家世

王珂生年不详。生父王重简曾任华州防御使、检校兵部尚书，为后来成为权势军阀的护国军节度使王重荣之兄。王重荣无子，养王珂为嗣子（王珂的堂兄王珙、王瑶后来指称王珂非王家血脉，本是仆人，但即使同时代人也并不认为此说可靠）。光启三年（887年），王重荣被牙将常行儒杀死，唐僖宗任王重荣的另一兄陕虢节度使王重盈即王珙、王瑶的父亲为新任护国军节度使，以王珙权知陕虢留后（后为全权节度使），而以王珂为护国军行军司马。

乾宁二年（895年）正月，王重盈薨，护国军士卒拥戴王珂自称留后。但二月，保义军（即改名后的陕虢军）节度使王珙和绛州刺史王瑶反对，起兵讨王珂，上表章并写信给朱全忠称王珂其实并非王家子孙，而是仆人，小字虫儿（或作忠儿）。唐昭宗派中使慰劳。因王珙、王瑶所请，唐昭宗起初任宰相中书侍郎同平章事崔胤充护国军节度使。河东进奏官薛志勤扬言：「崔相虽重德，如作镇河中代王珂，不如光德刘公（刘崇望）。」三月，女儿已与王珂订婚的河东节度使李克用上表昭宗，称王重荣有功于国，支持王珂承袭。王珂也上表称亡父有兴复之功。李克用派养侄李嗣昭率兵援王珂，败王珙军于猗氏。昭宗同意任王珂为节度使。王珙盟友凤翔军节度使李茂贞、静难军节度使王行瑜、镇国军节度使韩建上表反对，请以王珙为护国军节度使，王珂为保义军节度使。昭宗下诏告谕，以已答应李克用所奏为由拒绝。

昭宗拒绝李茂贞、王行瑜和韩建的表章引起了他们的暴力回应，五月，他们进军京城长安，杀宰相李磎、韦昭度，又迫昭宗下新诏，王珙调任护国军，王行瑜弟匡国军节度使王行约调任保义军，王珂调任匡国军。此时王行约正在攻打护国军，王珂求助于李克用。六月，李克用责李、王、韩杀害宰相，率军南下。王瑶试图阻其道路，李克用攻陷绛州，杀王瑶，七月，到护国军，得王珂迎谒，随后进军静难军。昭宗遣使赐诏，令李克用与王珂同讨邠州、凤州，又遣内侍郗廷昱赍诏诣李克用军，令与王珂各发万骑同赴新平。李克用奉诏屯渭北，令王珂将河中粟备送给行在。八月，因李克用三度上表，昭宗正授王珂旄钺，任为兼河中尹、御史大夫，充护国军节度、河中晋绛慈隰观察等使，充供军粮料使，加检校司空。十一月，王行瑜已兵败并在逃亡时为部下所杀，李茂贞、韩建被迫求和。李克用屯云阳，请求与王珂合力讨李茂贞，昭宗不许。十二月，李克用回师，王珂在夏阳渡为其造浮桥。

任节度使

乾宁三年（896年）十月，昭宗加王珂宰相荣衔同中书门下平章事。

四年（897年）三月，王珙攻王珂，王珂求助于李克用，八月，王珙求助于李克用的大敌宣武军节度使朱全忠。宣武军在张存敬、杨师厚率领下起初大败护国军于猗氏南，但九月，河东援军二千骑（一作三千骑）在李嗣昭率领下随后击败保义军于猗氏，解护国军之围。

光化元年（898年）正月，王珂前去太原迎娶李克用女。他离开护国军期间，李嗣昭权典河中留后事。四月，昭宗加王珂宰相衔兼侍中。十月，保义、宣武军又攻护国军，王珂求助于河东，李嗣昭受命率军三千相救，败保义、宣武军，攻王珙于陕州。因王珂有李嗣昭帮助，王珙屡败，部下也离心。

三年（900年）十一月，昭宗短暂被以左军中尉刘季述为首的一夥权势宦官废黜。王珂闻讯，愤怒见于言表，屡次陈说讨贼的谋划，但尚未起兵，昭宗已因一起反政变而复位。昭宗复位后，王珂在众节度使之中首先进献方物，因而得帝宠。

