Li Shi

Biography

Early Life

Li Shi's mother was originally the daughter of Li Feng. After Li Shi's grandfather Li Xiang killed Li Feng, he arranged for Li Shou to marry Li Feng's daughter as a concubine, and Li Shi was born from this union. Li Qi, the You Duke of Cheng Han, admired Li Shi's appearance and demeanor, appointing him General of the Flying Army and heir apparent to the Prince of Han. Li Shi was seven chi and nine cun tall, with a waist of fourteen wei around, and was skilled in bending and stretching movements; contemporaries found him remarkable. In 338, Li Shou ascended the throne and made Li Shi crown prince.

Ascension to the Throne

In 343, Li Shou died, and Crown Prince Li Shi succeeded to the throne, declaring a general amnesty throughout the realm. In the first month of 344, the era name was changed to Taihe. Li Shi honored his stepmother Lady Yan as Empress Dowager and installed his wife Lady Li as Empress.

Purge of Ministers and Suppression of Rebellion

In the ninth month of 345, Li Shi's younger brother, Grand General and Prince of Han Li Guang, requested to be named heir apparent because Li Shi had no sons. Li Shi refused. Ministers Ma Dang and Xie Siming argued that since Li Shi had few brothers, further eliminations would leave the royal house dangerously isolated, and they persistently urged him to consent. Li Shi suspected a conspiracy and ordered Dong Jiao to arrest Ma Dang and Xie Siming, executing them along with three generations of their families. He also sent Grand Guardian Li Yi to attack Li Guang at Fucheng, demoting him to Marquis of Linqiong; Li Guang committed suicide. When Xie Siming was arrested, he sighed: "The reason the state has not perished is because of people like us. Now it is in danger!" He went to his death with composure. Xie Siming was known for his wisdom and his willingness to speak frankly; Ma Dang had long enjoyed popular support. After their deaths, the people mourned them deeply. In the winter of 346, Grand Guardian Li Yi rebelled at Jinshou, and many people of Shu followed him, with his forces numbering tens of thousands. Li Shi personally mounted the city walls to defend against the rebellion. Li Yi charged the city gate alone on horseback and was shot dead by the defenders, upon which his followers scattered. After killing Li Yi, Li Shi declared a general amnesty and changed the era name to Jianing.

Fall of the State

In 347, Huan Wen, Grand Marshal of Eastern Jin, led a naval campaign against Cheng Han. Huan Wen stationed his forces at Qingyi, while Li Shi deployed his main army in defense and dispatched his uncle Li Fu and cousin Li Quan to attack Huan Wen's forces. In the third month, Huan Wen's army reached Pengmo, defeated the Cheng Han forces, and advanced on Chengdu. Li Shi abandoned the city and fled to Jiameng, then sent Scroller-in-Ordinary Wang You with a letter of surrender, personally proceeding to the army gate with bound hands and a coffin. Huan Wen unbound him and burned the coffin, then relocated Li Shi and more than ten members of the imperial clan to Jiankang. Cheng Han had fallen after forty-four years.

Later Years and Death

After being relocated to Jiankang, Li Shi was granted the title Marquis of Guiyi. He lived for another fourteen years and died in Jiankang in 361 during the Shengping era.

Li Shi was a son of Li Shou. His mother was a daughter of Li Feng; after Li Feng was killed by Li Shou's father Li Xiong, Li Xiong married the daughter to Li Shou as a concubine, and Li Shi was born of her. Li Qi, the Duke of You of Cheng-Han, admired Li Shi's looks and gave him office; the histories say Li Shi stood seven feet nine inches tall with a waist of fourteen spans and bent and straightened with unusual ease, so that people found him strange. Li Shou made him heir apparent in 338 and on Li Shou's death in 343 Li Shi took the throne, changed the era to Taihe, proclaimed an amnesty, honored his principal mother, the Lady Yan, as empress dowager and made his wife, the Lady Li, empress.

His conduct as ruler is recorded in unflattering terms: arrogant and stingy, greedy for wealth and women — even killing men to take their wives — neglecting the government, injuring his ministers and applying the law at whim, so that all lived in fear. In the autumn of 344 the grand astrologer Han Hao memorialized that Mars had entered the heart lodge, a reproach for failing to repair the ancestral temple, and Li Shi had the ministers debate it; the chancellor Dong Jiao and the palace attendant Wang Gu held that the Emperor Jing, Li Te, had received the state's mandate and was too close in blood to be cut off from sacrifice, whereupon sacrifices to Li Te and Li Xiong were ordered resumed, both under the title of King of Han. In the ninth month of 345 his younger brother Li Guang, general-in-chief and Prince of Han, asked to be made heir presumptive since Li Shi had no son, a matter that stirred contention at court and deepened the estrangement between the clan and the ministers.

In the winter of 346 Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin campaigned against Cheng-Han and reached Chengdu the next year; Li Shi's troops were beaten and he surrendered, ending the state. Huan Wen moved the Li family east to Jiankang and enfeoffed Li Shi as Marquis of Guiyi. Cheng-Han had lasted more than forty years from Li Xiong's title of King of Chengdu in 304 and his imperial title in 306 to its fall in 347, one of the earlier states of the Sixteen Kingdoms to be founded and to perish; Li Shi reigned only four years, his fall directly bound up with his misgovernment and the suspicion among the princes of the clan.

Cheng-Han's political base lay in the displaced populations and the Ba-Di tribes. Li Te and his son Li Xiong rose at the end of the Western Jin amid the refugee crisis; Li Xiong took the title King of Chengdu in 304 and the imperial title in 306 with the state named Cheng, later Han, ruling roughly the Sichuan basin and the Hanzhong area. His thirty-year reign was the state's height; after his death the princes of the clan fought repeatedly over the throne, Li Ban, Li Qi and Li Shou coming to power or being killed in turn, until the internal basis of stability was destroyed.

