Gao Jixing

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Gao Jixing claimed descent from Gao Aocao, Minister over the Masses of Eastern Wei, but grew up in poverty and at one time served as a household servant of Li Rang, a wealthy man in Bianzhou. In 883, the third year of Zhonghe, Zhu Wen became Military Commissioner of Xuanwu. Because Li Rang had contributed money to Zhu Wen, Zhu adopted him, renamed him Zhu Yourang, and treated him as a son. Zhu Wen encountered Gao Jixing in Zhu Yourang's household, was struck by his appearance, and ordered Zhu Yourang to adopt him. Gao accordingly took the surname Zhu, became a trusted officer in Zhu Wen's military household, trained in riding and archery, and gradually rose from commander in the Zhisheng Army to commander of the Yiyong unit.

Rise to Prominence and Service to Later Liang

In 901, the first year of Tianfu, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang was abducted by the eunuch Han Quanhui to Fengxiang and placed under Li Maozhen's protection. In 902, Zhu Wen attacked Fengxiang, but Li Maozhen stayed behind the walls and Zhu considered withdrawing. Gao strongly urged him not to retreat and proposed a plan to lure the defenders out. He recruited a brave soldier named Ma Jing, who falsely reported that the Xuanwu army was withdrawing eastward. Li Maozhen opened the gates and pursued, allowing Xuanwu forces to attack and heavily defeat the Qi troops. Ma Jing died in battle, but the siege was eased, and Li Maozhen eventually reconciled with Zhu Wen and handed over Emperor Zhaozong. For his contribution Gao received the acting title Minister of State over the Masses, became acting prefect of Songzhou, and was granted the honorific “Meritorious Official of Resolute Courage Who Welcomed Back the Imperial Carriage.” He later followed Zhu Wen in taking Qingzhou, became Defense Commissioner of Yingzhou, and restored the surname Gao.

In 906, the third year of Tianyou, Zhu Wen captured Xiangzhou. Zhao Kuangning, Military Commissioner of Jing-Xiang, fled to Huainan, while his younger brother Zhao Kuangming fled to Western Sichuan. Zhu therefore appointed Gao acting commander of the Jingnan forces. Jingzhou had been devastated by warfare at the end of the Tang, with ruined towns and a sparse population. After taking office, Gao gathered displaced people, pacified officials and commoners, restored production, and gradually stabilized the region. In 907, the first year of Kaiping, Zhu Wen displaced the Tang and founded Later Liang, formally appointing Gao Military Commissioner of Jingnan. In 908 Gao joined Ma Yin, Prince of Chu, in a campaign against Lei Yangong of Wuzhen Army, captured Langzhou, and forced Lei to flee to Huainan. Gao then received the additional title Participant in Determining Government Matters.

Establishing Himself in Jingnan and Maneuvering Among States

In 912, the second year of Qianhua, Zhu Wen was killed by his son Zhu Yougui, and Later Liang weakened. Gao began to secure his own position, repairing walls and expanding his forces. He attacked Guizhou and Xiazhou but was defeated by the Former Shu general Wang Zongshou. He also claimed he would aid Liang against Jin and attacked Xiangzhou, only to be defeated by Kong Qing, Military Commissioner of Shannan East Circuit. Gao then ceased sending tribute and taxes to Later Liang. Because the last emperor of Liang was occupied by warfare in the north, he adopted a conciliatory policy. In 915 Gao was enfeoffed as Prince of Bohai and granted ceremonial robes, crown, sword, and pendant. In 917 he resumed tribute to Later Liang.

