Li Jingda


Li Jingda , né Xu Jingda, courtesy name Zitong, nickname Yushi, formally Crown Prince Zhaoxiao, was an imperial prince of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Southern Tang.

Background

Xu Jingda was born in 924, as the fourth son of his parents Xu Zhigao and Lady Song Fujin. At that time, Xu Zhigao was newly made the junior regent for the state of Wu, and there happened to be a severe drought, causing Xu Zhigao much distress. He sacrificed for rain, and it happened that Xu Jingda was born that day. Xu Zhigao was happy and believed his birth to be a good omen, and therefore gave him the nickname of Yushi. As he grew in childhood, it was said that he had an impressive appearance and a direct, magnanimous disposition, unlike other children, and Xu Zhigao much favored him. At some point, he married a daughter of the senior Wu general Li Decheng.

During Li Bian's reign

In 937, Xu Zhigao, then regent, had Wu's emperor Yang Pu yield the throne to him, ending Wu and starting a new state of Southern Tang. While Xu Jingda's older brothers Xu Jingtong and Xu Jingsui were given princely titles later that year, Xu Jingda initially was not, but was only given the title of Duke of Shouyang. In 939, he, and the rest of his family, took the family name of Li, which was his father's birth name. Li Jingda received a princely title shortly after — variously referred to as Prince of Xuancheng or Prince of Xin. As a result of the name change, a controversy developed over whether he could remain married to his wife Princess Li, as a marriage between two people of the same family name was disallowed under Chinese traditions against endogamy. Li Bian decreed that due to Li Decheng's great accomplishments, the marriage shall remain valid, and that the princess was to take on the new family name of Nanping. Throughout the years, Li Bian, impressed by Li Jingda's open disposition, had considered making him the heir to the throne, and the chancellor Song Qiqiu had also often praised his talent. However, Li Bian hesitated, and eventually did not do so, because Li Jing was older.

During Li Jing's reign

Li Bian died in 943, and Li Jing succeeded him as emperor. Li Jing created Li Jingda the greater title of Prince of E. Li Jingda apparently also received additional titles of defender of the eastern capital Jiangdu, military governor of Tianping Circuit, and honorary chancellor title of Shizhong.
Later in the year, believing that it was Li Bian's wish, Li Jing publicly declared his intent to eventually pass the throne, in order, to Li Jingsui and Li Jingda. He thus gave the title of Prince of Qi to Li Jingsui and had Li Jingsui move into the eastern palace — the traditional residence for crown princes, although Li Jingsui did not receive that title at that time — and gave Li Jingsui's old title, Prince of Yan, to Li Jingda. Li Jingsui and Li Jingda also, respectively, were made the generalissimo of the armies of all circuits and deputy generalissimo. They tried to decline these honors, but Li Jing would not let them.
Meanwhile, by 945, Song Qiqiu was in retirement, but unhappily so. In 945, Li Jingda's staff member Xie Zhongxuan argued to Li Jingda that leaving Song, whose reputation as a top adviser to LI Bian was well-known, in retirement would merely cause the people to be disappointed. Li Jingda relayed Xie's arguments to Li Jing, who agreed, and therefore had Li Jingda go see Song to recall him to the imperial government.
In 947, Li Jing formally created Li Jingsui crown prince. He gave the Prince of Qi title to Li Jingda, and the Prince of Yan title that Li Jingda carried to his oldest son Li Hongji, who previously was Prince of Nanchang. Li Jingda and Li Hongji were also made generalissimo and deputy generalissimo, respectively. Meanwhile, in the frequent feasts that Li Jing had with family members and close associates, Li Jing's close associates Feng Yanji, Feng Yanlu, Wei Cen, and Chen Jue spent much time in flattery and inappropriate humor, drawing frequent rebukes from the stern Li Jingda. On one occasion, Feng Yanji, who actually had no part in Li Jing's plan to eventually pass the throne to Li Jingsui and Li Jingda, wanted to nevertheless create the impression that he was involved, to draw gratitude from the two princes. He thus pretended to be drunk, and he caressed Li Jingda's back and stated, "You should not forget me!" Li Jingda, finding this inappropriate, was incensed, and he immediately went to see Li Jing, requesting Feng's execution. Li Jing had to spend much time dissuading him. The official Zhang Yi, however, later pointed out to Li Jingda that his repeated attempts to remove Li Jing's close associates were not having the effect that he wanted, and might create incentive for them to falsely accuse him. Li Jingda saw Zhang's point and agreed; after that, he often declined to attend feasts to avoid conflict with Li Jing's associates.
In 956, Southern Tang was under a major attack by its northern neighbor Later Zhou. Li Jing commissioned Li Jingda to command the main Southern Tang army to face the main Later Zhou army, commanded by the Later Zhou emperor Guo Rong. However, he also commissioned Chen as Li Jingda's army monitor, and Chen became effectively in command. Indeed, it was said that because Li Jingda lacked talent in military matters, he essentially was only signing orders that Chen had already decided on, and that the army had low morale as a result. In particular, one of the tasks that Li Jingda's army, 50,000-men strong, was supposed to carry out was to relieve the Later Zhou siege on the important border city Shou Prefecture, but while the army advanced to Hao Prefecture, not far from Shou, it did not advance further to actually engage the Later Zhou sieging army. He did dispatch some generals to make repeated attempts to advance toward Shou, but each time was repelled by the Later Zhou forces. He also rejected the proposal by Shou's commander Liu Renzhan for Liu to lead his army out of the city for a pitched battle with the Later Zhou army. Faced with the continuing siege, Liu fell ill. Further, at this time, Chen tried to strip the successful, but often disobedient general Zhu Yuan of his command, causing Zhu to surrender to Later Zhou and further weakening the Southern Tang position. A final attempt by Li Jingda's army to assault the Later Zhou sieging army resulted in a crushing defeat for Southern Tang, with the generals Xu Wenzhen, Bian Hao, and Yang Shouzhong all captured. Li Jingda and Chen had to flee back to the capital Jinling. With Liu near death from his illness, the Southern Tang garrison at Shou surrendered.
In light of the mounting defeats, Li Jingsui, who had previously declined the crown prince position, again offered to yield the position, pointing out that he was unable to aid the state while Li Hongji, who was in charge of the southeastern front with Wuyue. Li Jingda also offered to resign as generalissimo. Li Jing agreed this time, creating Li Hongji crown prince to replace Li Jingsui, while sending Li Jingsui and Li Jingda out of the capital to serve as regional governors, as they requested. In Li Jingda's case, he was initially given the titles of generalissimo of Zhexi as well as the commandant of Zhenhai's capital Run Prefecture. However, as Zhenhai was then still involved in the campaign against Later Zhou, he declined it, and was thereafter made the commandant of Fu Prefecture. It was said that after the defeat at Shou, Li Jingda spent much of his time in drinking, and that, at Fu Prefecture, he did not attend much to the governance of the circuit and entrusted the matters to his staff members.

During Li Yu's reign

Li Jing died in 961, and was succeeded by his son Li Congjia, who then changed his name to Li Yu. Li Yu bestowed on Li Jingda the additional honorary titles of Taishi and Shangshu Ling, showing great respect to him.
Li Jingda died in 971. By his own wishes, he was buried at Mount Lu. Li Yu posthumously honored him crown prince.