History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 377 Low-key Connotation Wang Shenzhi

Wang Shenzhi was seven feet six inches tall, with a purple face, a square mouth and a prominent nose. In short, he had the appearance of an emperor. He liked to ride a white horse, and was nicknamed "White Horse Sanlang". He was very respectful to his brother Wang Chao. Whenever he made a mistake, Wang Chao would often beat him with a stick, but Wang Shenzhi never dodged or blocked, and never showed any resentment.

Since marching south from Guangzhou to pacifying Fujian, Wang Shenzhi had made the most contributions and was the most prestigious in the army. So Wang Chao abandoned the principle of son succession after the father's death and chose the principle of younger brother succession after the elder brother's death.

After Wang Chao died, Wang Shenzhi gave up his position to his second brother Wang Shengui, but Wang Shengui refused to accept it. So Wang Shenzhi claimed to be the commander of the Weiwu Army and reported to the central government.

The Tang Dynasty court immediately appointed Wang Shenzhi as the governor of the Weiwu Army. Fujian entered the Wang Shenzhi era.

Wang Shenzhi made a series of efforts to stabilize the regime.

First, they carefully selected a cemetery for Wang Chao. Under the operation of Wang Shenzhi, Wang Chao was buried in Panlong Mountain in the northern suburbs of Jinjiang County. In name, it was to borrow the beautiful meaning of "Panlong Mountain", but in reality, it was to weaken Wang Chao's influence in Fuzhou as much as possible.

In addition, Wang Shenzhi continued Wang Chao's preferential attitude towards Chen Yan's family, treated Chen Yan's descendants well, and emphasized the legitimacy of Wang's replacement of Chen.

Another way is to create public opinion. As mentioned in the previous article, the three Wang brothers and the vanguard officer worshipped Jian Ding as the leader. This was obviously fabricated by later generations. The "sword leaping on the ground" is obviously contrary to scientific common sense. In this legend, it was Wang Shenzhi who worshipped Jian Yue, but Wang Shenzhi gave it to his eldest brother Wang Chao, which is even more against common sense. Obviously, this was fabricated by Wang Shenzhi's group, emphasizing that God intended Wang Shenzhi to be the leader;
Another time, Wang Shenzhi bribed a monk in advance and asked him to perform Zen at a temple fair. The temple fair was crowded with people, and when there were the most tourists, the monk suddenly pointed at Wang Shenzhi in the crowd and said, "The third son of King Jinlun has come to the world and is in charge of the power of life and death in Fujian!" People believed it.

Wang Shenzhi also made up a nursery rhyme, "When the tide comes, Yantou disappears; when the tide goes, Shikou comes out." People interpreted that "chao" refers to Wang Chao, "yan" refers to Chen Yan, and "shikou" together means "zhi", so the nursery rhyme means that when Wang Chao comes, Chen Yan will leave, and when Wang Chao leaves, it will be Wang Shenzhi's turn. How far-fetched!
Wang Shenzhi arranged high official positions for the sons of his eldest brother Wang Chao and his second brother Wang Shengui. They had high status and high salaries, but none of them had real power. In particular, Wang Chao's eldest son Wang Yanxing was appointed by Wang Shenzhi as his deputy envoy, giving people the illusion that Wang Yanxing was Wang Shenzhi's successor, in order to appease Wang Chao's sons.

Among them, Wang Yanbin, the son of Wang Shengui, was appointed as the governor of Quanzhou to govern the most revolutionary area. Wang Yanbin governed Quanzhou for 17 years and implemented good policies. The people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the atmosphere was festive and peaceful. However, one day, Wang Yanbin got a white deer and a purple Ganoderma lucidum. A monk named Haoyuan told him that this was a sign of the emperor. From then on, Wang Yanbin thought he could be the emperor and began to become corrupt. Not only did he neglect government affairs, he also did something that broke the bottom line: he sent people to secretly pay tribute to the Later Liang court and requested that he be appointed to govern Fujian.

Unexpectedly, the truth was revealed, and Wang Shenzhi executed the evil monk Haoyuan and dismissed Wang Yanbin from his post and placed him under house arrest.

