Li Chengmei (李成美) (died February 12, 840), formally the Prince of Chen (陳王), was an imperial prince of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

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 ...

, serving briefly as

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 ...

during the reign of his uncle Emperor Wenzong.

Background

It is not known exactly when Li Chengmei was born, but his older brother Li Pu was born in 824,''

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. 175. and their father Emperor Jingzong was assassinated around new year 827, placing a timeframe for his birth. His mother's identity is lost to history. He was the youngest son of Emperor Jingzong's.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 246. In 837, Emperor Jingzong's younger brother, then-reigning Emperor Wenzong, created Li Chengmei and three of his brothers' imperial princes (Li Pu was deceased at that point), and Li Chengmei received the title of Prince of Chen.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 245.

Death

In 839, after Emperor Wenzong, who was sonless at that point — with his own son and crown prince Li Yong having died in 838 — was considering whom to make crown prince. His favorite

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

Consort Yang was urging him to create his younger brother Li Rong the Prince of An crown prince. When Emperor Wenzong requested the opinions of the

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 ...

s, Li Jue opposed. As a result, Emperor Wenzong decided to create Li Chengmei crown prince. By spring 840, Emperor Wenzong was seriously ill. He had his trusted

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 ...

s Liu Hongyi (劉弘逸) and Xue Jileng (薛季稜) summon the chancellors Li Jue and

Yang Sifu Yang Sifu (楊嗣復) (783–848), courtesy name Jizhi (繼之), nickname Qingmen (慶門), formally Count Xiaomu of Hongnong (弘農孝穆伯), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Wenz ...

to the palace, intending to entrust Li Chengmei to them. However, the powerful eunuchs

Qiu Shiliang Qiu Shiliang () (died 843), courtesy name Kuangmei (), formally the Duke of Chu (), was an eunuch official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, becoming particularly powerful after the Ganlu Incident — an event in which Emperor Wenzong tried, b ...

and Yu Hongzhi (魚弘志), who controlled the palace by that point, opposed Li Chengmei because they were not consulted before Emperor Wenzong created Li Chengmei crown prince. Despite Li Jue's opposition, they issued an edict in Emperor Wenzong's name demoting Li Chengmei back to Prince of Chen (under the excuse that Li Chengmei was too young) and creating another brother of Emperor Wenzong's, Li Chan the Prince of Ying crown prince. Emperor Wenzong soon died, and after Emperor Wenzong's death, Chou persuaded Li Chan to order Li Chengmei, as well as Consort Yang and Li Rong, to commit suicide. Despite Li Chengmei's relative young age, he had at least 19 sons, and his 19th son, Li Yan (李儼), was later created an imperial prince.

Was Li Yan a son of Chengmei?

During the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, a scholar named

Shen Bingzhen __NOTOC__ Shen may refer to: * Shen (Chinese religion) (神), a central word in Chinese philosophy, religion, and traditional Chinese medicine; term for god or spirit * Shen (clam-monster) (蜃), a shapeshifting Chinese dragon believed to create mi ...

(沈炳震) cited some sentences from ''

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 ...

'' that doubted whether Li Yan was the 19th son of Chengmei. In the opinion of New Book, Chengmei was too young to have 19 sons; Li Yan was created Prince of Xuancheng(宣城郡王) only one year after Chengmei was created Prince of Chen. ''

'' referred Li Yan as "the 19th son of Prince of Chen", so Shen thought "Prince of Chen" here referred to the former prince Li Gui(李珪), the 19th son of

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), personal name Li Longji, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712 to 756 CE. His reign of 44 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early ...

, thus Li Yan was indeed the 19th son of Li Gui. However, in the view of Shen, this was also under doubt, for it was too late for a grandson of Xuanzong to be created a prince.

Notes and references

* ''

'', vol. 175. * ''

'', vol. 82. * ''

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 ...

, vols. 245,

246 __NOTOC__ Year 246 ( CCXLVI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 246th Year of the Common Era ( CE) and Anno Domini ( AD) designations, the 246th year of the 1st millennium, th ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Li Chengmei 820s births 840 deaths Tang dynasty imperial princes Executed Tang dynasty people People executed by the Tang dynasty Forced suicides of Chinese people