Li Jifu

Li Jifu

Li Jifu (758-814), whose name is Hongxian, was born in Zanhuang County of Zhao county (now Zanhuang County of Hebei Province). In the Tang Dynasty, Li Deyu, the son of Li Qiyun, a statesman, geographer and official censor, was the father of Li Deyu, the prime minister.

He was born in the West ancestral house of the Li family in Zhao county. He was less studious and could be literate. In his early years, he became an official with menyin, and then he joined the army. In the early years of Zhenyuan Dynasty, he moved to Taichang, a doctor, and transferred to wailang, a member of the Ministry of household affairs. He governed Mingzhou, Zhongzhou, Liuzhou, and Raozhou. He became a doctor of the Ministry of official examination and moved to Zhongshu. During the Yuanhe period, he paid homage to the prime minister twice. During that period, he once served as the governor of Huainan, and was granted the title of Zhao Guogong. He planned to pacify Xichuan and Zhenhai, weaken the separatist regime, eliminate redundant officials, consolidate border defense, and assist Tang Xianzong to create "Yuanhe Zhongxing".

In 814, he died at the age of 57. He gave his posthumous title Zhongyi to Sikong.

Life of the characters

Early experience

When he was young, Li Jifu was diligent, studious and good at writing articles. He took charge of Zuo Siyu and led Fu Cang Cao to join the army. At the age of 27, he became a doctor of Taichang. He was knowledgeable, especially good at the allusions of the state. He served as a member of tuntian and Jiabu, and was highly valued by prime ministers Li Mi and Dou Shen. In 792, Li Jifu was released as the long history of Mingzhou (now Yinzhou, Zhejiang Province), and later became the governor of Zhongzhou (now Zhongxian, Chongqing), Liuzhou (now Liuzhou, Guangxi) and Raozhou (now Poyang, Jiangxi Province).

Back to Korea

In the 21st year of Zhenyuan (805), Emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty succeeded to the throne and called Li Jifu back to the court. He was awarded the title of "doctor of merit" and "zhizhigao". After he returned to the imperial court, he was called into the Imperial Academy as a scholar of the Imperial Academy. He was also appointed as a scholar of the Chinese Academy of letters and was given purple clothes.

In the first year of Yuanhe (806), Liu Bi, deputy envoy of Xichuan Jiedu, rebelled. The court officials thought that Shu was dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, so they did not advocate sending troops to attack. Du Huangshang, the prime minister, tried his best to fight. He also recommended Gao Chongwen, the commander of Shence army, to be the commander of Shu. Li Jifu also agreed to send troops. Tang Xianzong ordered Gao Chongwen and Yan Li, the governor of Shannan Xidao, to fight the rebellion in Sichuan. Gao Chongwen failed to break through Lutou pass for a long time (in today's Deyang, Sichuan). Li Jifu said: "in the Han, Jin and Southern Dynasties, Shu was attacked five times, and four times it was along the river. Xuanzhou (now Xuancheng, Anhui), Hongzhou (now Nanchang, Jiangxi), Qizhou (now Qichun, Hubei) and Ezhou (now Ezhou, Hubei) in the Jianghuai region are known as elite soldiers in the world. Your majesty can let the Jianghuai army go to the heart of the Three Gorges. The rebels will disperse their forces and go to the rescue. Moreover, Gao Chongwen is worried that if the Jianghuai army takes the lead in making contributions, it will also enhance its fighting spirit. " After the pacification of Xichuan, Li Jifu also suggested that Gao Chongwen and Yan Li should respectively govern Xichuan (now Chengdu in Sichuan) and Dongchuan (now Santai in Sichuan), so as to balance the two rivers.

As Zaifu

In the second year of Yuanhe (807), Du Huangshang dismissed his prime minister, while Li Jifu was appointed the Minister of Zhongshu and the Minister of tongzhongshu. He had been in Jianghuai for more than ten years, and he knew the sufferings of the people. After paying homage to the prime minister, he invited the emperor to let the prefectures under the chieftains govern by themselves, because the chieftains were greedy and reckless. Li Jifu also suggested that the prefectural governor should be forbidden to visit the Jiedu envoys without authorization, and the Jiedu envoys should be forbidden to collect taxes and servitudes from the prefectures and counties in the name of inspection at the end of the year. Tang Xianzong attached more importance to him.

