Du Yan
| Du Yan | |
|---|---|
| Chancellor of the Tang dynasty | |
| Born | (unknown) |
| Died | 628 |
| Names | |
| Traditional Chinese | 杜淹 |
| Simplified Chinese | 杜淹 |
| Pinyin | Dù Yān |
| Wade–Giles | Tu Yen |
| Courtesy name | Zhili (simplified Chinese: 执礼; traditional Chinese: 執禮; pinyin: Zhílǐ; Wade–Giles: Chi-li) |
| Posthumous name | Duke Xiang of Anji (Chinese: 安吉襄公; pinyin: Ānjí Xiāng Gōng; Wade–Giles: An-chi Hsiang Kung) |
Du Yan (died 628), courtesy name Zhili, posthumously known as Duke Xiang of Anji, was a Chinese official who served as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Taizong in the Tang dynasty. His more famous nephew, Du Ruhui, was also a chancellor.
It is not known when Du Yan was born, but it is known that he was from Sui Dynasty's capital commandery Jingzhao (京兆, i.e., Chang'an). His grandfather Du Ye (杜業) was a provincial governor for Sui's predecessor state Northern Zhou, and his father Du Zheng (杜徵) was a commandery governor for Northern Zhou. In his youth, Du Yan had a good reputation for being talented in rhetoric, and he and a friend from the same commandery, Wei Fusi (韋福嗣), conversed between themselves and concluded that Emperor Wen of Sui favored people who had been hermits. They therefore went into Mount Taibai (太白山, part of the Qinling Mountains), to try to gain reputations as hermits in order to benefit themselves later on in their careers. When Emperor Wen heard this, however, he became angry at them, and he exiled them to the south of the Yangtze River.
Later, probably after a general pardon, Du Yan was able to return to Chang'an. Gao Xiaoji (高孝基), an official of the capital province Yong Province (雍州) submitted a recommendation for him, and he was made a low level imperial official. By the end of the reign of Emperor Wen's son Emperor Yang, he was the deputy imperial censor.
In 619, with the Sui state collapsing in light of rebellions around the empire before and after Emperor Yang's death in a coup in 618, the general Wang Shichong, in control of the eastern capital Luoyang, deposed the last Sui emperor, Emperor Yang's grandson Yang Tong and declared himself emperor of a new state of Zheng. Wang made Du Yan the minister of civil service affairs and trusted him greatly. Meanwhile, Du Yan's nephew Du Ruhui had become an important advisor to Li Shimin, a son of rival Tang Dynasty's Emperor Gaozu and a major Tang general. Du Ruhui's older brother (whose name is lost to history) and younger brother Du Chuke (杜楚客) were at Luoyang at that time, under Zheng rule. Du Yan had poor relations with his nephews, and he decided to act against them. He falsely accused them before Wang, and Wang executed Du Ruhui's older brother and imprisoned Du Chuke. Du Chuke almost starved to death but survived the imprisonment.
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