Li Ye

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Li Ye was born on March 31, 867, the twenty-second day of the second lunar month in the eighth year of the Xiantong era, in Daming Palace at Chang'an. He was the seventh son of Emperor Yizong, Li Cui, and his birth mother was Lady Wang. The Old Book of Tang records that Emperor Zhaozong was born in the Eastern Palace on that date. In the fourth lunar month of 872 he was enfeoffed as Prince of Shou and named Li Jie. In 877 he received a series of largely nominal offices, including Grand Guardian Equal in Honor to the Three Excellencies, Grand Governor of Youzhou, Military Commissioner of Youzhou-Lulong, Commissioner for the Xi and Khitan tribal groups, and Observation and Administrative Commissioner within the circuit. These appointments established his standing among the imperial princes.

In 880 Huang Chao's rebel army captured Tong Pass and approached Chang'an. Emperor Xizong fled in haste. Li Jie commanded troops guarding him and won Xizong's confidence. The New Book of Tang notes that when Xizong fled amid disorder, the Prince of Shou held troops at his side and was especially trusted. The experience exposed Li Jie directly to the dynasty's decline and political violence.

Accession and Early Efforts at Revival

On the second day of the third lunar month of 888, Emperor Xizong, newly returned to the capital, fell critically ill. Many ministers supported Prince Ji, Li Bao, as successor, but with the support of the powerful eunuch Yang Fugong, Li Jie prevailed. On the sixth day he was made imperial younger brother and heir, placed in charge of military and state affairs, and renamed Li Min. On the eighth day he ascended the throne before Xizong's coffin, aged twenty-two. The Old Book of Tang records his accession before the coffin and the beginning of his rule.

After accession he posthumously honored his birth mother Lady Wang as empress dowager with the posthumous title Gongxian. In the twelfth lunar month Xizong was buried at Jingling Mausoleum. Li Ye appointed many officials, making Wei Zhaodu Director of the Secretariat and Kong Wei Minister of Works, and appointed Zhu Wen, Military Commissioner of Xuanwu, overall commander of the four-front campaign against Cai Prefecture. Having experienced Xizong's repeated flights, Li Ye understood the court's weakness. Early in his reign he practiced frugality, tried to reform the imperial examinations, and expanded the imperial army. In the eleventh lunar month of 889, during the sacrifice to Heaven, Li Min changed his name to Li Ye. After the ceremony he personally ascended Chengtian Gate and proclaimed a general amnesty. On the first day of the following year ministers presented the honorific title "Sagely, Cultured, Wise, Virtuous, Martial, Broadly Filial Emperor," and the era name was changed to Dashun.

Campaign against Li Keyong and the Yang Fugong Rebellion

In the fourth lunar month of 890, Li Keyong's forces attacked Yunzhou but were defeated. Li Kuangwei of Youzhou, Helian Duo of Yunzhou, Zhu Wen of Xuanwu, and others petitioned the throne to attack Li Keyong. Because Li Keyong had played a major role in rescuing the dynasty during earlier crises, Li Ye hesitated and referred the matter to officials of the fourth rank and above. Only those aligned with Zhu Wen supported war; roughly seven tenths of the officials opposed it. Chief councillors Du Rangneng and Liu Chongwang firmly objected, and Yang Fugong likewise warned against lightly starting war. Zhu Wen, however, secretly bribed Chief Councillor Zhang Jun, who repeatedly urged military action, and Li Ye eventually consented.

In the fifth lunar month Zhang Jun was made overall commander of the four-front army against Taiyuan, with Sun Kui as deputy, and led three thousand Shence troops to the front. Li Ye went to Anxi Gate to send the army off and personally issued admonitions and the oath of campaign. The Tang force suffered a major defeat. Sun Kui was ambushed and captured in a valley in Zhangzi County by Li Cunxiao, and Yin'di, Fuzhou, Xiazhou, Binzhou, Qizhou, Pingyang, Jinzhou, and Jiangzhou were successively lost. In the first lunar month of 891 Li Keyong submitted a memorial protesting his innocence, and Li Ye was forced to restore his offices and titles.

Meanwhile Li Ye's conflict with Yang Fugong intensified. The Zizhi Tongjian records that the emperor had disliked eunuchs even as a prince and resented Yang Fugong's illegal conduct after accession despite Yang's role in placing him on the throne. To counter Yang, Li Ye won over Yang's adopted son Yang Shouli, granted him the imperial surname Li and the name Li Shunjie, and entrusted him with the imperial army. In the eighth lunar month of 891 Li Shunjie reported Yang Fugong's misconduct. Li Ye removed Yang from his post as Shence Army commandant and ordered him to Fengxiang as army supervisor. Yang refused, pleaded illness, and resigned. In the ninth lunar month the emperor granted him staff and seat as marks of retirement and ordered him to retire with the rank of general. In the tenth lunar month Li Shunjie led imperial troops against him. Protected by his adopted son Yang Shouxin, Yang Fugong fled to Xingyuan, joined another adopted son Yang Shouliang, and mobilized his network of adopted sons in rebellion. In the twelfth lunar month Li Shunjie himself had become arrogant and traveled armed. The two army commandants Liu Jingxuan and Ximen Junsui arranged his killing; his followers mutinied and looted Yongning Ward before order was restored that evening.

Campaign against Li Maozhen and Three Flights from Chang'an

On the first day of 892 Li Ye changed the era name to Jingfu. Li Maozhen of Fengxiang, Wang Xingyu of Binzhou, Han Jian of Huazhou, and others asked to attack Yang Shouliang at Xingyuan and to have Li Maozhen appointed campaign commissioner for Shannan. Li Ye feared that Li Maozhen would develop greater ambitions after acquiring Shannan and refused the decree. Enraged, Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu marched on Xingyuan without court authorization and sent insulting letters to Chief Councillor Du Rangneng and Commandant Ximen Junsui, openly slighting the throne.

In 893, after defeating Yang Shouliang, Li Maozhen requested appointment as Military Commissioner of Western Shannan. Li Ye wanted to restore some territory to direct court control. He ordered Li Maozhen additionally to command Wuding Army and appointed Chief Councillor Xu Yanruo Military Commissioner of Western Shannan. Li Maozhen refused. In the eighth lunar month Li Ye ordered Li Sizhou, heir to the Prince of Tan, to escort Xu to office with thirty thousand newly raised imperial troops. Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu met them in battle. The imperial troops collapsed without serious resistance, and the two military governors advanced on Chang'an, forcing Li Ye to order Du Rangneng's death.

