Liu Chang

Biography

Accession and government

Liu Chang was Liu Sheng's eldest son and had been Prince of Wei. When Liu Sheng died in 958 (Southern Han Qianhe 16), Liu Chang succeeded him. Both other accounts and another account record that he depended on Gong Chengshu, Lu Qiongxian, and other palace figures, upsetting the division of power between officials and eunuchs. The New History of the Five Dynasties likewise criticizes him for placing government affairs in eunuchs' hands. The sources also recount palace pleasures and cruel punishments; episodes with the character of anecdotes cannot alone explain Southern Han's collapse.

The Song campaign and the fall of Southern Han

In 970 (Southern Han Dabao 13), the Northern Song appointed Pan Mei to command an attack on Southern Han. Song troops took He, Zhao, Gui, Lian, and Shao prefectures as they advanced south, breaking down Southern Han's defenses. In 971 (Southern Han Dabao 14), they approached Guangzhou. Liu tried to depart by ship but could not do so, then surrendered. The Northern Song took control of Lingnan, ending Southern Han. The two encyclopedias agree on the broad campaign sequence. Dramatic accounts of Liu's words and conduct are treated as source narratives, not evidence from which to infer his private motives.

Life under the Song

After Liu was taken to the Song capital of Kaifeng, Emperor Taizu did not execute him. Instead, he granted him offices and the title Marquis of Enshe. Liu was made Duke of Pengcheng Commandery in 975 (Song Kaibao 8) and later Duke of Wei. He died in 980 (Song Taiping Xingguo 5), receiving the office of Grand Preceptor and the title Prince of Nanyue after death. No one succeeded him to a Southern Han throne; titles conferred by the Song did not restore his former imperial position.

Liu Chang, originally named Liu Jixing, was the eldest son of Liu Sheng, Emperor Zhongzong of the Southern Han, and was enfeoffed as Prince of Wei in his father's reign. When Liu Sheng died in 958, Liu Jixing succeeded as eldest son at seventeen, changed his name to Liu Chang and took the era name Dabao. He is described as handsome and full-bodied, eloquent and ingenious, but arrogant and overbearing by nature. Incapable of government, he entrusted affairs to the eunuchs Gong Chengshu and Chen Yanshou and the palace woman Lu Qiongxian, appointing women of the palace as political officers while other officials were mere placeholders.

His reason for trusting eunuchs was the belief that officials with households would not serve loyally for fear of their descendants, so that only eunuchs were trusted and any subject had to castrate himself to be employed; the eunuchs of the Southern Han are said to have numbered more than twenty thousand at one point. He kept a Persian singing girl bought at great cost and sported with her in the inner palace, calling her "the fat pig" and himself "the idle gentleman," neglecting government; later he handed affairs to the sorceress Fan Huzi, to whom even Gong Chengshu and Lu Qiongxian attached themselves, and the court fell into worse disorder. He kept wolves, leopards and tigers and delighted in watching stripped prisoners fight them, and if some minister displeased him while he was entertained he would have him thrown into the arena. His luxurious life emptied the treasury, so he raised taxes and extorted at will; eunuchs swarmed and lorded it over others, and army morale broke down.

In 970 Emperor Taizu of Song sent Pan Mei against the Southern Han, whose troops camped at Baixia. The old generals had mostly been killed on slander, the imperial clan all but exterminated, and only eunuchs held command, while the walls, moats, weapons and armor were rotten. Liu Chang posted Gong Chengshu at Hezhou and another general at Shaozhou, and the Song took Hezhou, Zhaozhou, Guizhou and Lianzhou in succession; Liu Chang declared that these four prefectures had belonged to Hunan and that with them taken the Song would come no farther — folly of the same kind throughout. In the twelfth month the Song took Shaozhou. In 971, as the Song pressed on, Liu Chang chose a dozen ships loaded with treasure and consorts to flee to sea, but before sailing his eunuchs and guards stole the ships and fled, and he surrendered, ending the Southern Han.

Taken to Kaifeng, he was pardoned by Taizu, made assistant custodian of the treasury and general of the right thousand-ox guard, and enfeoffed as Marquis of Enshed. After the Song destroyed the Southern Tang in 975 he was moved to general of the left gate guard and made Duke of Pengcheng; on Emperor Taizong's accession he was made Duke of Wei. He died in 980 at thirty-nine, granted posthumously the title of grand tutor and Prince of Nanyue. He received no posthumous name or temple name and is known in history as the Last Ruler of the Southern Han, a dynasty that lasted fifty-five years from Liu Yan's founding to his surrender.

