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蕭奉先李處溫張琳耶律余睹
Xiao Fengxian, Li Chuwen, Zhang Lin, and Yelu Yudu
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蕭奉先，天祚元妃之兄弟也。 外寬內忌。 因元妃為上眷倚，累官樞密使，封蘭陵郡王。 天慶二年，上幸混同江釣魚。 故事，生女直酋長在千里內者皆朝行在。 適頭魚宴，上使諸酋次第歌舞為樂，至阿骨打，但端立直視，辭以不能。 再三旨諭，不從。 上密謂奉先曰：「阿骨打跋扈若此，可托以邊事誅之。」 奉先曰：「彼粗人，不知禮義，且無大過，殺之傷向化心。 設有異志，蕞爾小國，亦何能為！」 上乃止。 四年，阿骨打起兵犯寧江州，東北路統軍使蕭撻不也戰失利。 上命奉先弟嗣先為都統，將番、漢兵往討，屯出河店。 女直乃潛渡混同江，乘我師未備來襲。 嗣先敗績，軍將往往遁去。 奉先懼弟被誅，乃奏「東征潰軍逃罪，所至劫掠，若不肆赦，將嘯聚為患」。 從之。 嗣先詣闕待罪，止免官而已。 由是士無鬥志，遇敵輒潰，郡縣所失日多。
Xiao Fengxian was a brother of Emperor Tianzuo's Primary Consort. He was outwardly easygoing but inwardly jealous. Because the Primary Consort enjoyed the emperor's intimate favor, he rose step by step to Privy Commissioner and was enfeoffed as Prince of Lanling. In the second year of Tianqing, the emperor went to the Hun Tong River on a fishing excursion. By established custom, every Raw Jurchen chief within a thousand li was to present himself at the traveling palace. At the Head-Fish Banquet, the emperor had the chiefs sing and dance in turn for his amusement. When Aguda's turn came, he merely stood erect and looked straight ahead, declining on the ground that he could not perform. The emperor instructed him again and again, but he would not comply. The emperor said privately to Fengxian, "Aguda is this overbearing. Find a pretext on the frontier and have him killed. Fengxian replied, "He is a crude fellow who does not understand ritual propriety, and he has committed no serious offense. To kill him would wound our policy of winning others to allegiance. Even if he harbors other designs, what can this paltry little state accomplish! The emperor then let the matter drop. In the fourth year, Aguda raised an army and attacked Ningjiang Prefecture. The Eastern Route military commissioner Xiao Tabuye was defeated. The emperor appointed Fengxian's younger brother Suxian commander-in-chief and sent him with Jurchen and Han forces to campaign against them, encamping at Chuhe Ford. The Jurchen then secretly crossed the Hun Tong River and struck while our forces were unprepared. Suxian was routed, and officers throughout the army took to flight. Fengxian, fearing his brother would be put to death, memorialized that the routed troops of the eastern campaign were fleeing punishment and plundering wherever they went, and that unless a general amnesty were granted, they would band together and become a menace. The emperor agreed. Suxian presented himself at court to await punishment and was merely stripped of his office. From this point the troops lost all fighting spirit, collapsing at every encounter with the enemy, while prefectures and counties fell away day by day.
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初，奉先誣耶律余睹結駙馬蕭昱謀立其甥晉王，事覺，殺昱。 余睹在軍中聞之，懼，奔女直。 保大二年，余睹為女直監軍，引兵奄至，上憂甚。 奉先曰：「余睹乃王子班之苗裔，此來實無亡遼心，欲立晉王耳。 若以社稷計，不惜一子，誅之，可不戰而退。」 遂賜晉王死。 中外莫不流涕，人心益解體。
Earlier, Fengxian had framed Yelu Yudu for conspiring with the imperial son-in-law Xiao Yu to install his nephew the Prince of Jin as heir. When the plot was exposed, Yu was executed. Yudu, hearing of this while still with the army, was terrified and fled to the Jurchen. In the second year of Baoda, Yudu served as supervising commander for the Jurchen and led an army that appeared without warning. The emperor was deeply alarmed. Fengxian said, "Yudu is of the Prince Ban line. He has come with no real intent to destroy Liao, but only to install the Prince of Jin. If you reckon by the welfare of the state and do not spare a single son, execute him and Yudu will withdraw without a fight. The emperor then ordered the Prince of Jin to take his own life. Throughout the court and the realm there was not a dry eye, and popular morale fell further apart.
