An Chonghui
An Chonghui was the chief of staff and chief advisor to Li Siyuan of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Later Tang.
For most of Emperor Mingzong's reign, An was the most powerful figure at court, making key military and political decisions that, in his eyes, sought to strengthen the authority of the Later Tang imperial state. However, his ruthless actions toward political enemies—including Emperor Mingzong's adoptive son Li Congke the Prince of Lu—created much resentment. After the campaign against the regional warlords Meng Zhixiang and Dong Zhang, which An instigated, stalled, An was forced to retire, and then was killed in retirement, under accusations that he had alienated Meng, Dong, and the Later Tang nominal vassal Qian Liu the King of Wuyue, from the Later Tang emperor. He was said to have, at his death, lamented that he was not able to rid the state of Li Congke.
Background
It is not known when An Chonghui was born, but it is known that his family was from Ying Prefecture and that his ancestors were tribal chiefs in the region. His father An Fuqian was known for ferocity in battle and became an officer under the late-Tang dynasty major warlord Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit. In 894, when Li Keyong's allies Zhu Xuan the military governor of Tianping Circuit and Zhu Xuan's cousin Zhu Jin the military governor of Taining Circuit sought aid from Li Keyong as they were under attack by Li Keyong's archrival Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit, Li Keyong sent An Fuqian and two brothers—older brother An Fushun and An Fuqing, who was likely older as well—with 500 cavalry soldiers, to aid Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin. An Fuqian was subsequently killed in battle when fighting the Xuanwu forces.During Li Cunxu's reign
The first historical reference made to An Chonghui himself was in 916, by which time Tang had ended, and the sons of Li Keyong and Zhu Quanzhong were ruling separate and rival realms that they inherited from their fathers—Li Keyong's biological son Li Cunxu as the Prince of Jin and Zhu Quanzhong's son Zhu Zhen as the Emperor of Later Liang. In 916, Li Cunxu made his adoptive brother Li Siyuan the military governor of Anguo Circuit. An was then serving under Li Siyuan with the officer rank of Zhongmenshi and faithful to Li Siyuan, and Li Siyuan trusted him deeply. He was friendly with Li Siyuan's sons Li Congrong and Li Conghou from Li Congrong's and Li Conghou's childhood, and the brothers respected him. However, he did not have a good relationship with Li Siyuan's adoptive son Li Congke, as there was a time when they were drinking and got into an argument, and Li Congke beat him badly. Li Congke later apologized, but An continued to bear a grudge against Li Congke.For more than a decade, An followed Li Siyuan in his campaigns serving under Li Cunxu, who eventually declared himself emperor of a new Later Tang and conquered Later Liang. However, by 926, the Later Tang realm was overrun by mutinies after Emperor Zhuangzong had, without good cause, executed two of the major generals, Guo Chongtao and Zhu Youqian. When Li Siyuan was sent to battle the mutineers at Yedu, Li Siyuan's own forces mutinied and forced him to join the Yedu mutineers. After Li Siyuan freed himself from the Yedu mutineers, he considered returning to his own circuit Chengde Circuit, which he was then the military governor of, to consider his next step, but An and Li Siyuan's deputy Li Shaozhen pointed out that that exposed him to be defenseless against charges that another general, Li Shaorong, might lay against him, convinced him to head south back toward the capital Luoyang instead. Subsequently, with Li Shaorong indeed accusing Li Siyuan of treason and cutting off Li Siyuan's attempts to send messengers to Emperor Zhuangzong to defend himself, Li Siyuan decided to indeed rebel, and therefore had An draft summons on his behalf, asking other generals to join his army, as he advanced toward Kaifeng.
Li Siyuan quickly entered Kaifeng, and then from there advanced toward Luoyang. Emperor Zhuangzong organized an army to try to resist him, but was shortly thereafter killed in a mutiny at Luoyang. When Li Siyuan arrived at Luoyang, he was welcomed into the city and assumed, for the time, the title of regent. He made An his chief of staff, with Zhang Yanlang, whose daughter was An's daughter-in-law, serving as An's deputy. Meanwhile, An and Li Shaozhen tried to get the political situation ready for Li Siyuan's eventual enthronement, by killing Li Cunxu's brothers Li Cunque the Prince of Tong and Li Cunji the Prince of Ya, without Li Siyuan's prior approval. Later, after Li Cunxu's oldest son Li Jiji the Prince of Wei committed suicide as his army refused to follow him in a campaign against Li Siyuan, Li Siyuan took the throne.
During Li Siyuan's reign
As ''shumishi''
During the ''Tiancheng'' era (926–930)
An Chonghui quickly became the most powerful advisor for Emperor Mingzong, and, as Emperor Mingzong was illiterate, he relied on An to read to him the petitions coming from throughout the realm, although An, realizing that he was also not capable of handling all these petitions, recommended the imperial scholars Feng Dao and Zhao Feng to serve in that role. As chief advisor, however, he quickly developed a rivalry with the chancellor Ren Huan, as Ren was putting much of his own imprint on the governance, drawing An's jealousy. Meanwhile, Emperor Mingzong wanted to reward An by commissioning him as the military governor of Shannan East Circuit and serving remotely. An believed that Shannan East was too important of a circuit to lack an actual military governor at the circuit, and therefore declined; Emperor Mingzong subsequently agreed.Despite his faithfulness to Emperor Mingzong, An was also known for his arrogance and violence. When the minor official Ma Yan accidentally collided with his train, An had Ma executed on the spot. When the imperial censor Li Qi reported this to Emperor Mingzong, Emperor Mingzong reacted, at An's request, by issuing an edict blaming the executed-Ma for the incident and declaring that the people should be careful in respecting the senior officials of the state. Later, in 927, An and Ren had a major disagreement about whom to recommend to be chancellors to replace two chancellors recently removed from office, Doulu Ge and Wei Yue; Ren recommended Li Qi while An recommended Cui Xie at the suggestion of his close associate Kong Xun; Emperor Mingzong ultimately chose Cui and Feng to serve as chancellors, replacing Doulu and Wei. Shortly after, Emperor Mingzong also bestowed chancellor titles on An and Kong, with An receiving the greater title of Shizhong, making him more honored than other chancellors. Emperor Mingzong eventually became displeased at Ren's continuous arguments with An, believing that to be an affront to himself, and when Ren, noticing the emperor's displeasure, offered to resign his secondary position as the director of the three financial agencies, Emperor Mingzong accepted the resignation. In fall 927, Ren retired completely to Ci Prefecture, but shortly after, when the general Zhu Shouyin the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit rebelled, An, believing that Ren could be complicit, requested Emperor Mingzong to order Ren to commit suicide, and Emperor Mingzong did so.
