History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 288 Then play music and then dance

[Then the music begins, then the dance begins]

Liang and Jin had been confronting each other along the river for more than ten years. Suddenly, the Later Tang Dynasty destroyed Liang in eight days and gained great prestige. Li Maozhen of Fengxiang was frightened to death, and Former Shu and Huainan were also terrified.

Before the Later Tang launched the "Left Hook" operation, it contacted Huainan and proposed a joint attack from the north and south. Huainan's powerful official Xu Wen planned to raise troops to respond, but was stopped by his think tank Yan Keqiu. Now, Xu Wen blamed Yan Keqiu for his misstep, saying that the Later Tang had previously asked us to send troops to help, but we refused. What should we do now?

Yan Keqiu was calm and said with a smile: "Li Cunxu has just gained control of the Central Plains. He is full of ambition and arrogance. He is not a concern. I dare say that within a few years, there will be a great turmoil in the Later Tang Dynasty. What we need to do is to paralyze him with a large amount of bribes and a humble attitude, wait and see, and enjoy the show from the front row."

According to Yan Keqiu's arrangement, Huainan sent envoy Lu Ping to visit the Later Tang Dynasty. Lu Ping brought sincere greetings and a generous gift to Li Cunxu: 200 taels of gold, 3,000 taels of silver, 1,200 pieces of silk, 5 catties of camphor, and 100 pairs of dragon and phoenix silk shoes.

Before Lu Ping left, Yan Keqiu handed him a handbook with hundreds of questions and corresponding standard answers. These were questions Yan Keqiu guessed Li Cunxu might ask, and the corresponding answers were diplomatic words Yan Keqiu had carefully thought out and repeatedly considered all night.

Due to time constraints, Yan Keqiu did not have time to copy the manuscript and only gave the draft to Lu Ping. Issues related to "Heiyundu" and Chai Zaiyong were circled and emphasized, requiring special attention.

On the way, Lu Ping digested and absorbed this doctrine and recited it by heart. When Li Cunxu met Lu Ping, the first question he asked was indeed about Huainan's ace elite "Heiyundu", and the second question was about the famous general Chai Zaiyong. Lu Ping came prepared and answered fluently without losing the dignity of the state, while also flattering Li Cunxu tactfully.

Li Cunxu was very pleased and had a new respect for the ruler and ministers of Huainan, believing that Huainan was a land of outstanding people and talents and should not be taken lightly. Therefore, Li Cunxu's strategy of "conquering Shu first and Huai later" was closely related to this meeting.

After Lu Ping returned to Huainan, he reported what he had seen and heard about the Later Tang Dynasty. The gist of it was that Li Cunxu was arrogant and conceited, favored treacherous people, was suspicious of meritorious officials, had a dark and corrupt political system, and his people were disunited and disloyal... all as Yan Keqiu had expected. Xu Wen was relieved for the time being and admired Yan Keqiu's ability to predict the future even more.

Liu Yan of the Southern Han Dynasty, who ruled Guangdong and Guangxi and proclaimed himself emperor, was also afraid of the power of the Later Tang Dynasty at first, and sent an envoy, He Ci, to Beijing to meet with the emperor and congratulate Li Cunxu on overthrowing the Later Liang Dynasty. After He Ci came back, he also said that Li Cunxu was arrogant and lazy in government affairs, and had no ability to govern the country at all, so he was not worth worrying about. Liu Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and from then on, he rested his head and stopped sending envoys to the Later Tang Dynasty.

Most of the envoys who visited the Later Tang, including those from Huainan and Southern Han, brought back a very similar narrative, that is, Li Cunxu was complacent, unambitious, licentious and immoral, and had no ability to govern the country.

The public has sharp eyes. We watched him build a tall building, entertain guests, and finally saw his building collapse.

Li Cunxu spent more than ten years to destroy the Later Liang Dynasty, but only three years to destroy himself. What he did in the last three years occupies more than half of his life. The "Zhuangzong Benji" in the "Old Five Dynasties History" has a total of eight volumes, of which only about two and a half volumes are used to introduce his life before the age of 38, while the last three years of his life are used in five and a half volumes.

