Five Dynasties · Ruler

Gaozu 高祖

Attested AD 946

Passages: 4
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Gaozu was a ruler.

Life and dates

Death

Illness · lay ill when entrusting Chongrui
Strongly inferred · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passage 187

Attested activity

AD 946 高祖疾病托孤
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passages 186-187

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Sibling of Jingru (敬儒)
imperial uncle 皇伯 · Uncertain siblings
Strongly inferred · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passages 182, 184, 188
Parent of Chongrui (重睿)
son 子
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passage 187
Parent of Shi Chonggui (石重貴)
son 子 · Claimed parentage · Uncertain
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passages 186, 188

Kinship Role sons · Count 2 · plural sons already born; Chongrui is named among them
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passages 186-187

Places and affiliations

Later Jin 晉
Relation Ruled
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passage 186

Events and relationships

Entrusted heir on sickbed
Political · Actor · With Chongrui (重睿) · Intermediary Person Id Feng Dao (馮道)
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passage 187
Relation Entrusted to · Person Feng Dao (馮道) · Regarding Person Id Chongrui (重睿)
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passage 187

Assessments and attributes

Assessment had-biological-sons-so-Chonggui-could-not-be-lawful-heir · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · New History of the Five Dynasties 9, passages 186, 190

References in the histories

New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 9Volume 9 Later Jin Annals 2: the Emperor That Fled · 4 passages

蓋出帝於高祖，得為子而不得為後者，高祖自有子也。 Between the Fleeing Emperor and Gaozu he might count as a son, but he could not be made heir, for Gaozu already had sons of his own.

方高祖疾病，抱其子重睿置於馮道懷中而托之，出帝豈得立邪？ On Gaozu’s sickbed he laid his son Chongrui in Feng Dao’s arms and entrusted the boy to him—how then could the Fleeing Emperor have been raised to the throne?

晉之大臣，既違禮廢命而立之，以謂出帝為高祖子則得立，為敬儒子則不得立，於是深諱其所生而絕之，以欺天下為真高祖子也。 Jin’s chief ministers, having defied ritual and the dying command in placing him on the throne, reasoned that if the Fleeing Emperor were counted as Gaozu’s son he could reign, but not if he were Jingru’s son; so they buried his true parentage and cut it off, palming him off to the world as Gaozu’s own.

使高祖無子，出帝得為後而立以正，則不待絕其所生以為欺也。 Had Gaozu had no sons, and the Fleeing Emperor been made a lawful heir and enthroned in proper form, there would have been no call to sever his natural ties as a lie.