Background

It is not known when An Jingsi was born, but it is known that he, or his family, was originally from Feihu (飛狐, in modern Zhangjiakou, Hebei). He was taken captive by Li Keyong during one of Li Keyong's raids in the region, and Li Keyong raised him as an adoptive son, changing his name to Li Cunxiao. He thereafter became a cavalry officer in Li Keyong's army. It was said that after he grew up, he was capable in horsemanship and archery, and no officer in Li Keyong's army rivaled him in ferocity. He often served as Li Keyong's forward commander, and during Li Keyong's campaigns against the agrarian rebel Huang Chao, he served with distinction.

Campaigns under Li Keyong

In 888, when Zhang Quanyi the mayor of Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the Luoyang region) turned against his ally Li Hanzhi the military governor of Heyang Circuit (河陽, headquartered in modern Jiaozuo, Henan) and captured Heyang Circuit's capital Heyang, Li Hanzhi sought aid from Li Keyong. Li Keyong had Kang Junli command Li Cunxiao and four other officers (Xue Atan (薛阿檀), Shi Yan (史儼), An Quanjun (安全俊), and An Xiuxiu (安休休)) in aiding Li Hanzhi to put Heyang under siege. However, Li Keyong's major rival Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) sent his officers Ding Hui, Ge Congzhou, and Niu Cunjie (牛存節) to aid Zhang. The Xuanwu forces defeated the Hedong forces, causing An Xiuxiu to desert the army in fear of being punished. When the Xuanwu forces then threatened to cut off the Hedong forces' path back to Hedong, Kang withdrew, leaving Zhang in control of Heyang Circuit.

In 889, Li Keyong sent Li Hanzhi (who by that point was serving under Li Keyong) and Li Cunxiao to attack Meng Fangli, who then controlled the eastern half of Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義) with his headquarters at Xing Prefecture (邢州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei). (Li Keyong's brother Li Kexiu (李克脩) controlled the western half, with its headquarters at Lu Prefecture (潞州, in modern Changzhi, Shanxi).) Li Hanzhi and Li Cunxiao quickly captured the other two prefectures under Meng's control — Ci (磁州) and Ming (洺州, both in modern Handan, Hebei), and then put Xing under siege. Meng committed suicide. His brother Meng Qian (孟遷) subsequently surrendered Xing to Li Keyong, allowing Li Keyong to control Zhaoyi in its entirety.

In 890, then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong declared a general campaign against Li Keyong, with the chancellor Zhang Jun in command. With Li Kexiu having died recently, another brother of Li Keyong's, Li Kegong (李克恭), was in command at Zhaoyi, but was soon assassinated. His officer Feng Ba took over Lu Prefecture and soon received aid in defending the city from Zhu's officer Ge Congzhou. Li Keyong sent Kang and Li Cunxiao to put Lu under siege. Meanwhile, the imperially-commissioned new military governor, Zhang's deputy Sun Kui (孫揆), was also heading to Lu to take command. Li Cunxiao, receiving this news, laid a trap for Sun near Lu and captured Sun, whom he delivered to Li Keyong and whom Li Keyong executed. Feng and Ge subsequently abandoned Lu, allowing Li Keyong to regain control of Zhaoyi. Li Keyong made Kang the acting military governor of Zhaoyi and Li Cunxiao the prefect of Fen Prefecture (汾州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi). (Li Cunxiao was displeased with this, as he believed that due to his accomplishment in capturing Sun, he should be given Zhaoyi. It was said that for several days he did not eat well and killed a number of people, and thereafter began to harbor thoughts of turning against Li Keyong.)

In winter 890, Li Keyong sent Li Cunxiao to engage Zhang Jun. Zhang's ally Han Jian tried to ambush Li Cunxiao at night, but Li Cunxiao repelled his attack. After this failure, some of Zhang's army deserted him. Zhang and Han were forced to retreat to Jin Prefecture (晉州, in modern Linfen) to defend it. Li Cunxiao initially put it under siege, but then, concluding that it was not a good idea to capture a chancellor and slaughter the imperial army, opened up one side of the siege to allow Zhang and Han to escape. Li Cunxiao thereafter captured Jin and Jiang (絳州, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi) Prefectures. With the imperial army defeated, Emperor Zhaozong was forced to abandon the campaign and seek peace with Li Keyong.

