Quan Long Cheng

Biography

Accession as a Youth

Quanlongsheng was born into the Nanzhao royal house as a son of Xungeqüan. One account says that he succeeded in 808 (3rd year of the Yuanhe era, Tang) after Xungeqüan's death and received Tang investiture the following year, while another places his reign from 809. The "Account of the Southern Barbarians" in the New Book of Tang records that after Xungeqüan died his son Quanlongsheng was installed, without providing an exact month and day that would resolve the one-year difference. The text takes 808 from that account as the main value in the information card and notes the variant, rather than forcing the two years into a single date.

Activities during His Reign

In 810 (5th year of the Yuanhe era, Tang) Quanlongsheng changed the era name to Longxing. Two accounts both state that he sent envoys to pay tribute to the Tang several times and had three Buddha images cast in gold and sent to the Foding Temple; the surviving material does not support inferring a systematic religious reform from this. Another account also records that in 814 (9th year of the Yuanhe era) Nanzhao attacked Jiadingzhou at Muyuanchuan and was defeated; the full text of that account does not describe the fighting in detail, and the relevant passages of the New Book of Tang available here do not give the course of the battle either, so it is kept only as a single-source record.

Murder and Succession

The New Book of Tang says that "high and low resented" Quanlongsheng and that he was killed in 816 (11th year of the Yuanhe era, Tang) by the jiedushi of Nongdong, Wang Cuodian. Wang Cuodian then raised Quanlongsheng's younger brother Quanlisheng, and the Tang sent envoys to offer condolence and investiture. Other accounts record the same succession. The judgement in the histories that Quanlongsheng was "licentious and tyrannical" reflects Tang views of Nanzhao politics and cannot be used to invent specific private conduct for which no source exists.

Major Activities

Political and institutional context

The cached record places Quan Long Cheng within the institutions and conflicts of Five Dynasties.

Source-based record

The chronology of his reign is comparatively concentrated: he succeeded in 808, received Tang investiture the following year and changed the era name to Longxing in 810; in 814 Nanzhao attacked Jiadingzhou at Muyuanchuan and was defeated; in 816 he was killed by Wang Cuodian, jiedushi of Nongdong, who then raised his younger brother Quanlisheng, and the Tang sent envoys to offer condolence and investiture. This sequence shows how closely the Nanzhao succession was tied to the military power of its great ministers.

Personal Relations

• Relationships are recorded from the cached source text and should be read together with the related entries listed below.

Historical Assessment

The New Book of Tang explains Quanlongsheng's loss of position with the phrase "licentious and tyrannical, resented by high and low"; this is a judgement by the historian and is qualified here as what the Tang histories record. The verifiable events of his rule are chiefly his succession, his era name, his dealings with the Tang and Wang Cuodian's coup. The anecdote about Han Xiangzi and the Lantingji Xu found in another account rests on no verifiable historical source and is not treated as part of his life.