Li Shou took the throne after killing Li Qi, and though he attempted something himself, his reign was short and the state's strength had been gravely damaged by years of civil strife. Under Li Shi misgovernment and suspicion among the princes worsened matters further; his brother Li Guang's request to be made heir presumptive shows that the succession had become the focus of court conflict. By the time Huan Wen campaigned against the state its armies could no longer resist, and Li Shi's surrender was no surprise. The Eastern Jin moved the Li family east to Jiankang and granted him the title Marquis of Guiyi, a treatment similar to later practice toward the rulers of conquered states.

The last years of Cheng-Han show the line of its decline in several concrete episodes. After taking the throne Li Shi built palaces and gathered consorts, and killed clansmen and old ministers out of suspicion; the histories describe him as arrogant, stingy, greedy for wealth and women and even killing men to take their wives, and while later historians may have exaggerated, the record reflects a ruling group that had lost its early cohesion after decades of statehood. The debate of 344 over ancestral sacrifices was on its face a matter of ritual, but it concerned the place of Li Te and Li Xiong in the legitimate sequence of the state and the relation of such ministers as the chancellor Dong Jiao to imperial authority.

The course of Huan Wen's campaign is also worth noting. Setting out from Jiangling by way of Qingyi and Pengmo into Shu, he discarded his baggage and advanced light and fast, defeating the Cheng-Han army outside Chengdu; Li Shi tried to hold the city but his troops' morale was gone and he surrendered. The speed of the victory greatly raised Huan Wen's standing at the Eastern Jin court, laying the basis for his later dominance. After Cheng-Han fell, the Ba-Shu region returned to Eastern Jin territory, becoming an important strategic rear and source of revenue in the dynasty's later years.

Cheng-Han was founded on the refugee risings of the late Western Jin, and its base was always mobile and regional: the Li were chiefs of the Cong (Ba-Di) people, their following drawn largely from refugees who had moved into Shu from the Qin-Yong region, while the state also had to accommodate the established magnates of Shu. Under Li Xiong the two forces balanced; under Li Shou and Li Shi friction between the clan and the local magnates worsened, and with the ruler's own misgovernment the internal supports of the regime weakened rapidly.

After Li Shi surrendered, the Cheng-Han clan and officials were mostly moved to the Jiankang region, some remaining active in the officialdom of the Eastern Jin and the Liu Song. The state's former lands became the Liangzhou and Yizhou of the Eastern Jin, and Huan Wen thereby controlled the military and political resources of the upper Yangtze, capital he later used in dealing with the Xie and Wang families at court. In the broader pattern of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Cheng-Han was among the earlier states to fall, and its rise and decline are often used to illustrate the character of the "refugee regimes" of that age.

Accounts of Li Shi and the fall of Cheng-Han come chiefly from his chapter in the Book of Jin and the Jin annals of the Comprehensive Mirror. His negligence and killings brought the state from internal disorder to collapse within a few years; Cheng-Han's forces were in any case weak, made up largely of tribal and local troops, with little prospect against a commander of Huan Wen's experience. Huan Wen's choice of route, organization of supply and policy of swift decision became an important case in later study of Eastern Jin military affairs.

Another problem of Li Shi's reign lay in the relations between the clan and the generals. His brother Li Guang's request to be made heir presumptive shows that the succession had become an open question; thereafter the clan and the ministers were suspicious of one another and military authority was scattered among the commanders, the court lacking any unified command. The limited resistance met by Huan Wen on entering Shu is directly connected with this internal dissolution. After the surrender Li Shi himself was treated with some generosity, but the old officials of Cheng-Han had no further influence in Jiangdong politics.

Major Activities

Tyrannical Rule

During Li Shi's reign, he was arrogant and miserly, greedy and lustful, killing people and seizing their wives while neglecting state affairs. He persecuted ministers and abused the legal system, favoring eunuchs, resulting in chaotic governance. Fear spread throughout the realm, and internal contradictions intensified, laying the groundwork for Cheng Han's eventual downfall.

The Last Ruler of Cheng Han

Li Shi was the final emperor of the Cheng Han state. From Li Te's founding in 301 (posthumously honored) to Li Shi's surrender in 347, the state went through six emperors and lasted forty-seven years (or forty-four years counted from Li Xiong's proclamation as Prince in 304). After Li Shi's surrender, the former territory of Cheng Han was incorporated into Eastern Jin.

Personal Relations

• Li Shou**: Father, Zhaowen Emperor of Cheng Han
• Li Qi**: Cousin, You Duke of Cheng Han, who had appointed Li Shi as General of the Flying Army
• Li Guang**: Brother, Grand General and Prince of Han, demoted and forced to commit suicide
• Li Yi**: Grand Guardian, rebelled in 346 and was killed
• Li Quan**: Cousin, Cheng Han general who died resisting Huan Wen
• Xie Siming**: Minister, executed for advising Li Shi to name Li Guang as heir apparent
• Ma Dang**: Minister, executed alongside Xie Siming
• Huan Wen**: Grand Marshal of Eastern Jin, who conquered Cheng Han

Historical Assessment

Li Shi neglected state affairs during his reign, persecuted loyal ministers, and lived extravagantly, directly contributing to Cheng Han's demise. Lacking governance ability, he spent his four-year reign executing ministers and provoking internal unrest, ultimately leading to the state's conquest by Eastern Jin. As a ruler who lost his state, Li Shi lived out his days in peace after his surrender, a relatively favorable outcome among monarchs who lost their thrones.