Later Jin Dynasty Young Emperor Shi Chonggui Profile: The tragic last emperor who was captured after the destruction of the country

Shi Chonggui (914–964), Emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty and adopted son of Shi Jingyao, reigned from 942 to 946. In the seventh year of Tianfu (942), the Later Jin Dynasty Emperor Gaozu Shi Jingyao died, and Shi Chonggui succeeded to the throne, following the Gaozu Tianfu era name, and in July of the ninth year of Tianfu (944), it was changed to Yuan Kaiyun. Shi Chonggui refused to submit to the Khitans, and the Khitan attacked the Later Jin, and in December of the third year (January 947), Kaifeng was occupied, and the Later Jin fell. Shi Chonggui was an emperor of average ability but a very strong backbone, who dared to go to war with the Khitans, but unfortunately there were no people around him. He reigned for only 4 years, was captured and sent to the Khitan after the collapse of the country, and died of illness in the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty (964) at the age of 51, buried in present-day Kaiyuan County, Liaoning Province.

Early life

Shi Chonggui was originally the nephew of Shi Jingyao, the emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty. His father, Shi Jingru, died early, and Shi Jingyao adopted him as his son. Shi Chonggui was cautious in his words and deeds when he was young, simple and pure, good at horse archery, quite the style of Shatuo's ancestors, and was deeply loved by Shi Jingyao, and in the second year of The Later Tang Dynasty (936), Shi Jingyao raised an army to rebel against tang in Jinyang, and the Later Tang army besieged Taiyuan. Shi Zhonggui either gave advice or risked his arrows to resist the enemy, all of which were appreciated by Shi Jingyao. Shi Jingyao used the Khitan army to defeat the Tang army, left Taiyuan for Luoyang to seize the throne, and before leaving, he chose Shi Chonggui to stay in Taiyuan, and appointed Beijing to stay behind, Jin Ziguanglu, Inspector Situ, and Xing taiyuan Yin, and was in charge of the observation of the Inner Festival in Hedong. There are many official titles, but their political performance is mediocre and "not expected." Despite this, due to the favor of his uncle, Shi Chonggui continued to rise step by step, and by the time of Shi Jingyao's death in the seventh year of Tianfu (942), Shi Chonggui had already entered the throne of Qi and served as a servant.

After Shi Jingyao's death, Shi Chonggui took the throne and became emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty. Shi Chonggui was able to inherit the throne when his uncle was still alive, and there was no shortage of palace conspiracies. Shi Jingyao had six sons, most of whom died prematurely, leaving only his youngest son, Shi Chongrui. Originally, Shi Jingyao entrusted Feng Dao with Zaichen during his illness, meaning that Feng Dao should pave the stone chongrui. However, after his death, Feng Dao and the guards who held real power at that time commanded Jing Yanguang to establish Shi Zhonggui as emperor.

Ascension to the throne

Shi Chonggui did not reign for a long time, but only five years. In five years, the waves of life have not only surged him to the top, but also ruthlessly dropped him to the bottom of the valley and become the king of the country.

Before Shi Chonggui ascended the throne, the situation in the later Jin Dynasty was not optimistic. The Khitan relied on the merits of Fuli Shi to honor the Central Plains, and the tiger looked at him; To the south of the Later Jin Dynasty were Wu Yue and Later Shu, who were claimed to be kings; There were many contradictions within the ruling clique of the Later Jin Dynasty, coupled with successive years of drought, locusts, floods, and hunger, hunger was everywhere, and people's grievances boiled over. The Later Jin regime was troubled internally and externally, and was fraught with crises.

As soon as Shi Chonggui ascended the throne, he encountered a thorny problem, that is, how to report to the Khitan lord Yelü Deguang. Jing Yanguang was full of pride and urged the Khitan lord to claim that Sun was not a subject, and as a result, he provided an opportunity for the Khitan lord who was waiting for the opportunity to go south. Just when the Qingzhou Festival caused Yang Guangyuan to rebel against the Khitan at this time, he reconciled Shi Jingyaoshi with the Khitan vassals, and although humiliated, the situation was generally peaceful. Wars with the Khitan were intermittent until the demise of the Later Jin. In the first month of the first year of kaiyun (944), the Khitan forwards Zhao Yanshou and Zhao Yanzhao led 50,000 horses into Kou, and the soldiers fell into Bei Prefecture and Entered Yanmen, driving straight in. Shi Chonggui was surrounded by many generals. At this time, he may have felt that a great calamity was imminent, so he sent a letter to the Khitan Lord to ask for the repair of the old. The Khitan lord was satisfied with his ambitions, and he was willing to strike in the middle of the way. Shi Chonggui's request for peace was refused, and he had to face the battle. In the war against the Khitan in this year and the following year, although he was incompetent in command, improperly employed, and did not command well, relying on the heroic battles of the soldiers and civilians of the Central Plains, two large-scale Khitan attacks were thwarted.

