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Overview Names Identity Roles Life and dates Family Career and standing Places and affiliations Learning and skills Works and attributed material Events and relationships Assessments and attributes References in the histories
Overview The translated histories identify Wang Sitong as a general, military officer, official, and poet. This record brings together 35 passages from 4 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.
Names Type English Chinese Pinyin
Personal
Wang Sitong
王思同
Wang Sitong
Nickname
Battle Guest of Jimen
薊門戰客
Title
Palace Attendant
侍中
Given name
Sitong
思同
Sitong
Given
Sitong
思同
Sitong
Surname
Wang
王
Wang
Personal
Wang Sitong
王思同
Personal name
Wang Sitong
王思同
Wang Sitong
Personal
Wang Sitong
王思同
Wáng Sītóng
Identity
Historicity Historical
Identification Named
Sex Male Sex: male
Sex: male
Value: male
Roles General Military Officer Official Poet Life and dates Death Age Attested activity Source Date: Text: 三年Western Year: AD 932
Source Date: Text: 三月十四日Western Year: AD 934
Source Date: Text: 同光朝Western Interval: Start: AD 923End: AD 926
Source Date: Text: 清泰元年四月Western Year: AD 934
Source Date: Text: 辛卯Western Year: AD 934
Source Date: Text: 長興二年Western Year: AD 931
Source Date: Text: 長興元年Western Year: AD 930
Family
Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.
Child of Wang Jingrou (王敬柔) Kinship Term: father / 父Parentage: biologicalSubject Role: fatherObject Role: son
Parent of Wang Desheng (王德勝) Kinship Term: father / 父Parentage: biologicalSubject Role: fatherObject Role: son
Child of Mother of Wang Sitong (王思同母) Kinship Term: mother / 母Parentage: biologicalSubject Role: motherObject Role: son
Career and standing Label: Shannan West Circuit military commissioner; western campaign chief adjutant / 山南西道節度使、西面行營馬步軍都虞候Action: appointedDate Context: Source Date: Text: 長興二年Western Year: AD 931
Label: military commissioner of Tongzhou / 同州節度使Action: appointed
Label: Palace Attendant (posthumous) / 侍中Action: posthumously-grantedDate Context: Source Date: Text: 漢高祖即位Western Year: AD 947
Label: Palace Attendant / 侍中Action: posthumously-grantedDate Context: Source Date: Text: 漢高祖即位Western Year: AD 947
Works and attributed material Assessments and attributes Assessment: loyal to his lord despite choosing the losing side ·
Provenance: Mode: named-personSpeaker Person Id: Li Congke (李從珂) References in the histories Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 42 Volume 42 Book of Later Tang 18: Mingzong Annals 8 · 1 passage
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 65 Volume 65 Book of Later Tang 41: Biographies 17: Li Jianji, Shi Junli, Gao Xinggui, Zhang Tingyu, Wang Sitong, Suo Zitong · 27 passages
王思同，幽州人也。
Wang Sitong was a native of Youzhou.
思同母即劉仁恭之女也，故思同初事仁恭為帳下軍校。
Sitong's mother was a daughter of Liu Rengong, so he first served Rengong as an officer in his personal guard.
會劉守光攻仁恭於大安山，思同以部下兵歸太原，時年十六，武皇命為飛騰指揮使。
When Liu Shouguang besieged Rengong at Mount Da'an, Sitong brought his men over to Taiyuan. He was sixteen; the Martial Emperor made him commander of the Feiteng guard.
思同性疏俊，粗有文，性喜為詩什，與人唱和，自稱薊門戰客。
Sitong was easy in manner and not without book learning; he loved to write verse, traded poems with friends, and called himself the Battle Guest of Jimen.
時內養呂知柔侍興聖宮，頗用事，思同不平之。
The palace eunuch Lü Zhirou, who served the Xingsheng Palace, had grown powerful; Sitong chafed at it.
呂為終南山詩，末句有「頭」字，思同和曰：「料伊直擬衝霄漢，賴有青天壓著頭。」
Lü wrote a poem on Mount Zhongnan ending with the word "head"; Sitong answered, "You seem ready to punch through the sky—lucky for you the blue heaven still weighs on your head."
思同好文士，無賢不肖，必館接賄遺，歲費數十萬。
Sitong cultivated scholars high and low, housed them and showered gifts until he spent hundreds of thousands each year.
明宗曰：「人言思同不管事，豈及此耶！」
Mingzong said, "They say Sitong never tends to business—yet look at this!"
思同恃勇先入劍門，大軍未相繼，復被董璋兵逐出之。
Sitong, trusting his bravery, rushed into Jianmen before the main host could follow and was thrown back out by Dong Zhang's men.
及敬瑭班師，思同以曾獲劍門之功，移鎮山南西道。
When Jingtang pulled the army back, Sitong was shifted to Shannan West Circuit for his earlier success at Jianmen.
