Chang Gun

Chang Gun (常袞) (729–783), formally the Duke of He'nei (河內公), was an official of the Chinese dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Daizong and Emperor Dezong.

Chang Gun was born in 729, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His family was from Jingzhao Municipality (京兆), which encompassed the Tang capital Chang'an. His great-grandfather Chang Xu (常緒), grandfather Chang Yi (常毅), and father Chang Wuwei (常無為) all served as minor officials. He had at least one older brother, Chang Jie (常皆).

Chang Gun himself passed the imperial examinations late in Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao era (742-756). He initially served as a scribe for Emperor Xuanzong's crown prince Li Heng (the later Emperor Suzong), and later served as an imperial chronicler.

In 764, during the reign of Emperor Suzong's son Emperor Daizong, Chang Gun was made an imperial scholar and a reserve official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, Libu), and also put in charge of drafting imperial edicts. In 765, he was made Zhongshu Sheren (中書舍人), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng). Chang was said to be a capable writer, and both he and his colleague as Zhongshu Sheng, Yang Yan, were respected at the time and often discussed about together.

Chang was said to be honest and not associating with powerful individuals at court. At the time, the eunuch Yu Chao'en was extremely powerful, and at Yu's request, Emperor Daizong made Yu the acting principal of the imperial university, a move that Chang protested based on Yu's status as a eunuch notwithstanding Yu's power. He also advocated a curbing in the behavior of Huige soldiers who had been treated as guests in the Tang realm. (Huige armies had greatly assisted Tang in defeating the rebel state of Yan during the Anshi Rebellion.) He further advocated that Emperor Daizong should decline elaborate birthday gifts that the regional governors were presenting to him or to Buddhist or Taoist temples in his honor, pointing out that these governors should have otherwise had no wealths of their own, and therefore these gifts must have come from pilfering from the people. Emperor Daizong was thankful for Chang's suggestions, but there was no indication on whether he accepted them. In 766, he was made the deputy minister of rites (禮部侍郎, Libu Shilang) and continued to be an imperial scholar. At that time, the eunuch Liu Zhongyi (劉忠翼) and the military governor Ma Lin (馬璘) were both trusted by Emperor Daizong and therefore were powerful. Both tried to intercede on their relatives' behalf so that the relatives could become imperial university students, but Chang rejected the intercessions.

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