败亡

同时，王珂和朱全忠之间的交恶还在继续发展，尤其是在朱全忠大举进攻淮南节度使杨行密但被其击退后，说服镇海军和镇东军节度使钱鏐、镇南军节度使钟传、武昌军节度使杜洪、平卢军节度使王师范指称被杨行密攻打，请求昭宗以朱全忠为都统讨伐杨行密之后。王珂与李克用、成德军节度使王熔、义武军节度使王郜则指称被朱全忠攻打，请求以杨行密为都统讨伐朱全忠。昭宗拒绝双方所请。约光化末年、天复元年（901年），李克用屡败导致势衰，朱全忠正要西征，惧王珂为患，开始重新考虑再起一战夺王珂之地，作为最终击败李克用的一部分。正月，他对诸将张存敬、侯言说：「王珂驽钝，仗著河东为后台，骄恣放纵。我现在要断长蛇之腰，诸君为我用一根绳子绑缚他。」

朱全忠发起进攻，本人进军护国军军部河中府，派张存敬等率兵数万渡河出含山路鼓行而进攻晋州、绛州，切断李克用可能派来的救兵的道路。晋、绛被突袭攻下，王珂部下的两州刺史张汉瑜、陶建钊无防备，当即开门投降，朱全忠因而切断了河中府和河东军之间的联络。昭宗闻信，试图下诏和解，朱全忠不从。二月，张存敬从晋州出兵围河中并攻城。李克用收到王珂及其妻李氏使者屡次求救，李氏说「贼势攻逼，早晚为俘囚，乞食于大梁，大人安忍不救？」但李克用得知晋绛道路已被切断，没有派出援军，而建议王珂弃护国军逃奔长安。王珂无计可施，图谋奔长安，又写信求助于李茂贞，称朱全忠不顾国家约束攻打自己，其心可见，河中若失守，同、华、邠、岐乃至朝廷神器也不能保，建议李茂贞与韩建早出精锐固守潼关响应自己，愿意镇守李茂贞西境，将护国军给李茂贞，关西安危和国祚长短都系于李茂贞此举。李茂贞不答。

王珂不能承受朱全忠的攻打，试图渡黄河逃奔长安，但正好冰块塞河，河上的浮桥坏了。王珂全族停船多日不能行，士气低落，王珂夜间亲自慰谕守城者，对方默然不应。牙将刘训夜半到王珂卧室门，王珂叱之：「兵欲反耶？」刘训解衣袒臂说：「公若怀疑，训请断臂。」王珂问：「事势如何，计将安出？」刘训说趁夜乘船出奔则人们必争抢船只，若有一人凶暴则其祸莫测，不如等第二天天亮告谕三军，必有半数愿意跟从，然后可以登船去长安；不然就召诸将校，作投降送款状，缓住贼军，徐图向背，这是上策。王珂认可，登城对张存敬说自己与朱全忠有旧，等朱全忠来了就听命，请张存敬退兵一舍，张存敬即日退兵一舍。蒲州人以素幡请降。三月，朱全忠到，哭于王重荣之墓，悲不自胜，陈辞致祭，蒲州人闻之感悦。朱全忠为了安抚护国军百姓，提出不可忘舅父之恩，拒绝王珂提出的作为败者以赤裸上身自缚牵羊的亡国仪式出城投降，否则九泉之下无颜见舅父；在朱全忠命令下，王珂著正装出城相迎，被朱全忠呼为「郎君」。这是因为之前朱全忠背叛农民军黄巢投唐时，由王重荣受降，朱全忠因母亲也姓王，曾尊王重荣为舅父。朱全忠在路上迎接王珂，握手哀哭，并辔入城。河中遂为朱全忠所有，李克用朝贡及救援京师之路断绝。

王珂投降后半月，朱全忠任张存敬为护国军留后，将王珂及其兄王璘、弟王瓒等一族迁至宣武军军部汴州。但因王珂娶李克用女，朱全忠继续怀疑他。后来派王珂入朝，当王珂行经镇国军军部华州时，派人杀之于传舍。