In 923, the first year of Tongguang, Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, destroyed Later Liang. Gao Jichang changed his given name to Gao Jixing to avoid the taboo on Li Cunxu's grandfather Li Guochang. Overriding objections from his advisers, he personally went to Luoyang to attend Zhuangzong and was appointed Director of the Secretariat. Zhuangzong at one point wanted to detain him, but Guo Chongtao argued that because Gao had personally come to court, he should be treated graciously as an example to the other regional rulers. Zhuangzong therefore allowed him to return. When Gao reached Xiangzhou, he suspected the emperor might reverse the decision and rode through the pass during the night. Back at Jiangling, he told Liang Zhen that had he ignored Liang's advice he would almost have failed to escape the tiger's jaws. Concluding that Zhuangzong was arrogant and extravagant and would not last long, Gao repaired defenses, stockpiled grain, and recruited former Later Liang soldiers in preparation for the future.

In 924, Zhuangzong sought to win Gao's loyalty by adding the title Director of the Department of State Affairs and promoting him to Prince of Nanping. In 925, when Later Tang attacked Former Shu, Gao requested permission to use Jingnan troops to seize Kui, Zhong, Wan, Gui, and Xia prefectures and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Southeastern Expeditionary Army, but he did not actually campaign. In 926, after Later Tang conquered Shu, Li Jiji, Prince of Wei, escorted property from Shu downstream. During the subsequent Xingjiao Gate Incident, Zhuangzong was killed. Gao took the opportunity to seize the goods and killed the envoy Han Gong and more than ten others.

After Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang came to the throne, Gao demanded that Kui, Zhong, Wan, Gui, and Xia prefectures be placed under him. Mingzong initially agreed, but Gao then insisted on appointing the prefects himself and rejected officials sent by the court. Mingzong became furious and stripped him of rank and titles. In 927, the second year of Tiancheng, Mingzong sent Liu Xun as commander of a punitive expedition against Jingnan, while the general Xifang Ye captured Kui, Zhong, and Wan. Unable to resist, Gao submitted Jing, Gui, and Xia prefectures to Yang Wu, which enfeoffed him as Prince of Qin.

Later Years and Death

In 928, the third year of Tiancheng, Ma Chu forces under Ma Yin attacked Jiangling. Gao led troops and defeated them at Baitian. In the twelfth month, Later Tang again prepared to attack. Seriously ill with beriberi, Gao died on the fifteenth day of the month, January 28, 929, aged seventy-one. After his son Gao Conghui succeeded him and apologized to Later Tang, Emperor Mingzong posthumously made Gao Jixing Prince of Chu and granted the posthumous name Wuxin.

Gao Jixing, originally named Gao Jichang, claimed descent from the Eastern Wei minister Gao Ang and began as a household servant of Li Rang, a rich man of Bianzhou. Li Rang, having presented great wealth, was adopted by Zhu Wen and renamed Zhu Yourang; Zhu Wen afterward found Gao Jixing among Zhu Yourang's servants, thought his looks unusual and ordered Zhu Yourang to take him as a son. Gao Jixing accordingly took the surname Zhu, became a trusted man of Zhu Wen, learned riding and archery, and rose from commissioner of the Zhisheng army to commissioner of the Yiyong. He won repeated merit in Zhu Wen's campaigns, and in 907, when Zhu Wen founded the Later Liang, he was made military governor of Jingnan with his seat at Jiangling, the beginning of the Jingnan polity.

Jingnan had the smallest territory and weakest power of the Ten Kingdoms, holding only a few prefectures about Jiangling between the central plains, Wu, Chu and Shu. In power Gao Jixing submitted to the central dynasties for titles and gifts, receiving patents from the Later Liang and Later Tang — the Tang's Emperor Zhuangzong enfeoffing him as Prince of Nanping, whence the state's other name — while exploiting his position for trade and taxes and even seizing the goods of envoys and merchants passing through, which earned him the nickname "Gao the Rascal." This strategy of survival in a crevice let Jingnan endure through the wars of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

He died in 929 at seventy-one, his son Gao Conghui succeeding him. Jingnan lasted until the Northern Song annexed it in 963, one of the last of the Ten Kingdoms to be absorbed. His rise from household servant to ruler of a region reflects the violent social mobility and the accidents of opportunity in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Jingnan's founding conditions differed from those of the other Ten Kingdoms: it had no independent military base and no solid agricultural region, surviving chiefly by diplomatic maneuvering and commercial management. Jiangling lies on the middle Yangtze, a crossroads of north-south and east-west traffic, and through the reigns of Gao Jixing and his son Gao Conghui the state maintained its finances by taxing merchants in transit and by submitting to various courts for gifts — whence the nickname "Gao the Rascal."

