Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Li Shi
Tang emperor Dezong, who introduced the twice-yearly tax in 780 and whose campaign against the provincial governors ended in revolt and his flight from the capital in 783
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Emperor Dezong of Tang
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Li Shi, Emperor Dezong of Tang, was the eldest son of Emperor Daizong; he led the final campaign against Shi Chaoyi in 762 and took the throne in 779, reigning under the titles Jianzhong, Xingyuan and Zhenyuan. In 780, on Yang Yan's advice, he replaced the old per-head levies with the twice-yearly tax assessed on property. His attempt to break the power of the Hebei and Ziqing governors set off a chain of revolts, and in 783 troops from Jingyuan mutinied as they passed through Chang'an, forcing him to flee to Fengtian while the rebels made Zhu Ci emperor. In 784 he issued an edict blaming himself, drafted by Lu Zhi, and Li Sheng retook the capital that year; afterwards he handled the governors cautiously. In the Zhenyuan years he gave eunuchs command of the Shence palace armies and trusted revenue-raisers like Pei Yanling. He died early in 805. The Old Book of Tang (Jiu Tangshu) says even hardened soldiers wept when Lu Zhi's edict reached them.
Life and times
- 742 CEBorn
Tang - c. 762Tang Recovery of Henan and Hebei
age 20Tang and Uighur forces retook Luoyang in late 762 and chased Shi Chaoyi into Hebei, where his generals deserted and he hanged himself early in 763, ending the An–Shi rebellion. - 780The Twice-a-Year Tax Reform
Yang Yan's Two-Tax Law replaced labor and grain obligations with summer and autumn levies assessed largely on land and property.- Yang Yan Establishes the Two-Tax Lawage 38Chancellor Yang Yan abolished outdated headcount taxation in favor of progressive wealth assessments levied each summer and autumn.
- Yang Yan Establishes the Two-Tax Law
- 805Yongzhen Reform
Precursorage 63After Emperor Shunzong took the throne in 805, Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi abolished the palace market and the Five Workshops' bird-catchers and sought to take the Shence Army from the eunuchs, but eunuch and regional opposition ended the reform with Shunzong's abdication that August.- Eunuch Palace Market Seizures in Chang'anc. 785age 43Under Emperor Dezong in the Zhenyuan era, eunuchs used the palace market to force cheap purchases in Chang'an until Emperor Shunzong abolished it in 805.
- Eunuch Palace Market Seizures in Chang'an
- 805 CEDied
Family tree
- Direct kin
Connections
- Shared events8
- Rulers and officials2