In 895 Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu plotted to seize the emperor, and Li Ye fled to the Zhongnan Mountains. In 896 Li Maozhen advanced toward Chang'an and Li Ye fled to Huazhou, while Li Keyong of Hedong sent troops to assist him. Han Jian, Military Commissioner of Huazhou, instead placed the emperor under his control, prevented the court from fighting Li Maozhen, forced Li Ye to dissolve the forces of the imperial princes, and executed Li Jun, an officer who had defended the emperor. In 897 Han Jian accused eleven princes, already stripped of their troops and confined in separate residences, of treason and killed them all.

In 898 Li Ye issued an edict blaming himself and calling for an end to warfare, restored Li Maozhen's offices and titles, and was able to return to Chang'an. By then he possessed no military force apart from the Shence Army controlled by eunuchs.

Liu Jishu's Coup and Restoration

In the eleventh lunar month of 900, after Emperor Zhaozong became drunk and personally killed several eunuchs and palace women, Liu Jishu, Left Commandant of the Shence Army, reacted violently. The next day Liu took Crown Prince Li Yu with him and brought troops to force Zhaozong to abdicate. Empress He, fearing for the emperor's life, persuaded him to comply. The imperial seal was handed to Liu before the throne. Eunuchs placed Zhaozong and Empress He together in a carriage and carried them, with more than ten consorts, attendants, and princesses, to Shaoyang Court in the Eastern Palace. Liu personally locked the gate and poured molten iron into the keyhole. In the extreme cold, the consorts and princesses had no adequate clothing or bedding and their cries could be heard outside.

Liu Jishu enthroned Crown Prince Li Yu, changed his name to Li Zhen, and honored Zhaozong as emperor emeritus and Empress He as empress emerita. In the twelfth lunar month, Shence officers Sun Dezhao, Dong Yanbi, and Zhou Chenghui, acting under Chief Councillor Cui Yin, launched a counter-coup, killed Liu Jishu and Right Guard Commandant Wang Zhongxian, and went to Shaoyang Court announcing that the rebels were dead. Empress He did not believe them until they produced the severed heads. Zhaozong, Empress He, and the palace attendants then broke open the gate and emerged. Zhaozong was restored, returned Li Zhen's name to Li Yu, removed him as crown prince, and restored him as Prince of De.

Zhu Wen's Control and the Move to Luoyang

In 901 Chief Councillor Cui Yin planned to destroy the eunuchs. Eunuch Han Quanhui forced Zhaozong to flee to Fengxiang. Cui summoned Zhu Wen, who besieged Fengxiang. In 903 Li Maozhen killed Han Quanhui and Zhang Yanhong, made peace with Zhu Wen, and sent the emperor back to Chang'an. The Tang imperial house now existed largely in name, while Zhu Wen had become the strongest military governor and controlled Zhaozong.

Preparing to destroy the Tang, Zhu Wen first ordered more than five thousand palace eunuchs killed and instructed military commands throughout the empire to execute their eunuch supervisors locally. Because Prince Li Yu of De was mature and handsome, Zhu disliked him. Through Cui Yin, Zhu demanded his execution on the ground that Li Yu had once usurped the throne. Zhaozong was horrified and wept to Jiang Xuanhui that the Prince of De was his beloved son and asked why Zhu insisted on killing him. Zhu was displeased when he heard of the emperor's resistance.

In the first lunar month of 904 Zhu Wen forced Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang despite ministerial opposition. Residents of Chang'an were moved according to household registers, dismantled timbers from their houses were thrown into the Wei River, and lamentation filled the city. Departing from Shanzhou, Zhaozong no longer had imperial guards around him. When the procession reached Huazhou, common people lined the roads shouting wishes for ten thousand years. Zhaozong wept and said, "Do not cry 'ten thousand years'; I am no longer your ruler." He told attendants that he was now drifting without knowing where he would end up.

At Luoyang, Empress He wept to Zhu Wen that from then on the imperial couple entrusted themselves to Quanzhong. After leaving the capital, Zhaozong spent his days drinking heavily with the empress and palace women to console himself. On the pretext of holding a banquet, Zhu had more than two hundred palace entertainers and attendants who had accompanied the emperor strangled and replaced them with Xuanwu soldiers of similar build wearing their clothes. From then on Zhu learned of affairs inside the palace, large and small.

Assassination

On the night of the eleventh day of the eighth lunar month of 904, Zhu Wen sent Left Longwu commander Zhu Yougong, Right Longwu commander Shi Shucong, and palace secretary Jiang Xuanhui to murder Emperor Zhaozong. More than one hundred soldiers broke through the inner gates and entered the Jiaodian compound of the eastern capital, killing Lady Pei Zhenyi of Hedong. Lady Li Jianrong, a zhaoyi consort, stood at the door and cried that the officers should not harm the emperor and should kill the palace women instead. Hearing the attack, Zhaozong fled around the pillars of the hall in his sleeping clothes. Longwu officer Shi Tai caught him. Li Jianrong shielded the emperor with her body and was killed with him. Empress He begged for mercy and survived.

Jiang Xuanhui forged an edict blaming the killings on Pei Zhenyi and Li Jianrong and enthroned Zhaozong's ninth son Li Zhu as Emperor Zhaoxuan of Tang. In the tenth lunar month Zhu Wen returned to Luoyang, pretended to mourn by throwing himself over the coffin and weeping, and executed Zhu Yougong and Shi Shucong as scapegoats.

Zhaozong was buried at Heling Mausoleum with the temple name Zhaozong and posthumous name Emperor Shengmu Jingwen Xiao. Zhu Wen remained hostile even after his death. In 905 he directed court diarist Su Kai to submit a memorial claiming that Zhaozong had lacked merit and had been killed by palace women, forcing Emperor Ai to change his temple and posthumous titles. The Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Zhang Tingfan, changed the temple name to Xiangzong and the posthumous name to Emperor Gongling Zhuangmin Xiao. Li Cunxu and other military governors in Hedong continued to use the earlier titles, and after Later Liang fell Li Cunxu restored the tomb precincts of Zhaozong and Zhaoxuan.