The Southern Han was one of the states holding Lingnan in the Five Dynasties period. Liu Yan took the imperial title at Guangzhou in 917 with the dynastic name Great Yue, changed it to Han the next year, and the state held roughly the present Guangdong and Guangxi; Guangzhou's overseas trade flourished, with merchants, scholars and missionaries from Arabia and elsewhere passing through, and musicians and dancers from the western regions gathering there. Such trade and revenue gave the Southern Han a prosperous early period, in contrast with the empty treasury of Liu Chang's day.

The decline of its politics is bound directly to the swelling power of eunuchs. Liu Sheng had already been known for killing clansmen and ministers harshly, and Liu Chang went further, giving the eunuchs sole control of confidential business; his rule that a subject must castrate himself to be employed multiplied their numbers and put both troops and money in their hands, excluding the scholars from power. When the Song armies came, the old generals had mostly been killed and the imperial clan destroyed, leaving only eunuchs to command, and the collapse was no accident. After surrendering, Liu Chang held the titles of Marquis of Enshed, Duke of Pengcheng and Duke of Wei, the first of these a grant of "pardon" meant to display the dynasty's leniency to the realm; he was granted posthumously the titles of grand tutor and Prince of Nanyue but given neither posthumous nor temple name, an unusual case among the last rulers of conquered states.

The fall of the Southern Han was a crucial step in the Northern Song's unification of Lingnan. Once the Song armies had taken it, the routes between Lingnan and the central plains reopened, Guangzhou's overseas trade continued to grow under the Northern Song, and the court established a maritime trade office there to supervise it, making the region's economic weight ever greater. As for the Southern Han itself, its downfall is commonly reduced to two lessons: eunuch monopoly emptying the ranks of talent, and a luxurious court draining the treasury, both present in extreme form in Liu Chang's reign.

Liu Chang's position after surrender resembled that of other last rulers. After conquering the various states, Emperor Taizu generally moved their rulers to Kaifeng with nominal titles, showing leniency while keeping them under control; Liu Chang's successive titles of Marquis of Enshed, Duke of Pengcheng and Duke of Wei are not inconsistent with his real standing as an untrusted former sovereign. He was granted posthumously the titles of grand tutor and Prince of Nanyue but given neither posthumous nor temple name, and later ages called him the Last Ruler of the Southern Han — a treatment fairly typical of how the Northern Song handled the surrendered lords of the Ten States.

After taking Lingnan the Song court remitted part of the local taxes and reassured the inhabitants to steady the newly attached region; the old Southern Han territories entered the Northern Song's system of prefectures and counties, tying Lingnan to the central plains more closely than in the Five Dynasties.

After the Southern Han fell its lands were divided into the Guangnan East and West circuits of the Northern Song, bringing Lingnan permanently under direct central administration.

The advancing titles went along with his real position as an untrusted former sovereign.

Major Activities

Politics in Southern Han's final years

During Liu's thirteen year reign, Gong Chengshu and other eunuchs handled significant government affairs, while Lu Qiongxian and other palace women participated in politics. Both encyclopedias and the New History of the Five Dynasties present this as a major feature of disorder in Southern Han's final years. Particular tales of excess and precise numbers of eunuchs are not treated as established institutional facts where the evidence is weak.

Surrender and incorporation into the Song

The Song campaign of 970–971 (Southern Han Dabao 13–14) was the decisive turning point in Liu's life. After surrendering, he survived and received offices and noble titles in the Northern Song. His status changed from sovereign to a former ruler holding Song titles.

Personal Relations

• Liu Sheng: his father and predecessor as Southern Han emperor.
• Liu Yan: his grandfather and Southern Han's founding emperor.
• Gong Chengshu: a Southern Han eunuch involved in government during Liu Chang's reign.
• Lu Qiongxian: a palace woman who participated in government.
• Pan Mei: the Song commander who attacked Southern Han in 970–971 (Southern Han Dabao 13–14).
• Zhao Kuangyin: Emperor Taizu of the Northern Song, who accepted Liu's surrender and granted him offices and titles.

Historical Assessment

The New History of the Five Dynasties, in its account of Southern Han, calls Liu weak and unable to govern, identifying his reliance on eunuchs as a central failing. This is a Song era historian's judgment of a conquered ruler. It does not replace separate examination of the Song offensive and conditions within Southern Han. Both encyclopedias likewise discuss his reliance on eunuchs, deteriorating military readiness, and surrender in 971 (Southern Han Dabao 14).