Dong Chang (warlord)
| Dong Chang | |||||||||
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| Reign | March 3, 895 – 896 | ||||||||
| Born | Unknown | ||||||||
| Died | July 3, 896 | ||||||||
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| Dynasty | Luoping of the Great Yue (大越羅平, Dàyùe Lúopíng) |
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| Era name and dates | |
| Shùntiān (順天): March 3, 895 – 896 |
Dong Chang (董昌) (d. July 3, 896) was a warlord of the late Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty. He began his career as the leader of a local militia at Hang Prefecture (杭州, in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang) and gradually increased in power to control most of modern Zhejiang. Not satisfied with the titles that the Tang emperors bestowed on him, he claimed imperial title in 895 as the emperor of a new state known as Luoping of the Great Yue (大越羅平). His vassal Qian Liu turned against him and killed him, seizing his territory, eventually becoming the founder of a new state of Wuyue.
It is not known when Dong Chang was born, but it was known that he was from Lin'an (臨安, in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang), which was part of Hang Prefecture (杭州). During the rebellion of the army officer Wang Ying in 876-877, Dong joined a local militia to defend against Wang's raids. After Wang's rebellion was defeated, Dong, for his contributions during the campaign, was made the defender of Shijing Base (石鏡, in modern Hangzhou).
In 878, when the agrarian rebel Cao Shixiong (曹師雄) was pillaging both Zhenhai Circuit (鎮海, headquartered in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), which Hang Prefecture belonged to, and Zhedong Circuit (浙東, headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), the Hang Prefecture government tried to resist the pillages by recruiting 1,000 men from each of the counties in the prefecture. Dong and seven others became the militia commanders, and their troops became known as the "Eight Corps of Hang Prefecture." Among the men serving under Dong at the time was Qian Liu, who became a key officer under him.
In 881, after the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao captured the imperial capital Chang'an, forcing then-reigning Emperor Xizong to flee to Chengdu, Gao Pian the military governor (Jiedushi) of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu) gathered troops in the nearby regions and claimed that he was going to launch troops to recapture Chang'an. As part of that, he summoned Dong to Huainan's capital Yang Prefecture (揚州) as well. However, Qian discerned that Gao had no real intentions to attack Huang, and he advised Dong to claim that he needed to return to Hang Prefecture to defend it. Dong did so, and Gao agreed to let him leave. Meanwhile, the imperial government had just recently commissioned a new prefect of Hang Prefecture, Lu Shenzhong (路審中). Before Lu could get to Hang Prefecture, however, Dong took his troops from Shijing into Hang Prefecture to intimidate Lu. Lu, fearful of Dong, did not take office. Dong then claimed the title of acting prefect, and had his officers submit petitions to the military governor of Zhenhai, Zhou Bao, to have Dong be officially commissioned. Zhou, believing that he could not control Dong otherwise, made Dong the prefect of Hang Prefecture.
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