History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 26 Emperor Yizong's Death
【Wei Yinyu case】

Wei Yinyu was the vice president of the National University for Nobles and the director of the Imperial Academy. He submitted a memorial to expose a "moral case": Guo Jingshu, the manager of the Royal Armory (the Inner Workshop Manager), had promiscuous relationships with men and women, was violating morals and was shameless.

As we mentioned before, the Imperial Academy is a real aristocratic school with only 300 seats, and only accepts the children of officials above the third rank and dukes, and the great-grandchildren of the second rank and above. The teachers are all of the fifth rank and above.

As the vice-president (rank 4), Wei Yinyu was a role model for teachers, had high moral standards, despised vulgarity, and hated adultery the most. So he submitted a memorial to expose and denounce the evil tendencies and promote righteousness.

Unexpectedly, after reading the memorial, Emperor Yizong of Tang became furious and actually ordered Wei Yinyu to be beaten to death with sticks.

The Dean of the Imperial College, a high-ranking official of the fourth rank, and the vice-president of the children of princes and nobles, was beaten to death. And even this was not enough to satisfy their hatred, so their house was raided, all their property was confiscated, and their wife and children were taken as slaves.

Why did Emperor Yizong of Tang come to this point?
It turned out that the Guo Jingshu who was reported was the brother-in-law of Emperor Yizong of Tang, the younger brother of his favorite concubine Guo Shufei, and the uncle of Princess Tongchang.

Concubine Guo Shu once "drank too much and enjoyed herself too much" at Wei Baoheng's house and stayed out all night. Especially when Princess Tongchang was seriously ill, Concubine Guo Shu stayed in the mansion of her husband for a long time in the name of visiting her mother.

At her age, he was one of them. Some could speak and some could not. People have two tongues. Anyway, they are all right. They can't get rid of it even if they jump into the Yellow River... Mother-in-law loves her husband, and children love candy. As time went by, rumors spread that Concubine Guo Shu and Wei Baoheng had done something shameful that violated human ethics.

The mother-in-law is having an affair with her son-in-law!
However, Wei Yinyu chose to report that Concubine Guo's brother was shameless and had no moral integrity.

Don’t call a monk a bald thief in front of him; Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty avoided the word “green”.

Wei Yinyu's letter of accusation directly hit the nail on the head for Emperor Yizong of Tang. The fact that the matter had not been made clear really angered Emperor Yizong to death.

After Wei Baoheng found out, he was not angry but happy. Here comes the opportunity!
On May 5, Tian Xianjian, the cabinet official who received the memorial, was demoted to the position of Qiaoling Management Officer (Qiaoling is the tomb of Emperor Ruizong of Tang, Li Dan), and was sent to look after the tombs, just because he accepted Wei Yinyu's memorial.

Yan Jingzhi, the head of the imperial court, was caned 15 times and exiled to the Southern Court.

Wei Yinyu's wife Cui and nine concubines were all sent to the palace as slaves.

Wei Yinyu's uncle, father-in-law, and elder brother-in-law were also banished to Guangdong and Guangxi.
Du Yixiu, the Imperial Censor (fifth rank), was a close friend of Wei Yinyu and naturally a member of Wei Yinyu's faction. He was demoted to the post of Sihu in Duanzhou (now Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province).

Hand in hand, let’s go together on a funded tour to Lingnan and Guangdong.

Du Yixiu, the son of Du Chong, needs no introduction.

Wei Baoheng went further and further on the path of eliminating dissidents and ganging up on dissidents, using every possible means. He was extremely sarcastic and spied on the officials in the court, looking for a breakthrough, tearing open the defense line, blooming in the center, outflanking on both wings, and using a point to lead the whole, making sure to remove all obstacles.

A large number of officials were demoted without reason, and major personnel changes occurred frequently in the court.

Wei Baoheng naturally had to fill these vacancies with his own confidants and plant his own spies in the court. For example, he wanted to promote his confidant Pei Tiao, but was worried that the fair and strict Zuo Cheng Li Zhang would not give him face, so he sent someone to greet Li Zhang in advance.

As expected, Li Zhang refused to bend the law for personal gain, did not give Wei Baoheng face, insisted on principles, and handled matters impartially, especially when it came to promoting officials, and would not tolerate favoritism or corruption.

Bravo.

Therefore, in July, Li Zhang was demoted from the central government and sent to be the "Xuanshe Surveillance Envoy", working in Xuanzhou (now Xuancheng City, Anhui Province).

"Those who follow me will prosper, and those who oppose me will perish" is Wei Baoheng's political declaration.

"Who else--"

Wei Baoheng was very satisfied. It took him only a little over a year to rise from an eighth-rank official to the prime minister. Prime minister? Humph, there are different ranks. There are only a handful of people like me who can make a big fuss with their spit and shake the whole city with their stomping feet.

I looked through the small account book, oh - yes, there is one more person, I almost forgot about it.

Wei Baoheng looked through his little notebook and found another person who had slipped through the net: Prime Minister Wang Duo.

"I have killed two prime ministers, how can I spare you?" Wang Duo was demoted to the governor of Xuanwu Army, banished from the court and excluded from the core power.