The strategy worked well in the Ten Kingdoms setting: Jingnan avoided large-scale war and was not annexed, entering the map only when the Northern Song unified the south. To the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou and to Wu, the Southern Tang, Chu and Shu alike, Jingnan sent envoys or received patents, its diplomatic flexibility unmatched among the Ten Kingdoms. Gao Jixing's rise from household servant to ruler of a region is accordingly often cited to show how loose lineage notions had become and how sharp social mobility was in the Five Dynasties.

Like many a provincial leader of his time Gao Jixing rose from humble birth by military merit and opportunity. Zhu Wen's practice of adopting sons opened a path for such men: those adopted took the surname Zhu and gained access to the inner circle, and it was by this route that Gao Jixing rose. The Later Liang's control of Jingnan was limited, and he gradually built up his own strength at Jiangling, laying the ground for a separate regime.

Transit tolls and handicraft revenue made up a considerable part of Jingnan's finances, Jiangling's tea, salt and silk industries still being of some scale in the Five Dynasties. On this base Gao Jixing and his son kept troops and city walls and so maintained themselves between the powers. The state was in character closer to a local power surviving by commerce and diplomacy than to an agrarian separatist regime, which is comparatively unusual among the Ten Kingdoms.

Jingnan's walls and granaries were concentrated at Jiangling and its forces numbered only a few thousand, so it could do no more than keep neutral and maneuver among the powers. After Gao Jixing's death his son Gao Conghui continued the same policy, allowing Jingnan comparative peace through the Five Dynasties.

Like his father, Gao Conghui was a skilled diplomat, submitting in turn to the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou and to the Southern Tang and Wuyue, and was called in his day "Gao the Shameless," the state lasting to the early Northern Song. Five rulers of Gao Jixing's line held it over more than fifty years, one of the longer-lived and smallest of the Ten Kingdoms.

Jingnan's offices largely followed the Tang, its officials mostly appointed by the Gao father and son, a continuation of the provincial-command system.

The walls and stores he left at Jiangling served his successors, and Jingnan's arrangements changed little under his son Gao Conghui.

His son Gao Conghui and grandson Gao Baorong held power in turn, Jingnan's government and diplomacy broadly continuing his methods.

Border friction between Jingnan and Chu and Wu occurred from time to time but on a small scale and was usually settled by diplomacy.

Revenue from tea and the salt monopoly let Jingnan keep a small force sufficient to hold its cities.

The state's name is not uniform in the sources, sometimes Jingnan and sometimes Nanping, a difference reflecting the complexity of its dynastic name and its titles of enfeoffment.

Jingnan lay at the transport hub of the middle Yangtze, its finances tied more closely to commerce than those of other Ten Kingdoms states — a point often noted in discussions of Five Dynasties economic history.

Jingnan's end came in a successor's time: in 963 the Northern Song, using disorders in Hunan as its occasion, marched on Jiangling, where Gao Jichong surrendered his lands, ending the state's independence.

Few documents or gazetteers of Jingnan survive, its history resting largely on the New History of the Five Dynasties and the Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms.

Jingnan's fall marks the end of the later Ten Kingdoms pattern of separatism; the Northern Song went on to reduce the Southern Tang, Wuyue and the Northern Han, completing the unification of the south.

Under his successors Jingnan saw no major internal disorder, unusual among the Ten Kingdoms.