Li Ye, originally named Li Jie and later Li Min, was the seventh son of Emperor Yizong of Tang; his mother was Empress Gongxian, of the Wang clan. Born in 867, he was enfeoffed as Prince of Shou in 872. Studious and quick by nature, devoted to letters and to Confucian learning, he was praised for a commanding bearing that recalled the manners of the Huichang era. When Emperor Xizong fell gravely ill in 888, the succession was unsettled at the moment of death; the ministers wished to raise the Prince of Ji, who was the most worthy and senior to the Prince of Shou, but the army inspector Yang Fugong alone proposed that the Prince of Shou should supervise the government. On the sixth day of the third month the late emperor's testament named Li Ye imperial younger brother, and he took the throne before the coffin at the age of twenty-two as Emperor Zhaozong, his accession owing much to Yang Fugong and thereby planting the seeds of the long conflict between the eunuchs and the outer court. Zhaozong sought earnestly to reform the abuses of the day. As extravagance was then general at court and the fiscal burden heavy, he practised frugality and ordered cuts in unnecessary palace expenditure; he suppressed Buddhism and promoted Daoism and Confucianism, in part so that commoners could not escape taxation by taking monastic vows. To break the eunuchs' hold he remodelled the central government on the Zhenguan precedent, restoring real decision-making power to the chancellors, deliberating with them on great affairs and enlarging the chancellery, so that Du Rangneng, Zhang Jun, Kong Wei, Liu Chongwang and Wei Zhaodu all served as chancellors under him. He also created four new palace armies - Ansheng, Pengchen, Baoning and Yihua - and gave imperial princes military commands. He valued the examinations and insisted on their fairness. At least five examinations were held during his sixteen-year reign, admitting 111 presented scholars, and when in 895 he discovered that the chief examiner Cui Ning had privately advanced candidates, he immediately held a supplementary test for those who had failed, dismissed the improperly promoted, and demoted Cui Ning to be prefect of Hezhou. In his edict for the supplementary examination he declared that in eight years of rule he had dreamt of worthy men and sought them in the wilds, wishing for men whose fame matched their substance and whose art and conduct were both admirable to stand at his court. In 890 the court debated whether to campaign against Li Keyong, military commissioner of Hedong. Li Keyong had sent a general against Yunzhou and been defeated by Li Kuangwei of Youzhou, who delivered the captured general to the court; Li Kuangwei, Helian Duo and Zhu Quanzhong then petitioned that a high minister be appointed to command the combined forces of the three Hebei garrisons and the Bian-Hua armies in reducing Taiyuan. Mindful that Li Keyong had rendered great service in restoring the dynasty in time of trouble, Zhaozong referred the matter to the officials of the fourth rank and above in the two secretariats, the censorate and the Department of State Affairs. Only those attached to Zhu Quanzhong favoured the campaign, while seven in ten opposed it, and the chancellors Du Rangneng and Liu Chongwang argued strongly against; Zhang Jun alone held that the earlier flight to Xingyuan had been the fault of the Shatuo and that, the great garrisons of the two rivers being willing to punish them, to decline would be to lose the moment for decision, and Kong Wei agreed with him. Yang Fugong urged that the emperor should not lightly take up arms and cause trouble for the state but should reply to Zhu Quanzhong with a gracious edict couched in terms of conciliation. Zhaozong at first agreed, but Zhu Quanzhong secretly bribed Zhang Jun's relatives and associates, and Zhang Jun, relying on his support, memorialised without ceasing, so that the emperor reluctantly yielded. In the fifth month of that year Zhaozong appointed Zhang Jun commander-in-chief of the Taiyuan campaign with the prefect of Jingzhao, Sun Kui, as his deputy, Han Jian as provost marshal of the northern army, Zhu Quanzhong as recruiting commissioner of the southeast, Wang Rong of Chengde of the east and Li Kuangwei of Youzhou of the north. The emperor himself escorted them from the Anxi gate with solemn injunctions. In the seventh month the imperial forces camped at Yindi and were resisted by Kang Junli of Taiyuan; Zhu Quanzhong sent Ge Congzhou with a thousand horse into Luzhou and made him acting commander there. Sun Kui marched with two thousand men from Jinzhou towards Zhaoyi and in the valley of Changzi county was ambushed by Li Cunxiao, who took him and five hundred of his guards to Taiyuan and killed the rest. In the eleventh month Li Cunxiao, resenting Li Keyong's appointment of Kang Junli over him, seized Xingzhou, submitted to the court and sought aid from Zhang Jun and Wang Rong. Li Keyong sent Li Cunxin and Xue Atan against the imperial army at Yindi and won three battles, so that the troops of Hexi, Fu, Xia, Bin and Qi recrossed the river westward; Han Jian fell back on Jiangzhou. Zhang Jun held Jinzhou with ten thousand Bian and palace troops, and Li Cunxin, after three days' attack, judged that capturing a chancellor was of no profit and that the emperor's guards should not be harmed, and withdrew fifty li. In the twelfth month Zhang Jun and Han Jian abandoned Jin and Jiang and fled, and Li Cunxin, taking the two prefectures, plundered four commanderies of Hezhong. The campaign left the court badly weakened, and Li Keyong afterwards memorialised in his own defence, complaining that the treacherous minister Zhang Jun, relying on Zhu Quanzhong, had estranged a deserving servant and caused his titles to be stripped; the court, wishing for reconciliation, consulted the ministers, and Wei Zhaodu and others proposed that his titles be restored and his name re-entered in the imperial register. In 891 Zhaozong moved against the eunuch Yang Fugong. Yang Fugong's adopted son Yang Shouli, head of the Tianwei army, originally of the Hu clan and named Hongli, was the bravest man in the six armies and universally feared. Wishing to attack Yang Fugong but fearing Yang Shouli's revolt, the emperor told him that he wished to have his "bearded son" about him, and Yang Fugong presented Shouli at court; the emperor gave him the name Li Shunjie and put him in charge of the keys of the six armies, promoting him within the year to command of the Tianwu guard, military commissioner of Zhenhai and shortly afterwards concurrent vice director of the Secretariat. Once favoured and eminent, Li Shunjie contended for power with Yang Fugong and disclosed all his secrets to the emperor, whereupon Zhaozong sent Yang Fugong out as army inspector of Fengxiang. Indignant and resentful, Yang Fugong refused to go, pleaded illness and asked to retire; in the ninth month he was retired with the rank of general-in-chief and given a stool and staff. In the tenth month of 891 Li Shunjie led the palace guards against Yang Fugong, and Yang Fugong's adopted son Yang Shouxin, commander of the Yushan camp, resisted with troops drawn up at Changhuali. The emperor ascended the Yanxi tower and arrayed troops in his own defence until the change should declare itself; the two sides faced each other until evening and then withdrew without fighting. That night Yang Shouxin escorted Yang Fugong out of the capital, fighting as he went, and through the Tonghua gate he fled to Xingyuan, where Yang Shouliang, Yang Shouzhong, Yang Shouzhen and Yang Shouhou of Mianzhou raised troops together against the court in the name of punishing Li Shunjie. In the twelfth month Li Shunjie, puffed up with imperial favour, went about with armed