Zheng Yin (Middle Tang) - During Emperor Dezong's Reign

During Emperor Dezong's Reign

During the reign of Emperor Daizong's son Emperor Dezong, when Zhang Yanshang served as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan), he invited Zheng Yin to serve as his secretary. Zheng was later recalled to the central government to initially serve as Bujue (補闕), a low-level consultant, as well as Qiju Lang (起居郎), a chronicler of the emperor's acts; he was also involved in editing the imperial history. Soon thereafter, he was made an imperial scholar (翰林學士, Hanlin Xueshi) and made Sixun Yuanwailang (司勳員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, Libu) and was in charge of drafting imperial edicts. It was said that Zheng served in Emperor Dezong's presence for 13 years and that, during that time, he was careful and humble, and that Emperor Dezong treated him well. In 796, there was an occasion when Emperor Dezong, when commissioning eunuch commandants of the imperial Shence Army (神策軍), Dou Wenchang (竇文場) and Huo Xianming (霍仙鳴), was set to issue edicts on hemp paper, when Zheng objected — pointing out that traditionally, only the creation of imperial princes and the commissioning of chancellors involved the use of edicts on hemp paper and questioning whether this would set a dangerous precedent of equating commandants of the Shence Army with such honored individuals. Emperor Dezong agreed and burned the hemp paper edicts, ordering the commissions be issued by the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng) as per regular commissions. The next day, Emperor Dezong told Zheng, "Not even the chancellors dared to resist the eunuchs' requests, and I did not realize this until you brought this up."