Tribute relations with the central dynasties brought the Gao father and son patents and gifts over the years, one source of their legitimacy.

Jiangling remained an important city of the middle Yangtze in the Five Dynasties, its commerce and crafts giving Jingnan the means to survive.

Jingnan's offices and military headquarters were both small, its finances and personnel accordingly handled with some flexibility.

Jingnan's survival rested directly on the effectiveness of its diplomacy, judged by later writers with praise and blame both.

Jingnan's lands became part of the Northern Song's Jinghu North circuit, Jiangling remaining a major city of the middle Yangtze under the Song.

His son Gao Conghui held power more than twenty years, Jingnan's government and diplomacy continuing his father's methods and its politics remaining stable.

Under his successors Jingnan was still criticized in the histories for loose discipline and heavy taxes, yet the state did not collapse on that account.

Taxes and commercial levies made up a large share of Jingnan's finances, a point reflected in Song accounts of the Ten Kingdoms economies.

He ruled twenty-two years, in which Jingnan's territory and institutions remained essentially unchanged.

He was posthumously made Prince of Chu, his son succeeding as military governor of Jingnan.

Major Activities

Political Activity

Gao's rule in Jingnan was marked by flexible and shifting diplomacy. He successively submitted to Later Liang, Later Tang, and Yang Wu, changing allegiance repeatedly and earning the nickname “Gao Laizi.” He exploited conflicts between Central Plains dynasties and neighboring regional regimes to preserve his small state. In 923 he personally attended Zhuangzong at Luoyang and narrowly escaped detention. In 926 he exploited internal turmoil in Later Tang to seize goods from Shu and demand Kui, Xia, and other prefectures. Although this brought a punitive expedition, he ultimately retained Jing, Gui, and Xia by submitting to Yang Wu and thereby preserved Jingnan's independent position.

Economic Recovery

When Gao first arrived in Jingnan, Jiangling was badly damaged and sparsely populated. He attracted displaced people, pacified officials and residents, encouraged agriculture and sericulture, and reduced taxes, gradually restoring the regional economy. He also built embankments against Yangzi floods, known locally as the “Gao Embankment.” In 921, the first year of Longde, he ordered Commander-in-Chief Ni Kefu to construct an outer wall around Jiangling and strengthen its defenses.

Military Activity

Gao won repeated distinction while serving Zhu Wen. His proposal for breaking the Fengxiang stalemate in 902 and recovering Emperor Zhaozong marked a turning point in his military career. In 908 he participated in the campaign against Lei Yangong and captured Langzhou. After 912 he repeatedly tried to expand into Gui, Xia, and neighboring prefectures. Although these operations often failed, they reflected his expansionist intentions. In 927, during Later Tang's punitive campaign, he lost Kui, Zhong, and Wan prefectures but retained Jing, Gui, and Xia.

Relations with Contemporaries

Gao had a close relationship with Zhu Wen, founder of Later Liang, and early in his career followed him as an adopted son. He dealt personally with both Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, and Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong, including traveling to Luoyang to attend Zhuangzong. His relations with Ma Yin, Prince of Chu, alternated between cooperation—such as the joint campaign against Lei Yangong—and conflict, including the Battle of Baitian in the third year of Tiancheng. Gao also formed a political alliance with Yang Wu and submitted to it during the Later Tang attack. His entourage included advisers Liang Zhen, Sikong Xun, and Wang Baoyi and generals Ni Kefu and Bao Tang.