attendants, and the two army inspectors Liu Jingxuan and Ximen Jun Sui, fearing his ambition, summoned him by edict and had their officer Siguang Shen cut him down in the guard house, his head falling with the sword stroke. His followers, learning of his death, burst noisily from the Yanxi gate, and that day the three guards of Tianwei, Pengri and Dengfeng mutinied, plundering the Yongning ward until nightfall restored order. In 892 Li Maozhen of Fengxiang, Wang Xingyu of Binzhou, Han Jian of Huazhou, Wang Xingyue of Tongzhou and Li Maozhuang of Qinzhou petitioned that Yang Shouliang of Xingyuan had harboured the rebel Yang Fugong and asked leave to punish him with their own troops, providing their own provisions and asking only that Li Maozhen be made recruiting commissioner of Shannan. The palace officials all opposed it, and Zhaozong, believing that once possessed of Shannan Li Maozhen would harbour designs on the throne, long withheld the edict. Enraged, Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu advanced on Xingyuan without waiting for orders, repeatedly demanded the appointment, and wrote to the chancellors Du Rangneng and the inspector Ximen Jun Sui in abusive language that slighted the imperial house, which the emperor could not endure. In the eleventh month the armies of Fengxiang and Binzhou stormed Xingyuan; Yang Shouliang and Yang Fugong broke out and fled towards Taiyuan but were taken and their heads sent to the capital, and as Li Maozhen, relying on his troops, sought also the governorship of Shannan and memorialised with insolence and slander of the government, the emperor could not tolerate it. In 893 Zhaozong appointed the Prince of Tan commander of the western expedition with the Shence general Li Hui as deputy against Li Maozhen. In the ninth month the Prince of Tan led the fifty-four armies of the imperial escort against Qiyang and camped at Xingping, while Li Maozhen opposed him from Zhouzhi; the Qi troops pressed on Xingping and the imperial army collapsed of itself, Li Maozhen following up to the capital and camping at Sanqiao. Zhaozong, at the Anfu gate, had the army inspector Ximen Jun Sui and the privy commissioner Li Zhoutong beheaded and sent an edict to Li Maozhen ordering him to withdraw. Li Maozhen drew up his troops at Lingao post, enumerated the crimes of the chancellor Du Rangneng and demanded his death; the court demoted Du Rangneng to be household administrator of Leizhou and in the tenth month ordered him to take his own life, his brother Du Honghui, vice minister of revenue, dying with him. After this the emperor was forced to enfeoff Li Maozhen as Prince of Qin with the governorship of Shannan West and to grant Wang Xingyu the title of Shangfu and an iron warrant. In the first month of 894 Zhaozong held court at the Wude hall, proclaimed a general amnesty and changed the era name to Qianning. Li Maozhen came to court with a great display of guards and thirty singing girls as tribute, was feasted in the inner hall and returned to his command after several days, holding more than fifteen commanderies of Shannan - Liang, Yang, Xing, Feng, Qi, Long, Qin, Jing and Yuan - with strong troops and fine horses, bullying the imperial house and nursing designs on the throne. In 895, on the death of Wang Chongying, military commissioner of Hezhong, the army set up his brother's son Wang Ke as acting commander, and Wang Chongying's own sons Wang Gong of Shanzhou and Wang Yao of Jiangzhou raised troops against Wang Ke, memorialising that Wang Ke was an adopted son and not Wang Chongrong's child. The emperor sent a eunuch to reconcile them. In the third month Li Keyong of Taiyuan memorialised that Wang Chongrong had deserved well of the state and that his son Wang Ke should inherit, asking that he be granted the insignia of military commissioner; Wang Xingyu, Li Maozhen and Han Jian all memorialised in opposition, asking that Wang Ke be moved to Shanzhou and Wang Gong made commissioner of Hezhong. Because he had already granted Li Keyong's request, the emperor long delayed his answer. In the fifth month of 895 Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu and Han Jian entered the capital, each with several thousand picked troops, throwing the city into panic so that men fled and the officials could not restrain them. Zhaozong waited for them at the Anfu gate; when the three commanders came they bowed below the gate, and the emperor, leaning from the railing, reproached them, saying that as marquis of the frontier they should observe the rites of subjects, and asking what they meant by bringing troops into the court without memorialising. Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu, sweat streaming down their backs, could not answer, and only Han Jian gave a halting explanation of their visit. The emperor called them up to the tower, gave them wine and feasted them in the Tongwen hall. Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu spoke at length of the mutual attacks of the southern and northern bureaux and their deep corruption of government, asking that the worst offenders be executed; the emperor thereupon demoted the chancellors Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi and soon had them killed at the Duting post, and killed several eunuchs. Wang Xingyu left his brother Wang Xingyue and Li Maozhen his adopted son Yan Gui, each with two thousand men, as palace guards. The three had in fact agreed to depose Zhaozong and raise the Prince of Ji, and desisted only on learning that Taiyuan had raised troops, leaving their soldiers to watch the emperor before returning to their commands. Trouble followed at once. In the seventh month Wang Xingshi, commissioner of Tongzhou, abandoned his command and entered the capital, telling the two army inspectors Luo Quanguan and Liu Jingxuan that a hundred thousand Shatuo were at hand and that the emperor should flee to Binzhou where there were walls to hold. That night Yan Gui, Liu Jingxuan's son Liu Jisheng and Wang Xingshi set fire to the eastern market, plundering and calling on the emperor to leave. Hearing of the riot, Zhaozong ascended the Chengtian gate and sent the princes with the palace guards to resist; Yan Gui attacked with Fengxiang troops, his arrows striking the very door of the emperor's tower. Alarmed, the emperor came down and with several hundred princes, princesses and palace attendants made for the camp of Li Yun, then out through the Qixia gate to rest at the Huayan monastery, and that evening reached Shacheng town. Several hundred thousand officers and commoners fled with him, and by the mouth of the Southern Mountain valley a third had died of heat and thirst; at dusk they were plundered by bandits and the sound of their wailing shook the valley. After more than half a month in the Southern Mountains, fearing to be carried off by Fengxiang troops, the emperor sent the Prince of Yan with robes, saddles, horses and jade vessels to Hezhong to proclaim to Li Keyong, bidding him lead his troops straight to Bin and Feng, sweep away the lair of the rebels and save the desperate crisis. In the eighth month the Prince of Yan reached Hezhong; Li Keyong had already sent his vanguard to the north bank of the Wei and five hundred horse to the imperial quarters, and coming himself to camp at the Wei bridge he routed the Binzhou army at Liyuan stockade, killing several thousand and taking the general Wang Lingtao, whom he presented. The court thereupon made Li Keyong field commissioner of the Bin-Ning circuit and then commander-in-chief, and stripped Wang Xingyu of his ranks. In the tenth month the imperial forces broke the rebels at Liyuan, taking or killing more than ten thousand, so that Wang Xingyu shut himself behind his walls. In the eleventh month