Kong Qian (孔謙) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Kong Qian as an administrator and official. This record brings together 46 passages from 7 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Kong Qian	孔謙	Kong Qian
Surname	Kong	孔	Kǒng
Personal name	Kong Qian	孔謙	Kong Qian
Personal	Kong Qian	孔謙	Kǒng Qiān
Given	Qian	謙	Qian
Given	Qian	謙	Qiān

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · jiuwudaishi:031:s0070, jiuwudaishi:069:s0077, jiuwudaishi:073:s0098, jiuwudaishi:146:s0008
Sex: male
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:068:s0147, xinwudaishi:037:s0063
Value: male
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0045

Roles

Administrator
Official

Life and dates

Death

Manner: execution · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 明宗即位 · Western Year: AD 926
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0134, jiuwudaishi:073:s0138
Manner: execution · Place: Luoyang market / 洛市 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 明宗立 · Western Year: AD 926
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0078

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: AD 923-926 · Western Year: AD 926
Explicit event contextual date · xinwudaishi:026:s0045
Source Date: Text: 任吏人孔謙為租庸使 · Western Interval: Start: AD 923 · End: AD 926
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008
Source Date: Text: 同光 · Western Interval: Start: AD 923 · End: AD 926
Explicit event contextual date · xinwudaishi:037:s0063
Source Date: Text: 同光二年 · Western Year: AD 924
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:031:s0070
Source Date: Text: 同光初 · Western Year: AD 923
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:069:s0077
Source Date: Text: 同光初 · Western Year: AD 923
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0101
Source Date: Text: 天祐十二年 · Western Year: AD 915
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0102
Source Date: Text: 明宗即位 · Western Year: AD 926
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0134
Source Date: Text: 莊宗入汴 · Western Year: AD 923
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:068:s0147

Career and standing

Label: clerk / 吏人
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008
Label: commissioner of land tax and corvée / 租庸使 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 任吏人孔謙為租庸使 · Western Interval: Start: AD 923 · End: AD 926
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008
Label: commissioner of taxation and corvée / 租庸使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0125
Label: Grain-and-Corvée Commissioner / 租庸使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0064
Label: land-tax commissioner / 租庸使 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 同光二年 · Western Year: AD 924
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:031:s0071
Label: deputy commissioner of taxation and corvée / 租庸副使 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 同光初 · Western Year: AD 923
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0101
Label: director of the Three Offices / 三司使 · Action: held
Explicit · xinwudaishi:037:s0063
Label: Fiscal Commissioner / 度支使 · Action: held
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0046

Places and affiliations

Place: Weizhou / 魏州
Textual variant · jiuwudaishi:073:s0100, jiuwudaishi:073:s0135
Place: Weizhou / 魏州
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0045

Works and attributed material

Kind: memorial · Role: author
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0126, jiuwudaishi:073:s0127, jiuwudaishi:073:s0128, jiuwudaishi:073:s0129
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Guo Chongtao (郭崇韜)
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:069:s0084, jiuwudaishi:069:s0085, jiuwudaishi:069:s0086, jiuwudaishi:069:s0087, xinwudaishi:026:s0052
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Dou Luge (豆盧革)
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0059
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Quote: true
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0107
Kind: speech · Role: speaker
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:069:s0079, jiuwudaishi:069:s0080

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: tax-official · Action: imposed-harsh-exactions · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 峻法以剝下，厚斂以奉上 · Western Interval: Start: AD 923 · End: AD 926
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008
Kind: fiscal · Role: administrator · Action: levied · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 河上十餘年 · Western Year: AD 923
Explicit · xinwudaishi:026:s0049
Relation: treated-as-elder-brother · Person Id: Jing Jin (景進)
Explicit · xinwudaishi:037:s0063

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: devoted to accumulation and exploitation · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Source Work: Miscellaneous Notes from Northern Dreams / 北夢瑣言
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0137
Assessment: harshly reimposed remitted levies, losing popular support · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:031:s0070
Assessment: stripped the people with harsh laws and heavy exactions yet still left military provisions short · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008

Source notes

Field: native-place · Statement: Weizhou · Witness: Zizhi Tongjian / 通鑒
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:073:s0100
Historicity: historical
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:146:s0008, xinwudaishi:037:s0063

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 31Volume 31 Book of Later Tang 7: Zhuangzong Annals 5 · 2 passages

Open chapter

然自此權臣愎戾，伶官用事，吏人孔謙酷加賦斂，赦文之所原放，謙復刻剝不行，大失人心，始於此矣。 Yet from then on ministers turned stubborn, actors held power, and Kong Qian re-levied what the amnesty had freed—hearts were lost from this day.

庚午，租庸使孔謙奏：「諸道綱運客旅，多於私路苟免商稅，請令所在關防嚴加捉搦。」 On gengwu Kong Qian memorialized, "Transport convoys and traveling merchants on the circuits often evade commercial tax on private routes; order every pass and barrier to seize them strictly."

