Tian Hongzheng's Life

Since his childhood, Tian Hongzheng loved to read Confucian books, was proficient in the art of war, good at riding and archery, brave in battle, and knew the etiquette, and was y loved by his uncle, Tian Chengsi. When Tian Ji'an was in charge of Weibo, Tian Hongzheng was the envoy of the Weibo army.

Tian Ji'an was an extravagant, cruel and murderous man, but Tian Hongzheng advised him to do so several times, and he gained the support of the army. Tian Ji'an thought that Tian Hongzheng was a collector of people's hearts, so he relegated him to the position of general of the town of Linqing, and tried to kill him for his crime. Tian Hongzheng claimed that he was suffering from rheumatism and burned his whole body with mugwort, which saved his life. In 812 (the seventh year of Yuanhe), Tian Ji'an died of illness, and his son Tian Huaijian succeeded him as the minister of the province and recalled Tian Hongzheng to his former post. At that time, Tian Huaijian entrusted all political affairs to his slave Jiang Shizhe. Jiang Shizhe's unfairness aroused the anger of the three armies, who all said, "The military ambassador is our commander-in-chief." He was planning to support Tian Hongzheng. When Tian Hongzheng was at home and closed his door, his soldiers were loudly clamoring outside his residence.

When Tian Hongzheng came out, the soldiers all fell to the ground and asked him to come to the government office to govern. Tian Hongzheng was so frightened that he fell to the ground, and knowing that it was difficult for him to shirk his duties, he said to the soldiers, "You have asked me to preside over the military affairs, and I have made a pact with you, are you willing to obey my words?" He also said, "I will abide by the law and discipline of the court, and will hand over Wei Bo's map and household register to the court, and ask the court to appoint officials. Before the imperial decree of the Son of Heaven is issued, behead anyone who dares to ask me to be a festival minister, and behead anyone who kills and loots!" All the generals of the three armies promised.

On the same day, Tian Hongzheng went to the governor's office and beheaded Jiang Shizhe and a dozen others, and then reported to the court. Soon after, Tang Xianzong appointed Tian Hongzheng as the minister of the Ministry of Public Works, the governor of Wei Zhou, the chief historian, and the imperial historian, the ambassador of Wei Bo Jiedu Observation, the upper pillar state, and the Duke of Yi, and gave him a name, and ordered Pei Du, the scholar, to go to Wei Zhou to proclaim the message. Since Tian Chengshi assumed the Weibo Festival Minister, the house, clothing and decorations have exceeded the rituals, Tian Hongzheng successor, all ordered to remove the destruction. Tian Hongzheng thought that the main hall of the minister's residence was too luxurious, and he usually dealt with political affairs only in the hall of the interviewing minister's residence. He also built a book building in his residence, collected more than 10,000 volumes of books, and often talked about ancient and modern affairs with his staff and officials in his spare time. Tian Hongzheng also consulted the court on the appointment of his officials.

At that time, Youzhou, Chengde, Ziqing, Huaxi and other clans were very worried about Tian Hongzheng's return to the court, and repeatedly sent lobbyists to persuade and lure, but Tian Hongzheng always insisted on integrity. At the same time, Pei Du also many times to Tian Hongzheng to explain the reasoning, Tian Hongzheng to the court more respectful.

Tian Hongzheng also sent his son Tian Bu to lead the army to help him in the war. Li Shidao, the Ziqing Festival Minister, was afraid that Tian Hongzheng would attack himself and dared not openly support Wu Yuanji. Wu Yuanji's reinforcements were cut off, and he was finally pacified by the official army. Later, Wang Chengzong, the minister of Chengde, rebelled, and Tian Hongzheng was summoned to conquer him again. In fear, Wang Chengzong took his two sons as hostages and begged Tian Hongzheng for peace, offering Dezhou and Deizhou.

In 818 (the 13th year of Yuanhe), the court ordered Tian Hongzheng to conquer Li Shidao together with Xuanwu army, Yicheng army, Wuning army and Hengnian army. Tian Hongzheng crossed the river from Yang Liu, camped forty miles away from Yunzhou (present-day Dongping, Shandong), and defeated Ziqing army general Liu Wu. Soon, Li brew, Li Guangyan and other forces attacked on three sides, Ziqing army situation is critical.

819 years (Yuan and fourteen years), Liu Wu reversed, returned to Yunzhou, beheaded Li Shidao, to Tian Hongzheng surrender. Ziqing town was pacified, Tian Hongzheng for his achievements was appointed as the inspection of the school of Stuart, with the Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhang matter. In August of the same year, Tian Hongzheng into the court, and in Lin De Hall, the additional inspection of the school of the Secretary, and the service of the middleman. Tian Hongzheng wanted to change the style of inheritance of the sectional governors, so he sent his brothers, sons and nephews to the imperial court to serve as officials. When Wang Chengzong died in 820, Emperor Xianzong reappointed Tian Hongzheng as the minister of Chengde, and appointed him to be the minister of Chengde, the prosecutor of the school, the minister of the central government, and the governor of Zhenzhou. Tian Hongzheng had an old grudge against Chengde's soldiers because he had fought with them for a long time, so he had 2,000 Weibo soldiers accompany him to escort him. Later, Tian Hongzheng petitioned the imperial court to keep these two thousand soldiers and horses in Chengde and asked the imperial court to provide them with pay, but the minister of military affairs, Cui Jie, refused to agree. Tian Hongzheng appealed to the court four times, but Cui Jie did not pay any attention to him.

Tian Hongzheng was very generous to his family, and his brothers, sons and nephews who were officials in the two capitals (Chang'an and Luoyang) lived extravagantly, spending nearly 200,000 qian per day. Tian Hongzheng supplied the towns of Weibo and Chengde with wealth and goods, and the vehicles were in constant flow, so the Hebei soldiers were very dissatisfied. Later, the court gave Chengde soldiers one million coins, but it was not delivered on time, and the soldiers were even more dissatisfied. Wang Tingminu, the general of the Chengde army, was a bold and cunning man who plotted against the government and often provoked the generals with trivial matters, but he did not dare to act rashly because Wei Bo's soldiers and horses were still in the area.

In the seventh month of 821 (the first year of the Changqing era), Tian Hongzheng ordered the soldiers of Weibo to return to Weizhou. On the 28th day of the same month, Wang Ting gathered the teeth of the soldiers to rebel, Tian Hongzheng and his family, generals and officials of more than three hundred killed together, aged 58 years old. When Emperor Mu Zong of Tang Dynasty was informed of this, he conferred the title of lieutenant on Tian Hongzheng and gave him the posthumous title of Zhongmin.