重俊 Chóngjùn

Heir Apparent Jiemin

Chongjun, the Heir Apparent Jiemin, was made Prince of Yixing in the third year of Shengli. At the start of Shenlong he was made Prince of Wei and appointed Governor of Luozhou, with a real fief of a thousand households. Soon he was also given charge of the Yangzhou Grand Area Command. The next year he was made Heir Apparent; because this came during the mourning for the Empress Dowager, the ceremony of investiture was cut down, and an edict had the revenue of the fief he had held as a prince delivered each year to the Eastern Palace. The Supervising Secretary Lu Can submitted: "For the Heir Apparent to receive fief revenue like the princes of the realm cannot be made a rule." An edict ended the arrangement. Chongjun was clear-headed and decisive by nature, but had little sense of rules. Then Yang Jun and Wu Chongxun became his Guests; the two relied on their rank and favor, had no learning, and only played with him at dogs and horses and kickball. The Left Mentor of the Heir Apparent, Yao Ting, sent up memorials time and again to admonish and guide him, and the Right Mentor of the Heir Apparent, Ping Zhenshen, also presented works such as the "Discussion of the Classic of Filial Piety" and "Nurturing Virtue"; the Heir Apparent accepted them but could not put them to use. Wu Sansi, relying on the power of Empress Wei, was planning treason and inwardly hated the Heir Apparent. Chongxun, moreover, was Sansi's son and married to the Anle Princess. He often told the princess to insult Chongjun, who was not born of Empress Wei; she called him a slave, and repeatedly asked that he be deposed and she herself made Imperial Heiress. In the seventh month of the third year, Chongjun, in his anger and resentment, led Li Duozuo together with the Generals of the Left Palace Army Li Sichong, Li Chengkuang, Dugu Yizhi and Shazha Zhongyi, and on forged orders called out the Left Palace Army and the Thousand Cavaliers. They killed Sansi, Chongxun and more than ten of their faction. He sent the General-in-Chief of the Left Imperial Insignia Guard, Qianli, Prince of Cheng, to hold the palace city, and himself led troops to the Suzhang Gate, broke through the barrier and entered, searching for where Empress Wei, the Anle Princess and the Lady of Bright Deportment Shangguan might be. The Empress took the Emperor up onto the Xuanwu Gate. The Chief Ministers Yang Zaisi, Su Gui and Li Jiao, with Zong Chuke and Ji Chune, led more than two thousand soldiers to hold the Taiji Hall, and the Emperor summoned the General of the Right Palace Army, Liu Renjing, and others to lead a hundred of the Flying Cavalry left on guard to resist, so that Duozuo's troops could not advance. The Emperor, leaning on the balustrade, said to the Thousand Cavaliers: "You are my claws and teeth; why have you suddenly turned to rebellion? Whoever can behead the rebels will be rewarded." At that the soldiers turned their weapons and beheaded Duozuo, and the rest of his band scattered. Chongjun fled into the Zhongnan Mountains, meaning to escape to the Turks. Chuke sent the Courageous Commandant Zhao Sishen after him, and while Chongjun was resting in the open country he was killed by his own followers. An edict had his head displayed in the court hall and presented at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and also used to make offering before the coffins of Sansi and Chongxun. When Ruizong took the throne, Chongjun was given further posthumous honors and a posthumous name, and was buried as an attendant at the Ding Mausoleum. Edit

When Chongjun was first killed, none of his officials dared even look at his body. Only Ning Jiaxu, Assistant Magistrate of Yonghe, wailed aloud and took off his clothes to wrap the head, and the people of the time thought him a man of honor. Chuke, in anger, had him seized and put in prison and demoted to Assistant Magistrate of Pingxing, where he died. Now he too was posthumously made Magistrate of Yonghe. Edit