Overview
Mingzong was a ruler.
IdentityHistorical · Male
Life and dates
Death
- Relative Timing recently-deceased-coffin-present
Attested activity
AD 926 to AD 933 天成、長興間
AD 933 長興四年十二月
Family
Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.
Places and affiliations
- Polity Later Tang 後唐 · Relation Served
Works and attributed material
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment pure, benevolent, moderate ruler who brought modest peace · Mode historian-judgment
References in the histories
No matching passages.
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 44Volume 44 Book of Later Tang 20: Mingzong Annals 10 · 7 passages
明年四月，太常卿盧文紀上諡議曰聖智仁德欽孝皇帝，廟號明宗，宰臣馮道議請改「聖智仁德」四字，為聖德和武欽孝皇帝。
In the fourth month of the following year Lu Wenji, Grand Minister of Rites, proposed the posthumous title Sagely, Wise, Benevolent, Cultured, Reverent and Filial Emperor and the temple name Mingzong; Feng Dao proposed changing the four characters "Sagely, Wise, Benevolent, Cultured" to Sagely, Cultured, Harmonious, Martial, Reverent and Filial.
宰臣劉煦撰諡冊文，宰臣李愚撰哀冊文，是月二十七日葬於徽陵。
Liu Xu composed the posthumous-title text and Li Yu the lamentation text; on the twenty-seventh of that month Mingzong was buried at Huiling.
〈（《五代史補》：明宗之在位也，一日幸倉場觀納，時主者以車駕親臨，懼得罪，其較量甚輕。
(From the Supplement to the History of the Five Dynasties: Once during Mingzong's reign he visited a granary to observe the intake. The steward, fearing punishment because the Emperor came in person, measured the grain very lightly.
明宗因謂之曰：「且朕自省事以來，倉場給散，動經一二十年未畢，今輕量如此，其後銷折將何以償之？」
Mingzong said to him, "Since I began to economize, granary distributions often take ten or twenty years to complete. If you measure so lightly now, how will you make good the losses when they are written off?"
明宗愴然曰：「隻聞百姓養一家，未聞一家養百姓。
Mingzong said sadly, "I have only ever heard of the people supporting one family—not of one family supporting the people.
《五代史闕文》：明宗出自邊地，老於戰陳，即位之歲，年已六旬，純厚仁慈，本乎天性。
Lost Texts of the History of the Five Dynasties: Mingzong came from the frontier and was a veteran of the battlefield; when he took the throne he was already in his sixties, and his pure, benevolent nature was inborn.
史臣曰：明宗戰伐之勳，雖高佐命，潛躍之事，本不經心。
The historiographer writes: Though Mingzong's military achievements in founding the dynasty were great, he never set his heart on seizing the throne.