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 68Volume 68 Book of Later Tang 44: Biographies 20: Xue Tinggui, Cui Yi, Liu Yue, Liu Ye, Feng Shunqing, Dou Mengzheng, Li Baoyin, Gui Ai, Kong, Miao, Zhang Wenbao, Chen Yi, Liu Zan · 1 passage

Open chapter

莊宗入汴，租庸副使孔謙以讚里人，表為鹽鐵判官。 When Zhuangzong took Bian, Deputy Grain-Tax Commissioner Kong Qian, a fellow townsman, recommended Zan as salt and iron commissioner.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 69Volume 69 Book of Later Tang 45: Biographies 21: Zhang Xian, Wang Zhengyan, Hu Zhuang, Cui Yisun, Meng Hu, Sun Yue, Zhang Yanlang, Liu Yanhao, Liu Yanlang · 7 passages

Open chapter

時孔謙為租庸副使，常畏張憲挺特，不欲其領使，乃白郭崇韜留憲於魏州，請宰相豆盧革判租庸。 At that time Kong Qian was deputy commissioner of transport and corvée tax; he often feared Zhang Xian's uprightness and did not want him to head the commission, so he told Guo Chongtao to keep Xian at Weizhou and asked the chancellor Dou Luge to take charge of transport and corvée.

孔謙白云：「錢穀重務，宰相事多，簿籍留滯。」 Kong Qian reported, "Revenue and grain are weighty affairs; the chancellor has many duties and the ledgers are delayed."

意謂崇韜必令己代其任，時物議未允而止，謙沮喪久之。 He meant that Chongtao would surely have him replace the post, but public opinion at the time did not approve and it stopped; Qian was dejected for a long time.

孔謙、段徊白崇韜曰：「邦計雖重，在侍中眼前，但得一人為使即可。 Kong Qian and Duan Huai told Chongtao, "State revenue is weighty, but it is before the Vice Director's eyes—one man as commissioner will suffice.

正言在職，主諾而已，權柄出於孔謙。 In office Zhengyan merely assented; real authority lay with Kong Qian.

正言不耐繁浩，簿領縱橫，觸事遺忘，物論以為不可，即以孔謙代之，正言守禮部尚書。 Zhengyan could not bear the complexity; ledgers crisscrossed and he forgot matters at every turn. Public opinion held this unacceptable, so Kong Qian replaced him and Zhengyan remained minister of rites.

及孔謙專典軍賦，徵督苛急，明宗嘗切齒。 When Kong Qian monopolized military supplies and collection and requisition were harsh and urgent, Mingzong once gnashed his teeth.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 73Volume 73 Book of Later Tang 49: Biographies 25: Mao Zhang, Nie Yu, Wen Tao, Duan Ning, Kong Qian, Li Ye · 17 passages

Open chapter

孔謙， Kong Qian,

謙本州之幹吏，上自天祐十二年，帝平定魏博，會計皆委製置。 Qian had been a capable clerk in the prefecture. From the twelfth year of Tianyou, when the emperor pacified Weibo, all fiscal accounting was placed under his management.

謙能曲事權要，效其才力，帝委以泉貨之務，設法箕斂，七八年間，軍儲獲濟。 Qian knew how to defer skillfully to the powerful and put his talents to use. The emperor entrusted him with fiscal affairs; he devised methods of heavy exaction, and over seven or eight years the army's stores were kept supplied.

及帝即位於鄴城，謙已當為租庸使。 When the emperor took the throne at Ye City, Qian ought already to have become commissioner of taxation and corvée.

物議以謙雖有經營濟贍之勞，然人地尚卑，不欲驟總重任。 Public opinion held that although Qian had worked hard to manage and supply provisions, his rank and standing were still too low, and people did not want to see him suddenly given chief responsibility.

樞密使郭崇韜舉魏博觀察判官張憲為租庸使，以謙為副，謙悒然不樂者久之。 Guo Chongtao, director of the Bureau of Military Affairs, recommended Zhang Xian, observation commissioner aide of Weibo, as commissioner of taxation and corvée and made Qian his deputy. Qian remained displeased for a long time.

帝既平梁汴，謙徑自魏州馳之行在，因謂崇韜曰：「魏都重地，須大臣彈壓，以謙籌之，非張憲不可。」 After the emperor had pacified Liang and Bian, Qian raced directly from Weizhou to the imperial camp and told Chongtao, "Ye is a critical territory and requires a senior minister to keep order. As I see it, no one but Zhang Xian will do."

謙彌失望，乃尋革過失。 Qian was all the more disappointed and set about looking for Ge's faults.

時革以手書便省庫錢數十萬，謙以手書示崇韜，亦辭避。 At the time Ge had used a personal note to draw several hundred thousand from the treasury for convenience. Qian showed the note to Chongtao, who also declined the post.

崇韜曰：「孔謙雖久掌貨泉，然物議未當居大任，以臣所見，當委張憲為便。」 Chongtao said, "Although Kong Qian has long managed fiscal affairs, public opinion holds that he should not yet hold great responsibility. In my view Zhang Xian would be the better choice."

