Emperor Dezong of Tang
Emperor Dezong of Tang, personal name Li Kuo, was an emperor of the Chinese Tang dynasty. He was the oldest son of Emperor Daizong. His reign of 26 years was the third longest in the Tang dynasty. Emperor Dezong started out as a diligent and frugal emperor and he tried to reform the governmental finances by introducing new tax laws. His attempts to destroy the powerful regional warlords and the subsequent mismanagement of those campaigns, however, resulted in a number of rebellions that nearly destroyed him and the Tang dynasty. After those events, he dealt cautiously with the regional governors, causing warlordism to become unchecked, and his trust of eunuchs caused the eunuchs' power to rise greatly. He was also known for his paranoia about officials' wielding power, and late in his reign, he did not grant much authority to his chancellors.
Background
Li Kuo was born in 742, during the reign of his great-grandfather Emperor Xuanzong. His father was Li Chu the Prince of Guangping—the oldest son of Emperor Xuanzong's son and crown prince Li Heng, and he was Li Chu's oldest son. His mother was a consort of Li Chu's, Consort Shen. He was born at the eastern palace—i.e., the Crown Prince's palace—at the Tang capital Chang'an. Later that year, he was created the Prince of Fengjie and given the honorific title of Tejin. During the Anshi Rebellion, which erupted in 755, Emperor Xuanzong fled to Chengdu, while Li Heng and his sons, including Li Chu, fled to Lingwu. Li Kuo's exact locations during this time were not stated in historical records, although presumably he accompanied his father, because while his mother Consort Shen was captured by the rebel Yan forces along with many palace women, he was not. While Li Heng was at Lingwu, he was declared emperor, an act that Emperor Xuanzong later recognized.After Chang'an was recaptured from Yan forces in 756, Li Chu was made crown prince, and in 762, after Emperor Suzong's death, he became emperor. Emperor Daizong gave Li Kuo the title of supreme commander of the armed forces and created him the Prince of Lu, a title soon changed to Prince of Yong. He and his staff were sent to rendezvous with Tang and ally Huige forces at Shan Prefecture, to prepare an attack to recapture the eastern capital Luoyang, which was then serving as the Yan capital under Yan's fourth and final emperor Shi Chaoyi. When Li Kuo met Huige's Dengli Khan Yaoluoge Yidijian, he treated Yaoluoge Yidijian as an equal, drawing Yaoluoge Yidijian's anger. Yaoluoge Yidijian had Li Kuo's Yao Ziang, Wei Ju, Wei Shaohua, and Li Jin arrested and whipped severely, such that Wei Ju and Wei Shaohua died that night. Yaoluoge Yidijian did not harm Li Kuo, but sent him back to the Tang camp. This incident would cause Li Kuo to bear great hatred for Huige later. After Luoyang was recaptured and Shi Chaoyi committed suicide in flight in 763, Li Kuo was given the chancellor title of Shangshu Ling, and his portrait, along with those of eight generals, were added to the Portraits at Lingyan Pavilion. Subsequently, during a Tibet incursion in 763 in which Emperor Daizong was forced to flee Chang'an and Tibet forces briefly captured Chang'an, Li Kuo was named the titular supreme commander of forces in the Guanzhong region, but the general Guo Ziyi, as deputy supreme commander, was actually in command.
As crown prince
In 764, Li Kuo was made crown prince. Emperor Daizong then tried to transfer his title of Shangshu Ling to Guo Ziyi, but Guo declined on the basis that only Li Kuo had held the title recently, and previously the title had been held by Emperor Taizong. Meanwhile, in 765, a Buddhist nun named Guangcheng claimed to be Li Kuo's mother Consort Shen, but after further interrogation, it was discovered that she had only been Li Kuo's wet nurse, and Emperor Daizong had her whipped to death.Li Kuo's activities as crown prince were not much recorded in the official histories—although, in 778, after Emperor Daizong executed the corrupt chancellor Yuan Zai, he stated to his close associate Li Mi that it was Li Kuo who revealed Yuan's corruption. In 779, when Emperor Daizong fell ill, Li Kuo briefly served as regent, and when Emperor Daizong subsequently died, he succeeded Emperor Daizong.
Early attempts to destroy warlord power (early ''Jianzhong'' era)
After Emperor Dezong took the throne, within the span of less than a year, he carried out several actions to set out his policy differences with his father:- The chancellor Chang Gun, whom Emperor Dezong suspected of being overly powerful, was exiled, replaced with Cui Youfu; subsequently, at Cui's recommendation, Yang Yan was also made chancellor.