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當女直之兵未至也，奉先逢迎天祚，言：「女直雖能攻我上京，終不能遠離巢穴。」 而一旦越三千里直搗雲中，計無所出，惟請播遷夾山。 天祚方悟，顧謂奉先曰：「汝父子誤我至此，殺之何益！ 汝去，毋從我行。 恐軍心忿怒，禍必及我。」 奉先父子慟哭而去，為左右執送女直兵。 女直兵斬其長子昂，送奉先及次子昱於其國主。 道遇我兵，奪歸，天祚並賜死。
Before the Jurchen armies had arrived, Fengxian played to Tianzuo's wishes, saying, "The Jurchen may be able to attack our Supreme Capital, but in the end they cannot stray far from their homeland. Yet in a single stroke they crossed three thousand li and drove straight at Yunzhong. With no plan left to offer, he could only urge the emperor to relocate to Jia Mountain. Tianzuo only then understood. He turned to Fengxian and said, "You and your sons have misled me to this pass. What good would killing you do! Go. Do not march with me. I fear the troops' anger will turn on me and bring disaster in its wake. Fengxian and his sons departed in bitter tears, but attendants seized them and delivered them to the Jurchen army. The Jurchen beheaded his eldest son Ang and sent Fengxian and his second son Yu to their ruler. On the road they met Liao troops, who seized them back, and Tianzuo ordered both men put to death.
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李處溫，析津人。 伯父儼，大康初為將作少監，累官參知政事，封漆水郡王，雅與北樞密使蕭奉先友舊。 執政十餘年，善逢迎取媚，天祚又寵任之。 儼卒，奉先薦處溫為相。 處溫因奉先有援已力，傾心阿附，以固權位，而貪汙尤甚，凡所接引，類多小人。 保大初，金人陷中京，諸將莫能支。 天祚懼，奔夾山，兵勢日迫。 處溫與族弟處能、子奭，外假怨軍聲援，結都統蕭幹謀立魏國王淳，召番、漢官屬詣魏王府勸進。 魏國王將出，奭乃持赭袍衣之，令百官拜舞稱賀。 魏王固辭不得，遂稱天錫皇帝。 以處溫守太尉，處能直樞密院，奭為少府少監，左企弓以下及親舊與其事者，賜官有差。 會魏國王病，自知不起，密授處溫番漢馬步軍都元帥，意將屬以後事。 及病亟，蕭幹等矯詔南面宰執入議，獨處溫稱疾不對，陰聚勇士為備，紿雲奉密旨防他變。 魏國王卒，蕭幹擁契丹兵，宣言當立王妃蕭氏為太后，權主軍國事，眾無敢異者。 幹以後命，召處溫至，時方多難，未欲即誅，但追毀元帥劄子。 處能懼及禍，落發為僧。 尋有永清人傅遵說隨郭藥師入燕，被擒，具言處溫嘗遺易州富民趙履仁書達宋將童貫，欲挾蕭後納土歸宋。 後執處溫問之，處溫曰：「臣父子於宣宗有定策功，宜世蒙宥容，可使因讒獲罪？」 後曰：「向使魏國王如周公，則終享親賢之名於後世。 誤王者皆汝父子，何功之有！」 並數其前罪惡。 處溫無以對，乃賜死，奭亦伏誅。
Li Chuwen was a native of Xijin. His uncle Yan, early in the Dakang era, served as vice director of the Directorate of Palace Buildings and rose through successive posts to vice grand councilor, receiving the title Prince of Qishui. He was on intimate terms with the northern privy commissioner Xiao Fengxian. He held power for more than ten years, skilled at flattery and ingratiation, and Tianzuo again showered him with favor and trust. When Yan died, Fengxian recommended Chuwen for the chief ministership. Because Fengxian had backed him with his own influence, Chuwen devoted himself to fawning on him to secure his position. His corruption was especially flagrant, and nearly everyone he advanced was a petty schemer. Early in the Baoda era, the Jin captured Central Capital, and none of the generals could hold the line. Tianzuo, in fear, fled to Jia Mountain as enemy pressure closed in day by day. Chuwen, together with his clansman Chuneng and his son Shi, outwardly invoked the support of the Resentful Army and joined commander-in-chief Xiao Gan in a plot to install Prince Chun of Wei. They summoned Jurchen and Han officials to the prince's mansion to urge him to take the throne. As the Prince of Wei was about to emerge, Shi brought forward an imperial ochre robe and dressed him in it, then ordered the officials to bow and dance in congratulation. The prince firmly declined but could not refuse, and thereupon took the title Emperor Tianxi. Chuwen was appointed acting grand marshal, Chuneng director of the privy council, and Shi vice director of the palace workshops. Zuo Qigong and those below him, along with kinsmen and allies who had taken part in the affair, received offices of varying rank. When the Prince of Wei fell ill and knew he would not recover, he secretly appointed Chuwen overall commander of Jurchen and Han forces, intending to entrust him with what followed. As the illness grew critical, Xiao Gan and others forged an edict summoning the southern chief ministers to council. Chuwen alone pleaded illness and stayed away, while secretly gathering fighting men as a precaution, claiming he held a secret order to guard against any sudden move. When