There was a common phenomenon during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and the emperors were replaced very frequently. The heads of the kingdoms of each dynasty and generation, whether they have a short life expectancy or a reign time, grow for several years, and only a few months short. However, among these many monarchs, Meng Renzan, the king of the fallen kingdom of Later Shu, was an exception.
He succeeded to the throne from 934 to his death in 965, a total of 32 years, making him the longest-reigning emperor during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Meng Renzan's origins were not very good, and his mother, Li Shi, was once a concubine of Li Cunxun, the founding prince of the Later Tang Dynasty. After Li Cunxun's death, Meng Zhixiangna married Li Shi, and soon after, he had a son, named Meng Renzan, and later changed his name to "Meng Chang".
Regarding Meng Renzan's ranking among the sons, the records in the historical records are somewhat different.
He is said to be meng Zhixiang's third son. According to the record in the "Epitaph of Princess Fuqingchang", Princess Fuqingchang had four sons, the eldest son and the second son died early, and only the third and fourth sons survived. Therefore, according to the comprehensive historical data, Meng Renzan is the eldest son born to Li and Meng Zhixiang, ranking fifth among the sons.
As for why Meng Zhixiang passed the throne to Meng Renzan instead of the two concubines Meng Yiji and Meng Yiyi, this is also quite controversial in the field of history. So far, though, there has been no conclusive conclusion.
In 934, Meng Zhixiang suddenly fell ill while entertaining his ministers, and immediately afterwards he proclaimed Meng Renzan crown prince and was ordered to oversee the country. The following month, after Meng Zhixiang died of illness, Meng Renzan succeeded to the throne and changed his name to Meng Chang.
Before his death, Meng Zhixiang entrusted Zhao Jiliang, Wang Chuhui, Li Renhan, Zhang Ye and several other orphans and important ministers, among them, Li Renhan and Zhang Ye were relatives between his uncle and nephew, while Li Renhan held heavy troops and Zhang Ye was in charge of the forbidden army. The two uncles and nephews colluded with each other and relied on each other, and did not pay attention to Meng Chang, the young lord who had just ascended the throne, and arrogantly and arrogantly did whatever they wanted in the imperial court.
Shortly after Meng Chang ascended the throne, his own power was not yet mature, and in order to save his life, he had to adopt a strategy of blind tolerance.
However, when several important courtiers saw the emperor silently, they were not only arrogant in the court, but also unscrupulous in private. Building houses on a large scale, encroaching on fertile land, and collecting wealth from the family in a variety of ways. In particular, Zhang Ye, who was in charge of tens of thousands of forbidden troops in his hands, controlled the lifeblood of the imperial palace, directly set up public courts in his home, and tortured and tortured the disobedient officials and people, causing a very bad influence on the people and arousing public indignation.
After Meng Chang succeeded Tonyue, he finally cultivated his own forces. Soon after, together with his henchmen, he used thunderous means to destroy the powerful ministers Li Renhan and Zhang Ye and their entire clan, eliminated the extremely fierce and extravagant Zhao Tingyin, Li Zhao, and other traitors, clarified the atmosphere in the court, and shocked the civil and military officials in the country, which was also widely praised by the people.
During Meng Chang's reign, it coincided with the mutual attacks of many regimes in the Central Plains, and Shuchuan occupied the dangerous terrain in the southwest that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, no regime has led the war to Houshu.
On the contrary, Meng Chang not only lived a leisurely and luxurious life in the country of Tianfu, but also took advantage of the fact that the Central Plains regime had no time to take care of the time, and sent troops to put two rakes in the Guanzhong area, stealing a lot of benefits.
Throughout the more than thirty years of Meng Chang's reign, there was no outstanding merit or major mistake. Although it was a little extravagant in life, in general, Houshu was relatively stable in politics, and the lives of the people were very stable.
Therefore, Meng Chang occupied a very high position in the hearts of the people of Later Shu.
In 965, with the rise of the Great Song Dynasty, troops were constantly sent to attack Shuchuan and other places. In order to save the people of Later Shu from the suffering of war, Meng Chang asked the Song Dynasty to surrender after a little resistance. When Meng Chang was escorted to Jingshi, tens of thousands of Hou shu people were sent hundreds of miles along the river. Along the way, the people cried incessantly, and many people fainted from crying because of excessive sadness, and the scene was very touching.
Under the infection of this scene, Meng Chang also cried all the way, and due to excessive crying of sadness, he died of illness within a few days of being in Bieliang.
Meng Chang was the longest-serving emperor during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and the only emperor who was moved to cry to death by the common people.
Reference Books: "History of the Old Five Dynasties", "History of the New Five Dynasties", "The Main Biography of the Later Shu Dynasty"