The case of Wang Yanbin is worth pondering. It proves that the descendants of the Wang family, especially the sons of Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi, did not necessarily fully accept the rule of their third uncle Wang Shenzhi from the bottom of their hearts, and had the urge to seize power; secondly, did Wang Yanbin really want to rebel? Or was it Wang Shenzhi who directed and acted it himself? After all, Wang Yanbin was a leader in the "Yan" generation with outstanding talents.

While stabilizing the internal situation, Wang Shenzhi also had to seek a stable external environment so that he could enjoy the shade and shelter from the elements.

Wang Shenzhi judged the situation and chose the strongest tree at that time - Zhu Wen of Bianzhou. He actively approached Zhu Wen and, under Zhu Wen's recommendation, he was promoted to Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi and was granted the title of Langya Wang.

After some operations, Wang Shenzhi basically controlled the situation in Fujian. After Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty and established the Liang Dynasty, Wang Shenzhi was also one of the first vassal states to express his approval and actively paid tribute to Zhu Wen's Later Liang Dynasty.

At that time, due to the obstruction of Yang Xingmi in Huainan, the land transportation between Fujian and the Central Plains was cut off. Wang Shenzhi took a detour to the Shandong Peninsula by sea, landed in Yantai City, Shandong Province today, and then paid tribute in Bianzhou. At that time, the sea route was extremely dangerous, and accidents of ship capsizing and death occurred frequently. The death rate of tribute envoys was as high as about 40%! However, Wang Shenzhi still insisted on paying tribute every year to express his sincere loyalty.

Zhu Wen was very moved and first appointed Wang Shenzhi as the Minister of the Palace, then the Minister of the Central Secretariat, the Chief Clerk of the Grand Commander of Fuzhou, and promoted him to the King of Min.

In the third year of Kaiping in the Later Liang Dynasty (909), Huainan annexed the entire Jiangxi Province, and its sphere of influence bordered Fujian. Therefore, it sent Zhang Zhiyuan to Fujian to seek good neighborly relations.

However, Zhang Zhiyuan, taking advantage of the prestige of Huainan's annexation of Jiangxi, was arrogant and full of contempt and intimidation towards Wang Shenzhi. Wang Shenzhi was furious and killed Zhang Zhiyuan immediately. He also forwarded the letter from Huainan to Zhu Wen, and sent a big letter of surrender to Zhu Wen by killing the Huainan envoy and severing relations with Huainan.

Afterwards, Wang Shenzhi actively improved his relationship with Qian Liu of Hangzhou. In the second year of Zhenming (916), he married his daughter to Qian Liu's son Qian Yuanrong; the following year he let his second son Wang Yanjun marry the daughter of Liu Yan of Southern Han.

In this way, Wang Shenzhi won a relatively stable external environment for Fujian. Although he was at odds with Huainan, there was no large-scale conflict between the two sides throughout his rule.

On the contrary, by clearly drawing a line between themselves and Huainan, they gained the support and endorsement of all surrounding forces that were hostile to Huainan.

After Li Cunxu overthrew the Later Liang Dynasty, Wang Shenzhi immediately pledged loyalty to the Later Tang Dynasty and took the initiative to change the name of Yongchang County in his territory to Futang County to avoid the Later Tang Dynasty's taboo name (Chang).

The Later Tang court appointed Wang Shenzhi as the Acting Grand Tutor and Minister of the Secretariat.

In the third year of Tongguang (925), Wang Shenzhi became seriously ill and handed over the military and political power to his eldest son Wang Yanhan. In December, Wang Shenzhi died of illness, and his eldest son Wang Yanhan proclaimed himself the heir to the Weiwu Army.

Wang Shenzhi's historical presence is very low, so low that from the Huang Chao uprising to Li Siyuan's accession to the throne, a period of more than 64 years, including criticism and discussion, there are only a few thousand words mentioned above. The most detailed record of his life is "Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Annals·Min·Taizu Family". The record of Wang Shenzhi's 3 years of life is not even half the length of Li Cunxu's last years, and there are a lot of inscriptions in the middle. If these watered-down posts are simplified, it will be embarrassing to find that the length of "Taizu Family" is comparable to that of some prime ministers and generals, which can be described as short and concise.

However, we must never ignore Wang Shenzhi's contribution to history. It is precisely because he pursued a policy of recuperation and development, and almost never fought with the outside world that he had no sense of existence. This is the misfortune of later historians, but it is the greatest happiness of the people of Fujian at that time!
(End of this chapter)