the Prince of Wei died, Xiao Gan rallied the Khitan troops and proclaimed that the prince's consort, Lady Xiao, should be made empress dowager with provisional authority over military and state affairs. No one dared object. At the dowager's order, Gan summoned Chuwen. With troubles pressing on every side, he was not yet ready to have him killed, but only demanded that the commander-in-chief's commission be surrendered and destroyed. Chuneng, fearing he would share in the disaster, shaved his head and took monastic orders. Soon afterward a man of Yongqing named Fu Zunshuo, who had followed Guo Yaoshi into Yan, was captured and testified in full that Chuwen had once sent Zhao Lüren, a wealthy man of Yizhou, with a letter to the Song general Tong Guan, proposing to deliver the Xiao empress dowager and surrender the territory to Song. The empress dowager had Chuwen seized and questioned him. Chuwen said, "My father and I earned merit by settling the succession for Emperor Xuanzong. Our house ought to enjoy pardon from generation to generation. How can we be condemned on the strength of slander? The empress dowager replied, "If the Prince of Wei had acted like the Duke of Zhou, he would have won lasting fame in later ages as a kinsman who cherished the worthy. It was you and your sons who misled the prince. What merit do you claim! She went on to enumerate his earlier crimes as well. Chuwen had no reply and was ordered to take his own life. Shi was executed as well.
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張琳，沈州人。 幼有大志。 壽隆末，為秘書中允。 天祚即位，累遷戶部使。 頃之，擢南府宰相。 初，天祚之敗於女直也，意謂蕭奉先不知兵，乃召琳付以東征事。 琳以舊制，凡軍國大計，漢人不與，辭之。 上不允，琳奏曰：「前日之敗，失於輕舉。 若用漢兵二十萬分道進討，無不克者。」 上許其半，仍詔中京、上京、長春、遼西四路計戶產出軍。 時有起至二百軍者，生業蕩散，民甚若之。 四路軍甫集，尋復遁去。 及中京陷，天祚幸雲中，留琳與李處溫佐魏國王淳守南京。 處溫父子召琳，欲立淳為帝，琳曰：「王雖帝胄，初無上命； 攝政則可，即真則不可。」 處溫曰：「今日之事，天人所與，豈可易也！」 琳雖有難色，亦勉從之。 淳既稱帝，諸將咸居權要，琳獨守太師，十日一朝，平章軍國大事。 陽以元老尊之，實則不使與政。 琳由是郁悒而卒。
Zhang Lin was a native of Shenzhou. From youth he harbored great ambition. Late in the Shoulong era he served as a secretariat gentleman. When Tianzuo acceded, he rose in succession to commissioner of the household bureau. Before long he was promoted to chancellor of the Southern Chancellery. Earlier, after Tianzuo's defeats at the hands of the Jurchen, he concluded that Xiao Fengxian knew nothing of warfare and summoned Lin to entrust him with the eastern campaign. Lin cited the old rule that Han men were excluded from major military and state decisions, and declined. The emperor would not accept his refusal. Lin memorialized, "Our recent defeats came from acting rashly. If we deploy two hundred thousand Han troops along separate routes, there is no enemy we cannot overcome. The emperor granted him half that number and ordered the four circuits of Central Capital, Supreme Capital, Changchun, and Liaoxi to levy troops according to household wealth. In some cases households were levied for as many as two hundred army units. Livelihoods were ruined and the people suffered terribly. The troops of the four circuits had barely assembled before they melted away again. When Central Capital fell, Tianzuo moved to Yunzhong and left Lin and Li Chuwen behind to assist Prince Chun of Wei in holding Nanjing. Chuwen and his son summoned Lin, intending to install Chun as emperor. Lin said, "Though the prince is of imperial blood, there has been no order from above; regency is permissible, but assuming the throne is not. Chuwen replied, "What is happening today has the mandate of Heaven and the people. How can it be undone! Though Lin looked troubled, he reluctantly went along. Once Chun had taken the imperial title, the generals all held the key posts of power. Lin alone retained the title grand preceptor, attending court once every ten days in name to oversee military and state affairs. Outwardly they honored him as a senior elder statesman, but in fact kept him from any share in government. Lin died soon afterward, worn down by resentment.
