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.

The standard history

The Jinshu, juan 7, "Annals of Emperor Cheng," records the affair for the fourth year of Xianhe, in more detail than the gazetteer:

甲午，蘇逸以萬餘人自延陵湖將入吳興。乙未，將軍王允之及逸戰於溧陽，獲之。

Translated: On the jiawu day Su Yi, with more than ten thousand men, was about to enter Wuxing from Yanling Lake. On the yiwei day the general Wang Yunzhi fought Su Yi at Liyang and took him.

Two points may be added to the gazetteer's account: first, Su Yi led "more than ten thousand men from Yanling Lake, about to enter Wuxing", which gives his strength and his line of march; second, Su Yi was a younger brother of Su Jun and the leader who took command of Su Jun's followers after his death during the Su Jun rebellion of 329, as the context of the annals shows.

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

First, the gazetteer's record is extremely brief: it gives neither the course of the campaign nor who Su Yi was. The Jinshu, juan 7, adds that Su Yi led more than ten thousand men from Yanling Lake and that he was a younger brother of Su Jun, but it too gives no detail of the fighting, and this entry adds none.

Second, the term rendered as remission of tax is glossed from the gazetteer's own usage, with the original wording quoted; a search of the Jinshu, "Annals of Emperor Cheng," and of the Zizhi Tongjian, juan 94, in this library found no such sentence, so its source remains to be identified.

Third, 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. On these grounds the confidence level is set to medium.