Wang Xingyu with his wife, children and five hundred retainers broke out and fled to Qingzhou, where he was killed by his own followers and two hundred of his household surrendered to the field headquarters. Li Keyong sent his officer Yan E to present the captives and the head at the capital. In the twelfth month Zhaozong received the prisoners at the Yanxi gate and the officials congratulated him before the tower; Li Keyong was made grand preceptor and director of the Secretariat, enfeoffed as Prince of Jin with nine thousand households and given the title of loyal and pacifying servant, returning to Taiyuan that month. In the sixth month of 896 Li Maozhen attacked the metropolitan region, the palace guards collapsing at the first contact, and the Fengxiang troops, following up, pressed on the capital. Li Keyong being then locked in struggle with Zhu Wen and unable to rescue him, Zhaozong was forced to flee, and reaching the north bank of the Wei he accepted the welcome of Han Jian, who sent his son to escort him and asked that he take up residence at Huazhou. Forced by circumstance, the emperor agreed and made the government office of Huazhou his palace. Because Han Jian was there the chancellors dared not decide affairs on their own, and the emperor had to order Han Jian to preside over the government; he declined and the matter dropped, but he still used his power to advance his own ends, circularising the military commissioners to send their tribute to Huazhou. In the seventh month of that year Cui Yin, vice director of the Secretariat and concurrent chancellor, was sent out as military commissioner of Wu'an, which was Han Jian's wish. Cui Yin secretly sought help from Zhu Quanzhong and prompted him to begin repairing the palace at the eastern capital Luoyang and to memorialise for the emperor's removal thither. In the ninth month Zhu Quanzhong, with Zhang Quanyi, the governor of Henan, petitioned that the capital be moved to Luoyang and offered twenty thousand troops to escort the emperor, praising Cui Yin as a loyal minister who should not be sent abroad. Han Jian took fright, memorialised for Cui Yin's recall as chancellor and sent envoys to advise Zhu Quanzhong to keep the peace, whereupon Zhu Quanzhong desisted and Cui Yin was restored to the chancellery. In the first month of 897 Han Jian memorialised that the officer Zhang Xingsi and others had accused the eight princes of Mu, Ji, Shao, Tong, Peng, Han, Yi and Chen of plotting to kill him and carry the emperor off to Hezhong. Han Jian disliked the princes' command of troops and had set Zhang Xingsi to make the accusation. The emperor, greatly alarmed, summoned Han Jian, who pleaded illness and would not come, and memorialised that he should not meet the princes and that by the old rules they should be confined to the Sixteen Mansions, given tutors and taught letters and books, deprived of troops and of any part in government, and that their ill-assorted soldiers be dispersed. Fearing that the emperor would not consent, Han Jian surrounded the palace with picked troops and sent up memorial after memorial. At nightfall, under duress, the emperor ordered the princes' soldiers back to their villages, the princes confined to the Sixteen Mansions and their arms handed over to Han Jian. Han Jian further memorialised to abolish the four rearguard armies, saying that their men were vagabonds and rogues of the wards and markets who in ordinary times thought of rebellion and in crisis would never serve, yet were allowed to bear bows and blades close to the imperial carriage, a thing that made him shudder; the emperor consented, and twenty thousand men of the four rearguard armies were dispersed, leaving the emperor without a single private soldier. Having immured the princes in separate mansions and knowing the emperor's displeasure, Han Jian asked that the Prince of De be made heir apparent to placate him, and the emperor made Li You, Prince of De, heir apparent under the name Li Yu. In the eighth month Han Jian and the privy commissioner Liu Jishu, by forged order, surrounded the Sixteen Mansions with troops, took eleven princes - of Tong, Yi, Mu, Ji, Shao, Peng, Han, Chen, Tan, Yan and Dan - to Shidi valley and killed them all, reporting it as rebellion. In 900 the emperor and the chancellor Cui Yin plotted to root out the eunuchs altogether. The eunuchs knew it perfectly, and the quarrel between Cui Yin's southern bureau and the eunuch-led northern bureau grew sharper, each side seeking the support of provincial commanders. The chancellor Wang Tuan advised the emperor not to speak lightly of removing the eunuchs lest they be driven to violence, whereupon Cui Yin slandered him as having been bought by the eunuchs; the emperor, who knew Cui Yin's character, did not believe it. In the second month Cui Yin was sent out as military commissioner of Qinghai to govern Guangzhou, and seeking help from Zhu Quanzhong he wrote that Wang Tuan had ousted him and asked Zhu Quanzhong to right the wrong. Zhu Quanzhong memorialised that Cui Yin must not leave the side of the throne and that Wang Tuan was in league with the palace eunuchs to endanger the state, sending up memorial after memorial. Though the emperor saw his motive, he was overborne by his power and recalled Cui Yin, already at Hunan, to be vice director of the Secretariat and concurrent chancellor, afterwards demoting Wang Tuan and the eunuchs Song Daobi and Jing Wuxiu, exiling them and ordering all three to take their own lives. Cui Yin thereafter held the government alone, his power overawing court and country, and every eunuch in the palace feared and hated him. In the eleventh month the emperor, hunting in the park and drinking, returned drunk at night and with his own hand killed several eunuchs and waiting women. The next morning the palace gates remained shut past mid-morning, and Liu Jishu, telling Cui Yin that something must have happened and that as an inner minister he had discretion to act, forced entry with a thousand guards and, on inquiry, established what had occurred. Liu Jishu then brought out the officials' petition and told the emperor that he was weary of the throne and that all, within and without, wished the heir apparent to govern, asking him to retire to the Eastern Palace; the imperial seal was given to Liu Jishu, and eunuchs helped the emperor, with the empress, into the same carriage, with only a dozen attendants, and took him to the Shaoyang court. Liu Jishu and the others, by forged edict, had the heir apparent govern, brought him into the palace and then by a further forged edict had him succeed to the throne as Li Zhen, honouring Zhaozong as retired emperor and the empress as retired empress. Zhu Quanzhong, at his camp in Dingzhou, heard of the coup and turned south, while Liu Jishu sent his adopted son to offer him the empire and showed him the retired emperor's edict; Zhu Quanzhong hesitated, undecided. In the first month of 901 Sun Dezhao and others of the left Shence army seized and beheaded Wang Zhongxian and galloped to the Shaoyang court, shouting at the gate that the rebels were slain and asking the emperor to come out and reward the troops. Empress He at first refused to believe it, demanding the head, and when Sun Dezhao presented it the emperor and empress broke down the door and came out. Cui Yin welcomed him to the Changle gate tower and led the officials in congratulation. Zhou Chenghui brought in Liu Jishu and Wang Yanfan, who were killed by a mob of soldiers before they could be questioned, and Xue Qiyu, who had thrown himself into a well, was dragged out and beheaded; the four families were exterminated and more than twenty of their partisans killed. The emperor thereafter favoured Cui Yin still more, made Zhou Chenghui