Wang Duo was the chief examiner when Wei Baoheng passed the imperial examination.

Under the imperial examination system, the most important part of official ethics was the relationship between the chief examiner and the successful candidates (like father and son), and the successful candidates in the same year (like brothers). This teacher-student relationship and classmate relationship was a natural political alliance, especially when factional struggles occurred among the scholar class. This was vividly demonstrated in the political struggles of the Tang, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

Wang Duo was the chief examiner when Wei Baoheng passed the imperial examination, and Xiao Ke, who had been demoted in the "Yu Cong case", was a classmate of Wei Baoheng who passed the imperial examination in the same year.

If we only look at the resumes of these three people and investigate their social relationships, we will assume that Wang Duo and Xiao Ke must also be "Wei Baoheng's followers." However, they are not. They despised Wei Baoheng's character, and were ruthlessly excluded by him.

At this point, the newly appointed son-in-law Wei Baoheng first took advantage of the princess's death to brew the "medical dispute case", and then in the next two years created a series of politically-charged officialdom earthquakes such as the "Liu Zhan case", "Yu Cong case", and "Wei Yinyu case", carried out a major reshuffle, and finally monopolized power.

If God wants to destroy it, it must first make it crazy.

Just when Wei Baoheng achieved complete victory in the political struggle, he suddenly saw a fatal hidden danger - his father-in-law would not live long!
His father-in-law, Emperor Yizong of Tang, was already 41 years old.

Seeing that Emperor Yizong of Tang was in declining health, Wei Baoheng was more anxious than the emperor himself. "My old father-in-law, my old Taishan, you are my dear father! You are more dear to my grandfather than my father. No matter what, you have to hold on."

Emperor Yizong of Tang had a wide range of hobbies. Apart from not liking to attend court and handle state affairs, he liked singing, dancing, rap, basketball, and was superstitious about Buddha.

Before this, whenever the dragon was in poor health, he would either grant amnesty to the people or donate money to the temple and beg for the Buddha's blessing. This worked every time.

Now, Emperor Yizong of Tang had another impulse and wanted to follow the example of his grandfather, Emperor Xianzong of Tang, in welcoming the Buddha's bones.

To welcome the Buddha's bones means to send people to Famen Temple to bring the Buddha's bones and relics to the capital, a distance of about 300 miles.

It is not as simple as sending a rider to fetch the Buddha's bones. It is a huge and costly project.

As soon as the imperial edict to welcome the Buddha's bones was issued, petitions to dissuade the emperor from doing so came in like snowflakes. Are you still imitating the Tang Xianzong's welcoming of the Buddha's bones? Have you forgotten that Emperor Xianzong died suddenly after welcoming the Buddha's bones? Isn't it bad luck for you to imitate this?
Tang Yizong was drugged by someone, perhaps Wei Baoheng (I hereby declare: there is no evidence, no historical data, this is just a guess, if there are any mistakes, I will not be responsible), and he was determined to welcome the Buddha's bones and express his piety. He even made a flag saying: "Even if I can only take a look, it will be worth it for me to die (I will have no regrets even if I can see it in my life)!"

Why did you swear this?

Emperor Yizong of Tang was stubborn and no one could persuade him.

Finally, in March of the 873th year of Xiantong (3), the money-burning project to welcome the Buddha's bones was officially launched:

Pagodas were built on a large scale in the capital; curtains were woven with jewels, carts were made of sandalwood, long banners and umbrellas on the roofs were decorated with flowers, and all the utensils were decorated with gold, silver, jade, brocade, silk, and jadeite. People traveled back and forth between the capital and Famen Temple, with carriages and horses galloping day and night.

In April, the Buddha's bones arrived at the capital, Chang'an. The imperial guards led the way, the royal band played music and drums, and the lights were bright for dozens of miles... The scale was unprecedented and grand, far exceeding the most solemn ceremony of heaven worship in the empire, and even the late Emperor Xianzong could not even dream of it; the rich families built colorful pavilions on both sides of the road to show off their wealth.

Inspired by this, Emperor Yizong of Tang personally went forward to greet him. The supreme ruler of the Tang Empire, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was so excited that he knelt on the ground, prostrated himself, and cried with tears, and respectfully clasped his hands together and raised them to his forehead.

The monks who came with him and the elderly people among the people who had experienced the welcoming of the Buddha's bones by Emperor Xianzong (which took place in 819, 54 years ago) were all given large amounts of gold, silver and silk.

Emperor Yizong of Tang personally brought the Buddha's bones into the palace.

Three days later, the Buddha's bones were enshrined in the Chonghua Temple in Anguo. Emperor Yizong of Tang issued another decree: a general amnesty for the whole country!
Did the effort of mobilizing so many people and wasting so much money and effort to welcome the Buddha's bones work?
Of course, the results are immediate!

4月8日迎佛骨，7月16日唐懿宗病危，7月18日赶紧立下遗诏、交代后事，7月19日就急匆匆驾崩了。享年41岁，过早的离开了我们。

From the reception of the Buddha's bones to his death, exactly one hundred days passed.

The last will and testament of Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty: Prince Pu Li Yan is the crown prince and inherits the throne; Wei Baoheng is the regent.

(End of this chapter)