Cow and Lee's Party Strife - Cucumber's Party Strife

In the first half of the 9th century, China, Niu Li meant the party of Niu Sengru and Li Zongmin, but in later times it was used to refer to the factional struggle, taking the surnames of the leaders of the two factions, Niu Sengru and Li Deyu. The conflict developed into a major faction struggle involving many bureaucrats for about 40 years, which began when Li Deyu's father, Prime Minister Li Jifu, prevented the appointment of Niu Sengru and Li Zongmin, who had sharply criticized the government at the time of the election. As a result, Emperor Wenzong lamented, "It is easy to get rid of the Hebei bandits (warlords in the Hebei region who stubbornly resisted the central government), but it is difficult to get rid of the allied factions within the court." The modern historian Chen Yinke considers the Li Party to be an aristocratic faction that valued Confucian education, and the Niu Party to be an emerging class skilled in literature, but in reality the two factions were of mixed social classes and backgrounds. In terms of policy, the Niu Party leaned toward maintaining the status quo and promoting peace, while the Li Party promoted reform and was a hard-line foreign policy maker.

[Atsushi Ikeda]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、9世紀前半、唐朝の支配官僚層の内部で闘われた党派争い。初め、牛李は牛僧孺(そうじゅ)、李宗閔(そうびん)の一党を意味したが、後世では牛僧孺と李徳裕(とくゆう)両派の頭目の姓をとって派閥争いをよぶのに用いられる。李徳裕の父の宰相李吉甫(きつほ)が、制挙に際して時政を鋭く批判した牛僧孺、李宗閔らの登用を阻んだことがきっかけで、約40年間にわたって多数の官僚を巻き込む大党争に発展した。そのため皇帝文宗が「河北の賊（中央に頑強に抵抗した河北地方の軍閥）を去るは易(やす)く、朝中の朋党(ほうとう)を去るは難し」と嘆じたほどであった。現代の歴史家陳寅恪(ちんいんかく)は、李党を儒教的教養を尊ぶ貴族派、牛党を文芸に長ずる新興階級とみなしたが、実際は両派の社会階層や出身背景は入り交じっている。政策面では、牛党が現状維持と和平論に傾いたのに対し、李党はむしろ改革推進、対外強硬論であった。

［池田　温］

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