There are many ministers in Chinese history who have made immortal achievements for the state. The court honored their achievements by giving them titles and even posthumously crowning them after their death. In this article, we introduce the three princes of the State of E, all of whom were famous warriors in history.
Yuchi Jingde, Duke of E of Tang Dynasty
Yuchi Jingde (585-658), character Jingde, was a famous general in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties. In the thirteenth year of the Sui Dynasty, Liu Wuzhou raised an army and appointed Yuchi Jingde as a partial general. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the world had not yet been unified. In the third year of Wu De (620), King of Qin Li Shimin conquered Liu Wu Zhou. Liu Wu Zhou ordered Yuchi Jingde and Song Jingyan to fight back. Since the King of Qin had won the hearts of the people everywhere, soon afterwards Yuchi Jingde led the army and people to submit to the Great Tang.
At that time, the Qin royal family collected and surrendered many heroes and heroines, and some of these generals rebelled against the Qin king after surrendering. Many generals of the Qin kingdom suspected that Yuchi Jingde would also rebel and imprisoned him in the army.
The king of Qin ordered him to be released, took him into his inner chamber, and gave him gold treasures, saying, “Great men meet in righteousness, never mind these little suspicions. I will not listen to slander and cripple the faithful. I think you can also appreciate that. If you wish to leave, these treasures will be given to you as a token of the love of working together for a moment.” The King of Qin appealed to his sincerity and swayed the fierce general.
Yuchi Jingde had saved the king of Qin three times. According to the legend, Yuchi Jingde was a fierce man with a black face, who was well versed in martial arts and known for his bravery. He fought in the north and the south during his life and won many battles. He became the right general of Wuhou and was named the Duke of E. He was one of the twenty-four officials of the Lingyin Pavilion and was given the posthumous title “Zhongwu”.
Shi Bi, Duke of Eguo, Yuan Dynasty
Shi Bi (1233-1318) was a Mongolian named Tarakkhun. He knew Mongolian and was a fierce general during the reign of Kublai.
Shi Bi was able to draw a strong bow and his brawn was extremely impressive. He could lift a stone lion weighing four hundred pounds, walk for several steps and then lower it. One year, Shi Bi followed Yelu Chu Cai (son of Yelu Chu Cai) to Beijing. One of Kublai’s ministers, Huolitai, saw Shi Bi’s power to hold a bow and reported it to Kublai. Kublai summoned Shi Bi and asked him to shoot at the arrow target from a long distance, but he hit the target evenly. Kublai was so pleased with him that he gave him five horses at once.
Shi Bi participated in many battles and followed the army to conquer the Southern Song Dynasty. He was honored with the title of Zhaoyong General and Daru Huaqi and Marquis of Ten Thousand House in Yangzhou Road because of his outstanding achievements. He also had a strange incident during the Song invasion. After the Yuan army pacified Ezhou, they continued to march eastward. When they reached Dagushan, a gust of wind suddenly came up. Bo Yan, the general of the army, ordered Shi Bi to pray to the god of Daguoshan Mountain to stop the gale. This incident was written in the official history and was quite amazing.
In the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Shi Bi was promoted to the position of a counsellor of the Jianghuai Province and a consul of the Huangzhou Road. In the twenty-first year of the Yuan Dynasty, due to the civil unrest in Huang Hua and the continuous spring rains, the price of rice rose sharply. Shi Bi ordered to open the government granaries and export 100,000 stones of official rice and sell it to the people at a low price. When the provincial minister heard about this, he wanted to increase the price of rice. Shi Bi said, “I cannot break my trust with the people and would rather take out my own salary to make up for the shortfall.” Shi Bi allocated another 100,000 koku of official rice to save the people from the famine.
In the third year of Yuanzhen (1297), the court honored Shi Bi’s merits and made him the Duke of E Guo.
Chang Xianchun, Duke of E of Ming Dynasty
Chang Yunchun (1330-1369), character Bo Ren, was a great general at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. According to the History of the Ming Dynasty, he was a great general of the Ming Dynasty. He followed Liu Ju in the twelfth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1352) and later, seeing that Liu Ju could not achieve anything, he surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang in the fifteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty.
When it comes to the fate of Chang Yuchun and Zhu Yuanzhang, there is an episode. In the 15th year of the reign, Chang Yuchun took his men and horses and prepared to go to join Zhu Yuanzhang. One day, Chang met Chun felt sleepy on the way, so he slept in the field, and in his dream he saw a godly man, clad in armor and holding a shield, saying to him, “Get up quickly, the lord has arrived.” Chang Yuanchun woke up from his dream just in time to see the arrival of Zhu Yuanzhang, so he got up to welcome him and joined Zhu Yuanzhang’s command as a pioneer.
After that, Chang Yuchun followed Zhu Yuanzhang and crushed Chen Youlang and Zhang Shicheng, making great achievements. In the twenty-sixth year of the reign, Chang Yuchun broke through Pingjiang City and captured Zhang Shicheng and 250,000 of his men, and was named Duke of E.
In the first year of Hongwu (1368), Zhu Yuanzhang was crowned emperor. In August of the same year, Chang Yuchun and Xu Da, another warlord, captured the Yuan capital, and the Yuan emperor returned to Mongolia. Chang Yuchun conquered in the east and discussed in the west, and made a monumental contribution to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, and was the founding minister of Zhu Yuanzhang. After his death, Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously named him the King of Kaiping, posthumously named Zhongwu.
These three princes of E, all of them, with their divine wisdom, put down the chaos of the world and made remarkable merits. Their deeds have been passed down from generation to generation by future generations.
References.
The Old Book of Tang, Volume 68
History of Yuan, Volume 162
History of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 125
Ming Taizu Shilu, vol. 3
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