Ministers › Statesman / Official
Yu Chaoen
Tang palace eunuch who supervised the failed siege of Xiangzhou, took command of the Shence Army after escorting Daizong in 763, and was strangled at court in 770
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 Huan Guan Yu Chao En · Tian Xia Guan Jun Rong Shi
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Yu Chao'en, from Luchuan in Luzhou, entered the palace eunuch service late in the Tianbao era and under Suzong was repeatedly sent to supervise armies. In 758, when nine regional commanders including Guo Ziyi besieged An Qingxu at Xiangzhou without a single commander-in-chief, he oversaw them all as army supervisor, and the following spring the besieging forces broke up in disorder. When a Tibetan army took Chang'an in 763 and Emperor Daizong fled to Shanzhou, Yu brought the Shence Army from Shanzhou to protect him and afterward commanded it, which made him the most powerful man at court. Placed over the Directorate of Education, he lectured on the Book of Changes and used the line about a cauldron's broken leg to mock the chief ministers Wang Jin and Yuan Zai. After a palace banquet at the Cold Food festival in the third month of 770, Daizong and Yuan Zai had him detained and strangled; both Tang histories place him among the eunuch biographies.
Life and times
Dates c. 722 CE–770 CE