Sui–Tang

Sui–Tang: of 304 figures, 109 carry two records

The hundred-chapter Romance of Sui and Tang and the Old Book of Tang cover the same stretch of years, and they overlap more than any other pair on this site: 109 of this chapter's 304 figures have an entry on both sides — the highest density of dual records anywhere here. Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Gong are meritorious officials of the Lingyan Pavilion in the history and sworn brothers out of the greenwood in the novel. Both readings open here.

446 figures in this chapter, 183 of whom appear in both history and fiction.

Event · 626 CEXuanwu Gate IncidentThe succession conflict between Li Shimin, Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji erupted at Xuanwu Gate, reshaping early Tang politics and generations of narratives about imperial legitimacy.
Feature: Fact and Fiction in the Sui-Tang Transition: The Lingyan Pavilion Officials vs. Outlaw Brotherhoods"Romance of Sui and Tang" writes this period of history as a jianghu of sworn brotherhood, martial contests, and roaming, while the "Old Book of Tang" records a different matter. The meritorious officials in the Lingyan Pavilion become greenwood brothers in the romance, and several of the most deeply rooted fierce generals are nowhere to be found in the official history; whereas a coup like the Xuanwu Gate Incident is actually written more plainly in the official history than in the romance. This piece compares the two sides, noting which volume each part comes from.→

Lingyan Pavilion officials, greenwood brothers

Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie and Yuchi Jingde each have a biography in the Old Book of Tang. Qin served Zhang Xutuo, then Li Mi, then the Prince of Qin; "whenever the enemy paraded a bold general before the lines, Taizong would send Shubao to take him." Cheng Zhijie, whose given name was Yaojin, surrendered with the Wagang army and campaigned with Taizong. Yuchi Jingde began as an officer under Liu Wuzhou and, after coming over to the Tang, shot Li Yuanji dead at the Xuanwu Gate. The novel makes the same men sworn brothers of the greenwood first — the forty-six companions at the Jia family tower, Qin Qiong selling his horse and his maces — none of which the history records. The same names, a service record on one side and a code of brotherhood on the other.

Li Yuanba and Luo Cheng are not in the history

A good part of the novel's front rank cannot be found in the Old Book of Tang. Luo Cheng, Ding Yanping and Xiong Kuohai are outright inventions. Li Yuanba's model, Li Xuanba, gets six characters in the history — died young, no heir — and the novel turns him into the strongest man under heaven. On the graph, the 163 figures who appear only in the novel are glowing diamonds with dashed lines; only the 109 with records on both sides wear the gold ring. Which parts are the historical frame and which grew out of the storytellers is visible from the line style alone.

The Xuanwu Gate: the history is blunter than the novel

The Annals of Taizong states plainly what happened on the fourth day of the sixth month of 626: Taizong "led Zhangsun Wuji, Yuchi Jingde and others in through the Xuanwu Gate to punish them," and Jiancheng and Yuanji were put to death. The biographies of the Deposed Heir Jiancheng and of Prince Yuanji of Chao present the two as having repeatedly plotted against the Prince of Qin. The novel handles the episode more gingerly and shifts much of the conflict onto other hands. This is where the history is the more direct of the two — the novel is not always the one adding drama.

The figures who connect this chapter to Journey to the West

The opening chapters of Journey to the West are not about the pilgrimage at all: Wei Zheng beheads the Dragon King of the Jing River in a dream, Emperor Taizong's soul travels through the underworld, Liu Quan delivers the melons, and only then come the Great Mass and Xuanzang's commission to travel west. So Li Shimin, Wei Zheng, Yuchi Jingde, Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie, Li Jing and Xu Shiji all appear there too — and Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong stand guard at the gate, which is where the door gods come from. Those nodes belong to both this chapter and Journey to the West; open one and three books sit side by side.

From Wagang to the Lingyan Pavilion

The Biography of Li Mi traces the rise and fall of the Wagang army: Zhai Rang raised it in Dong Commandery, Li Mi joined and then displaced him, the host swelled to hundreds of thousands, and it broke at last against Wang Shichong; Li Mi submitted to the Tang, defected, and was killed. The novel expands this into the eighteen rebel kings and the sixty-four bands. After Wagang scattered, its commanders went separate ways — Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin to the Tang, Shan Xiongxin to Wang Shichong and the executioner, Xu Shiji to the imperial surname Li. That path from Wagang to the Lingyan Pavilion is a chain of ruler-minister and sworn-brother edges you can walk node by node.

Dual-identity figures

Compiled with AI assistance from public-domain texts, with every claim checked against its source. For cultural reference.