Dong Zhang (Chinese: 董璋) (died June 10, 932) was a Chinese military general and politician of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Later Liang and Later Tang states. After submitting to Later Tang after Later Liang's destruction, he became a general favored by both Later Tang's founding emperor Li Cunxu and Li Cunxu's chief of staff Guo Chongtao, causing Guo to commission Dong as the military governor (jiedushi) of Dongchuan Circuit (東川, headquartered in modern Mianyang, Sichuan) after Guo's conquest of Former Shu. Because of this, after Li Cunxu's downfall and succession by his adoptive brother Li Siyuan, Li Siyuan's chief of staff An Chonghui came to suspect both Dong and Meng Zhixiang, the military governor of neighboring Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan). Dong and Meng jointly rebelled against Li Siyuan and were successful military, forcing the imperial government to eventually move into a reconciliatory posture. Dong, however, as his son Dong Guangye (董光業) and Dong Guangye's family were slaughtered, refused the imperial overture, and later launched an attack on Meng, as Meng was moving to reconciliation with the imperial government. Meng defeated him, and he was later killed by his own subordinates.
It is not known when or where Dong Zhang was born, but it was known that he, along with later prominent political figures Gao Jixing and Kong Xun, served as servant boys under the merchant Li Rang (李讓) of Bian Prefecture (汴州, in modern Kaifeng, Henan). While the late-Tang dynasty major warlord Zhu Quanzhong (who would later take over the Tang throne and establish Later Liang) served as the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered at Bian Prefecture), Zhu took Li as an adoptive son (changing his name to Zhu Yourang (朱友讓)), and Li's servants thus got the chance to serve in Zhu Quanzhong's army. Dong later was promoted to be an officer in the army.
As of 923, Zhu Quanzhong's son Zhu Zhen was Later Liang's emperor. That year, Li Jitao (the son Li Sizhao, the deceased cousin of Later Liang's archrival Later Tang's emperor Li Cunxu), who then controlled Anyi Circuit (安義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), in fear that Li Cunxu would eventually act against him, surrendered his circuit to Later Liang. Pei Yue (裴約), the prefect of Ze Prefecture (澤州, in modern Jincheng, Shanxi), which belonged to Anyi, refused to abide by this decision, and instead remained faithful to Later Tang. Zhu sent Dong Zhang to attack Ze, later sending the major general Wang Yanzhang to reinforce his troops. Li Cunxu sent his general Li Shaobin to try to aid Pei, with the explicit instruction to give up Ze to Later Liang, only rescuing Pei. Before Li Shaobin could arrive there, though, Dong had already captured the city, and Pei was killed in the city's fall. Zhu commissioned Dong as the prefect of Ze.
Later in the year, Dong was part of the ambitious plan drafted by the Later Liang major general Duan Ning to launch a four-prong attack on Later Tang to try to reverse years of Later Liang losses to Later Tang's predecessor state Jin:
Dong would head toward the major Later Tang city Taiyuan (formerly Jin's capital).
Huo Yanwei would head toward Zhen Prefecture (鎮州, in modern Baoding, Hebei).
Wang Yanzhang and Zhang Hanjie (張漢傑) would head toward Yun Prefecture (鄆州, in modern Tai'an, Shandong, recently captured by the Later Tang general Li Siyuan (Li Cunxu's adoptive brother)).
Duan himself, along with Du Yanqiu, would confront Later Tang's emperor Li Cunxu near then-Later Tang capital Xingtang (興唐, in modern Handan, Hebei).
Before Duan could launch the plan, however, Li Cunxu crossed the Yellow River and joined Li Siyuan, and then defeated Wang and Zhang. He then headed toward Daliang (i.e., Bian Prefecture), then Later Liang's capital, which was left defenseless by Duan's plan (which required the engagement of the entire Later Liang imperial army). Believing that the situation was hopeless as the Later Tang army approached, Zhu committed suicide, ending Later Liang. Li Cunxu entered Daliang and took over Later Liang's territory.
After Later Liang's fall, Dong Zhang (as did virtually all other Later Liang-commissioned regional governors) went to Daliang to pay homage to the Later Tang emperor. Li Cunxu had long heard of Dong, and treated him well, returning him to his post at Ze. In 924, he was part of the Later Tang deployment in the northern boundary with the Khitan Empire to defend against possible Khitan incursions. Overall, Dong served at Ze for more than a year there before being replaced and recalled to then-Later Tang capital Luoyang. At that time, the paramount figure at court was Li's chief of staff Guo Chongtao, and Guo treated him well as well. In the summer of 925, Dong was first made acting military governor of Jingnan Circuit (靜難, headquartered in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), and shortly after made its full military governor.