military commissioner of Lingnan West under the name Li Jihui and Dong Yanbi commissioner of Ningyuan with the surname Li, both concurrent chancellors, and with Li Jizhao kept them as palace guards, lavishing the treasury on them, so that men called them the three commissioners. Cui Yin, trusted anew for his part in the restoration, hoped to seize the eunuchs' military power for himself but failed: when he and Lu Yi memorialised that all disorder sprang from eunuchs commanding troops and asked that Cui Yin command the left army and Lu Yi the right, the emperor hesitated two days and then ruled that the soldiers did not wish to serve civil officials, appointing the privy commissioners Han Quanhui and Zhang Yanhong as the two army inspectors instead, and the former privy commissioner Yan Zunmei, summoned to the same office, refused flatly, saying that one army was more than he could manage, let alone two. Cui Yin also moved to take back the eunuchs' financial power. The state monopoly of wine had begun under Emperor Dezong, been relaxed under Wenzong and revived under Wuzong through official shops in the circuits of Yangzhou and elsewhere, which paid the wine levy for the people and remitted it to the treasury for military use; Yang Fugong, as Shence army inspector, had borrowed a year's profit from the sale of yeast from the treasury and never returned it. To curb the eunuchs, Cui Yin permitted wine sellers to make their own yeast and ordered the yeast made by the two armies sold off quickly, no later than the seventh month; this deprived the eunuchs of revenue and injured some provincial commands, and Li Maozhen, Fengxiang being among those forbidden, memorialised against giving up so profitable a source. In the intercalary sixth month Cui Yin asked that all eunuchs be put to death and their duties in the palace offices given to the women. The eunuchs, whose ears were everywhere in the palace, soon heard of it; Han Quanhui and the others wept before the emperor and begged for mercy, and the emperor told Cui Yin to submit important matters in sealed memorials and not to report them orally. The eunuchs found several beautiful and literate women and placed them in the palace to spy, so that all Cui Yin's secret plans were discovered while the emperor remained unaware. Han Quanhui's party, in terror, wept at every gathering as though taking leave of one another, and plotted day and night to be rid of Cui Yin. As Cui Yin then held the commission of the three treasuries, they incited the guards to make an uproar before the emperor, complaining that he had cut their winter clothing, and the emperor, under pressure, had to relieve him of the salt and iron commission. Zhu Quanzhong and Li Maozhen each meant to hold the emperor to command the lords: Zhu Quanzhong wished to take him to Luoyang, Li Maozhen to Fengxiang. Cui Yin, knowing his plans betrayed and the crisis near, wrote to Zhu Quanzhong claiming a secret edict ordering him to bring troops to escort the emperor, and Zhu Quanzhong, on receiving the letter, hurried back to Daliang in the seventh month to raise his army. In the eleventh month of 901, the capital having no emperor and the imperial quarters no chancellor, Cui Yin had Lu Wo and more than two hundred others present a petition asking Zhu Quanzhong to come west and escort the emperor, and sent Wang Pu to Chishui to confer with him. Zhu Quanzhong replied that to advance would expose him to the charge of coercing his sovereign and to withdraw would leave him ashamed of betraying the state, but that he dared not fail in his duty, and set out from Chishui. To take the city he lured Li Maozhen out and dug deep trenches to cut Fengxiang off from the world; the besieged Li Ye, short of food, sold his own clothes to buy beans and wheat. In the first month of 903 Li Maozhen opened the gates, and on the twenty-seventh the emperor, escorted by Zhu Quanzhong, entered Changan once more. On his return Zhu Quanzhong and Cui Yin continued to act together. Without the emperor's consent they had more than seven hundred eunuchs, led by Diwu Kewen, gathered in the inner attendance bureau and killed, and ordered the provinces to seize and kill eunuchs on mission abroad, leaving only thirty junior eunuchs in yellow robes to sweep the palace; thereafter only palace women might come and go with edicts, and Cui Yin gained command of the six armies and twelve guards. Having destroyed the eunuchs Zhu Quanzhong began to advance his own men and kill those who opposed him. Cui Yin then plotted with the emperor to raise new troops and escort him to Jingxiang to escape Zhu Quanzhong's control, but before the plan could be carried out, in the first month of 904, Zhu Quanzhong had Cui Yin, his associate Zheng Yuangui, Chen Ban and others put to death on the charge of arrogating power, ruining the state and estranging ruler and minister. In 904, forced by Zhu Quanzhong, the emperor and the people of the capital moved to Luoyang, but the palace there being unfinished they halted at Shanzhou. The emperor sent secret envoys with autograph letters to appeal to Wang Jian, and then with a silk edict to Wang Jian, Yang Xingmi and Li Keyong, bidding them rally the provincial commands to restore the dynasty, but no relief came. Zhu Quanzhong memorialised that the Luoyang palace was ready and pressed the emperor to set out, and when the emperor pleaded that the empress had newly given birth and could not travel, proposing to wait until the tenth month, Zhu Quanzhong, suspecting him of waiting for a change, angrily ordered his officer Kou Yanqing to go to Shanzhou and bring him at once. While at Shanzhou the court astronomer had reported a change in the stars portending evil in the autumn, so that the emperor wished to go in the tenth month; Zhu Quanzhong therefore had the physician Xu Zhaoyuan accuse the physician-in-attendance Yan Youzhi, the astronomer Wang Chi and others of plotting against the commander, and had them all arrested and killed. Since Cui Yin's death the six armies had scattered to nothing, and of the two hundred ball-players and palace boys who followed the emperor east, Zhu Quanzhong, still suspicious of them, had every one strangled at a feast in a tent, replacing them with two hundred others of like build dressed in their clothes, so that the emperor did not notice for days; thereafter all his attendants were Zhu Quanzhong's men. In the eighth month of 904 Zhu Quanzhong had Zhu Yougong, commander of the left Longwu guard, Shi Shucong of the right and the privy commissioner Jiang Xuanhui murder Zhaozong in the Pepper Hall. Since the move to Luoyang Li Keyong, Li Maozhen, Wang Jian of Shu and Zhao Kuangning of Xiangyang, knowing Zhu Quanzhong meant to usurp the throne, had formed leagues and raised troops in the name of restoring the dynasty; and as the emperor was a man of uncommon ability, Zhu Quanzhong, then on campaign in the west, feared a change at home and killed him to extinguish men's hopes. At the second watch Jiang Xuanhui chose a hundred men under the guard officer Shi Tai and knocked at the inner gate, saying that there was urgent news from the army requiring audience. At the Pepper Hall courtyard Lady Pei Zhenyi opened the gate and said that urgent business should not come with soldiers, whereupon Shi Tai seized and killed her. The emperor, then drunk, rose in alarm, and as Shi Tai entered with his sword the emperor fled in his single garment around a pillar, and Shi Tai pursued and murdered him, while the consort Li Jianrong, shielding him with her body, was killed also. The emperor died at thirty-eight; the ministers gave him the posthumous title Shengmu Jingwen Xiao and the temple name Zhaozong, and he was buried at Heiling in the second month of the following year.

