Product Code Database
Tong Guan (c. 1054–1126), courtesy name Daofu (), was a Chinese court eunuch, military general, political adviser, and state councillor to Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty. In the classical novel Water Margin, Tong Guan is fictionalised as a corrupt government official and an enemy of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
In the year 1118, Tong Guan suggested to Emperor Huizong that a military alliance with the Jurchen people would be favourable in crushing the Liao dynasty once and for all.Ebrey, 165. Emperor Huizong agreed, despite some protest by other ministers at court. In a secret alliance and mission of envoys across the borders, Tong Guan played a leading role in the agreement that was reached between the Jurchens and the Song dynasty to divide the Liao dynasty's territory (while the Song would ultimately obtain their coveted prize: the Sixteen Prefectures). In 1120, at the age of 66, Tong Guan was put in command of an army to begin the assault on the Liao dynasty's Liao Nanjing. However, the campaign was halted for a time when word came to Tong Guan's camp that a revolt had broken out within the Song Empire, Fang La's rebellion in Zhejiang. His army was forced to march several hundred miles south to Zhejiang in order to suppress this rebellion. After successfully quelling this rebellion, his army marched back north but was routed in battle. Shortly after this, the Jurchens defeated the Liao dynasty at Yanjing and occupied the city. The city of Yanjing was turned over to Song forces only after a substantial payment was made to the Jurchens. Due to his losses and inability to take Yanjing, when Tong Guan returned to Kaifeng, he was forced to retire from his post as commander.
Although he was earlier forced to retire, in 1124, Tong Guan was called back into military service by Emperor Huizong, who trusted no other general more than Tong Guan to head the mission across the northern border. During this northern expedition, Tong Guan and his troops removed the long-established defensive forest on the Song-Liao border, exposing the vulnerable flat terrain in the North China Plain to future attacks from the north. However, in the last month of 1125, Tong Guan fled across the border back to Kaifeng to deliver the ill-fated news that the Jurchens had begun an invasion of the Song dynasty. Tong Guan was made the leader of Emperor Huizong's personal bodyguard after the emperor abdicated the throne and fled from Kaifeng.
Tong Guan was later blamed for much of the disaster that befell the Song dynasty when the Jurchens conquered northern China. Emperor Huizong's successor, Emperor Qinzong, had Tong Guan executed.
|
|
