When the Emperor came back from his ride, they had murdered Lady Yang - That passion unforgettable through all the suns and moons. They had led him to forsake her by reminding him Of an emperor slain with his lady once, in a well at Ching-yang Palace.
Original Poem:
《马嵬坡》
玄宗回马杨妃死，云雨难忘日月新。
终是圣明天子事，景阳宫井又何人。
Interpretation:
In 755 A.D., under the pretext of executing the traitorous minister Yang Guozhong, An Lushan suddenly raised an army in Fangyang. In June of the following year, the rebels captured the Tongguan Pass and Chang’an was in danger. Tang Emperor Xuanzong fled to Shu with his beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan. When passing through Mawei slope, the six armies did not send. The forbidden army general Chen Xuanli and other dissatisfied with the Yang siblings dictatorship, after killing Yang Guozhong father and son, that “the thief is still there”, so request the execution of Yang Guifei to avoid future problems. The Tang Emperor had no choice but to give Yang Guifei the chance to hang herself, which is known as the “Mawei Change”. Zheng Tian, as a politically successful person during the reign of Emperor Xi Zong of Tang Dynasty, had a lot of feelings about Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, so he wrote this poem in 880 A.D. when he was the minister of Longye Festival in Fengxiang.
This is a poem of history, after the great turmoil was settled and the two capitals were recovered, Emperor Xuanzong returned to Chang’an from Shu, which was a long time after the death of Yang Guifei. A survival and a death, meaningful. Though the mountains and rivers were reborn, he could not forget his dead Consort Yang, and he was happy and hated at the same time.
At that time, there were people who deeply blamed Xuanzong for being heartless and unjust about the death of Yang Concubine. The poem seems to be based on this. The first line already implies that the death of Mawei was a matter of necessity, and although the time has changed, Xuanzong still did not forget the old love of cloud and rain. Therefore, the next couplet, “Finally, it is a matter for the saintly son of heaven”, with the tone of “finally”, seems to ask people to understand the situation of Xuanzong at that time.
This poem is a polite satire on Xuanzong, but also a sympathetic one, which can be said to be “out of one’s own mind” and “hidden in one’s intention”, and it is a good poem among the historical poems.
Zheng Tian (郑畋 825-887 A.D.) was a Tang Dynasty chancellor and poet, whose father and ancestors were all scholars. In 842, Zheng Tian was admitted as a scholar and became a judge of the Xuanwu Army, and was appointed as a secretary of the Ministry of Education at the age of 18.
In 846 AD, Zheng took part in the Ministry of Officials and was awarded the title of Lieutenant of Weinan County and the position of the official of the Ministry of History. At that time, Li Deyu’s party gradually lost its power in the Niu-Li party dispute. Zheng Ya was relegated to Guizhou and Zunzhou successively. After two years of service, Zheng Tian came south to serve his father. In the following ten years, Baek Min Jong, Rimsky and other officials of the Niu Party became prime ministers one after another, but Zheng Tian was not able to get another official position.
In 874 A.D., Zheng Tian was reassigned from the post of minister of the Ministry of Officials to the post of minister of the Ministry of War, and together with the minister of the Ministry of the Household, Lu Cik, he was appointed to the post of minister of the same Central Secretariat, and became a chancellor. He was then transferred to the post of the Third Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and the Minister of State History in 877 AD.
Crusade against Huang Chao
During Zheng Tian’s tenure as prime minister, there were many disasters and peasant revolts in the eastern part of the country. Huang Chao, who was in rebellion in Shandong, ravaged the Central Plains, and went south to fight in Jianghuai, Jingxiang, Zhendong, Fujian, etc., and defeated the official army repeatedly. He entered Lingnan in 879 A.D., captured the important town of Guangzhou, and asked the imperial court for the post of Tianping Festival envoy to guard the state of Yunzhou through Cui Chyou, the observer of eastern Zhejiang. The Tang Emperor Xi Zong summoned his ministers to discuss the matter. Most of the courtiers, including Zheng Tian, were inclined to pacification, suggesting that he should be granted the post of Lingnan Festival Minister to tie up the land in Lingnan. He said, “Huang Chao’s rebellious army started because of famine and plundered money and grain, which gradually grew and swept the whole country. It is better to pardon its crime, stabilize it with official position, and then destroy it when the time is ripe. Those people who follow the rebellion, most of them are only desperate for a way to live, as long as there is a good harvest year, they will miss their hometown. At that time, Lu was relying on Gao Pang, the envoy of Huainan Festival, and thought that the Huainan army under Gao Pang was sufficient to eliminate Huang Chao, so he strongly advocated to continue the attack. Tang Emperor Xi Zong also hoped that Gao Feng would succeed and eventually adopted Lu Crip’s idea.