In fall 925, Li Cunxu launched a major campaign against Later Tang's southwestern neighbor Former Shu, commissioning his son Li Jiji the Prince of Wei as the titular commander of the operations, but with Guo serving as Li Jiji's deputy and actually being in command of the operations. Dong was assigned as a general serving under Guo during the operations. As Guo was close to him, Guo often consulted him on decisions—which angered Li Shaochen, a more senior general under Guo who had greater accomplishments (including during the Former Shu campaign itself). After Former Shu's emperor Wang Zongyan surrendered to Li Jiji and Guo, there were occasions on which Li Shaochen publicly rebuked Dong, at one point threatening to find a reason to put Dong to death under military law. When Dong informed Guo this, Guo decided to exercise imperial authority Li Cunxu delegated to him and commission Dong as the military governor of Dongchuan Circuit and relieve Dong's military responsibilities (so that Li Shaochen would not have any excuse to use military law against Dong).
Shortly after, though, Guo himself fell under the suspicions of both Li Cunxu and Li Cunxu's wife Empress Liu—that he was planning to take over Shu lands and rebel. Li Cunxu was reluctant to act against Guo without further evidence, but Empress Liu decided to act. She issued an order herself, ordering Li Jiji to put Guo to death. After some hesitation, Li Jiji carried out her order and put Guo to death. After Guo's death, Dong was briefly apprehensive of Li Shaochen and apologized to him. However, subsequently, it was Dong, not Li Shaochen, who received Li Cunxu's order to carry out the execution against Zhu Lingde (朱令德) the military governor of Wuxin Circuit (武信, headquartered in modern Suining, Sichuan), the son of Guo's ally Zhu Youqian, who was also put to death when Guo was killed. Dong was subsequently again disrespectful to Li Shaochen, causing Li Shaochen to, in fear and anger, rebel against Li Jiji. (However, Li Shaochen was shortly after defeated by Ren Huan, whose forces were reinforced by Dong and Meng Zhixiang, whom Li Cunxu had commissioned as the military governor of Xichuan; he was then captured and executed.)
Initial submission to Li Siyuan
Li Cunxu himself, however, was shortly later killed in a mutiny at Luoyang. One of the generals who had previously rebelled against him, his adoptive brother Li Siyuan, quickly arrived at Luoyang and claimed imperial title. Dong Zhang was apparently initially submissive to Li Siyuan, and was granted the honorific title of acting Taifu (太傅), and in 927 was given the honorary chancellor designation of Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事).
The attitudes of Li Siyuan and his powerful chief of staff An Chonghui toward Dong was described differently in different historical sources. The Zizhi Tongjian indicated that An became immediately suspicious that it would be difficult to control Dong and Meng Zhixiang due to their isolated locations and command of large armies and that he was particularly apprehensive of Meng because Meng's wife was a sister of Li Cunxu's, while Dong's biographies in both the History of the Five Dynasties and New History of the Five Dynasties indicated that An was only initially suspicious of Meng and in fact, at the urging of his associates, tried to cultivate a relationship with Dong, believing that Dong could be a strong counterbalance to Meng; further, Dong's son Dong Guangye (董光業), who was serving in the palace, was fostering that perception. Regardless, though, An dispatched the officials Li Yan (李嚴) to Xichuan to serve as the monitor of its army, and Zhu Hongzhao to Dongchuan to serve as Dong's deputy military governor, apparently with the intent to have both Li and Zhu guard imperial interests in these circuits. However, upon Li's arrival at Xichuan, Meng executed him, and Zhu, in fear that the same thing would happen to him, found an excuse to return to Luoyang. Still, later in 926, when the imperial government declared a general campaign against Gao Jixing, the recalcitrant military governor of Jingnan Circuit (荊南, headquartered in modern Jingzhou, Hubei, not the same circuit that Dong himself had served at), Dong was at least nominally put in charge of the army that would attack Jingnan from the west (down the Yangtze River), which appeared to be actually commanded by Xifang Ye (西方鄴). Throughout this time, Dong and Meng also had an adversarial relationship, fighting over profits of the salt mines in the region. For a time, Dong tried to entice merchants from buying Dongchuan salt and transporting them to Xichuan for sale, flooding the Xichuan market. Meng reacted by setting up three tax collection stations on the two circuits' border at Han Prefecture (漢州, in modern Deyang, Sichuan) and imposing heavy taxes on Dongchuan salt, effectively ending the practice.