Li KaiJiao, the governor of Zhenhai, was arrogant and lawless. Li Jifu thought that he would rebel, so he advised Xianzong to call him back to the court and control him. In the face of the court's three conscriptions, Li Kai said that he should not be ill, and he bribed the powerful people in the court with a lot of money. In October, Li Kai raided prefectures and counties and launched a rebellion. Li Jifu said: "Li Kai is nothing but a mediocre person. All the people who are caught are outlaws. What's the fighting spirit? If the imperial court Crusades, it will succeed. " Xuzhou army and bianzhou army, who had always been feared by Jiangnan's vassal towns, were recruited to join in the counterinsurgency to deter the rebels. When the rebels heard that Xuzhou (now Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province) and bianzhou (now Kaifeng in Henan Province) had set up their troops to the south, they killed Li Kai and surrendered to the imperial court. Li Jifu won the title of Marquis of Zanhuang County for his meritorious service.

Since the reign of emperor Dezong, the Tang Dynasty has always adopted a tolerant attitude towards the vassal towns. Many Jiedushi have been serving for life, supporting the army with self-respect, forming a situation that the tail will not fall. Li Jifu aimed at this problem and reformed it. In the more than one year after paying homage to the prime minister, he exchanged the marshals of 36 vassal towns, which made it difficult for Jiedushi to effectively control a certain vassal town for a long time.

Out of Huainan

In the third year of Yuanhe (808), Pei Jun, a right servant, joined up with Quan Xing to seek the post of prime minister. At that time, the imperial court was holding the examination of "direct admonishment". In the examination paper, Juzi criticized the government, which made Tang Xianzong very dissatisfied. Pei Jun then instigated the party members, saying that there was the prime minister's instigation behind the incident, hoping to let Li Jifu strike the prime minister. The admonishment officials Li Yue, Dugu Yu, Li zhengci, Xiao Chu and others stated the original reason and tried their best to defend Li Jifu. Only then did Tang Xianzong get a little angry.

Li Jifu had made friends with Dou Qun, Yang Shier and LV Wen. After Dou Qun was appointed as the Prime Minister of the imperial censor, he recommended Yang Shier as the official censor and LV Wen as the official. Li Jifu was angry that he did not report to himself in advance and refused to approve, which caused resentment among Dou Qun and others. Later, Li Jifu fell ill and let the doctors stay at home. Dou Qun arrested the doctor and wrote to impeach Li Jifu, saying that he had made friends with a warlock. Tang Xianzong found out the truth and demoted Dou Qun and others. Knowing that he had made too many enemies, Li Jifu resigned and recommended Pei Xun to take over. In September of the same year, Li Jifu went out to rule Huainan (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province) and was awarded the titles of the Secretary of the military department, the Minister of Zhongshu, the Zhangshi of Tongping and the Jiedushi of Huainan. Tang Xianzong personally bid farewell to him at Tonghua gate.

During his three years in Huainan, Li Jifu often wrote to discuss politics, pointing out the gains and losses of Chen Dynasty's politics, and listing the interests of the military and the state. He led the people to build water conservancy projects such as the rich man's pond, Guben pond and Pingjin weir (now Gaoyou in Jiangsu Province), irrigated nearly ten thousand hectares of farmland, and asked the imperial court to exempt millions of local people from rent arrears.

Complex phase

In 811, Pei Xun died of illness. Emperor Xianzong then recalled Li Jifu from Huainan and reappointed him as the Minister of Zhongshu and Zhangshi of Tongping. He was also awarded the title of doctor Jin ziguanglu, Bachelor of Jixian hall, supervisor of national history, Shangzhu Kingdom and Lord Zhao. He suggested that redundant officials should be eliminated and the salaries of 100 officials should be reduced to save the national financial expenditure. Tang Xianzong adopted his suggestion, and eventually reduced more than 800 redundant officials and 1700 redundant officials. At that time, the royal families lived in sixteen houses, and even the marriage of their daughters was in the charge of eunuchs. The kings could only bribe the eunuch to get married. Li Jifu told the emperor that emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty appointed the daughter of the kings as the head of the county, and ordered the Secretary to choose the sons of the powerful men to marry.

