Cui Xiyi

Cui Xiyi

Cui Xiyi? He was a military figure in the Tang Dynasty. In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721), he served as the county magistrate of Wannian and supervised the censor. Yu Wenrong was appointed as the judge of persuading farmers and moved to supervise the censor. He was once a doctor in the Ministry of officials.

Life of the characters

In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan (734), he was transferred from Zhengzhou governor to vice envoy of Jianghuai Henan transportation.

In the autumn of the 24th year of Kaiyuan (736), he rode on the right side and often served as the governor of Hexi.

In the 25th year of Kaiyuan (737), he attacked Tubo and broke it in the west of Qinghai. Xuanzong ordered you to pick up the remains. Wang Wei went out to Xuanwei as a censor and wrote a poem "Shi Zhi Sai Shang", which says: "the desert is straight and the river falls.". Every time Xiao Guan was waiting to ride, he would protect himself in Yanran.

In March of the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), Tubo attacked Hexi, and Cui Xiyi, the governor, defeated it. In the 26th year of the reign of bingshen, he was changed to Yin of Henan Province. He said that he had lost his faith in Tubo, and he died with shame and hatred.

His deeds can be seen in Volume 49 of the textual research on the history of Tang Dynasty and volume 380 of Taiping Guangji.

Anecdotes and allusions

Cui Xiyi

During the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, he was a famous official and a famous general. He made great achievements in his political career. He served as the commander of Liangzhou and the governor of Hexi, and took charge of the military power of one side. However, there is no biography in the two books, which is a very strange thing.

First, the Cui family was an influential family in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, the Cui family played an important role in political life. It is recorded in the genealogy table of the prime ministers in the new book of the Tang Dynasty: "Cui's ten rooms are: Zhengzhou, Yanling, nanzu, Qinghe Dafang, Qinghe Xiaofang, Qingzhou, Anping, Boling, the second and the third. Twenty three prime ministers. " However, looking up all kinds of historical books, genealogy and surname records, we found no record of Cui Xiyi's family. According to the common sense, the genealogy of the people who have such high-grade officials (the Liangzhou governor is the second grade official) should bear their names in mind. However, according to the existing data, there are no relevant records in any historical materials, and Cui Xiyi's family background is still a question to be researched.

Secondly, Liangzhou, the Hexi Jiedu envoy, was located in the throat of the Hexi Corridor, which was the only way for the Central Plains to contact and communicate with the western regions in the Tang Dynasty, and also the most important gate to cut off the connection between Tubo and Turk. The official name of "Jiedushi" also originated in Hexi. The central government of the Tang Dynasty was very cautious in the selection of Hexi Jiedushi, who was also the governor of Liangzhou. According to the chronology of Tang Fangzhen, there are 26 Hexi Jiedu envoys in history. Among them, there are 16 biographers in two Tangshu. Except for Li Linfu, who is in charge of his post, the rest are brave and good at fighting.

According to the above, the fact that Cui Xiyi has not been passed down in the two books of the Tang Dynasty is really something worth exploring. We can only explore Cui Xiyi's life and events from the fragmentary records of various historical books.

Cui Xiyi first appeared in the ninth year of Kaiyuan in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. He first appeared on the stage of history as a famous scholar at that time. According to the biography of Li Zhen in the old book of Tang Dynasty:

(Kaiyuan) nine years, (Zhang said) into the prime minister, (LI) Yu and Chang'an Wei. Yu Wenrong was the censor, including Tian Hu. He played the famous scholars Cui Xiyi, Xian Yaoye, Yu wenshun, Yu Ruqing and Li Zhouji as judges. He took charge of the censor, supervised the censor in different ways, and supervised the censor in the same way.

It is also recorded in Tang Hui Yao

In the first month of the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Cui Xiyi, the county magistrate of Wannian County, supervised the imperial censor Yuwen rongzou to persuade the agricultural magistrate.

From these historical materials, we can only see that Cui Xiyi was appointed as a magistrate of persuading farmers in the ninth year of Kaiyuan, and was a Wannian County captain of Chang'an in the capital city (from eight grades) before he was the censor. Because of his good conduct, Cui Xiyi was regarded as a "well-known person" at that time. According to the existing historical data, the previous deeds are not easy to be examined.

As for the case of Yuwen rongkuo Tianhu, the records in Tongdian are relatively detailed

In the first month of the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Yu Wenrong, the censor of the people's Republic of China, called on the procurator to investigate the false and abusive families and the remaining farmland. So he ordered Rong Chong Shi Tuju, who won many false honors and various kinds of service. He specially added the scattered officials of the imperial court, and then moved to serve as a member of the military department as well as a censor. Rong then played to persuade agricultural judges, Chang'an Wei Pei Kuan and other 29 people, and photographed the censor to the world. Murong Yu, Wang Bing, Zhang Jun, song Xiyu, song Xun, Wei Qia, Qiao Mengsong, Wang you, Xu Chubi, Xu e, Pei Kuan, Cui Xiyi, Bian Chongji, ban Jingqian, Guo tingqian, yuan jiangmao, Liu rizheng, Wang Tao, Yu Ruqing, Wang Zhongyi, he Qianli, Liang Xun, Lu Yi, Ku Di, Lu Wen, Jia Jin, Li Deng, Sheng Yao, etc. are well-known. The judge got the people, which was the most prosperous, and then most of them showed rank. I'm responsible for Tian Chou's registration. Its new customers are exempt from the six-year tax adjustment, but the tax is light. Yang Zhai County Wei Huang Fu Jing, left pick up Yang Xiangru and Shangshu, Sheng Chen trouble inconvenience. Kuan and so on were all gifted at that time, and they were returned by envoys. They got more than 800000 households, which is also called Tian. So he was demoted to Quzhou Yingchuan Wei. He worshipped the imperial censor Zhongcheng.