三年，兩川交兵，明宗慮並在一人，則朝廷難製，密詔思同相度形勢，即乘間用軍，事未行而董璋敗。
In the third year the two Sichuan warlords fought each other. Mingzong feared that if one man held both circuits the court could not restrain him, and secretly told Sitong to survey the ground and strike when a chance opened. Before the plan moved, Dong Zhang was already beaten.
時潞王鎮鳳翔，與之鄰境，及潞王不稟朝旨，致書於秦、涇、雍、梁、邠諸帥，言：「賊臣亂政，屬先帝疾篤，謀害秦王，迎立嗣君，自擅權柄，以致殘害骨肉，搖動藩垣。
The Prince of Lu held Fengxiang on Sitong's border. When he defied the court he wrote the governors of Qin, Jing, Yong, Liang, and Bin: "Wicked ministers have thrown the government into chaos. As the late emperor lay dying they plotted against the Prince of Qin, installed a puppet heir, and seized power for themselves, wounding the imperial family and unsettling the frontiers.
乃令小伶女十人以五弦技見思同，因歡諷動，又令軍校宋審溫者，請使於雍，若不從命，即獨圖之。
He sent ten young women skilled on the five-string zither to perform for Sitong, stirring him with song and mockery, and dispatched the officer Song Shenwen to Yong with an ultimatum: obey, or he would act alone.
會副部署藥彥稠至，方宴，而妓、使適至，乃擊之於獄。
Deputy commander Yao Yanchou arrived during a feast just as the entertainers and envoy appeared; Sitong had them beaten and thrown in jail.
時思同已遣其子入朝言事，朝廷嘉之，乃以思同為鳳翔行營都部署，起軍營於扶風。
Sitong had already sent his son to court with a loyal report; the throne commended him and made him overall commander against Fengxiang, encamping the army at Fufeng.
時羽林指揮使楊思權引軍自西門先入，思同未之知，猶督士登城。
Imperial-guard commander Yang Siquan had already slipped in through the west gate. Sitong knew nothing of it and still drove his men up the ladders.
十七日，思同與藥彥稠、萇從簡俱至長安，劉遂雍閉關不內，乃奔潼關。
On the seventeenth Sitong, Yao Yanchou, and Chang Congjian reached Chang'an, but Liu Suiyong shut the gates against them and they fled toward Tong Pass.
二十二日，潞王至昭應，前鋒執思同來獻。
On the twenty-second the Prince of Lu reached Zhaoying; the van took Sitong and brought him in as prisoner.
王謂左右曰：「思同計乖於事，然盡心於所奉，亦可嘉也。」
The prince told his attendants, "Sitong chose the losing side, but he gave his whole heart to his lord—that still deserves praise."
顧謂趙守鈞曰：「思同爾之故人，可行迓之於路，達予撫慰之意。」
He said to Zhao Shoujun, "Sitong is your old friend—go meet him on the road and tell him I mean to treat him kindly."
思同至，潞王讓之曰：「賊臣傾我國家，殘害骨肉，非予弟之過。
When Sitong came up, the Prince of Lu rebuked him: "Traitors have wrecked the realm and hurt the imperial house—that is not my brother's fault.
思同曰：「臣起自行間，受先朝爵命，秉旄仗鉞，累曆重藩，終無顯效以答殊遇。
Sitong answered, "I came up from the ranks, took titles from the late emperor, bore commander's insignia, and held one great post after another, yet never repaid that grace with any deed worth the name.
潞王欲用之，而楊思權之徒恥見其面，屢啟劉延朗，言「思同不可留，慮失士心。」
The prince meant to keep him, but Yang Siquan and the others could not bear to look on him. They told Liu Yanlang again and again, "Sitong must not stay or we will lose the army's loyalty."
又，潞王入長安時，尹暉盡得思同家財及諸妓女，故尤惡思同，與劉延朗亟言之。
When the prince entered Chang'an, Yin Hui had plundered Sitong's house and his singing girls, so he hated Sitong all the more and pressed Liu Yanlang to act.
屬王醉，不待報，殺思同並其子德勝。
While the prince was drunk they did not wait for orders and killed Sitong and his son Desheng.
潞王醒，召思同，左右報已誅之矣。
When the prince woke he called for Sitong; his attendants said the man was already dead.
及漢高祖即位，詔贈侍中。
When Gaozu of Later Han came to the throne, the court posthumously made him Palace Attendant.
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 66 Volume 66 Book of Later Tang 42: Biographies 8: an Zhonghui, Zhu Hongzhao, Zhu Hongshi, Kang Yicheng, Yao Yanchou, Song Lingxun · 2 passages
New History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 7 Volume 7 Later Tang Annals 4: Deposed Emperors · 5 passages