Zhao Pu (922–992) was a politician of the Northern Song dynasty. His courtesy name was Zeping. A native of Ji in Youzhou (present-day Beijing), he later moved his family to Luoyang. He served as tongzhi shumiyuan shi, shumi shi, tong zhongshu menxia pingzhang shi and jiedu shi, and was additionally appointed kaifu yitong sansi; he received the posthumous name Zhongxian and held the noble titles of Duke of Liang, Duke of Xu, Duke of Wei and King of Han.
Life
Zhao Pu did not enter office through the civil examinations but began his career as a clerical functionary. During the Xiande era of the Later Zhou he became a staff officer of Zhao Kuangyin, serving as jiedu tuiguan and zhangshuji, and took part in planning the Chenqiao mutiny that helped Zhao Kuangyin supplant the Later Zhou and establish the Song. After the founding of the Song he was rewarded for his service to the founding cause with the office of you jianyi dafu and made shumi zhixueshi; in the first year of Jianlong (960) he advised a swift suppression of Li Yun's rebellion and joined the campaign to Shangdang, being promoted to bingbu shilang and shumi fushi, and afterwards urged a swift suppression of Li Chongjin's rebellion. In the second year of Jianlong (961), as Lady Du, mother of Emperor Taizu, lay dying, she charged Taizu to pass the throne to his younger brother and had Zhao Pu record her words. In the third year of Jianlong (962) he was appointed shumi shi and jianjiao taibao.
In the second year of Qiande (964) he replaced Fan Zhi as chief councillor, serving as menxia shilang, pingzhang shi and jixiandian daxueshi; in the spring of the fifth year of that era he was additionally appointed zuo puye and Zhaowenguan daxueshi. Emperor Taizu regarded him as his right hand and consulted him on all matters, great and small. As chief councillor he took part in formulating the major policies of the early Northern Song, such as stripping the imperial guards and the regional commands of military power, appointing civil officials as prefects, and setting up transport commissioners and controllers-general in the prefectures to concentrate political and fiscal authority, as well as the strategy of first pacifying the south and then settling the north. In Taizu's later years he gradually lost favour, and in the sixth year of Kaibao (973) he was sent out as jiedu shi of Heyang sancheng and tong pingzhang shi.
Under Emperor Taizong he was recalled as taizi taibao in the second year of Taiping Xingguo (977); in the sixth year (981) he was appointed situ and shizhong, enfeoffed as Duke of Liang and made chief councillor again; in the eighth year (983) he was relieved and made jiedu shi of the Wusheng army concurrently shizhong. In the fourth year of Yongxi (987) he was transferred to the Shannan Dongdao military governorship, enfeoffed as Duke of Xu and concurrently zhongshu ling, and during this time he was also prefect of Xiangzhou. He was afterwards appointed taibao and shizhong and became chief councillor for the third time, leaving office in the first year of Chunhua (990), when he was made administrator of the Western Capital prefecture. In the spring of the third year of Chunhua (992) he was appointed taishi and permitted to retire as Duke of Wei; he died in the seventh month of the same year, aged seventy-one. His biography appears in juan 256 of the Song Shi.
Family and associates
Zhao Pu's father was Zhao Hui; his younger brothers were Zhao Anyi (930–1005) and Zhao Gu; he married Lady Wei and Lady He; his sons were Zhao Cheng, Zhao Chengzong and his second son Zhao Chengxu; his great-grandson was Zhao Sigong. Hou Renbao was a relative by marriage, and Zhang Bing was the husband of his niece.
At court he was on close terms with Li Chongju and once recommended Xin Zhongfu; Wang Jiying and Yang Ximin served as his staff retainers, while Liu Changyan and Ju Chang were among his subordinates. Lei Dexiang and Feng Zan had originally been his retainers but were later pushed out by him: Lei Dexiang was struck from the register and exiled to Lingwu, and Feng Zan, whose misdeeds Zhao Pu secretly reported, was banished to Shamen Island; Lei Dexiang's son Lei Youlin beat the petition drum to accuse Zhao Pu of unlawful acts, and Zhao Pu was consequently sent out to Luoyang. Emperor Taizu held Dou Yi in high regard and wished to make him chief councillor, but Zhao Pu resented his uprightness and the matter came to nothing. When Houmo Chen Liyong, trusting in imperial favour, acted unlawfully, Zhao Pu, after re-entering the Secretariat, investigated his offences and reported them, whereupon an edict stripped him of rank. When Zhao Pu became chief councillor again, he uncovered the dealings between Lu Duoxun and Zhao Tingmei, and Emperor Taizong was furious. His spirit-way stele was composed by Emperor Taizong (Zhao Jiong).
Works
He was the author of the Feilong ji in one juan.
References
- CBDB Zhao Pu (8023)
- 搜韵 趙普 (29639)
- Wikidata Zhao Pu (Q2798287)