Among them, "judges get people, in this for Sheng, followed by more to show rank." This sentence is more important, which is also in line with the historical facts of the changes of the official selection system after the Mid Tang Dynasty. It is through this way that Cui Xiyi began his official career. Because of the excellent completion of the task in this visit to the local government to check the registered permanent residence ("get more than 800000 households"), Cui Xiyi and others "moved together to supervise the censor (zhengbapinshang)". We can also see his name in the famous inscription stele of jingshe in Tang Yushitai (the imperial censor in the inscription hall and the internal confession).

After that, Cui Xiyi's deeds appeared a blank period. It was not until the 18th year of Kaiyuan that Cui Xiyi appeared in the history books again. According to the records of food and goods in the old book of Tang Dynasty:

In the 18th year of Kaiyuan, Pei Yaoqing, the governor of Xuanzhou, wrote a note about cheap things On Dayue. He took Yaoqing as the Minister of Huangmen, tongzhongshu as the official of Pingzhang, and served as the transportation envoy of Jianghuai and Henan provinces. Cui Xiyi, the governor of Zhengzhou, and Xiao Jiong, the Shaoyin of Henan, are the Deputy officials. In three years, seven million stones were transported, and 400000 yuan were transported by land.

At that time, Cui Xiyi had already been an official in Zhengzhou (from Sanpin). He was in charge of supervising the censor by the Yushitai, who was responsible for "inspecting all the officials, patrolling the counties, observing the punishment and punishing the court". Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province today, was an important transportation hub connecting the two capitals with Hebei Road, Henan Road and Jiangnan area in the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, there were 64619 households and 124 townships in the prefecture. At that time, Zhengzhou was also one of the important counties where the water transport passed. Because of this, Xuanzong appointed Cui Xiyi as the vice envoy of Henan transportation after taking Pei Yaoqing's advice. Cui Xiyi also lived up to his mission. During the three years, he "transported seven million stones and 400000 servants by land.". After Pei Yaoqing became prime minister, Cui Xiyi took over the post of Henan transport envoy, with outstanding achievements. After that, Taicang accumulated more than millet and reduced the amount of water by hundreds of thousands of stones.

After that, Cui Xiyi's life appeared a blank again, until the war with Tubo started in the 24th year of Kaiyuan. In the autumn of the 24th year of Kaiyuan, Cui Xiyi took over Niu Xianke as the governor of Hexi as an important official of Zhongshu Province, and began his most famous and resentful military career.

The conflict between Tang and Tubo originated from Tubo's occupation of Tang's vassal Bolu in the western regions. The old book of the Tang Dynasty, volume 196, the biography of Tubo, contains:

In the 24th year of Kaiyuan, Tubo attacked Bolu in the West and sent envoys to take emergency measures. The envoy reported to Tubo and ordered him to strike. Tubo didn't accept the imperial edict, so he conquered Bolu state, and was very angry.

Tubo was one of the most important border troubles in Tang Dynasty, which threatened the normal connection between Central Plains and western regions, and finally cut off this connection later. During the Kaiyuan period, Tubo had been harassing Longyou area, intending to cut off the Hexi Corridor, cut off the communication between Tang Dynasty and western regions, and united with Turks to threaten the rule of Tang Dynasty. In this case, the importance of Hexi node in the heart of Hexi Corridor is self-evident.

However, at that time, Tubo did not take the initiative to attack the Tang Dynasty, and the border between the two countries maintained a relatively peaceful state. In this case, Cui Xiyi just made a life-long thing that he hated. It is recorded in the 196 biography of Tubo in the book of the old Tang Dynasty

When the Tubo and Han shuzha as the boundary, set the guard to catch the envoy. Xiyi said that the Tibetan general Qi Lixu said: "if the two countries are at peace, why should we guard and catch them? It hinders people's cultivation. Why don't you give it up and become a family? " Qi Lixu reported: "if you are loyal, you must be sincere. But I'm afraid the court may not believe in Ren. It's no use regretting it if someone makes a mistake. " Hope Yi solid request, then sent envoys and kilixu kill white dog for alliance, each to guard. So Tubo animal husbandry was wild.

Under the circumstances of relative peace and equality between the two countries at that time, Cui Xiyi's practice was justifiable and commendable for the convenience of the people. However, the development of history is often unexpected. In the second year, Cui Xiyi went to court to serve his official sun Jiao. In order to please the emperor, he falsely suggested to kill him when Tubo was unprepared. Xuanzong, who was in the mood of Tubo attacking Bolu, believed sun's instructions and sent a eunuch, Zhao Huicong, to Liangzhou with him. When they arrived in Liangzhou, they asked Cui Xiyi to send troops to cover up Tubo. Cui Xiyi had no choice but to obey his orders. He defeated Tubo in Qinghai (today's Qinghai Lake), killed countless people, and fled to his own country. As a result, Tubo was so angry that the relations between the two countries began to deteriorate and wars continued.

In the 26th year of Kaiyuan, the Tibetan soldiers invaded Hexi. Cui Xiyi refused to fight because of his duty and refused to fight

Chinese PinYin : Cui Xi Yi