Ministers › Statesman / Official
Li Fuguo
Tang palace eunuch who urged Suzong to take the throne at Lingwu, controlled the palace army, and was assassinated months after placing Daizong on the throne
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Li Jingzhong · Bolu Junwang · Chengguo Gong · Shi Chou
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Li Fuguo, originally named Li Jingzhong, started as a groom's boy in the imperial stables, and after serving Gao Lishi was recommended to the crown prince's household to manage its records. After the Mawei mutiny of 756 he urged the prince, Li Heng, to go north and rally troops, then pressed him to take the throne at Lingwu; the new emperor Suzong renamed him Huguo and later Fuguo and gave him command of the palace army. In 760 he forced the retired emperor Xuanzong to move from the Xingqing Palace to the western palace. As Suzong lay dying in 762, Empress Zhang plotted to enthrone Li Xi, Prince of Yue, but Li Fuguo and Cheng Yuanzhen seized her and placed Daizong on the throne, which brought him the title Shangfu and the rank of Prince of Bolu. That November he was stabbed to death at night in his house, reportedly on Daizong's secret order, and was given the posthumous name Chou, 'ugly'.
Life and times
Dates 703 CE–762 CE