謙乘間訴於豆盧革曰：「租庸錢穀，悉在眼前，委一小吏可辦。 Qian seized an opportunity to complain to Dou Lüge: "The revenues and grain of taxation and corvée are all right before one's eyes; a minor clerk could handle the task.

謙以正言非德非勳，懦而易製，曰：「此議為便。」 Qian, knowing Zhengyan lacked virtue and merit and was cowardly and easy to control, said, "This plan is convenient."

王正言風病恍惚，不能綜三司事，景進屢言於帝，乃以正言守禮部尚書，以謙為租庸使。 Wang Zhengyan suffered from wind ailment and mental confusion and could not manage the three offices. Jing Jin repeatedly spoke to the emperor, whereupon Zhengyan was made Minister of Rites and Qian was made commissioner of taxation and corvée.

謙以國用不足，奏：「諸道判官員數過多，請隻置節度、觀察、判官、書記、支使、推官各一員。 Citing insufficient state revenue, Qian memorialized: "The number of aides in the various circuits is excessive. I request that each circuit be limited to one military commissioner aide, one observation commissioner aide, one secretary, one staff officer, and one investigative officer.

《北夢瑣言》：明宗即位，誅租庸使孔謙等。 Miscellaneous Notes from Northern Dreams: When Emperor Mingzong took the throne, he executed commissioner of taxation and corvée Kong Qian and others.

孔謙者，魏州孔目。 Kong Qian had been a clerical officer in Weizhou.

莊宗圖霸，以供饋兵食，謙有力焉。 When Emperor Zhuangzong pursued hegemony, Qian contributed greatly to supplying the army with provisions.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 146Volume 146: Treatises 8 Finance and Economics · 1 passage

Open chapter

及莊宗平定梁室，任吏人孔謙為租庸使，峻法以剝下，厚斂以奉上，民產雖竭，軍食尚虧。 After Emperor Zhuangzong overthrew the Liang, he put the clerk Kong Qian in charge of land tax and corvée. Kong applied harsh laws to squeeze the populace and heavy exactions to fill the court's coffers; even when civilian wealth was drained dry, army rations still fell short.

New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 26Volume 26 Later Tang Biographies 6: Fu Xi, Wu Zhen, Kong Qian, Zhang Yanlang, Li Yan, Li Renju, Mao Zhang · 17 passages

Open chapter

孔謙，魏州人也，為魏州孔目官。 Kong Qian came from Weizhou and served as a clerical officer there.

謙為人勤敏，而傾巧善事人，莊宗及其左右皆悅之。 Qian was quick and clever, slick at pleasing men. Zhuangzong and his court liked him.

晉與梁相拒河上十餘年，大小百餘戰，謙調發供饋，未嘗闕乏，所以成莊宗之業者，謙之力為多，然民亦不勝其苦也。 For more than ten years Jin and Liang fought on the river in a hundred battles, large and small. Qian kept the levies and the grain flowing and never failed Zhuangzong’s cause—but the people groaned under him.

莊宗初建大號，謙自謂當為租庸使，而郭崇韜用魏博觀察使判官張憲為使，以謙為副。 When Zhuangzong took the imperial title, Qian expected to become grain-and-corvée commissioner. Guo Chongtao instead made Zhang Xian, secretary to the Weibo observation commissioner, commissioner—with Qian as his deputy.

謙已怏怏。 Qian was already bitter.

既而莊宗滅梁，謙從入汴，謂崇韜曰：「鄴，北都也，宜得重人鎮之，非張憲不可。」 When Zhuangzong destroyed Liang and entered Bian, Qian told Chongtao: “Ye is the northern capital and needs a heavy hand. Only Zhang Xian will do.”

謙益失望，乃陰求革過失，而革嘗以手書假租庸錢十萬，謙因以書示崇韜，而微泄其事，使革聞之。 Qian grew more disappointed and hunted for Ge’s faults. Ge had once borrowed a hundred thousand in grain funds in his own hand. Qian showed the note to Chongtao and let the story leak until Ge heard it.

崇韜曰：「孔謙雖長於金谷，而物議未可居大任，不若復用張憲。」 Chongtao said, “Kong Qian knows the ledgers, but men say he is unfit for high office. Better to recall Zhang Xian.”

憲為人明辯，人頗忌之，謙因乘間謂革曰：「租庸錢谷，悉在目前，委一小吏可辦。 Xian was sharp-tongued and clear-minded, and many resented him. Qian seized the moment and told Ge, “The grain money is all here in the office. A petty clerk could run it.

謙益憤憤，因求解職。 Qian grew angrier still and asked to quit.

已而正言病風，不任事，景進數以為言，乃罷正言，以謙為租庸使，賜「豐財贍國功臣」。 Before long Zhengyan was struck with paralysis and could not serve. Jing Jin kept pressing the point. Zhengyan was removed, Qian got the commission, and the throne gave him the title "Meritorious in Enriching Wealth and Nourishing the State."