Li Zhengji
| Li Zhengji | |||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 李正己 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 李正己 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Li Zhengji |
Li Zhengji was a general of Tang China, originally of Goguryeo descent.
Li Zhengji was born Li Huaiyu in 733, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. He was born in Tang's Pinglu Circuit (平盧, then headquartered in modern Chaoyang, Liaoning). As of 758, he served in the military at Pinglu Circuit's capital prefecture, Ying Prefecture (營州), along with his cousin Hou Xiyi (侯希逸).
In 758, when the military governor (jiedushi) Wang Xuanzhi (王玄志) died in the midst of the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong's son and successor Emperor Suzong sent an emissary to Pinglu, preparing to find a successor to Wang in the Pinglu army. However, Li Huaiyu believed that Wang's son would be made military governor and did not want that to happen, so he killed Wang's son and supported Hou to succeed Wang. In response, Emperor Suzong initially made Hou deputy military governor and then eventually military governor. (This action was much criticized by the Song Dynasty historian Sima Guang in his Zizhi Tongjian, and Sima believed this to mark the beginning of the failing of Tang military discipline.)
By 762, however, Pinglu, which was cut off from Tang territory by the rebel Yan state and facing repeated attacks from Khitan and Xi tribes, was in a desperate situation. Hou Xiyi thus took the Pinglu army and attacked the Yan general Li Huaixian at Fanyang, and then, after battling with Li Huaixian, took his army south to the Shandong Peninsula, subsequently assisting other Tang generals Tian Shen'gong (田神功) and Neng Yuanhao (能元皓) in attacking Yan generals in the east. In 762, after Emperor Suzong's death, Emperor Suzong's son successor Emperor Daizong made Hou also the military governor of Ziqing Circuit (淄青, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong), governing six prefectures. (The Pinglu name thus eventually displaced the Ziqing name as the official designation of the circuit.) Subsequently, Hou led his Pinglu army in continued campaigns against the final Yan emperor Shi Chaoyi and participated in the campaign ending in Shi's destruction in 763. Li Huaiyu followed Hou in these campaigns and served with distinction, and Hou made him bingmashi (兵馬使), serving as Hou's assistant.
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