二年（905年）三月，李袭吉在《答李克用咨问》中举了王珂被迫投降朱全忠的例子，劝谏李克用崇德爱人，去奢省役。

评价

• 《旧五代史》：王珂奕世山河，势危被掳，乃魏豹之徒与！

注释及参考文献

Background

It is not known when Wang Ke was born. His biological father Wang Chongjian (王重简) was an older brother to Wang Chongrong, who would become a powerful warlord as the military governor of Huguo. As Wang Chongrong was sonless, he adopted Wang Ke as his own son. (Wang Ke's cousins Wang Gong and Wang Yao (王瑶) would later accuse Wang Ke of not being actually Wang blood but a servant in origin, but that accusation did not appear reliable even in contemporary times.) After Wang Chongrong was assassinated by his officer Chang Xingru (常行儒) in 887, then-reigning Emperor Xizong commissioned another older brother of Wang Chongrong's, Wang Chongying (Wang Gong's and Wang Yao's father), who was then the military governor of neighboring Shanguo Circuit (陕虢, headquartered in modern Sanmenxia, Henan) as the new military governor of Huguo, while making Wang Gong the acting military governor of Shanguo (and later, full military governor) and Wang Ke the commander of the armed forces (行军司马, Xingjun Sima) at Huguo.

In spring 895, Wang Chongying died. The soldiers at Huguo supported Wang Ke to be the acting military governor. However, Wang Gong, then still the military governor of Shanguo (which had been renamed Baoyi at that point), and Wang Yao, then the prefect of Jiang Prefecture (绛州, in modern Yuncheng) objected, and they claimed that Wang Ke was not actually of Wang blood. At Wang Gong's and Wang Yao's urging, then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong initially commissioned the chancellor Cui Yin to be the military governor of Huguo. However, Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河东, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), whose daughter was contracted to marry Wang Ke, submitted a petition to Emperor Zhaozong supporting Wang Ke, and Emperor Zhaozong subsequently agreed to commission Wang Ke military governor. When Wang Gong's allies Li Maozhen the military governor of Fengxiang Circuit (凤翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), Wang Xingyu the military governor of Jingnan Circuit (静难, headquartered in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), and Han Jian the military governor of Zhenguo Circuit (镇国, headquartered in modern Weinan, Shaanxi) submitted a contrary proposal — to have Wang Gong made the military governor of Huguo and Wang Ke the military governor of Baoyi — Emperor Zhaozong rejected on the basis that he had already accepted Li Keyong's proposal.

Emperor Zhaozong's rejection of Li Maozhen's, Wang Xingyu's, and Han Jian's proposal brought a violent reaction from them, who marched on the imperial capital Chang'an and killed the chancellors Li Xi and Wei Zhaodu; they subsequently forced Emperor Zhaozong to issue a new edict moving Wang Gong to Huguo, Wang Xingyu's brother Wang Xingyue (王行约) from Kuangguo Circuit (匡国, also headquartered in modern Weinan) to Baoyi, and Wang Ke to Kuangguo. Meanwhile, Wang Xingyue was attacking Huguo, and Wang Ke sought aid from Li Keyong. Li Keyong, denouncing Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu, and Han for killing Li Xi and Wei, marched south. When Wang Yao tried to block his path, he captured Jiang Prefecture and executed Wang Yao, and subsequently arrived at Huguo to rendezvous with Wang Ke. He then proceeded toward Jingnan. By the end of the year, Wang Xingyu had been defeated and was killed by his own subordinates in flight; Li Maozhen and Han were forced to sue for peace. Emperor Zhaozong then officially commissioned Wang Ke military governor of Huguo.

As military governor

In 896, Emperor Zhaozong gave Wang Ke the honorary chancellor designation of Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中书门下平章事).

In 897, Wang Gong attacked Wang Ke. Wang Ke sought aid from Li Keyong, while Wang Gong sought aid from Li Keyong's archenemy Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit. The Xuanwu forces, commanded by Zhu's generals Zhang Cunjing (张存敬) and Yang Shihou, were initially successful against Huguo forces, but the Hedong relief forces, commanded by Li Keyong's nephew Li Sizhao, then defeated Baoyi forces and lifted the siege against Huguo.

In 898, Wang Ke went to Hedong's capital Taiyuan to personally marry Li Keyong's daughter. During his absence from Huguo, Li Sizhao defended the circuit. Later in the year, Emperor Zhaozong bestowed the greater honorary chancellor title of Shizhong (侍中) on him. Later in 898, the Baoyi and Xuanwu forces again attacked Huguo; when Wang Ke sought aid from Hedong, Li Sizhao repelled the Baoyi and Xuanwu forces.