By late 926, An had begun to be concerned about two powerful military governors that Emperor Zhuangzong had commissioned prior to his death to govern the former territory of Former Shu—Meng Zhixiang the military governor of Xichuan Circuit and Dong Zhang the military governor of Dongchuan Circuit, because Meng was closely related to Emperor Zhuangzong and Dong was a favored general of Emperor Zhuangzong's. Meng was also acting fairly independently as the military governor of Xichuan Circuit, as he refused to yield tax revenues to the imperial administration. The official Li Yan volunteered to serve as a monitor to the Xichuan army, believing that he could help curb Meng's exercise of authority, and An then sent him to Xichuan. Meng subsequently had Li executed, and another officer, Zhu Hongzhao, whom An sent to Dongchuan to serve as Dong's deputy military governor for a similar reason, fled back to Luoyang.
In late 927, Yang Pu the king of Later Tang's southeastern neighbor Wu declared himself emperor, thus putting himself at the same level, title-wise, as the Later Tang emperor. An advocated a campaign against Wu, but Emperor Mingzong ruled against it. However, subsequently, apparently with Emperor Mingzong's approval, An cut off the diplomatic communications between the two states, which had been frequent ever since Emperor Zhuangzong's destruction of Later Liang.
In 928, a rift developed between An and Kong, over the fact that Kong advised An against giving a daughter to one of Emperor Mingzong's sons in marriage, on the rationale that it would be improper for someone already so powerful to further engender himself to the emperor by a marriage of their children—and then himself gave a daughter in marriage to be the wife of Emperor Mingzong's son Li Conghou. An thus had Kong expelled from the imperial government to serve as the defender of Luoyang. However, when An had a dispute with Wang Jianli the military governor of Chengde, with accusations flying both ways—An accusing Wang of being aligned with the semi-independent warlord Wang Du the military governor of Yiwu Circuit, while Wang Jianli accused An of allying himself with Zhang Yanlang and creating a power bloc. Emperor Mingzong, unhappy with what he saw of An, briefly considered replacing him with Wang Jianli, but ultimately did not do so, but kept Wang at Kaifeng as a chancellor and the director of the three financial agencies. Emperor Mingzong subsequently gave An the additional title of mayor of Henan Municipality.
Also in 928, Wang Du, who had been concerned about an imperial government takeover of his circuit, partly because An had begun to reimpose imperial laws on Yiwu whereas Yiwu had acted independently previously, tried to assassinate the imperial general Wang Yanqiu, whose army was then stationed near Yiwu's capital Ding Prefecture in anticipation of a potential Khitan attack. Emperor Mingzong declared a general campaign against Wang Du, with Wang Yanqiu in command. In 929, Wang Yanqiu was able to capture Ding Prefecture, despite Wang Du's being aided by the Khitan general Tunei ; Wang Du committed suicide, allowing the imperial government to take over Yiwu.
One of Emperor Mingzong's sons or nephews, Li Congcan, had long not been willing to yield himself to An. In 929, there was an incident in which Li Congcan was drunk at a feast and, in that drunkenness, sat on the emperor's seat as a joke. An took this opportunity to report this to Emperor Mingzong and recommend Li Congcan's death; as a result, Emperor Mingzong ordered Li Congcan to commit suicide.
Meanwhile, An was also in dispute with Later Tang's vassal, Qian Liu the King of Wuyue, as he was displeased at Qian's arrogant wording while writing him. In 929, there was an incident where Emperor Mingzong sent his attendants Wu Zhaoyu and Han Mei as emissaries to Wuyue. Han, who had an enmity with Wu, reported, upon return from Wuyue, that Wu not only bowed to Qian and referred to himself as Qian's subject, but also revealed secrets to Qian. An recommended that Wu be ordered to commit suicide, and subsequently ordered Qian to retire with the title of Taishi, stripping him of all other titles, while putting all Wuyue emissaries under arrest. Qian had his sons submit petitions proclaiming his innocence, but An ignored them.
An, around the same time, was continuing to prepare for the possibility of confrontation with Meng and Dong, by carving out territories from their circuits—with Li Renju serving as the military governor of Baoning Circuit, Xia Luqi serving as the military governor of Wuxin Circuit, and An's brother-in-law Wu Qianyu serving as the prefect of Mian Prefecture, each reinforced with soldiers from the imperial army. This, in turn, led to fears from both Meng and Dong that the imperial government would soon be acting against them. Despite their prior rivalry, Meng and Dong entered into an alliance and prepared to jointly fight the Later Tang imperial government.