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耶律余睹，一名余都姑，國族之近者也。 慷慨尚氣義。 保大初，歷官副都統。 其妻天祚文妃之妹，文妃生晉王，最賢，國人皆屬望。 時蕭奉先之妹亦為天祚元妃，生秦王。 奉先恐秦王不得立，深忌余睹，將潛圖之。 適耶律撻葛裏之妻會余睹之妻於軍中，奉先諷人誣余睹結駙馬蕭昱、撻葛裏，謀立晉王，尊天祚為太上皇。 事覺，殺昱及撻葛裏妻，賜文妃死。 余睹在軍中聞之，懼不能自明被誅，即引兵千餘，並骨肉軍帳叛歸女直。 會大霖雨，道途留阻。 天祚遣知奚王府蕭遐買、北宰相蕭德恭、大常袞耶律諦裏姑、歸州觀察使蕭和尚奴、四軍太師蕭幹追捕甚急。 至閭山，及之。 諸將議曰：「蕭奉先恃寵，蔑害官兵。 余睹乃宗室雄才，素不肯為其下。 若擒之，則他日吾輩皆余睹矣。 不如縱之。」 還，紿雲追襲不及。
Yelu Yudu, also known as Yudugu, was a close kinsman of the imperial house. He was openhanded and held honor and loyalty in high regard. Early in the Baoda era he served as deputy commander-in-chief. His wife was the younger sister of Tianzuo's Literary Consort, who had borne the Prince of Jin, the most worthy of the princes, on whom the people of the realm had pinned their hopes. At the time Xiao Fengxian's sister was also Tianzuo's Primary Consort and had borne the Prince of Qin. Fengxian, fearing the Prince of Qin would not succeed to the throne, deeply resented Yudu and began to plot against him in secret. It happened that the wife of Yelu Tage Li met Yudu's wife in camp. Fengxian prompted an informer to accuse Yudu of conspiring with the imperial son-in-law Xiao Yu and Tage Li to install the Prince of Jin and elevate Tianzuo to retired emperor. When the plot was exposed, Yu and Tage Li's wife were executed, and the Literary Consort was ordered to take her own life. Yudu, hearing the news in camp, feared he could not clear his name and would be put to death. He immediately led more than a thousand men, together with his kin and their military households, in flight to the Jurchen. Heavy rains fell and the roads became impassable. Tianzuo sent Xiao Xiamai, intendant of the Xi princely house; Xiao Degong, northern chancellor; Yelu Diligu, grand chamberlain; Xiao Heshangnu, surveillance commissioner of Guizhou; and Xiao Gan, grand preceptor of the Four Armies, in hot pursuit. At Lü Mountain they overtook him. The generals debated among themselves, saying, "Xiao Fengxian trades on imperial favor and treats officers and soldiers with contempt. Yudu is a man of heroic talent in the imperial clan who has never been willing to bow to Fengxian. If we capture him now, we ourselves will be hunted down tomorrow. Better to let him go. They turned back and reported falsely that pursuit had failed to overtake him.
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余睹既入女直，為其國前鋒，引婁室孛堇兵攻陷州郡，不測而至。 天祚聞之大驚，知不能敵，率衛兵入夾山。 余睹在女直為監軍，久不調，意不自安，乃假遊獵，遁西夏。 夏人問：「汝來有兵幾何？」 余睹以二三百對，夏人不納，卒。
Once Yudu had joined the Jurchen, he served as their vanguard, leading the forces of Wanyan Wushi to overrun prefectures and counties and strike without warning. Tianzuo was deeply alarmed when he heard the news. Seeing that resistance was hopeless, he led his guard into Jia Mountain. Yudu served the Jurchen as supervising commander but long went without promotion and grew uneasy. Pretending to go on a hunting excursion, he fled to Western Xia. The Xia asked him, "How many troops did you bring with you? Yudu answered that he had two or three hundred. The Xia refused to take him in, and he died there.
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論曰：遼之亡也，雖孽降自天，亦柄國之臣有以誤之也。 當天慶而後，政歸後族。 奉先沮天祚防微之計，陷晉王非罪之誅，夾山之禍已見於此矣。 處溫副魏王以僭號，結宋將以賣國，跡其奸佞，如出一軌。 嗚呼！ 天祚之所倚毗者若此，國欲不亡，得乎？ 張琳足足守位，余睹反覆自困，則又何足議哉！
Commentary: The fall of Liao, though disaster descended from Heaven, was also brought about by the ministers who held power in the state. From the Tianqing era onward, power passed into the hands of the empresses' kin. Fengxian blocked Tianzuo's plans to crush threats while they were still small, engineered the execution of the innocent Prince of Jin, and the calamity at Jia Mountain was already foreshadowed here. Chuwen backed the Prince of Wei in seizing an unlawful title and conspired with Song generals to betray the realm. Tracing his treachery and sycophancy, the pattern is all of a piece. Alas! These were the men on whom Tianzuo relied. Could a state so governed hope to escape ruin? Zhang Lin merely clung to his office, and Yudu, shifting this way and that, brought ruin on himself—what more is there to say of either!