In 891, An Zhijian (安知建), whom Li Keyong had commissioned as the military governor of Xingming Circuit (邢洺, i.e., formerly the eastern half of Zhaoyi), was secretly communicating with Zhu. When Li Keyong realized this, he commissioned Li Cunxiao to replace An. An, in fear, fled, and was killed in flight by Li Keyong's ally Zhu Xuan the military governor of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong).

Later in 891, Li Cunxiao tried to persuade Li Keyong to launch a campaign to capture Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), then ruled by Wang Rong. Li Keyong initially agreed. However, Li Cunxiao's adoptive brother Li Cunxin, a rival for Li Keyong's favor, then dissuaded Li Keyong from the plan. Thereafter, when Wang and his ally Li Kuangwei the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) attacked Yaoshan (堯山, in modern Xingtai) in spring 892, Li Keyong sent Li Cunxiao and Li Cunxin to try to lift the siege, but as Li Cunxiao and Li Cunxin despised each other, neither was willing to attack first, forcing Li Keyong to further send Li Sixun (李嗣勳) to repel Wang's and Li Kuangwei's attack. After this event, Li Cunxin falsely accused Li Cunxiao of being in communications with Wang and Zhu. When Li Cunxiao heard this, in anger, he in fact entered into an alliance with Wang and Zhu, and further submitted a petition to Emperor Zhaozong, offering his domain to imperial control and further requesting to attack Li Keyong. Emperor Zhaozong commissioned Li Cunxiao as the military governor of Xingming Circuit, but forbade him from attacking Li Keyong.

Rebellion against Li Keyong

In 893, when Li Keyong attacked Wang Rong, Li Cunxiao personally led his troops to aid Wang; however, Li Keyong's attack was not repelled until Li Kuangwei also came to Wang's aid and defeated Li Keyong, forcing him to withdraw.

As of fall 893, Li Keyong's army had Li Cunxiao's capital Xing Prefecture under siege. Li Keyong had his soldiers dig ditches around Xing's walls, but Li Cunxiao disrupted the operation by frequently attacking the soldiers digging the ditches. The Hedong officer Yuan Fengtao (袁奉韜) then sent a secret message to Li Cunxiao, stating that Li Keyong would return to Hedong's capital Taiyuan as soon as the ditches were complete and that Li Cunxiao should let the ditches be finished, as none of the other Hedong officers could stand up to him. Li Cunxiao, agreeing with Yuan, held off on attacking the ditch-digging soldiers. Soon thereafter, the ditches were complete, but to Li Cunxiao's surprise, the ditches were done so well that no one could cross them, and they trapped Li Cunxiao inside the city without aid.

By spring 894, the food supply in Xing Prefecture had been exhausted. Li Cunxiao ascended the city walls and begged Li Keyong for mercy. Li Keyong sent his wife Lady Liu inside the city to check on Li Cunxiao, and she came out with him. Li Cunxiao again begged for mercy, stating that it was due to Li Cunxin's false accusations that he turned against Li Keyong. Li Keyong rebuked him for allying with Wang Rong and Zhu Quanzhong, and then took him back to Taiyuan and executed him by dismemberment. (Li Keyong had originally intended to release Li Cunxiao, and believed incorrectly that as Li Cunxiao was to be executed, other officers would beg on his behalf, and then he could release Li Cunxiao without losing face; instead, none of the other officers, who were all jealous of Li Cunxiao's ferocity, spoke on his behalf, so the execution was carried out.) Li Keyong was said to be so saddened by Li Cunxiao's death that he did not oversee matters of the military for a number of days. Soon thereafter, Xue Atan, who had been in secret communications with Li Cunxiao since the other officers were also jealous of him, committed suicide. It was said that Li Cunxiao's and Xue's deaths so weakened Li Keyong's army that he was not able to contend with Zhu thereafter.

In fiction

The Yuan Dynasty master playwright Guan Hanqing wrote a play titled "A Grieving Lady Deng Painfully Laments Cunxiao" (鄧夫人苦痛哭存孝), which was translated as "Death of the Winged-Tiger General" by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang in 1958. (Lady Deng was the name of Li Cunxiao's wife in the play.) According to the play, Li Cunxiao was extremely loyal to Li Keyong and never intended to rebel, but was falsely accused of that by the treacherous Li Cunxin and Kang Junli, who had him cruelly executed behind Li Keyong's back. Influential Ming Dynasty novelist Luo Guanzhong's classic novel Romance of the End of Tang and Five Dynasties Histories (殘唐五代史演義) expanded on this account and exaggerated Li Cunxiao's heroic prowess. Several modern dramas were in turn based on these largely fictional stories and deviated even more from history, including:

• The Heroic Ones, a 1970 Hong Kong film starring David Chiang as Li Cunxiao

• General Stone, a 1976 Hong Kong film starring Tan Tao-liang as Li Cunxiao

• The Wild Bunch, a 1982 Hong Kong TV series starring Felix Wong as Li Cunxiao

Notes and references

• History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 53.

