Wu Yuanheng

Life

His lineage is described in more than one way. One account makes him a grandson of Wu Pingyi and a great-grandson of Wu Zaide, who was a male clan relative of Wu Zetian; another calls him a great-grandnephew of Wu Zetian. A genealogy also lists Wu Zhen as his grandfather and Wu Jiu (713–790) as his father; his agnatic cousin was Wu Ruheng (769–824), his clan relative was Wu Shaoyi, and his son was Wu Yihuang.

In 783, the fourth year of the Jianzhong era under Emperor Dezong, he passed the presented-scholar examination and was repeatedly appointed to an envoy’s staff. During the Zhenyuan era he served as Investigating Censor, magistrate of Huayuan, Vice Director of the Court of Judicial Review, and a langzhong of the administrative bureaus, becoming Censor-in-Chief near the end of the era. The langzhong post is variously rendered as Right Bureau langzhong and Left Bureau langzhong of the Department of State Affairs; after Emperor Shunzong’s accession he was demoted to Right Junior Companion to the Crown Prince, then under Emperor Xianzong restored as Censor-in-Chief and promoted to Vice Minister of Revenue.

In the second year of Yuanhe (807), he was appointed Menxia Shilang and Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, concurrently overseeing the Ministry of Revenue, and was enfeoffed as Duke of Linhuai; in October he became military governor of Xichuan in Jiannan. In Xichuan he lived frugally and treated the people leniently; after three years, the administration and populace were prosperous. In 813 he returned to court to take charge of government and resumed the chancellorship.

He exchanged poems and prose with Li Zongmin. Liu Zongyuan, however, was consistently displeased with him.

After returning to court, Wu Yuanheng strongly advocated curbing the regional military governors and supported military action against them. In 815, Pei Du campaigned in Huaixi against Wu Yuanji; when Wang Chengzong petitioned for Wu Yuanji’s pardon, Wu Yuanheng rebuked the request as insolent. On the third day of the sixth month, while going to the morning court audience, he was assassinated by a killer sent by Li Shidao; he was fifty-eight. He was posthumously granted the title Situ and the posthumous name Zhongmin (忠愍), also written Zhongmin (忠湣).

Poetry and works

Wu Yuanheng was known for five-character verse. His poetry was praised for its ornate imagination and finely worked diction, circulated widely in his own time, and was often set to music. Later criticism called his long five-character poems a “consummate art,” judged his regulated verse superior to his old-style verse and his five-character lines superior to his seven-character lines; Zhang Wei’s *Shiren Zhuke Tu* designated him the “Master of Rare and Extraordinary Beauty” (瑰奇美麗主).

His collected works include *Linhuai ji* (also *Linhuai shiji*), in ten scrolls, and *Wu Yuanheng ji*, also in ten scrolls but now lost. Accounts differ on the surviving poetic corpus: one gives two scrolls in the *Quan Tangshi*, with two poems added in the *Quan Tangshi waibian* and *Quan Tangshi xushi*; another gives 197 poems in the *Quan Tangshi*. His seven-character regulated poem 《送田三端公還鄂州》 is preserved in the “Ezhou Miscellaneous Poetry Stele.”