Major Activities

Political Activity

During Li Ye's sixteen-year reign he was repeatedly constrained by regional military governors. In extremely difficult circumstances he eagerly sought talent and promoted anyone he considered useful. Twenty-five men served as chief councillor during his reign, and turnover was frequent. Cui Yin was appointed four separate times. Zheng Qi became chief councillor in the second lunar month of 894 and retired as Grand Protector of the Crown Prince little more than three months later. Lu Yi became chief councillor in the seventh lunar month of 896 and was demoted to Inspector of Xiazhou two months later. Wei Zhaodu, Kong Wei, Xu Yanruo, Cui Yuan, Pei Shu, and others each returned to the chief councillorship more than once.

At the beginning of his reign Li Ye sought restoration, reformed the examinations, and enlarged the imperial army; the Zizhi Tongjian records that by 890 he had recruited one hundred thousand troops. Yet without evidence he accused Chen Jingxuan of Western Sichuan and Li Keyong of Hedong of rebellion and launched campaigns against them. Li Keyong defeated the court army, forcing restoration of his offices. The Western Sichuan campaign bogged down. After the Hedong defeat Zhaozong decided to end the Sichuan war and restore Chen Jingxuan, but Wang Jian, Military Commissioner of Yongping and commander of the campaign, disobeyed, continued the attack, and eventually replaced Chen as Military Commissioner of Western Sichuan.

Elimination of Eunuch Power

Li Ye had disliked eunuchs while still a prince, and after accession his conflict with Yang Fugong grew steadily. He won over Yang's adopted son Yang Shouli, gave him the surname Li and the name Li Shunjie, and entrusted him with imperial troops. In 891 he drove Yang Fugong from the capital. Yang fled to Xingyuan and mobilized his adopted sons in rebellion, further weakening court authority.

In 903, after Zhu Wen seized control of the court, all palace eunuchs were killed, reportedly more than five thousand. Zhu also ordered the eunuch supervisors attached to regional commands executed on the spot. Not all military governors complied: Li Keyong spared Zhang Chengye, and Liu Rengong of Lulong spared Zhang Juhan.

Three Flights and Exile

Li Ye fled Chang'an three times during his reign:

• In 895, the second year of the Qianning era, Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu plotted to seize him, and Li Ye fled to the Zhongnan Mountains.
• In 896, the third year of the Qianning era, Li Maozhen advanced on Chang'an and Li Ye fled to Huazhou, where Han Jian controlled him, forced him to dissolve the princes' armies, killed Li Jun, who had defended him, and later killed eleven imperial princes.
• In 901, the first year of the Tianfu era, eunuch Han Quanhui forced Zhaozong to flee to Fengxiang. Cui Yin summoned Zhu Wen to besiege the city. In 903 Li Maozhen killed Han Quanhui, made peace with Zhu, and returned the emperor to Chang'an.

Maneuvering with Zhu Wen

Li Ye's relationship with Zhu Wen was a central feature of late-Tang politics. Early in his reign Li Ye appointed Zhu overall commander of the four-front campaign against Cai Prefecture. Zhu's power then steadily increased until he became the strongest military governor. In 901 Cui Yin called Zhu into the political struggle, enabling him to dominate the court. In 904 Zhu forced Zhaozong to move to Luoyang and soon afterward had him killed, replacing him with a child emperor.

