Cheng Yuanzhen (程元振) (died 764?) was a Chinese

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...

, military general, and politician during the

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

. He was exceedingly powerful early in the reign of Emperor Daizong and was said to, in his attempts to consolidate his power, have killed or demoted a number of key generals and officials on his own whim, and thus drew the hatred from the other officials and generals. In 763, he was blamed for not warning Emperor Daizong about the

Tubo Tubo may refer to: * Tibet, called Tubo or Tufan in Chinese historical texts ** Tibetan Empire (618–842) * Tubo, Abra Tubo, officially the Municipality of Tubo ( ilo, Ili ti Tubo; tgl, Bayan ng Tubo), is a 4th class municipality in the provin ...

invasion that eventually caused the capital

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi ...

to fall to Tubo forces, forcing Emperor Daizong to flee. Emperor Daizong exiled him, and he died in exile.

Background

Cheng Yuanzhen was from Jingzhao Municipality () -- the special municipality centered on the Tang capital

. He was a

from his youth and served at the eunuch bureau (內侍省, ''Neishi Sheng''), eventually rising to be the commander of the imperial guard archer corps (內射生使, ''Nei Shesheng Shi'') as well as the deputy director of the imperial stables, under the powerful eunuch

Li Fuguo Li Fuguo ( 李輔國; 704 – November 12, 762According to Tang Daizong's biography in the '' Old Book of Tang'', Li was killed at night on the ''dingmao'' day in the 10th month of the 1st year of the Baoying era of Tang Suzong's/Daizong's reign ...

, late in the reign of Emperor Suzong.

Rise to power

In summer 762, Emperor Suzong was seriously ill, near death. By this point, Emperor Suzong's wife Empress Zhang, who was previously allied with Li Fuguo, was no longer allied with him, and she tried to enter into an alliance with Emperor Suzong's son (not her son) the

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

Li Yu, to kill Li Fuguo and Cheng Yuanzhen and seize power. Li Yu declined, and she then entered into an alliance with Li Yu's younger brother Li Xi () the Prince of Yue, trying to lay a trap for Li Fuguo (and possibly Li Yu). When she issued an edict in Emperor Suzong's name summoning Li Yu, Cheng found out about her plan and detained Li Yu, escorting him to the imperial guard headquarters. He and Li Fuguo then led troops into the palace and arrested Empress Zhang and Li Xi. Upon Emperor Suzong's death, Li Fuguo executed Empress Zhang, Li Xi, and Li Xian () the Prince of Yan, and then declared Li Yu emperor (as Emperor Daizong). For two months early in Emperor Daizong's reign, Li Fuguo was exceedingly powerful, so much so that he was telling Emperor Daizong not to bother with any thing and just let him handle the matters of state, and Emperor Daizong gave him

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

title, as well as several other honorific titles. Cheng was made a commanding general of the imperial guards, but was not satisfied, as he wanted to take over Li Fuguo's power, and therefore he secretly plotted with Emperor Daizong. With cooperation from Cheng, later in summer 762, Emperor Daizong, while creating Li Fuguo a prince, stripped Li Fuguo of his military command and transferred it to Cheng. Li Fuguo was subsequently assassinated on Emperor Daizong's orders, and Emperor Daizong and Cheng governed together. It was said that Cheng was suspicious and jealous of the senior generals and officials and did what he could to strip them of power. For example, he was jealous of

Guo Ziyi Guo Ziyi (Kuo Tzu-i; Traditional Chinese: 郭子儀, Simplified Chinese: 郭子仪, Hanyu Pinyin: Guō Zǐyí, Wade-Giles: Kuo1 Tzu3-i2) (697 – July 9, 781), posthumously Prince Zhōngwǔ of Fényáng (), was a Chinese military general and po ...

and often criticized him before Emperor Daizong, leading Guo, who was fearful of the situation, to resign his command and remain at Chang'an. When the senior official

Pei Mian Pei Mian (; died January 5, 770), courtesy name Zhangfu (章甫), formally the Duke of Ji (冀公), was a Chinese politician during the Tang dynasty, serving as a chancellor of the Tang dynasty, chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Suzong of Ta ...

had disagreements with Cheng, Cheng had Pei demoted to the remote Shi Prefecture (施州, roughly modern

Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture () is located in the mountainous southwestern corner of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It forms Hubei's southwestern "panhandle", bordering on Hunan in the south and Chongqing Municipality i ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

). Meanwhile, he sometimes made requests of the general Lai Tian () -- the military governor (''

Jiedushi The ''jiedushi'' (), or jiedu, was a title for regional military governors in China which was established in the Tang dynasty and abolished in the Yuan dynasty. The post of ''jiedushi'' has been translated as "military commissioner", "legate", ...

