Yang She


Yang She, courtesy name Wenchuan, was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty and Tang's successor Later Liang, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Tang's final emperor Emperor Ai and Later Liang's both commonly recognized emperors, Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizu's son Zhu Zhen.

During Tang dynasty

Background and early career

It is not known when Yang She was born. His family was originally from Tong Prefecture, and claimed ancestry from the Sui dynasty general Yang Su. His grandfather Yang Yizhi served as a personnel officer at Hao Prefecture. At one point, Yang Yizhi became a teaching scholar at Su Prefecture, and therefore settled there, making it the childhood home of Yang She's father Yang Yan, who would eventually serve as the deputy minister of defense and the acting director of finances by the time of his death in 878. Yang She had at least two younger brothers, Yang Zhu and Yang Dong.
Yang She himself passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class in 875. During the subsequent reign of Emperor Xizong's brother and successor Emperor Zhaozong, he successively served as Libu Langzhong, a supervisory official at the ministry of civil service affairs ; the deputy minister of rites ; and deputy minister of justice. In 897, he became the deputy minister of civil service affairs. In early 904, he became Shangshu Zuo Cheng, one of the secretaries general of the executive bureau of government. When Emperor Zhaozong was forced by the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit to move the capital from Chang'an to Luoyang later that year, Yang accompanied the emperor to Luoyang. He was distressed by the physical hold that Zhu had over the emperor and the imperial government, but did not dare to leave governmental service. After the emperor's arrival in Luoyang, he was made the minister of civil service affairs.

Chancellorship

Later in the year, Zhu Quanzhong had Emperor Zhaozong assassinated and replaced with his son Emperor Ai. In spring 905, Zhu further removed the chancellors Pei Shu, Dugu Sun, and Cui Yuan, believing the accusations of their fellow chancellor Liu Can that they would not be obedient to Zhu. In their place, Zhang Wenwei and Yang She were named chancellors, with the designations Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi. It was said that Yang, who was peaceful and humble in disposition, wept with his family members upon hearing that he was commissioned a chancellor, and stated to his son Yang Ningshi that this commission would surely bring disaster on Yang Ningshi. At that time, his younger brother Yang Zhu was an imperial scholar, and chose to resign to avoid appearance of impropriety.
In 907, Emperor Ai was preparing to yield the throne to Zhu. As part of the ceremonial passage of the throne, Yang, acting as Shizhong, the head of the examination bureau of government, was put in delivering the main imperial seal to Zhu. Yang She, as well as Zhang and Xue Yiju, went in a grand procession from Luoyang to Daliang, where Zhu was at the time, for the ceremony. Zhu accepted the throne, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang.

During Later Liang

During Emperor Taizu's reign

Yang She continued as a chancellor of the new Later Liang until 908, when he was removed from the chancellor position and made You Puye, one of the heads of the executive bureau. Later in the year, however, when he was Zuo Puye, he was again made chancellor with the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, when one of the chancellors who replaced him, Zhang Ce, retired. He was again removed from his chancellor position in 909 and kept only the position of Zuo Puye. He apparently was also in charge of the imperial examinations, but was said to have had few accomplishments otherwise.

During Zhu Zhen's reign

At some point, Yang She must have returned to chancellorship, for he was described by the History of the Five Dynasties as a chancellor as of 915, by which point Emperor Taizu had died and his son Zhu Zhen was emperor. That year—when Yang, in addition to being chancellor, was said to be You Puye, Menxia Shilang, and the director of salt and iron monopoly, was removed from his chancellor post and made only Zuo Puye. In 916, he further retired from the Zuo Puye post and made a senior advisor to the Crown Prince—an entirely honorary post as there was no crown prince at the time. This was the last historical reference to Yang, and it is not known when he died.