In the seventh year of Yuanhe (812), Wei Bo's envoy Tian Ji'an died of illness, and his son Tian Huaijian succeeded him. Li Jifu advised Tang Xianzong to send troops to punish him, and recommended Xue Ping as Yicheng Jiedushi, hoping to take the opportunity to recover Wei Bozhen (now Hebei Daming). But Tang Xianzong didn't adopt it because Prime Minister Li Jiang strongly opposed it. In order to check and balance Li Jifu, Emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty promoted Li Jiang as prime minister. They often argued in front of the imperial court. Tang Xianzong thought Li Jiang was upright and always obeyed his opinions. Later, Li Jifu drew a dangerous map of Hebei and presented it to Tang Xianzong. When he talked about the situation in Hebei, he praised Li Jifu.

In 813, the Uighur crossed the desert and attacked Tubo in the south. However, the court believed that the Uighur's real intention was to invade the territory of Tang Dynasty. Li Jifu said: "the Uighur people have not broken the good relationship with the imperial court. The purpose of going south is unlikely to be to invade the border. As long as we strengthen our guard, we should not worry about it." He suggested that the eleven post stations from xiazhou to Tiande should be restored in order to pass on the military information at the border, and 500 elite riders from xiazhou should be recruited to manage the old city to meet the post envoys and protect Dangxiang tribe. Li Jifu also suggested that the court restore Yuzhou to defend Uighur and appease Dangxiang. Then emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty set up Yuzhou again in the old town of JINGLUE, which was subordinate to suiyindao, and enlisted nine thousand Shence troops to garrison in Bingcheng. Li Jifu also recruited 300000 weapons and more than 1000 horses from Jianghuai area to supplement Taiyuan and Zelu armies to strengthen the northern border defense of Tang Dynasty.

He died of a violent illness

In 814, Wu Shaoyang, the governor of Huaixi, died of illness, and his son, Wu Yuanji, asked to be appointed. Li Jifu thought that Huaixi town (now Runan, Henan Province) was deep inland, and there was no party support around it, so it was not suitable to follow the practice of father's death and son's succession in the three towns of Heshuo. Tang Xianzong agreed with him and asked him to plan the expedition to Huaixi.

In October of the same year, Li Jifu died of a violent illness at the age of 57. Tang Xianzong sent eunuchs to mourn after hearing the news. In addition to the usual gifts, he took out 500 pieces of silk from the inner Treasury to compensate his family members and give him as Sikong. Dr. Taichang proposed the posthumous title of Jingxian for Li Jifu, but Zhang Zhongfang, a doctor of Duzhi, objected that the posthumous title was too beautiful. In a rage, Xianzong denounced Zhang Zhongfang and granted Li Jifu the posthumous title of Zhongyi.

Main achievements

Politics

Li Jifu served as Prime Minister twice during the reign of Yuanhe for three years and seven months, known as the "Prime Minister of Yuanhe". His achievements include:

Restraining the vassal towns: strengthening the power of the prefectures of the vassal towns; calming down the rebellion of Li Kai in Zhenhai; changing the marshal of the vassal towns; dividing the Purun army into Jingyuan; planning the expedition to Huaixi (dying before completion).

Attack eunuch: cut off the eunuch's right to manage the marriage of all the women in the patriarchal clan.

Rectifying the administration of officials: eliminating redundant officials; reducing the salaries of officials.

Consolidating the border defense: restoring the border post station; stationing troops to manage the old city; increasing the number of Yuzhou; replenishing the war horse weapons for the border army.

learning

Li Jifu's "Yuanhe County atlas" describes the history of the establishment of the national administrative regions, the danger of mountains and rivers, the population and property, in order to prepare for the emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty to control all the vassal towns.

There are many kinds of records about the names of Yuanhe County Tuzhi, such as the biography of Li Jifu in the old book of Tang Dynasty and Xianzong in the old book of Tang Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Li Ji Fu