When Zheng Tian and his ministers were discussing the drafting of the imperial edict in the Central Secretariat, he told Lu Crip: “The bandits’ army is in the millions, and it is up to us to plan for the safety and security of the country. Gao Pang is fighting passively and raising the enemy. If you want to rely on him, I don’t know how it will end in the future.” Lu brushed his sleeve and wanted to leave, but he accidentally threw his sleeve into the ink stone on the table and threw it to the ground. When Emperor Xi Zong heard of this, he was furious and dismissed both of them from the post of chancellor and relegated them to the position of guests of the crown prince.
In the first year of Guangming (880), Huang Chao led his army northward from Lingnan to Jianghuai. However, Gao Pian only sent his troops to hold the key place, and he himself sat in Huainan and let the rebellious army cross the border. When Emperor Xi Zong of Tang remembered what Zheng Tian had said, he recalled him to Chang’an, where he was appointed Minister of Rites, and later as the minister of Long’s right section of Fengxiang. In December of that year (January 881), the Tang Emperor Xi Zong abandoned the capital and fled west to Chengdu because Huang Chao’s army was approaching Chang’an. Huang Chao occupied Chang’an and immediately claimed the throne in Chang’an, establishing the Daqi regime and sending envoys around to recruit Tang officials.
On his way to flee west, Emperor Xi Zong met Zheng Tian who came to meet him at Xie Gu. Zheng Tian cried out and pleaded guilty: “It is because the generals have misled the country that the country has come to this state, so please behead me to thank the world.” Emperor Xi Zong of Tang was busy comforting Zheng Tian and asked him to hold the fort to stop the rebellious army from advancing westward. Zheng Tian, however, asked for the right to act on his own initiative, saying that “the roads are difficult and the reports are difficult”. The Tang Emperor agreed.
After Zheng Tian returned to Fengxiang, he summoned his generals and officials to discuss the matter of the bandits. All the generals thought that the bandits were powerful and suggested that they should wait until the troops from all over the country gathered before making plans. Zheng Tian was so angry that he fainted and was later saved but could not speak out. Huang Chao’s surrender envoy arrived at Fengxiang at this time. The supervisor, Peng Jingru, even drafted a thank-you form in Zheng Tian’s name, saying that he had surrendered to Huang Chao, and hosted a banquet for the messenger. During the banquet, all the generals cried. The ambassador was very strange, and his staff member Sun Chuan said, “We are all very sad that the minister Zheng cannot come because of his wind paralysis.”
Zheng Tian later learned of this situation and thought that the people were not yet tired of Tang, so he gathered his generals and generals and gave them a big speech, and finally got the support of the generals. He pierced his arm, took a blood oath with the generals, and took the opportunity to repair the city, improve the armament, train the soldiers, and secretly contact the neighboring clans to join forces against the bandits. Tang Hongfu, the former Shuofang Festival Minister, and Cheng Zongchu, the Jing Yuan Festival Minister, each led his troops and arrived at Fengxiang. At that time, there were still tens of thousands of troops of the Divine Strategy Army scattered all over Guanzhong, but there was no one to command them because the court had moved west. Zheng Tian summoned all these troops to Fengxiang and rewarded them with money to build up the army’s confidence. Soon, Huang Chao sent another messenger to Fengxiang. Zheng Tian immediately killed the messenger and broke with Huang Chao, and at the same time sent his son Zheng Ningji to visit the emperor in Shu. Emperor Xi Zong of Tang gave Zheng Tian the title of the same pingzhang minister and acted as the commander of all the camps in the west of Beijing, and allowed him to confer official positions with “ink edicts” and reward his own meritorious soldiers.