• New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 36.

• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 255, 257, 258, 259.

生平

出身貧寒，由於力氣很大，在軍隊裡混飯吃，被河東節度使李克用收為養子。長大後，善騎射，驍勇冠絕。文德元年（888年），河南張言攻破河陽，洛陽留守李罕之歸順李克用，被安置在澤州。李克用命令李存孝、薛阿檀、安休休等率軍七千人幫李罕之返攻河陽。宣武節度使朱全忠派丁會、牛存節等援助張言戰于溫縣，宣武軍先扼太行，李存孝大敗，安休休被俘虜。河東軍占領澤、潞二州，每年都出兵山東之地，與昭義節度使孟方立爭奪邢、洺、磁三州，李存孝每次都跟隨出戰，擊敗孟方立，使孟方立自殺，讓李克用取得三州，存孝功為多。

889年，潞州軍亂，殺李克恭歸順唐朝。後宣武軍派李讜進攻李罕之於澤州，存孝以五千騎兵救李罕之。澤州之戰，存孝大破鄧季筠，獲馬千匹。又乘勝追擊汴將，俘虜斬首上萬人。接著伏擊唐朝昭義節度使孫揆儀仗隊，俘虜孫揆及五百士兵。潞州守將葛從周連夜遁逃，遂取潞州。

攻取潞州後，以李存孝功勞最大，李克用卻任命康君立為昭義留後，僅僅把李存孝任為汾州（今山西汾陽及周邊縣市）刺史。這讓李存孝心生不滿，他自認功勞最大，竟不是他充任昭義留後，氣到好多天不吃飯。大順二年，邢州節度使安知建暗中投靠朱溫，李克用得知後，讓李存孝當上邢州刺史。大順二年，與趙王王鎔作戰。景福元年（892年）正月，其作戰時與李存信發生矛盾。李存信誣陷李存孝說：「存孝有二心，常避趙不擊。」李存孝不自安，叛離李克用，與朱溫、王鎔、李匡威等結盟，並上表歸順朝廷。唐昭宗任命李存孝為邢州、洺州、磁州節度使。景福元年（892年），李克用親自出兵討伐李存孝。李克用並不急於攻城，僅是深溝高壘鐵壁合圍，城中食盡。乾寧元年（894年）三月，由于作戰失利，存孝登城大叫：「兒蒙王恩，位至將相，豈欲舍父子而附仇讎，乃存信構陷之耳。願生見王一言而死。」李克用派劉太妃進城勸降，存孝遂出城投降，請罪說是被人中傷、無法自明所致。李克用怒斥：「你給王鎔寫信，怪罪我，這也是李存信教的嗎！」押回晉陽（山西省太原市）。李克用原本不想殺李存孝，詢問諸將是否放過李存孝。可是諸將或因妒忌李存孝，無人肯為他求情。最後在軍營門外，用車裂酷刑處死。好友薛阿檀擔心連累自己，自殺。李存孝死後，李克用每次和諸將賭博，談到李存孝就淚流不止。

逸事

李存孝在正史記載不多，但在演義小說和民間傳說中卻非常有名。宋刊殘本《五代史平話》涉及李存孝尚少，然而元雜劇中存孝的故事卻大量出現，主要傳說包含「存孝打虎」、「十八騎取長安」、「義釋鄧天王」，例如元人陳以仁《雁門關存孝打虎》，關漢卿《哭存孝》則雲「存孝擒拿了鄧天王，活挾了孟截海，撾打了張歸霸；十八騎誤入長安，大破黃巢，復奪了長安。」在《殘唐五代史演義》中李存孝戰無不勝，是唐末五代第一猛將，地位相當於《說唐》中的李元霸。但書中亦明言其傳說不可信。存孝在傳說的這些功蹟考諸正史，則多來自其主李克用飛虎子取洛陽的事蹟。

注釋

參考書目

• 《舊五代史》卷五十三本傳

• 《新五代史》卷三十六本傳