Pei Du
Led the pacification of Huaixi, bringing about the Yuanhe Restoration.
Life
Unbowed by an Assassination Attempt
Pei Du passed the jinshi examination and was known for speaking out. In 815 he strongly advocated a campaign against Wu Yuanji, who held Huaixi as a separatist; Wu Yuanheng, the chancellor who backed the war, was assassinated, and Pei Du himself was wounded in the head by assassins. After recovering he still insisted on the war and was made chancellor.
Pacifying Huaixi
In 817 he went to the front to supervise the troops in person, abolished eunuch army supervisors and unified the chain of command. That winter Li Su made a night raid through the snow on Caizhou and captured Wu Yuanji alive. Huaixi, which had been held by separatists for more than 30 years, was pacified; the Hebei military governors were shaken and submitted one after another, an episode known as the Yuanhe Restoration.
Green Field Hall
He later became chancellor four times, but as the eunuchs and the Niu–Li factional strife grew ever fiercer, he retired to Luoyang in his later years, built the Green Field Hall at Wuqiao, and exchanged poems over wine with Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi and others.
Legacy
Pei Du was one of the few restoration-era chancellors of the mid-to-late Tang; Han Yu wrote the Stele for Pacifying Huaixi to commemorate the campaign.
Major works & achievements
- Led the suppression of Wu Yuanji in Huaixi
Did you know? He was short and ordinary-looking, and described himself with the words "Your stature is not tall, your looks are not fine."
Key dates
- 815Wounded in an assassination attempt, he still pressed for a campaign against Huaixi
- 817Supervised the troops at the front in person; pacified Huaixi
- 819Pacified Ziqing
- 839Died