Reflections | ‘Traitors’ to China, past and present – stories of those who served enemy states
- China-born advisers to the US government are considered traitors by many, but they are not the first to be called hanjian
- Rebel Shi Jingtang granted large swathes of northern China to the invading Khitans, after they helped him bring down the Later Tang dynasty in 936
China’s history is replete with individuals who served enemy states against their own. Their motivations varied, but the most despicable traitors did it for personal gain. Other turncoats nursed a grudge and felt forced to bring down the regime that had wronged them. And some were victims of circumstances beyond their control.
Shi Jingtang (AD892-942), who had part-Turkic ancestry, rebelled against the Later Tang dynasty and with military help from the Khitan state, in the north, founded the Later Jin dynasty, in 936. In return, he ceded to the Khitans a huge swathe of northern China. Equally infuriating to the Chinese was Shi’s obsequious acknowledgement of the younger Khitan emperor as “Father Emperor”, with himself as “Son Emperor”, bringing shame to China.
Zhonghang Yue was a palace eunuch in the Western Han dynasty, which kept peace with the Xiongnu people by marrying its princesses to their rulers. In 174BC, the emperor ordered the reluctant Zhonghang to accompany a princess to the north and stay on after her wedding as part of her entourage. Zhonghang vowed: “I shall become the bane of the Han dynasty.” And he did, advising and instigating Xiongnu rulers to attack and plunder his homeland until his death in 126BC.
In the Northern Song dynasty, invading Jurchens captured the emperor emeritus and reigning emperor, as well as members of the imperial family and thousands of government officials, and installed a puppet emperor, Zhang Bangchang (1081-1127), a senior minister of the Northern Song, to help govern northern China.
Zhang initially refused, but capitulated when the Jurchens threatened to flood the capital city with the blood of its residents. After 32 days as emperor, he fled south and begged Emperor Gaozong of the newly founded Southern Song dynasty to forgive his “treachery”. Gaozong forgave Zhang but soon made him take his own life.