3 - 805: The abortive reform

Summary

Emperor Te-tsung died on the twenty-third day of the first month, 805. The crown prince Li Sung, aged forty-four, whose posthumous imperial title was Shun-tsung, ascended the throne three days later. At this juncture, to the astonishment of the political establishment in the capital, an obscure figure named Wang Shu-wen led approximately a dozen middle-level officials – including Liu Tsung-yüan – to seize the real power at the court.

Wang's rise was certainly unorthodox and the stuff of which legends are made. Prior to Te-tsung's decease, Wang had been made an attendant official of the future Shun-tsung emperor because of his skill at chess. Yet curiously, he eventually won the crown prince's trust and respect by his passionate, and in the opinion of many, persuasive, political reformism. He also recruited as his allies three personal companions of the heir apparent: Wang P'i, a calligrapher; Li Chung-yen, a eunuch; and Niu Chao-jung, Shun-tsung's favored concubine. More amazingly, he succeeded in gaining a following among the best and the brightest of the young intellectuals in Ch'ang-an: the group composed of Liu Tsung-yüan, Liu Yü-hsi, Lü Wen, Ch'en Chien, and others introduced in Chapter 2 (Group B). Two senior scholar-officials, Wei Chih-i and Lu Ch'lun, also joined this clique. This political alliance had been taking shape gradually during the period of ten years or so before 805, without the knowledge of most of Ch'ang-an's elite community.