Lu Guang - Early Life and Career As Former Qin General

Early Life and Career As Former Qin General

Lü Guang was ethnically Di (although he claimed ancestry from an ethnically Han man named Lü Wenhe (呂文和) who fled from Pei County (in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu, the same county that Han Dynasty emperors' ancestors came) from a disaster and who settled in Di lands). He was born in 337, when his father Lü Polou (呂婆樓) was a follower of the Di chieftain and Later Zhao general Pu Hong (蒲洪, who later changed his family name from Pu to Fu). Eventually, after Fu Hong's son Fu Jiàn founded Former Qin, Lü Polou served on the staff of Fu Jiàn's nephew Fu Jiān (notice different tone) the Prince of Donghai. After Fu Jiān overthrew Fu Jiàn's violent and capricious son and successor Fu Sheng in 357, Fu Jiān claimed the throne and made Lü Polou one of his senior advisors. Lü Guang, however, was not well regarded by his father's colleagues, because he did not study much and instead concentrated his efforts on hunting and riding. However, Fu Jiān's prime minister Wang Meng valued him and persuaded Fu Jiān to make him a general. He first received renown when he, while fighting with the army of the warlord Zhang Ping (張平) in 358, defeated and captured Zhang Ping's fierce adoptive son Zhang Hao (張蚝).

When Fu Jiān's cousins Fu Sou (苻廋) the Duke of Wei, Fu Liu (苻柳) the Duke of Jin, Fu Wu (苻武) the Duke of Yan, and brother Fu Shuang (苻雙) the Duke of Zhao rebelled together in 367, Lü Guang was one of the generals sent against Fu Shuang and Fu Wu, and he contributed much to defeating the rebellion. Later, after he served under Wang Meng in the campaign destroying rival Former Yan in 390, he was created the Marquess of Duting.

In 378, Lü Guang was serving as the assistant to Fu Jiān's cousin Fu Chong (苻重) the Duke of Beihai, who, as the governor of Yu Province (豫州, modern Henan) was in charge of the important city Luoyang. Fu Chong planned a rebellion, and Fu Jiān learned this and ordered Lü to arrest Fu Chong, which Lü did successfully. (However, Fu Jiān did not execute Fu Chong but only relieved him of his posts and not even his ducal title.)

In 380, inexplicably, Fu Jiān made Fu Chong the defender of Jicheng (modern Beijing), and Fu Chong soon rebelled along with his brother, the powerful general Fu Luo (苻洛) the Duke of Xingtang. Lü Guang was one of the generals in charge of the campaign against Fu Luo and Fu Chong, and he defeated Fu Chong and killed him, resulting in Fu Luo's subsequent defeat and capture.

In 382, in response to requests by the kings of two Xiyu states—Xiumiduo (休密馱) the King of Shanshan and Mitian (彌窴) the King of Front Cheshi (roughly modern Turpan Prefecture, Xinjiang) -- Fu Jiān commissioned Lü Guang to lead an army of 100,000 infantry soldiers and 5,000 cavalry soldiers to Xiyu, with the intent to, like Han Dynasty did, establish a governor general over Xiyu. The army departed the Former Qin capital Chang'an in spring 383, with the two kings as guides. By early 384, most Xiyu kingdoms had submitted, but Bo Chun (帛純) the King of Qiuzi (or Kucha, 龜茲, in modern Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang) resisted, and Lü put Qiuzi under siege, forcing Bochun to flee. He made Bo Chun's brother Bo Zhen (帛震) the new king, and he also, in a move to show Former Qin suzerainty over Xiyu, ordered the Xiyu kings to turn over the Han Dynasty imperial rods that they had still possessed and exchanged them for Former Qin ones. By this point, however, Former Qin was disintegrating in light of rebellions that happened after its defeat at the Battle of Fei River against Jin, and although Fu Jiān wanted to make Lü the governor general of Xiyu, he was unable to have the commission delivered to Lü. While at Qiuzi, Lü met the Buddhist monk Kumarajiva, and when he, in 385, considered settling in Qiuzi (after hearing of the unrest Former Qin was suffering from), Kumarajiva advised against it, stating that Qiuzi was a land of misfortune and, if he headed back east, he would find a homeland on the way. Lü therefore started to head back east, carrying the plunder he had gathered in Xiyu.

Former Qin's governor of the rich Liang Province (涼州, modern central and western Gansu and eastern Xinjiang), Liang Xi (梁熙), was weary of Lü's intentions, and he considered sealing the borders and refusing Lü entry. His advisor Yang Han (楊翰) suggested that he cut off the Gaowu Valley (高梧谷, in modern Turpan Prefecture, Xinjiang) or Yiwu Passes (伊吾關, in modern Kumul Prefecture, Xinjiang) to defeat Lü by thirst, but Liang refused. Yang then surrendered to Lü, who quickly advanced on the capital of Liang Province, Guzang (姑臧, in modern Wuwei, Gansu), capturing Liang Xi and quickly controlling most of Liang Province. For the next several years, he battled local warlords. In winter 386, upon hearing the news of Fu Jiān's death (Fu Jiān having died in 385), he changed the era name to Tai'an -- signifying a declaration of independence, although at this point he claimed no formal regal or imperial titles—and therefore 386 is typically considered the date of Later Liang's founding.