'') of Shannan East Circuit (山南東道, headquartered in modern

Xiangfan Xiangyang is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hubei province, China and the second largest city in Hubei by population. It was known as Xiangfan from 1950 to 2010. The Han River runs through Xiangyang's centre and divides the city no ...

), which Lai rejected, and thus he was resentful of Lai. In 763, while Lai was at Chang'an, he and his associate Wang Zhongsheng (), who was also resentful of Lai, jointly falsely accused Lai of treason. Lai was exiled and, on the way to exile, was ordered to commit suicide. Cheng also disliked the major general

Li Guangbi Li Guangbi (李光弼) (708 – August 15, 764), formally Prince Wumu of Linhuai (臨淮武穆王), was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician during the Tang dynasty. He was of ethnic Khitan ancestry, who was instrumental in Tang's s ...

and often submitted reports against Li Guangbi. The general Li Huairang (), the military governor of Tonghua Circuit (同華, headquartered in modern

Weinan Weinan () is a prefecture-level city in the east central Shaanxi province, China. The city lies on the lower section of the Wei River confluence into the Yellow River, about east of the provincial capital Xi'an, and borders the provinces of Shan ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

), was also falsely accused by Cheng and committed suicide in fear in 763. It was said that given these incidents, all of the generals felt insecure and alienated from the imperial government. Despite this, Cheng was still arrogant and believed that he could grab more power.

Downfall

Throughout the spring and summer of 763,

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

, or

, forces were progressively attacking and capturing Tang prefectures to the west of Chang'an. It was said that despite the generals' urgent requests for aid, Cheng Yuanzhen did not relay the requests to Emperor Daizong. By winter 763, Tibetan forces were approaching Chang'an; only then did Emperor Daizong realize the seriousness of the Tibetan threat and commission Guo Ziyi to resist the

Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 38 ...

. When Emperor Daizong issued an edict to the various circuits ordering emergency aid, however, the generals refused to respond, and Guo could not quickly gather troops large enough to resist Tibetan forces. Emperor Daizong was forced to abandon Chang'an and flee to Shan Prefecture (陝州, in modern

Sanmenxia Sanmenxia (; postal: Sanmenhsia) is a prefecture-level city in the west of Henan Province, China. The westernmost prefecture-level city in Henan, Sanmenxia borders Luoyang to the east, Nanyang to the southeast, Shaanxi Province to the west and Sh ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

). The imperial officials who followed Emperor Daizong to Shan Prefecture blamed the disaster on Cheng—in both his failure to alert Emperor Daizong as to the seriousness of the Tibetan threat and his alienation of the generals, causing a lack of aid to arrive. The imperial scholar Liu Kang () submitted a harshly worded petition, asking that Cheng be executed. Emperor Daizong, however, remembering how Cheng had protected him in the past, declined to do so. He did, however, remove Cheng from his offices and order that he return home. When Emperor Daizong returned to Chang'an around the new year 764, Cheng heard the news. Putting on women's clothing in disguise, he secretly entered Chang'an and plotted to return to power.''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

'', vol. 223. He was arrested by the Jingzhao Municipality government, and the imperial censors subsequently submitted an indictment against him. In spring 764, Emperor Daizong exiled him to Zhen Prefecture (榛州, in modern

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

), but soon changed the location of exile to the more prosperous city of Jiangling. Cheng died there, in exile, shortly after arriving there.

Notes and references

* ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

''
vol. 184
* ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

''
vol. 207
* ''

'', vols.

222 __NOTOC__ Year 222 ( CCXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antoninus and Severus (or, less frequently, ye ...

, 223. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Yuanzhen 764 deaths Year of birth unknown Politicians from Xi'an Tang dynasty eunuchs Tang dynasty generals at war against Tibet Tang dynasty generals from Shaanxi Tang dynasty politicians from Shaanxi