貞 Zhēn

Prince of Yue

Zhen, Prince of Yue, was first made Prince of Han, later moved to Prince of Yuan, and then enfeoffed as Prince of Yue. Zhen was good at riding and archery, read widely in literature and history, and had ability in administration; he was one of the able princes of the imperial clan. Early in Empress Wu's rule, he was promoted in turn to Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent and Prefect of Yuzhou. When Zhongzong was deposed and lived at Fangling, Zhen, together with Yuanjia, Prince of Han, and his son Zhuan, Duke of Huang; Lingkui, Prince of Lu, and his son Ai, Prince of Fanyang; Yuangui, Prince of Huo, and his son Xu, Prince of Jiangdu; and his own son Chong, Prince of Langya, plotted to restore the rightful order. In the fourth year of Chuigong, when the Hall of Light was completed, the empress summoned all the imperial clan to take part in the sacrificial rites; they all suspected that she would then carry out a great slaughter and leave none of their line alive. As matters grew urgent, Zhuan forged a letter under the emperor's seal to Chong, saying, "I am held captive; you princes should raise troops at once." So Chong ordered his Administrator, Xiao Decong, to recruit troops, and informed the princes of the date for the rising. In the eighth month Chong rose first, but none of the princes responded; only Zhen led troops to attack Shangcai and took it, and by then Chong had already been defeated. Zhen gradually brought the counties under him into line and gathered seven thousand men, whom he formed into five camps: Zhen held the central camp, with Pei Shoude as Grand General commanding it; Zhao Chengmei as Commandant of the Left commanded the left camp; Lü Hongdao as Commandant of the Right commanded the right camp; An Mohe as Commandant commanded the rear army; and Wang Xiaozhi as General of the Right commanded the vanguard. Wei Qingli was made Adjutant, and some five hundred officials were appointed. But the men had been coerced and lured, and had no will to fight; his household servants all wore talismans to ward off weapons. In the ninth month, the empress sent Qu Chongyu, General-in-Chief of the Left Leopard Strategy Guard, and Cen Changqian, Minister of the Summer Office, with a hundred thousand troops to attack him, with Zhang Guangfu, Vice Director of the Phoenix Hall, in overall command of the armies; and she issued an edict striking Zhen and his sons from the register of the imperial clan and changing their surname to "Hui" [viper]. When Chongyu and the others halted before Yu Prefecture, Zhen's youngest son Gui and Pei Shoude gave battle, and their troops broke, so Zhen shut the gates and held the city. Shoude was a brave fighter. When Zhen first rose, he had given him his daughter in marriage and made him his confidant. Now Shoude wanted to kill Zhen to redeem himself. As the government army closed in on the city, his household said to Zhen, "Now that things have come to this, how can a prince submit to death and disgrace?" He at once took poison and died. Gui killed himself, and Shoude and the princess hanged themselves together. From his rising to his defeat was twenty days in all. Earlier, Zhen had looked at his reflection in water and could not see his head; he was troubled by it, and before long disaster came. Chong was Zhen's eldest son. He was fond of learning, brave and able, and had been promoted in turn to Prefect of Bo Prefecture. When he first rose he had five thousand men; he crossed the Yellow River and made for Wushui. The Magistrate of Wushui sent an urgent appeal to Wei Prefecture, and the prefecture sent Ma Xuansu, Magistrate of Shen, with troops to man the walls first. Chong attacked, and using the wind, piled up firewood to burn the gate; but as the fire took hold, the wind turned back, and his men lost heart. One of his followers, Dong Yuanji, said openly, "The prince is fighting the state; that is rebellion!" Chong beheaded him as a warning to the rest, but the men were afraid and scattered, and only a few dozen household servants followed him. He fled back to Bo Prefecture and was stabbed to death by the gatekeeper. The empress then ordered Qiu Shenji to attack him, but before the troops arrived Chong was already dead; from his rising to his defeat was seven days. He had two younger brothers, Qian and Wen. Qian, Duke of Changshan, was put to death for it. Wen, because he had informed earlier, was banished to Lingnan. Earlier, Zhen had sent a dispatch to Zhao Gui, Prefect of Shouzhou, telling him of the rising and asking for passage. Gui received the dispatch and promised to respond, and his wife, the Grand Princess Changle, also urged the princes to win merit early; so Gui and the princess both died. Xue Yi, Prefect of Ji Prefecture, plotted with his younger brother Shao to respond to Chong, and took the labour-service and tax cloth of his jurisdiction to prepare troops and recruit men; when Chong was defeated, he was thrown into prison and died. Xue Yi was the son of the Commandant-escort Xue Guan, his mother was the Grand Princess Chengyang, and he was Marquis of Hedong County. Shao was married to Princess Taiping and had been promoted in turn to Supernumerary General of the Right Jade Strategy Guard; as the princess's husband he was not executed, but starved to death in prison in Henan. Early in the Shenlong period, Jing Hui and others memorialised that Chong and his father had died for the dynasty, and asked that their ranks and fiefs be restored, but Wu Sansi and others blocked it. In the fourth year of Kaiyuan, their ranks and fiefs were at last restored, and the authorities gave Zhen the posthumous name Jing, for "one who in death did not forget his lord". In the fifth year, a further edict said, "The prince's line of heirs has ended and his fief has been abolished, which grieves me deeply. Let Lin, Duke of Kui, son of the late Prince of Xu and grand-nephew of Zhen, succeed as Prince by Succession and carry on the prince's sacrifices." When Lin died, the title was not passed on. The son of Zhen's youngest son, Zhen, was banished beyond the Ridges, and for several generations the family could not return. In the Kaicheng period, a granddaughter brought the coffins of four generations back north and asked that they be buried beside the prince's tomb. An edict praised and pitied her, and ordered the Court of the Imperial Clan and Jingzhao Prefecture to search out the grave site for her, allowing burial even to those not entitled to be buried in attendance at the imperial mausoleum. The woman's name was Yuanzhen, and she became a Daoist priestess. Edit