Wang Yunzhi Takes Su Yi at Liyang, 329 CE

Background

The gazetteer gives no account of the campaign before this entry. It notes only, within the entry, that the area had long suffered from war, from which it may be seen that the Liyang area had been repeatedly fought over in the Xianhe period. The gazetteer does not say who Su Yi was.

Time and place

The gazetteer records:

成帝咸和四年己丑，将军王允之战获苏逸于溧阳。时久被兵火，诏复租税。

Translated: In the fourth year of the Xianhe era of Emperor Cheng, a jichou year, the general Wang Yunzhi fought and took Su Yi at Liyang. As the area had long suffered from fire and war, an edict remitted the land tax.

The fourth year of the Xianhe era is 329 CE. The fighting took place at Liyang, the county to which the present Lishui area then belonged.

What happened

The general Wang Yunzhi engaged Su Yi at Liyang and took him.

Consequences

Su Yi was captured. The gazetteer adds that, as the area had long suffered from fire and war, an edict remitted the land tax; in the gazetteer's usage the term means exemption from tax, and this entry repeats the original wording with that gloss. The remission shows that the fighting had affected the area.

Dating basis

This entry predates the establishment of Lishui County in 591 CE, the eleventh year of the Kaihuang era. At that time Lishui did not yet exist as a county: what is recorded here concerns its predecessor Liyang County, and the dating follows the Kangxi edition of the Lishui County Gazetteer (卷之一·邑纪).

Uncertainties

The gazetteer's record is extremely brief: it gives neither the course of the campaign, nor the forces engaged, nor who Su Yi was, and this entry adds none of these. The term rendered here as remission of tax is glossed from the gazetteer's own usage, with the original wording quoted. The gazetteer also records that in the following year there was no grain and a great famine, and that in the first year of the Xiankang era envoys were sent to relieve the hungry; the sources do not link these to the fighting, and this entry draws no inference. The confidence level is set to medium.