During his sixteen years on the throne Li Ye set himself to restore the dynasty and to recover the initiative from the eunuchs and the provincial commands. To reduce the eunuchs and revive the chancellery he remodelled the central government on the Zhenguan precedent, deliberating with his chancellors on affairs of state and giving them real powers of decision, enlarging the chancellery so that Du Rangneng, Zhang Jun, Kong Wei, Liu Chongwang and Wei Zhaodu all served; he also created the four armies Ansheng, Pengchen, Baoning and Yihua and gave imperial princes military commands in the hope of restoring the court's authority. He gave particular attention to the examinations and to equity in them. At least five examinations were held in his reign, admitting 111 presented scholars, and in 895, discovering that the chief examiner Cui Ning had privately advanced candidates, he held a supplementary test for those who had failed, dismissed the improperly promoted, and demoted Cui Ning to be prefect of Hezhou. In the edict for that supplementary examination he set out his wish for men whose reputation matched their substance and whose accomplishments and conduct were both admirable, to stand at his court. In military affairs he campaigned in turn against the great commands of Hedong and Fengxiang. In 890 he sent Zhang Jun against Li Keyong, and the operations at Yindi, Jinzhou and Jiangzhou ended in defeat, Sun Kui being taken by Li Cunxiao, gravely damaging the court's authority. In 893 the expedition against Li Maozhen collapsed at Xingping, Li Maozhen advanced to the capital, and the emperor had to execute Ximen Jun Sui and Li Zhoutong and to demote and then destroy the chancellor Du Rangneng. In 895 Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu and Han Jian entered the capital with picked troops and had the chancellors Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi killed at the Duting post, and in the seventh month of that year Yan Gui and his fellows burned and plundered the eastern market, driving the emperor to Shacheng town, where of the hundreds of thousands who fled with him a third died of heat and thirst. The emperor then sent the Prince of Yan to Hezhong to appeal to Li Keyong, whose campaign broke the Binzhou army at Liyuan, drove Wang Xingyu to flight and death in Qingzhou and won the court the presentation of captives at the Yanxi gate. In 891 he succeeded in destroying the power of the eunuch Yang Fugong, promoting his adopted son Yang Shouli under the name Li Shunjie and using his disclosures to send Yang Fugong out to Fengxiang, and afterwards sending Li Shunjie with the guards against him. In 901 the eunuch Liu Jishu immured him in the Shaoyang court, and Sun Dezhao and his fellows killed Liu Jishu and Wang Zhongxian and restored him, the four families being exterminated and more than twenty partisans put to death. He then plotted with Cui Yin to destroy the eunuchs, recovered the financial powers they held by allowing wine sellers to make their own yeast and ordering the armies' old yeast sold off within a term, and in 903, on his return to the capital, more than seven hundred eunuchs under Diwu Kewen were gathered in the inner attendance bureau and killed, those on mission abroad being killed by the provinces, leaving only thirty junior eunuchs for the palace. In 904 Zhu Quanzhong forced the move of the capital to Luoyang, and the emperor sent secret envoys with autograph and silk edicts appealing to Wang Jian, Yang Xingmi and Li Keyong to rally the provinces for the restoration of the dynasty, but no relief came and he was murdered in the Pepper Hall.

Personal Relations

• Emperor Yizong of Tang, Li Cui: father
• Empress Gongxian, Lady Wang: birth mother
• Emperor Xizong of Tang, Li Xuan: elder brother
• Empress He: wife
• Li Yu, Prince of De: eldest son
• Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Zhu: ninth son
• Lady Li Jianrong: zhaoyi consort
• Lady Pei Zhenyi: Lady of Hedong Commandery
• Wei Zhaodu: chief councillor, appointed twice
• Kong Wei: chief councillor
• Du Rangneng: chief councillor, forced to die after the failed campaign against Li Maozhen
• Cui Yin: chief councillor appointed four times, later killed by Zhu Wen
• Zhang Jun: chief councillor who advocated attacking Li Keyong
• Han Jian: Military Commissioner of Huazhou who once controlled Zhaozong
• Yang Fugong: supported Li Ye's accession, later fell out with him and was driven from the capital
• Li Shunjie: originally Yang Shouli, adopted son of Yang Fugong; won over by Li Ye and turned against his adoptive father
• Liu Jishu: launched the coup that imprisoned Zhaozong and was later killed
• Han Quanhui: forced Zhaozong to flee to Fengxiang and was later killed by Li Maozhen
• Jiang Xuanhui: trusted agent of Zhu Wen and one of the organizers of Zhaozong's assassination
• Li Keyong: Military Commissioner of Hedong; defeated Zhaozong's punitive campaign and later sent troops to aid him
• Li Maozhen: Military Commissioner of Fengxiang; repeatedly threatened Chang'an
• Zhu Wen: Military Commissioner of Xuanwu; ultimately ordered Zhaozong's murder
• Wang Xingyu: Military Commissioner of Binzhou; joined Li Maozhen in trying to seize the emperor
• Wang Jian: Military Commissioner of Western Sichuan; disobeyed court orders and destroyed Chen Jingxuan

Historical Assessment

Tang / Contemporary

• The Old Book of Tang says that Zhaozong had long disliked eunuchs and that his accession was welcomed at court and beyond, but imperial commands had already lost force and the court grew steadily weaker until the dynasty fell.
• The New Book of Tang describes Zhaozong as intelligent and talented and says that he initially intended restoration, but external threats were already entrenched and he lacked capable advisers; his own self-confidence also contributed to his final failure.
• Zhu Wen reportedly described Zhaozong as exceptionally outstanding and feared that he might create new trouble, which contributed to Zhu's decision to murder him and install a child ruler.

Song–Yuan Period

• Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian notes that Zhaozong ignored Du Rangneng's objections to attacking Li Maozhen and brought disaster upon himself, while still describing his intention as pitiable.
• Hong Mai's Rongzhai Essays compared the frequent turnover of chief councillors under Zhaozong with the situation under the Chongzhen Emperor of Ming, viewing both as rulers in desperate circumstances who urgently sought results.
• Hu Sanxing, annotating the Zizhi Tongjian, wrote that Zhaozong had ambition and energy at the start of his reign but employed the wrong men and was ultimately murdered by Zhu Wen.

Ming–Qing Period

• Wang Fuzhi wrote that Zhaozong was not inherently a ruler who should have lost a dynasty, but lived in an age when the dynasty was already doomed; his intentions deserved sympathy and his talents could have been used had he possessed worthy ministers.
• Zhao Yi argued that the Tang fell not specifically because of Huang Chao or Zhu Wen but because of military fragmentation; Zhaozong attempted restoration without sufficient power and was eventually murdered by a strong regional governor.
• Wang Mingsheng noted that even under extreme pressure Zhaozong could move against Yang Fugong and resist Liu Jishu, showing a degree of decisiveness.

Modern Period

• Lü Simian regarded Zhaozong as genuinely interested in restoration at the start of his reign, but argued that late-Tang military fragmentation was too deeply established to be reversed by one ruler. His personal fate was exceptionally tragic even among emperors of collapsing dynasties.
• Cen Zhongmian described Zhaozong's life as a miniature of late-Tang politics, with his struggle and failure marking the final collapse of central authority.
• Huang Yongnian characterized him as an emperor who wanted to revive the dynasty but lacked the power to do so, spending sixteen years trapped between military governors and eunuchs before dying at Zhu Wen's hands.