Xuanzong was the Tang emperor who followed Wuzong. He reigned from 846 to 859.[1] In the Kirghiz story he is the emperor who dismissed Li Deyu and put aside the title that Wuzong had prepared for the khan. In 847 he sent Li Ye to invest the Kirghiz with a shorter title.[2] He is not the Xuanzong of the eighth century, 玄宗, whose temple name is written with other characters.

Accession

Wuzong’s valedictory edict named his uncle, Prince Guang, as his heir. Prince Guang took the throne as Xuanzong.[1] He felt a marked antipathy toward Li Deyu and removed him from high office at once.[3] This abruptly removed from the scene the man who had overseen the Uyghur crisis and the relations with the Kirghiz.[4] The reasons for the dislike are not clear. They may lie in the factional struggles known as Niu–Li.[4] A clique at the new court disliked the general Shi Xiong, who had retaken the princess Taihe. Shi Xiong was cashiered.[5]

The Kirghiz in 846 and 847

The Xin Tang Shu says that on taking the throne Xuanzong wished to carry out the wish of his predecessor. He wished to invest the Kirghiz khan as Zongying Xiongwu Chengming Khan.[2] Someone said that the Kirghiz were a small tribe, not strong enough to stand against the Tang.[2] The emperor ordered the chief ministers and the officials of the departments of the fourth rank and above to debate it. They answered that the Uyghurs had been given titles when they were strong. The Uyghurs were now happily gone. To raise the Kirghiz as well would breed trouble later. The matter was dropped.[2] The advisers called the Kirghiz a secluded, distant and small nation.[4]

In the first year of Dazhong, 847, he nevertheless ordered the minister Li Ye to carry the tally and invest the Kirghiz as Yingwu Chengming Khan.[2] No reason is given for the change of mind. The Xin Tang Shu describes it with a word that is understood as “sudden”.[4] The change may have followed an attack on the Tang frontier by a mixed force of Uyghurs, Tanguts and Tibetans in the previous month.[4] The new title was a shortened form of the one prepared in 845. It left out the reference to kinship with the imperial house.[4] The emperor’s own interest in relations with the Kirghiz was small. Contacts went on, but they were mostly Kirghiz envoys who came to Chang’an from time to time.[4]

The Uyghur remnants

The Xin Tang Shu says that Xuanzong sought to soothe the far peripheries. He sent an envoy to Lingzhou to look in on the Uyghur chief there. The Uyghurs sent men with the envoy to the capital, where the emperor invested their chief as Huaijian Khan.[2] The chief was the tegin Pang. He had already called himself khan, lived at Ganzhou and held the cities west of the desert.[2] The Uyghurs on the steppe fared worse. The remnants of the khan Ögä came to Youzhou in 847 to surrender. In 848 the Kirghiz minister Apa drove the Uyghurs who had taken refuge with the Shiwei back north of the desert.[6] The Ganzhou kingdom has its own article.

End of the reign

No date of death and no age are recorded for him.[7] His successor was Yizong, who reigned from 859.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Drompp 2005, p. 153
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  3. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 153–154
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Drompp 2005, p. 154
  5. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 158
  6. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
  7. ^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
  8. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 155

Sources

Literature

  • Michael R. Drompp, Tang China and the Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (2005)

Related

What links here6

Persons
Emperor Wuzong of Tang · Li Deyu · Li Shi (Tang envoy) · Li Ye (Tang envoy) · Shi Xiong
Battles & Events
Tang investiture of the Kirghiz (847)

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (846–859).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/emperor-xuanzong-of-tang-846/

Last revised: 8 November 2026