Interestingly, his glory is only in the first three volumes. After he overthrew the Later Liang at the age of 38 and reached the peak of his life, he began to indulge in freedom in the last five volumes. The script of his life has a big reversal. In the first part, he was a young and heroic ruler who expanded the territory, and in the second part, he played music and danced. Li Cunxu was criticized the most for the following aspects: dark politics, excessive hunting, favoritism of eunuchs and actors, suspicion and rejection of meritorious service, and failure to supervise people...

Some of these contents overlap, and there is also a logical progression. For example, the behavior of favoring eunuchs will inevitably exclude meritorious service. We will make a detailed analysis and summary below.

Out of political necessity, Li Cunxu needed to completely deny the Later Liang Dynasty and create a tone of public opinion that the Tang Dynasty was revived, such as described in the previous article. This approach inevitably went too far and sometimes went too far, such as abolishing the laws of the Later Liang Dynasty.

In the third year of Kaiping (909), the Later Liang Dynasty ordered Xiao Qing (grandfather Xiao Fang, an official in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong and prime minister in the reigns of Emperor Yizong and Emperor Xizong) and six others to lead the revision of the "Liang Laws and Regulations Format". Laws, decrees, rules and regulations, which are different but also related, constitute a complete legal code system in feudal society. On the basis of absorbing and learning from the "Laws and Regulations Format" of the Tang Dynasty, the Later Liang Dynasty kept pace with the times and refined it according to the actual development and needs of society. It took more than a year to complete the revision.

The "Format of Liang Laws and Regulations" consists of 103 volumes (30 volumes of laws and regulations, 10 volumes of rules, 20 volumes of regulations, 13 volumes of catalogues, and 30 volumes of legal commentaries). Zhu Wen then issued an edict to promulgate it throughout the country.

After Li Cunxu overthrew the Later Liang Dynasty, he politicized everything he did. He did not cherish the precious legacy of the Later Liang Dynasty, but directly abolished it and ordered the restoration of the Tang Dynasty system. It is said that at that time, only Dingzhou had the Tang Dynasty's "Law Format", so he ordered the Dingzhou local government to copy it to the central government, and a total of 286 volumes were obtained. The Minister of Punishment Lu Zhi also presented 13 volumes of "Tongguang Criminal Law General Classification".

The Later Liang Dynasty kept pace with the times and reduced the 286 volumes to 103, and the Later Tang Dynasty suddenly expanded it to 299 volumes. This was a step backwards in history.

The Liang Dynasty's "Laws and Regulations" had been in effect for more than a decade, but the Later Tang Dynasty rudely abolished it without replacing it with a new one in a timely and effective manner. As an explanation and guide for the policy, the Later Tang Dynasty's central government's approach was even more confusing: the Empress Dowager's "imperial edict", the Empress's "teaching order", and the Emperor's "edict" all went hand in hand, enjoyed the same legal status, and were highly independent and had no communication with each other.

All three orders were issued directly to local governments. Sometimes local governments would receive three "highest instructions" with completely opposite meanings at the same time. The red-headed documents contradicted each other, making it difficult for local governments to take action. As a result, local governments simply ignored everyone and quietly implemented "local autonomy", and the red-headed documents from the central government became waste paper.

This ultimately led to a ridiculous and embarrassing situation: the original order was not restored, the current order was abolished, and no one implemented the new order. This was the root cause of the political chaos in the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty.

Why did the situation of "three orders at the same time" appear? Who gave the queen such great power? This is about the woman behind the man, Li Cunxu's wife Liu.

First of all, it is important to emphasize that this Mrs. Liu was the wife of Li Cunxu. Li Keyong's legal wife was also surnamed Liu and was mentioned as "Liu" in the previous article. Therefore, it is important to note that the two wives of Li and his son were not the same person. Moreover, the personalities of the two Lius were very different. Whether in terms of reputation at the time or in the evaluation of later generations, the two were worlds apart. In order to distinguish them, we call this wife of Li Cunxu "Little Liu".

Xiao Liushi embodied all the negative comments about women in traditional culture, and lived up to the evaluation of "beauty brings disaster". Even the old man Ouyang Xiu, who was very frugal with words, did not hesitate to write about her various absurd behaviors in "New History of the Five Dynasties". It can be said that the reason why Li Cunxu was able to quickly die within three years was closely related to his Xiao Liushi.

(End of this chapter)