Page 138 - Gan's Family History

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special examination in 742 presided
over personally by the emperor, and
scored the top grades. He was then
granted the post of vice-magistrate of
Liquan County, which he resigned
the next year and went to LuoYang to
learn calligraphy from Zhang Xu.
In 746, he declined another
appointment as vice-magistrate of
Chang'an and went on with learning
from his calligraphy teacher until he
mastered the true essence of the art,
forming his own unique style in
regular-script and cursive-script.
Yan served the court in various
capacities and suffered occasional
setbacks. For his opposition to the
manipulation of power by the
premier Yuan Zai, Yan was banished
in 766 to be assistant prefect of
Jizhou before serving as prefect in
Fuzhou and Huzhou.
Though already 60, he led the
local people in reclaiming land and
irrigation projects, winning the
appreciation and respect of the
people for the development of local
economy and for the peace and
security under his administration.
After the imperious Yuan Zai
was put to death in 777 for his
manipulation of the court, the
succeeding premier Yang Wan called
Yan back and appointed him
Minister of Punishment, and then
Minister of Civil Official
Administration.
When Emperor Dezong came
to the throne, Yang Yan, who had
been a member of the Yuan Zai
clique, became the premier.
Detesting Yan's uprightness, he
removed him from the post of
Minister of Civil Official
Administration and appointed him
Junior Adviser to the Crown Prince.
The succeeding premier, Lu Qi, who
bore a stronger grievance against
Yan, tried surreptitiously to lay a
trap for him while promoting him to
be mentor of the crown prince.
The chance came in 782 when
the Huaixi governor, Li Xilie, revolted
against Tang and claimed to be king
of Jianxing and general marshal of
the country. When the rebels fought
their way to the outskirts of LuoYang,
Lu Qi made a proposal to the
emperor to send Yan to the rebel
governor to talk him around.
Ignorant of the dirty plot, Emperor
Dezong decided to send Yan as
imperial envoy to Huaixi. All the
officials and generals were
astonished when the imperial edict
was announced. Knowing the
mission was fraught with danger,
Yan nevertheless mounted a horse
and left with only a boy servant
despite the objection of the fellow
officials, hoping against hope to bring
Li Xilie back on the right track.
In face of the threats and
inducements of Li Liexi and his
accomplices, Yan Zhenqing never
budged an inch but condemned the
traitorous actions of all the rebels.
His righteousness and fortitude even
moved two of Li's generals, Zhou
Zeng and Wang Bin. They made
secret preparations to come over to
the side of the central government,
but failed as their moves were
detected.
Seeing no hope to force Yan to
submit, Li Xilie had him hanged in
Longxing Temple in the eighth lunar
month of 785.