Sun Chengzong

Life

In 1578, at the age of sixteen, he passed the licentiate examination; he later taught the sons of the officials Jiang Bi and Fang Shoushi in their households. While still a zhusheng, he taught in border commanderies and liked to question veteran soldiers about strategic terrain and defenses; in 1593 he entered the Imperial College in Beijing and the following year placed fifth in the Shuntian provincial examination. In 1598, after Fang Shoushi became governor of Datong, Chengzong went there to teach his children and questioned veteran commanders and retired soldiers about frontier affairs, gradually becoming familiar with border defense.

In 1604 he received the second place in the jinshi examination, the bangyan, and was appointed a Hanlin compiler; he remained in the Hanlin for ten years, later holding the posts of Zhongyun, Yude, and Xima, then serving as Zuo Shuzi concurrently with a Hanlin readership. In 1614 he became Left Zhongyun, in 1619 Left Yude concurrently with a Hanlin readership, and in 1620 Zuo Shuzi concurrently with the same readership; he also took part in the use of an edict to abolish the mining tax and release funds from the inner treasury. After the accession of the Tianqi Emperor, he became a lecturer, and when officials proposed him as vice minister of war in charge of the Liaodong affairs, the emperor refused because he did not wish him to leave the lecture court; Chengzong was also closely associated with Gao Panlong and Zhao Nanxing and eventually became the emperor’s tutor.

Liaodong command and later years

After the fall of Guangning in 1622, Chengzong was appointed Minister of War and Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion; he volunteered to serve as supreme commander and went to Liaodong. One account says that he argued with the regional commander Wang Zaijin and was then made Liaodong grand coordinator; he advocated giving frontier affairs to capable commanders, granting them military authority and the right to appoint subordinate officers, thereby reducing civilian interference. During four years at the pass, he appointed Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Yuanhua, Lu Shanji, Mao Yuanyi, and others; he restored several dozen fortifications—elsewhere specified as nine major cities and forty-five forts—trained 110,000 soldiers, opened 5,000 qing of farmland, extended the frontier by 400 li, and stationed troops at Jinzhou, Songshan, and the two Ling rivers. The frontier was temporarily stabilized; the Later Jin was then fighting the Chahar, and did not attack the Ming.

In 1625, Liu Yingkun brought 100,000 taels to Shanhai Pass as rewards for the troops, a gesture Chengzong viewed with contempt; after the Battle of Liuhe, Wei Zhongxian impeached him for refusing to attach himself to Wei and, ostensibly, for the horses, armor, and other supplies lost by Ma Shilong. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the Tianqi Emperor approved his return home to recuperate, and Gao Di replaced him as grand coordinator.

In 1629, after Qing forces entered the Great Wall and advanced through Da'an Pass and Zunhua, the Chongzhen Emperor restored Chengzong to office and ordered him to defend Tongzhou; after Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, Chengzong secured Zu Dashou's protection, was again appointed supreme commander, and moved his headquarters to Shanhai Pass. He then built Laolongtou, the sea-facing end of the Great Wall, whose tower bore the inscription “Ninghai City,” and the Liaodong region consequently became relatively stable. In 1630, Zu Dashou, Ma Shilong, and other commanders recovered Yongping, Zunhua, Qian'an, and Luanzhou in what Ming writers called the “Zun-Yong Victory.”

In the eighth month of 1631, Qing forces attacked Dalinghe; after the relief forces failed, Zu Dashou killed He Kegang and surrendered to the Qing, and the Chongzhen Emperor consequently dismissed Chengzong, who lived at home for seven years. In 1638, Qing forces attacked Gaoyang, and Chengzong led his family in its defense; after the city fell he was captured, bowed toward the imperial palace, and hanged himself, while many of his descendants also died in the fighting; one account says that more than forty members of the family all died. The Chongzhen Emperor then restored his former offices and provided funeral rites.

Writings, family, and posthumous honors

During his career he was successively granted the titles of Crown Prince's Junior Guardian, Junior Preceptor concurrently with Crown Prince's Grand Preceptor, Grand Academician of the Wenhua Palace, and Senior Preceptor, and was posthumously presented with the title Grand Preceptor. His sons were Sun Shi (孫鈰), Sun Han (孫鋡), and Sun Zhen (孫鉁), and his nephew was Sun Lian (孫鍊). His recorded grandsons included 孫之沆, 孫之潔, 孫之滂, 孫之澋, and 孫之瀗; further-line grandsons or collateral grandnephews included 孫之泳, 孫之渙, 孫之渼, 孫之澈, 孫之澤, and 孫之瀚.

Chengzong wrote prose, poetry, and ci: his prose was described as coiling like a dragon and flowing like a river, his poetry as forceful and deeply resonant, and his ci as rugged and heroic. His works included the twenty-volume *Gaoyang ji* (《高陽集》), which contained his ci; *Nanyang ji* (《南陽集》) is another title associated with him. Other titles associated with him include the thirty-volume *奏議*, the eighteen-volume *文集*, the hundred-volume *督師全書*, and one- and two-volume versions of *車營百八叩*; volumes 19 and 20 of the *Gaoyang ji* also contain letters addressed to Mao Wenlong, Yuan Chonghuan, and others.

His posthumous title is given differently in the surviving accounts: during the Southern Ming Hongguang reign it appears as Wenzhong in one account and Wenzheng in another, while in the forty-first year of the Qianlong reign (1776) he was granted the exclusive posthumous title Zhongding. Ye Xianggao wrote a preface for one of his books, Qian Qianyi praised his conduct and wrote a sacrificial text and a biography of his career, and Fang Bao wrote his biography.