倓 Tán

Emperor Chengtian, Tan, was first made Prince of Jianning. He was heroic and resolute, with talent and strategy, and skilled at riding and archery. During An Lushan's rebellion he commanded the personal troops and escorted the imperial carriage. When they crossed the Wei, the common people blocked the road to keep the Heir Apparent back, and the Heir Apparent sent word to them, saying, "His Majesty has had to flee; can I leave his side?" Tan came forward and urged him, "The rebel barbarian has overturned the proper order, and the four seas are falling apart. If we do not use the people's feelings to seek a restoration, then even if you follow His Majesty into Shu, everything east of the San Pass will no longer belong to the dynasty. No filial piety is greater than giving peace to the altars of the state. Your Highness should recruit bold men, hurry to Hexi and gather the herds of horses. The troops now garrisoning the frontier number no fewer than a hundred thousand, and Guangbi's and Ziyi's armies are whole in Heshuo; to plan the restoration together with them is the best course." The Prince of Guangping also supported this, and so the decision was made. The Heir Apparent went north across the Wei; the weapons were poor, the troops' morale collapsed, and they fought dozens of battles a day. Tan followed with several hundred brave horsemen, and in every engagement he was always first in, his sleeves dark with blood, without saying a word of it. When the Heir Apparent sometimes went past mealtime without eating, Tan would weep uncontrollably, and the whole army looked on. When they reached Lingwu and the Heir Apparent took the throne, it was proposed to make Tan Marshal of the Troops of the Realm, but those around the emperor insisted on the Prince of Guangping. The emperor said, "Guangping is already the eldest heir; what need has he to be marshal?" They replied, "When the heir apparent goes with the army he is called Soother of the Army, and when he stays behind he is called Supervisor of the State. A marshal is a Soother of the Army, and no one is more fitting than the Prince of Guangping." The emperor agreed, and instead an edict put Tan in command of the personal army, with Li Fuguo as Marshal of his headquarters. At that time Concubine Zhang, the Liangdi, was in favour, and she and Fuguo were in league, trying to unsettle the imperial heir. Tan, loyal and outspoken, spoke of it to the emperor several times, and so he was slandered by the Liangdi and Fuguo, who falsely said, "Tan resents not being in command of the army, and is sullen and harbours treacherous intentions." The emperor was misled by one-sided talk and ordered Tan to die, but soon regretted it and saw the truth. The next year the Prince of Guangping recovered the two capitals and sent Li Mi to report the victory. Mi had long been close to the emperor, and in the course of easy talk he spoke of Tan. The emperor's face changed and he said, "In the hard times Tan truly did his part, but small men set him against his brother and he wanted to harm him. Thinking of the altars of the state, I put aside my love and dealt with him." Mi said, "At that time I was in Hexi and know the details. The Prince of Guangping is deeply devoted to his brothers, and even now when he speaks of Jianning he sobs uncontrollably. What Your Majesty says came from slanderous mouths." The emperor wept and said, "It is done; nothing can be done about it!" Mi said, "Has Your Majesty ever heard the 'Melons of the Yellow Terrace'? Gaozong had eight sons, four of them born to the Heavenly Empress, who formed a line of their own, and Ruizong was the youngest. The eldest, Hong, was Heir Apparent, humane, intelligent, filial and brotherly. The Empress, who was just then planning to rule from the court, poisoned him and set up her second son, Xian. Xian lived in daily fear, and whenever he attended the emperor he dared not say anything. So he composed a song and had the musicians sing it, hoping to move the emperor and the Empress to understanding. Its words were: 'I planted melons below the Yellow Terrace; the melons ripened, heavy and many. Pick one, and the melons do well; pick a second, and the melons grow few. A third may still be said to do no harm; pick a fourth, and you go home with an armful of vine.' Yet Xian was in the end cast out by the Empress and died in Qianzhong. Your Majesty has already picked one; take care not to pick a second!" The emperor was startled and said, "Where did you get such words?" At that time the Prince of Guangping had won great merit but was also being schemed against by the Empress [Zhang], so Mi took the occasion of his reply to touch on it, and the Prince of Guangping was safe after that. When he came to the throne he posthumously made Tan Prince of Qi. In the third year of Dali an edict declared that Tan, in a time of hardship, had been first to settle the great plan, had overridden the opinions of the many, and had merit in the restoration; so he was raised to the posthumous title Emperor Chengtian, and the youngest daughter of Princess Xingxin, of the Zhang family, was made Empress Gongshun and married to him in the afterlife. He was buried at the Shun Mausoleum, and his tablet was placed in the temple of Emperor Fengtian, in the same hall but a separate chamber. Earlier, when Li Mi asked that further posthumous honours be given to Tan, Daizong said, "Tan was loyal and filial by nature but suffered from slander. What if we posthumously make him an emperor?" Mi replied, "In the Kaiyuan era the brothers of the Retired Emperor were all posthumously made heirs apparent." The emperor said, "That was only the brotherly love of our forebears; how can it compare with Tan's merit?" So he was given the posthumous title of emperor. Envoys were sent to Pengyuan to bring back his coffin, but when it reached the city gate the hearse would not move. The emperor said to Mi, "Can it be that he bears a grudge? Go and sacrifice to him, and make my intentions clear. Besides, you are one who knew how Tan settled the plan in the hard times." Mi wrote two stanzas of a dirge recounting Tan's aims and had the pallbearers sing them; Mi then pushed the hearse, and it moved, and all who watched wept for him. Edit

Mi, Prince of Wei, was first made Prince of Xiping. He died young, and in the fifth month of the first year of Baoying he was posthumously enfeoffed together with the Prince of Yun. Edit