Emperor Xuanzong of Tang

Life

In 687 he was enfeoffed as Prince of Chu, and in 693 he was given the title Prince of Linzi; from 705 to 708 he served as Weiwei Shaoqing. In 710, when Empress Wei ruled through a forged edict, Longji planned the counter-action, raised troops against her, helped install his father Ruizong as emperor, and was appointed Dianzhong Jian; during the Tanglong era he was advanced to Prince of Ping.

After Ruizong’s accession, Longji became crown prince and regent; he ascended the throne in the seventh month of the first year of the Yanhe era, 712. The chronology is counted in different ways: his rule is dated either from 712 to 756 or from 713 to 756, and its length is given as either forty-four or forty-five years. In the seventh month of 756 he abdicated and was installed as the retired emperor, Shanghuang Tiandi.

Rule and later years

At the beginning of his reign, Yao Chong and Song Jing served as chief ministers, with Zhang Jiuling among those later appointed; they addressed abuses, strengthened the state, and helped establish the Kaiyuan era’s government. The first thirty years of his rule are also described as an unparalleled Tang golden age. During the Kaiyuan era, court banquets, excursions, and farewell gatherings often included commands to compose poetry, producing a notable flourishing of poetic exchange.

In the later part of his reign, Xuanzong favored Yang Guifei, while Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong successively dominated the government. His absorption in pleasure, extravagance, administrative neglect, and reliance on An Lushan brought politics into decline. In 755, An Lushan rebelled; after Tong Pass fell, Xuanzong fled to Shu, while Crown Prince Li Heng proclaimed himself emperor at Lingwu and Xuanzong was honored as retired emperor. After the two capitals were recovered, he returned to the capital and lived in the Western Interior; many of his attendants were demoted, and he died in despondency.

Literary and cultural work

Xuanzong was skilled in riding and archery, versed in music and calendrical and astronomical learning, knowledgeable about musical tones, accomplished in calligraphy, and able in poetry and prose; he was especially noted for clerical script. In the third year of the Tianbao era, Li Bai served at the Hanlin, drafted imperial pronouncements, and was repeatedly summoned to compose and attend banquets because Xuanzong valued his talent.

The Xuanzong ji is lost, while the Complete Tang Poems preserves one volume of his poetry; the supplementary collections add eight poems and one poem preface. Works explicitly listed under his authorship include the one-volume Shitai Xiaojing, the one-volume Xiaojing with a collation record, the nine-volume Xiaojing Zhengyi, two nine-volume versions of Xiaojing zhusou with either a collation record or textual notes, the one-volume Kaiwu Yinyi, the one-volume Kaiyuan Wenzi Yinyi, the four-volume Imperial Commentary on the True Scripture of the Dao and Its Virtue, and the ten-volume Imperial Subcommentary on that scripture. Other associated titles include Xiaojing zhu, Daode jing zhu, Daode jing shu, Jingang bore jing zhu, Kaiyuan Guangji Fang, and Yunying; a ci lyric titled Hao Shiguang is also preserved.

Later poetic criticism said that Minghuang “opened the broad and lucid atmosphere of the High Tang.” Wang Shizhen judged that Xuanzong’s ornate brilliance fell short of Emperor Taizong’s, but that his骨氣 was superior, and added that even if Yan and Xu had drafted the poems and Shen and Song polished them, they would have gone no further.