In late 900, Emperor Zhaozong was briefly deposed by a group of powerful eunuchs led by Liu Jishu. Wang Ke, when receiving the news, was incensed at the eunuchs, but before he could launch an army against them, Emperor Zhaozong was restored in a countercoup. Hearing of the emperor's restoration, Wang Ke was the first among military governors to submit tributes to the restored emperor, drawing imperial favor for him.

Defeat and death

Meanwhile, though, the bad blood between Wang Ke and Zhu Quanzhong continued to develop. In particular, after Zhu made a major attack on Yang Xingmi the military governor of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu) but was repelled by Yang, he persuaded Qian Liu the military governor of Zhenhai (镇海, headquartered in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang) and Zhendong (镇东, headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang) Circuits, Zhong Chuan the military governor of Zhennan Circuit (镇南, headquartered in modern Nanchang, Jiangxi), Du Hong the military governor of Wuchang Circuit (武昌, headquartered in modern Wuhan, Hubei), and Wang Shifan the military governor of Pinglu Circuit (平卢, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) to accuse Yang of aggression against them and request Emperor Zhaozong to appoint Zhu the commander of an operation against Yang. Wang Ke reacted by jointly submitting a petition with Li Keyong, Wang Rong the military governor of Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) and Wang Gao the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (义武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) accusing Zhu of aggression against them and asking that Yang be appointed the commander of an operation against Zhu. This allowed Emperor Zhaozong to decline both petitions. Meanwhile, by 901, Li Keyong had suffered defeats that caused his strength to wane, allowing Zhu to start reconsider another campaign to conquer Wang Ke's domain as a step in ultimately defeating Li Keyong. He stated to his generals:

Zhu then launched his attack, with he himself heading toward Huguo's capital Hezhong Municipality (河中), while sending Zhang Cunjing to attack Jin (晋州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi) and Jiang Prefectures to cut off any path of aid that Li Keyong might send. Jin and Jiang Prefectures were caught by surprise, and their prefects, Tao Jianzhao (陶建钊) and Zhang Hanyu (张汉瑜) quickly surrendered, allowing Zhu to cut off communications between Hezhong and Hedong Circuit. Meanwhile, Emperor Zhaozong, receiving words of the attack, tried to intervene by issuing an edict calling for peaceful resolution; Zhu ignored the edict. Li Keyong, receiving repeated calls for help from Wang Ke and Wang Ke's wife Lady Li but hearing that the Jin/Jiang path had been cut off, did not launch a relief force; instead, he suggested to Wang Ke that he abandon Huguo and flee to Chang'an. Wang Ke also sent request to Li Maozhen for aid, offering that, if Li Maozhen could repel Zhu, he would offer Huguo to Li Maozhen. Li Maozhen did not respond.

Unable to withstand Zhu's attack, Wang Ke tried to flee across the Yellow River toward Chang'an, but it happened that the bridge across the Yellow River was unusable at that time due to ice damage. With the morale of his troops low, Wang Ke decided to surrender. Trying to appease the Huguo people, Zhu declined Wang Ke's offer of surrendering in a ceremony in which Wang Ke, as the defeated, would bare his upper body, bind his own hands, and bring sheep out of the city; rather, under Zhu's direction, Wang Ke exited the city in full formal clothing, and was referred to as "Master" by Zhu. (Zhu had previously honored Wang Chongrong as an uncle because Wang Chongrong had been the one accepting his allegiance to Tang when he turned against the agrarian rebel Huang Chao and surrendered to Tang, and because Zhu's mother was surnamed Wang as well.)

After Wang Ke's surrender, Zhu commissioned Zhang as the acting military governor of Huguo, while relocating Wang Ke and his family to Xuanwu's capital Bian Prefecture (汴州). However, Zhu continued to be suspicious of Wang Ke due to Wang Ke's marriage to Li Keyong's daughter. He therefore sent Wang Ke on a journey to Chang'an to pay homage to the emperor, but sent assassins to kill Wang when he reached Zhenguo.

Notes and references

• Old Book of Tang, vol. 182.

• New Book of Tang, vol. 187.

• History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 14.

• New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 42.

• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 260, 261, 262.