to capture those who had fled.
Art by Forky Xu
Meanwhile, the Shence Army soldiers were also pillaging wealthy households under the guise of searching for Li Xun's associates and the chancellors. The rampant killing and looting soon spread out of the imperial palace and across the key districts of the capital. For example, because Hu Zheng (胡证), the former military governor of Lingnan Circuit (岭南, headquartered in modern Guangzhou, Guangdong), was extremely wealthy, the Shence Army soldiers used the excuse of searching for Jia Su to enter his mansion, and they killed his son Hu Yin (胡溵).
THE BLOODY PURGE- KILLING ALL CONNETECTED TO THE CONSPIRATORS
Meanwhile, the pillaging on the streets of Chang An were continuing. The eunuchs ordered the Shence Army officers Yang Zhen (杨镇) and Jin Suiliang (靳遂良) to take 500 soldiers each and take over security over the key streets of Chang An. The soldiers beat drums to warn the hoodlums, and after killing some 10 hoodlums, the situation around the streets calmed down.
Meanwhile, Li Xun had fled to the Zhongnan Mountain (终南山) near the capital to try to seek refuge with the Buddhist monk Zongmi, with whom he was friends. Zongmi wanted to give Li Xun a tonsure and disguise him as a monk, but Zongmi's followers urged him not to accept Li Xun. Li Xun thus left the Zhongnan Mountain and tried to flee to the west to Fengxiang and link up with co-conspirator Zheng Zhu. However, he was intercepted on the way and arrested and had was delivered to Chang An. When Li Xun's escort reached Kunming Pond (昆明池)- one of the key ponds in the city, Li Xun, fearful that the eunuchs would torture and humiliate him, told the officer escorting him to decapitate him so that the Shence Army soldiers could not seize him and take the glory themselves. The officer agreed and decapitated Li Xun, delivering the head to Chang An.
Despite Li Xin's death, Zheng Zhu, who at this time was still unaware of Li Xun's bungling of their conspiracy and was still acting on the original plan, had taken his guards and departed Fengxiang to the west of the capital. When he got to Fufeng (扶风, in modern Baoji), the magistrate of Fufeng County, Han Liao (韩辽), became aware of Zheng's plan, and therefore refused to supply him and fled to Wugong (武功, in modern Xianyang).
When Zheng received news that Li Xun had failed, he returned to Fengxiang. His subordinate Wei Hongjie (魏弘节) suggested to him that he kill the eunuch monitor of Fengxiang, Zhang Zhongqing (张仲卿) to buy himself some time, as well as a number of officers, but Zheng, who was terrified at this time, did not know what to do.
At the same time, Qiu had drafted an edict in Emperor Wenzong's name and delivered it to the eunuch monitor of Fengxian Zhongqing, ordering Zhang to swiftly act against Zheng. Zhang initially also was not sure how to act, but under suggestion from the officer Li Shuhe (李叔和), Zhang invited Zheng to a feast. Li Shuhe gave Zheng's guards food and drink, and then, at the feast, while Zheng was not paying attention, killed and decapitated him. He then had Zheng's guards, Zheng's household, as well as a large number of Zheng's staff members, slaughtered.
Zhang had Li Shuhe deliver Zheng's head to Chang An, and Li Shuhe arrived there on December 20— where, on December 19 the eunuchs had readied the troops in case of an attack by Zheng, causing much panic in the people of Chang An. Only after Zheng's head was hung on Xing'an Gate was it said that the people were calmed somewhat. Also on December 20, the Dingwu commander Han Yue was captured, and on December 21, Han was executed. This was just the beginning of the butchery.
EUNUCHS SEIZE ULTIMATE POWER
300 soldiers from the Right Shence Army escorted the officers connected to the plot. The officials were taken to the imperial ancestral shrines and the shrines to the gods of earth, and they were presented as if they were sacrificial animals.