Huang Chao surrendered to Zheng Tian and resumed his rebellion, and ordered his generals Shang Jean and Wangeven to attack Fengxiang with 50,000 troops. Zheng Tian ordered Tang Hongfu to ambush at Longweipi, and led several thousand troops with many banners to wait for them at Gao Gang. The army was attacked from both sides and was defeated at Longweipi, with more than 20,000 heads and tens of miles of corpses.
Zheng Tian then issued a diatribe to the world, calling on all the clans to fight against Huang Chao. At that time, the emperor was far away in Shu, and the imperial edict was not available. All the towns thought that it was difficult to revive the Tang Dynasty. Once Zheng Tian’s diatribe was released, the world was immediately shaken. Various towns have sent troops to the king. Huang Chao did not dare to peep into the west of the capital since then. Soon, Zheng Tian soldiers to Shaanxi, ordered Tang Hongfu, Cheng Zongchu rate front army to attack Chang’an. Huang Chao pretended to abandon Chang’an and retreated to Bashang. Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu thus recovered Chang’an.
Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu were greedy and light-hearted. After entering the city, they just let their soldiers loot and did not inform Zheng Tian and other rear troops to follow up in time. Huang Chao took the opportunity to counterattack Chang’an. The Tang army collapsed, Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu died in battle. Zheng Tian had to retreat to Fengxiang. Soon after, the imperial edict came, granting Zheng Tian as the secretary-general and minister under the minister, with the pingzhang matter, as the capital of the four sides of the army camp, let him as the chancellor in charge of the recovery of Chang’an war. At that time, Fengxiang’s treasury was already depleted, so he could only reduce the rewards for soldiers and the supply of military food was also insufficient.
Li Changyan, the military commander of Fengxiang, was stationed in Xingping and took the opportunity to incite his soldiers to rebellion and attacked Fengxiang in October of that year. Zheng Tian did not want his men to kill each other, so he handed over the military power to Li Changyan and left the city that day to go west to Chengdu to join the imperial court. Li Changyan called himself the Queen of Fengxiang and sent his troops to escort Zheng Tian out of the city. On the way, Zheng Tian resigned because he was ashamed of himself, and was reappointed as the Crown Prince’s Young Master in charge of the East Capital, and then stayed in Xing Yuan to recover from his illness.
Later years and death
In 882, Emperor Xi Zong of Tang summoned Zheng Tian to Chengdu and reappointed him as the Chancellor, giving him the post of Secretary of State, Minister of State, and Minister of the same pingzhang, and putting him in charge of military affairs. At that time, the eunuch Tian Lingz often interfered with government affairs, and his brother, Chen Jingxuan, also wanted to be in front of the chancellor as a minister, but Zheng Tian prevented him from doing so. Both brothers held a grudge against Zheng Tian.
In 883 A.D., when the Tang army finally drove Huang Chao’s rebellious army out of Guanzhong, Emperor Xi Zong of Tang was ready to return to Chang’an. At that time, Li Changyan had been appointed as the minister of Fengxiang, but he was worried that Zheng Tian would be prosecuted for his mutiny and seizure of power, so he collaborated with Tian Linz and Chen Jingxuan to denounce Zheng Tian’s faults to the emperor. Zheng Tian also claimed to be sick and resigned, saying to Emperor Xi Zong, “Your Majesty must return to the capital via Fengxiang, and all the supplies along the way have to be guaranteed by Li Changyan. If I were to accompany him as the prime minister, I would certainly make him feel uneasy. Emperor Xi Zong of Tang reappointed Zheng Tian to be a procurator and a crown prince, and then made Zheng Ningji the governor of Bi Prefecture, where he served Zheng Tian to recover from his illness.
In 887 A.D., Zheng Tian died at the age of sixty-three in Longzhou (now Pingwu, Sichuan, China). He died at the age of sixty-three. Emperor Xi Zong of Tang posthumously made Zheng Tian a lieutenant, and later, in consideration of his loyalty and merits, he also posthumously made him a tutor. Later, Zheng Tian was buried in Xingyang. Li Maozhen, who was the governor of Fengxiang at the time, was promoted by Zheng Tian in his early years, so he submitted a petition to the court for a posthumous title for Zheng Tian.
In 888 A.D., Emperor Xi Zong of Tang gave Zheng Tian the posthumous title of “Wen Zhao”.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