- Guo Ziyi, who had much military authority, was effectively forced into retirement, with his commands divided between Li Huaiguang, Chang Qianguang, and Hun Jian.
- Emperor Dezong had the animals in the imperial menagerie released, had many ladies in waiting sent out of the palace, and ordered that eunuchs serving as imperial messengers not be allowed to receive gifts.
- Cui Ning the military governor of Xichuan Circuit, who had governed the circuit for more than a decade and only nominally obeyed imperial authority, was detained at Chang'an, and the imperial government took back control of Xichuan.
- At Yang's suggestion, the tax system was reformed—with the intention to decrease the tax burden on the landowners and farmers and bring merchants, who were previously not taxed, into the taxation system—under a new tax law known as the Law of the Two Taxes.
Meanwhile, Emperor Dezong, under Yang's proposal, also began to consider campaigns to recapture the western prefectures lost to Tibet during and immediately after the Anshi Rebellion. However, his putting Li Huaiguang, known for being a harsh commander, in charge of the project caused a mutiny of the soldiers at Jingyuan Circuit in 780. Emperor Dezong had the Jingyuan mutiny suppressed, to show resolve, but was forced to abandon the plans to act against Tibet.
Rebellion of Four Garrisons
When Emperor Dezong came to the throne, there were four major circuits that were ruled by their military governors in effectively independent manner from the imperial government—Pinglu, governed by Li Zhengji; Weibo, governed by Tian Yue; Chengde, governed by Li Baochen; and Shannan East, governed by Liang Chongyi. The four circuits were allied with each other, and their governors intended to pass the control of the circuits within the family. In 781, when Li Baochen died, Emperor Dezong, wanting to show imperial authority, refused to let his son Li Weiyue inherit the circuit. The four circuits thus prepared for war against the imperial government.Emperor Dezong reacted by commissioning Li Xilie the military governor of Huaixi Circuit to command the army against Shannan East; Ma Sui, Li Baozhen, and Li Sheng to attack Weibo; and Zhu Tao the acting military governor of Lulong Circuit to attack Chengde. Ma, Li Baozhen, and Li Sheng quickly defeated Tian's forces, which were attacking Li Baozhen's Zhaoyi Circuit and forced him to flee back to his capital Wei Prefecture, which Ma, Li Baozhen, Li Sheng, and Li Qiu put under siege. Li Xilie quickly defeated Liang, causing Liang to commit suicide. Zhu was able to persuade Li Weiyue's officer Zhang Xiaozhong to turn against him and attack Li Weiyue with Zhu, and under pressure, another officer of Li Weiyue's, Wang Wujun, killed Li Weiyue and surrendered to imperial forces. Li Na, meanwhile, was trapped at Pu Prefecture. By spring 782, it appeared that Emperor Dezong would be soon successful in his aim to wipe out warlord power and reunify the realm under imperial authority.
Things quickly turned for the worse, however, after Emperor Dezong angered both Zhu and Wang by not giving them what they believed they deserved—in Zhu's case, control of Chengde's Shen Prefecture, and in Wang's case, title as military governor. , each receiving two prefectures with the lesser title of military prefect He also refused to accept Li Na's surrender when Li Na offered to surrender. As a result, Zhu and Wang entered into an alliance with Tian and headed south to lift the siege on Wei Prefecture—defeating Ma, Li Baozhen, and Li Huaiguang to force the situation into a stalemate, while Li Na escaped the trap imperial forces had put him in at Pu Prefecture and returned to his headquarters at Yun Prefecture, leaving imperial forces unable to do much against him. The four rebel generals each claimed princely titles, showing a break from the Tang imperial government, although they continued to use Emperor Dezong's era name of Jianzhong to show some degree of submissiveness. They also persuaded Li Xilie to do the same.
By this point, Cui had died, and Lu Qi became chancellor along with Yang. Lu soon was able to persuade Emperor Dezong that Yang was intending treason, and Emperor Dezong put Yang to death. With Lu largely in power by himself, it was said that at his inducement, Emperor Dezong became unduly harsh, causing the officials and the people to be disappointed in Emperor Dezong. With the necessity of paying for campaigns on multiple fronts, Emperor Dezong added two new taxes—property taxes for houses and transaction tax ; these taxes created heavy burdens, and Emperor Dezong's tax code for these taxes further encouraged people to report on each other when the taxes were not paid properly. It was said that complaints about them filled the realm. The imperial scholar Lu Zhi, whose opinion Emperor Dezong valued, earnestly advised against these taxes and against the campaigns, pointing out that the realm was on the verge of completely falling into rebellion. Emperor Dezong, however, did not accept Lu's advice.