They were then paraded at the eastern and western markets of Chang An- the most traversed part of the city by subjects of all ranks, and where public executions were frequently staged. With the imperial officials ordered to oversee the executions, they were executed by being cut in half at the waist, and then their heads were cut off and hung outside Xing An Gate.
Their relatives, no matter how distantly related, were executed, including children, and some who had somehow initially escaped death were confiscated to be government slaves. It was said that during these few days, none of the decisions being made in Emperor Wenzong's name were actually made by Emperor Wenzong himself (or even known by him); rather, the eunuch commander Qiu were making all of these decisions.
In spring 836, the military governor of Zhaoyi Circuit (昭义, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), Liu Congjian, submitted a harshly worded accusation against the eunuchs, claiming that the chancellors were innocent and that the eunuchs were guilty of grievous crimes. The eunuchs initially tried to placate Liu by having him bestowed with high honors, but he continued to submit accusations against them, particularly against Qiu. It was said that only after Liu's accusations did the eunuchs become somewhat apprehensive and allow Emperor Wenzong, some ability to govern. Still, it was said that after the Sweet Dew Incident, for almost the rest of Tang dynasty's history, the eunuchs were in firm control of the government, determining the successions for the rest of the emperors. Emperor Wenzong- by now little more than a political prisoner under house arrest died 4 years later in 840.
It was said that after the Ganlu Incident, Wenzong became depressed and never smiled, and he was often seen mumbling to himself even at grand feasts. At one point, in a conversation with the imperial scholar Zhou Chi, when he asked Zhou what kind of ancient rulers he could be compared with, and Zhou, trying to flatter him, responded that he could be compared with the mythical benevolent rulers Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun. Emperor Wenzong instead compared himself to the final rulers of the Zhou dynasty and Han dynasty—King Nan of Zhou and Emperor Xian of Han. When Zhou Chi, surprised, noted that both were dynasty-ending rulers, Emperor Wenzong stated:
Both King Nan and Emperor Xian were being controlled by strongly-armed vassals, but I am being controlled by house slaves. If you look at it this way, I am even inferior to them.
After saying this, Wenzong bursted in tears, and Zhou Chi, not knowing what to do also cried with the sobbing emperor.
The Ganlu or "Sweet Dew Incident" marked the beginning of the last days of the Tang dynasty. Although Wenzong was hyperbolic with his self- effacing scrutiny, his dynasty would linger on for nearly another 7 decades. However, by this era, the fate of the Tang was more than sealed. During this time Tang faced many problems that it failed to efficiently address, it was constantly unable to subdue its mutinous vassals, it gave out many concessions, including allowing the Jiedushi to become hereditary warlords within their domains, and it faced 2 dynasty ending rebellions that killed millions. Without truly efficient central leadership, the Tang subject instead looked to their local governors for ad hoc support. In stark contrast to the early days of the confident and tolerant Tang dynasty, at its end- it was riddled with internal problems. In distrust the Tang people turned xenophobic and rebellious.
When the Tang dynasty finally collapsed in 907 after its last child Emperor was poisoned- the Jiedushi provincial warlords all turned on each other and began a 7 decade long war for supremacy. The 7 decades of chaos and anarchy that would follow would be known in Chinese history as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. But one of the side effect of this bitter war was that- with the death of the Tang, so went its palace of eunuchs. When the Tang collapsed many of the eunuchs- who were by then universally hated were scattered and slaughtered. In the end, a servant who in reality controlled a house could only do so under the name of that house's master. The parasite had lost its live- giving host. The winter came for them as well.
When the Tang dynasty finally collapsed in 907 after its last child Emperor was poisoned- the Jiedushi provincial warlords all turned on each other and began a 7 decade long war for supremacy. The 7 decades of chaos and anarchy that would follow would be known in Chinese history as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. But one of the side effect of this bitter war was that- with the death of the Tang, so went its palace of eunuchs. When the Tang collapsed many of the eunuchs- who were by then universally hated were scattered and slaughtered. In the end, a servant who in reality controlled a house could only do so under the name of that house's master. The parasite had lost its live- giving host. The winter came for them as well.
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