Lu Mai (盧邁) (739 – August 11, 798),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Zixuan (子玄), was an official of the

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, serving as a

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

during the reign of Emperor Dezong.

Background

Lu Mai was born in 739, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His territory of origin is variously reported in the official histories as

Fanyang Ji or Jicheng was an ancient city in northern China, which has become the longest continuously inhabited section of modern Beijing. Historical mention of Ji dates to the founding of the Zhou dynasty in about 1045BC. Archaeological finds in sout ...

(according to the ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

''''

''
vol. 136
.) or Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the eastern capital

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

) (according to the ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

''''

''
vol. 150
.). He was from "The second house of northern ancestry" (北祖第二房) of the prominent

Lu clan of Fanyang The Lu clan of Fanyang (范陽盧氏) was a Chinese political clan active from the late Eastern Han dynasty to the early Song dynasty. They descended from a noble clan in Qi, a ducal state under the Zhou dynasty. Their family name, Lu 盧, was der ...

, and he was a distant relative of

Lu Han Lu Han (; born April 20, 1990), also known mononymously as Luhan, is a Chinese singer, actor, and dancer. He was a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo and its sub-group Exo-M, before leaving the group in October 2014. That year, ...

, who served as a

during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong's great-grandson Emperor Dezong. Lu Mai's direct male-line ancestors, for several generations, including his grandfather Lu Keming (盧克明) and father Lu Zhao (盧沼), served as local officials. Lu Mai was described as filially pious, loving to his siblings, and careful in his youth, and his maternal uncle

Cui Youfu Cui Youfu (崔祐甫) (721 – July 7, 780), courtesy name Yisun (貽孫), was a Chinese politician. He served as a chancellor briefly early during the reign of Emperor Dezong. He was credited for governing in an effective manner and guiding Empe ...

, also a chancellor during Emperor Dezong's reign, loved and respected him.

Early career

After Lu Mai passed the

imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

s, he successively served as a scribe for the

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

(太子正字, ''Taizi Zhengzi'') and sheriff of Lantian County (藍田, in modern

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

). As his written judgments were considered superb, he was then made a secretary at Hunan Municipality. After higher level officials recommended him for his literary talent, he successively served as ''You Bujue'' (右補闕), a low-level official at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, ''Zhongshu Sheng''); ''Shiyushi'' (侍御史), an imperial censor; ''Xingbu Yuanwailang'' (刑部員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of justice (刑部, ''Xingbu''), and ''Libu Yuanwailang'' (吏部員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, ''Libu''). During a famine caused by a

locust Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...

infestation, Lu requested an assignment to the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

region, because at that time his uncle and siblings were all in that region. He was thus made the prefect of Chu Prefecture (滁洲, in modern

Chuzhou Chuzhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Anhui Provinces of China, Province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south and southwest, Huainan to the west, Bengbu to the northwest, and the province of Jiangsu to the ...

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

). He later returned to the capital

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

to serve as ''Simen Langzhong'' (司門郎中), a supervisorial official at the ministry of justice and then ''You Jianyi Daifu'' (右諫議大夫), an advisor at the legislative bureau. While serving there, he often submitted suggestions to the emperor. He later served as imperial attendant (給事中, ''jishizhong''), when he was set to be evaluated for a further evaluation for promotion. He declined, on the basis that he had not served long as ''jishizhong'' and therefore should not be considered for yet another promotion at that time. For this, he was much respected by others, and he was later promoted to be ''Shangshu You Cheng'' (尚書右丞), one of the secretaries general of the executive bureau (尚書省, ''Shangshu Sheng''). While he was serving there, there was an occasion when the minister of palace affairs, Yuan Gen (元亙), was supposed to serve as the ceremonial sacrifice leader for sacrifices to Emperor Dezong's deceased wife Empress Wang. Yuan declined on the basis that the sacrifices to Empress Wang were set on a day that one of his parents had died, and the imperial censors submitted an indictment against Yuan for insubordination. A number of officials were convened to discuss the indictment, and Lu pointed out that Yuan's duty should be first to the state, and he should not have declined on the basis of a family matter. Yuan was thus fined.

Chancellorship, resignation, and death

In 793, Lu Mai was given the designation ''Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi'' (同中書門下平章事), making him a chancellor ''de facto'', serving with

Jia Dan Jia Dan (, 730 – 805), courtesy name Dunshi () and formally Duke Yuanjing of Wei (), was a Chinese cartographer, military general, and politician from Cangzhou, Hebei during the Tang dynasty. Background Jia Dan was born in 730, during the reign ...

, Lu Zhi, and Zhao Jing.''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vol. 234. As Lu Zhi and Zhao effectively were the lead chancellors, Lu Mai was not much involved in the major decisions, and he was said to be cautious and obedient to the law. He was also praised for personally attending the funeral of a cousin, as at that time, chancellors often considered themselves too important to attend the funerals of distant relatives. In 796, Lu Mai suffered a stroke while at the office of the chancellors and was taken home in a

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. The waste is objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, food wrappers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles, but ...

. He offered to resign, but Emperor Dezong declined. As Lu Zhi had by this point been demoted and exiled, Zhao had died, on an occasion when Jia was away observing a memorial for a parent, there was no chancellor on duty, and Emperor Dezong had to send

eunuchs A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

to the office of the chancellors to make sure that the affairs of the state were being attended to.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 235. Lu Mai subsequently submitted five petitions offering to resign, and in 797, Emperor Dezong approved his resignation and made him ''Taizi Bingke'' (太子賓客), an advisor to his crown prince Li Song. Lu died in 798 and was given posthumous honors. As his two marriages did not yield a son, his heir Lu Ji (盧紀) was a son of a cousin.

Background

Early career

Chancellorship, resignation, and death

Notes and references

Further reading