Tian Xu (Tang Dynasty) - Service Under Tian Yue

Service Under Tian Yue

Because Tian Yue was thankful to Tian Chengsi for raising him and passing the circuit to him, he treated Tian Xu and his brothers with kindness. He put Tian Xu in charge of the headquarter guards. It was said that Tian Xu was violent and often committed crimes, but Tian Yue did not have the heart to give him heavy punishment, although on one occasion he whipped Tian Xu and briefly detained him, drawing resentment from Tian Xu. Tian Xu also resented Tian Yue because Tian Yue, frugal by nature, restricted his family members' monetary expenditures, such that Tian Xu felt that the expenditures were insufficient for him.

In 781, Tian Yue, along with several other military governors, rose in rebellion against Emperor Daizong's son and successor Emperor Dezong, but by 784, Emperor Dezong, who was then in desperate straits due to the rebellion at the capital Chang'an by Zhu Ci, issued a general pardon. Tian Yue accepted the general pardon, along with his allies Wang Wujun and Li Na, and they turned against another ally, Zhu Tao (Zhu Ci's brother), who had not accepted the pardon. After Tian Yue's submission, Emperor Dezong sent the imperial official Kong Chaofu (孔巢父) to Weibo to meet with Tian Yue, to thank him for his allegiance and to encourage the troops. Meanwhile, though, on one night in spring 784, while Kong was still at Weibo, Tian Xu was complaining to his brothers and nephews about Tian Yue, while he was drunk. When the nephew tried to stop his complaints, he killed his nephew. After he became sober, he realized what he had done, and worried that Tian Yue would kill him when he found out. He therefore took his followers, went to Tian Yue's headquarters, and killed Tian Yue, Tian Yue's mother, wife, and children. He then, issuing orders in Tian Yue's name, summoned Tian Yue's staff members Hu E (扈崿), Xu Shize (許士則), and Jiang Ji (蔣濟). When they arrived, Tian Xu killed them as well. However, Tian Xu then panicked and fled out of Weibo's capital prefecture Wei Prefecture (魏州). The senior officers Xing Caojun (邢曹俊) and Meng Xiyou (孟希祐), however, chased him down and offered the military governorship to him, as Tian Xu's only remaining older brother, Tian Guan (田綸), was also killed in the disturbance. Tian Xu then declared that it was another officer, Liu Zhongxin (劉忠信), who had assassinated Tian Yue, and took over control of the circuit. Kong then commissioned him as the acting military governor. (The soldiers found out a few days later that it was actually Tian Xu who carried out the assassination, but by that point Tian Xu was firmly in control.)