After that, the Khitan retreated, and Shi Zhonggui triumphantly returned to the dynasty, thinking that the world would be peaceful from then on, and he would live a life of drunkenness and dreaming of death. He was originally a man of good character and regarded state affairs as a child's play. Shi Jingyao's corpse was cold, the Zi Palace was in the funeral, and Shi Chonggui took the beautiful widowed aunt Lady Feng as a concubine, and shamelessly asked the left and right, "How can I be a new son-in-law today?" In the first year of kaiyun, the Jin army and the Khitan army fought in Qicheng, but he listened to music every day. He was accustomed to listening to "soft female music" in the palace. Since the conquest, he could only summon the left and right "Shallow Domain Military Academy, play the three-string huqin, and use the Qiang flute, beat the knuckle drum, and dance and send songs, thinking that it was entertainment", so he often complained to the attendants that "this is not music". Zaichen Feng Dao and others threw themselves into their favor and played the music, at this time Shi Zhonggui was still a little sober and did not allow it. In March of the second year of Kaiyun (945), on the eve of the decisive battle between the Later Jin and the Khitan at Yangcheng, Shi Chonggui was still out hunting. He did not make preparations for battle, but built a large palace, decorated the back courtyard, and played with wide instruments. In order to lay the carpet, hundreds of weavers are used, which takes a year. For the sake of fun, he rewarded the elites with great rewards. At the moment when the country was in trouble and the people were starving to death in the Tao, Shi Chonggui was still so profligate, and the consequences could be imagined.

During Shi Chonggui's reign, there were few acts of benefiting the people, and the occasional killing of two corrupt officials was also a cover-up. As the king of a country, the emperor is the state, and he has everything, but he is insatiable. In order to cope with the costs of the war and to satisfy his own indiscriminate consumption, he even sent evil officials to split the way and scrape the people in the year of the great locust drought. In June of the eighth year of Tianfu (943), he sent "twenty internal and external ministers to the capitals of various provinces to borrow corn, and when the envoys were willing to make a decree, the legislation was very steep, and the people sealed it, and all those who hid them were killed." And this month, "the locusts in the states and counties have exhausted all the grass and trees." In April of the first year of kaiyun (944), he "ordered thirty-six civil and military bureaucrats to go to zhudao to lead money."

The country was humiliated

Shi Zhonggui was dazed, all supported by a group of generals, but few of the people he favored and trusted and reused were people with both moral integrity and ability, and were loyal to the Lord. Shi Chonggui appointed Du Chongwei as an envoy to the northern camp, and Shi Chonggui was full of arrogant confidence in this expedition. In his edict, he declared that he would "first take Yingmo and settle The Guannan; The second time youyan, the swing ping sai north". But the facts mocked him again. Du Chongwei surrendered to the enemy at the front, and another general, Zhang Yanze, led his troops south and went straight to Bieliang. On the seventeenth day of the lunar month, Zhang Yanze's army pressed the city and surrounded the palace, shi Zhonggui had no choice but to set himself on fire, thanks to the help of a close attendant, he was saved from ashes. Zhang Yanze took matters into his own hands and forcibly moved Shi Chonggui's family to Kaifeng Province to send troops to guard it.

At the beginning of the first month of the following year, the Khitan lord arrived in Beijing. Shi Chonggui had previously sent his sons Shi Yanxu, Shi Yanbao, National Treasure, and Golden Seal to surrender, but at this time he wanted to greet him with the empress dowager, but he was refused. Under the Khitan lordship, Shi Chonggui was made a Guanglu Doctor, a lieutenant of the Inspector, and a Marquis of Yi, with a remote fiefdom in Huanglong Province on the border of the Bohai Sea. When Shi Chonggui's family traveled north. Sometimes I couldn't eat food, so I had to kill the animals and eat them. Shi Chonggui and his party slept out of the house, starved and humiliated, and easily arrived at Huanglong Province, and the Khitan mother was summoned to Huaizhou. Huaizhou was more than a thousand miles northwest of Huanglong Province, and Shi Chonggui had to get back on the road. Fortunately, when there was a struggle for the throne within the Khitans, the new king, King Yongkang, allowed them to temporarily live in Liaoyang, and since then the supply has been slightly guaranteed. In the first year of the Later Han Dynasty (948), king Yongkang went to Liaoyang, and Shi Chonggui worshiped him in a white-clothed gauze hat. Shi Chonggui had a young daughter, and king Yongkang's wife and brother asked for it, but refused because of his young age. Within a few days, king Yongkang sent someone to take it away and give it to his wife and brother. In the second year of Qianyou (949), Shi Chonggui's family was allowed to live in Jianzhou (建州, in modern Chaoyang, Liaoning). Halfway through the journey, Shi Zhonggui's biological mother, Princess An, fell ill and died. After arriving in Jianzhou, more than 50 hectares of land were obtained, and Shi Chonggui ordered his party to build houses and divide the land for farming. In this year, Prince Shulu of Khitan forcibly married Shi Zhonggui's pet Ji Zhao and Nie Shi and left. Shi Zhonggui was sad and indignant, but also helpless.

According to the records of the people at that time, Shi Chonggui died in the second year of the Song Taizu Qiande (964) at the age of about 50.

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