Personal Relations

• Gao Aocao: Claimed ancestor
• Gao Conghui: Eldest son and second ruler of Nanping
• Gao Congxu, Gao Congshen, Gao Congrang, Gao Congqian: Sons
• Lady Zhang: Favored concubine and mother of Gao Conghui
• Ni Zhijin: Son-in-law and son of Ni Kefu
• Zhu Wen: Adoptive father and Emperor Taizu of Later Liang
• Zhu Yourang: Adoptive father; originally the wealthy Bianzhou resident Li Rang
• Liang Zhen: Strategist and important adviser
• Sikong Xun: Adviser
• Wang Baoyi: Adviser
• Ni Kefu: General
• Bao Tang: General
• Emperor Zhaozong of Tang: Granted him the honorific “Meritorious Official of Resolute Courage Who Welcomed Back the Imperial Carriage”
• Zhu Youzhen, last emperor of Later Liang: Enfeoffed him as Prince of Bohai
• Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang: Enfeoffed him as Prince of Nanping
• Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang: Stripped him of offices and titles and later posthumously enfeoffed him as Prince of Chu
• Yang Pu, Emperor Rui of Yang Wu: Enfeoffed him as Prince of Qin
• Li Maozhen: Opponent in the Fengxiang campaign
• Lei Yangong: Opponent in the Langzhou campaign
• Kong Qing: Opponent at Xiangzhou
• Wang Zongshou: Opponent in the campaigns over Gui and Xia
• Liu Xun: Commander of Later Tang's punitive expedition against Jingnan
• Xifang Ye: Later Tang general who captured Kui, Zhong, and Wan prefectures

Historical Assessment

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period

• Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, once considered detaining Gao, but Guo Chongtao argued that Gao had personally come to report at court and should therefore be treated generously as an example to other lords, showing that contemporaries could view Gao's attendance positively. (New History of the Five Dynasties, “Hereditary House of Nanping”)
• Liang Zhen advised Gao not to attend court, warning that Liang and Tang were hereditary enemies and that Gao, as a former Liang official controlling a strong army and important region, would only become a captive if he went in person. The warning shows the danger of Gao's political position. (New History of the Five Dynasties, “Hereditary House of Nanping”)
• Contemporaries called him “Gao Laizi” because he repeatedly shifted allegiance and sought gifts by submitting to different states, reflecting contempt for his diplomatic methods. (New History of the Five Dynasties, “Hereditary House of Nanping”)

Song and Yuan Periods

• Xue Juzheng's Old History of the Five Dynasties placed Gao in the “Biographies of Hereditary Rulers” and said that although he professed submission to Liang, he secretly harbored independent ambitions, portraying his allegiance as outward and his regional separatism as real.
• Ouyang Xiu's New History of the Five Dynasties included him in the “Hereditary House of Nanping” and credited him with skill in diplomatic maneuvering among the Central Plains and regional lords from his single base at Jiangling, while criticizing his repeated shifts of allegiance.
• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance records that Gao repaired walls, accumulated grain, and recruited former Liang soldiers in preparation for war and defense. It acknowledges his administrative ability while judging his seizure of tribute goods and territorial demands negatively.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Wang Fuzhi's Reflections on Reading the Comprehensive Mirror criticized Gao for exploiting the opportunities of a chaotic age with the cleverness of a usurping regional ruler, arguing that short-term success based on political maneuvering could not provide a lasting foundation.
• Wu Renchen's Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms credited Gao with gathering and pacifying displaced people and attracting capable men, while also describing him as suspicious, harsh, and fond of killing.
• Zhao Yi, discussing Five Dynasties regional military rulers in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, mentioned Gao's ability to defend an isolated city for decades and considered the preservation of even a small territory in such disorder no easy achievement.

Modern Period

• Cai Dongfan's Romance of the Five Dynasties described Gao as exceptionally crafty and skilled at adjusting to circumstances, while acknowledging that his ability to preserve the territory and pacify the population had merit.
• Modern scholar Tao Maobing, in A Concise History of the Five Dynasties, described Gao as a typical regional separatist ruler whose diplomacy was despised by contemporaries but represented a small state's unavoidable strategy for survival in the conditions of the time.
• Contemporary researchers argue that the “Gao Laizi” image reflects the difficulty faced by small states struggling to survive during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and that his repeated changes of allegiance were, in practical terms, a survival strategy.