Initial uprising

Du Fuwei was from Qi Province (齊州, roughly modern Jinan, Shandong). He was said to be a free-spirit in his youth and uninterested in making a living, and his best friend Fu Gongshi often stole sheep from Fu's uncle to give to Du, causing both of them to come to the attention of the police. They fled, and they became agrarian rebels against Sui Dynasty rule. At that time—in or shortly before 613—Du was 15. On account of his bravery—it was said that whenever the rebels were engaging in battles, Du always went first, and whenever they withdrew, he was always last. There was another rebel leader in the region, Miao Haichao (苗海潮), and Du sent Fu to tell Miao:

:We all rose because we could not endure Sui's cruel rule, and we rose in righteousness. Because our strengths are divided, I often fear that we will be captured. If we combine our troops, we will be strong enough to resist Sui forces. If you believe yourself to be strong enough to be the leader, I will submit. If you believe that you cannot, accept my command. Otherwise, we shall settle this issue in a battle.

In fear, Miao submitted to him. Du combined their forces and headed south across the Huai River, declaring himself general. The Sui general Song Hao (宋顥) attacked him. Du pretended to be defeated and trapped Sui forces in a marsh, and then set fire to the marsh plants, killing much of the Sui troops by fire. He soon also killed another rebel leader, Zhao Pozhen, and took over Zhao's troops. Another rebel leader, Li Zitong, joined him in 615, but soon tried to assassinate him. He was seriously wounded, but he was saved by his subordinate Wang Xiongdan (王雄誕). Subsequently, he was also attacked and defeated by the Sui general Lai Zheng (來整), and he barely escaped due to the efforts of Wang and one Lady Wang, the wife of his subordinate Ximen Junyi. Du's forces collapsed, but he was soon able to regroup.

Around this time as well, Du selected 30-odd particularly fierce warriors among his soldiers, and he adopted them as sons, even though he himself was only 17 years old at this point and therefore could not have been much, if at all, older than they were—the first recorded instance in Chinese history of such actions to create familial relations among military men. The most able among these adopted sons were Wang Xiongdan and Kan Leng (闞稜). As Du and Fu were best friends who referred to each other as brother, the army, in addition to referring to Du as "father," also referred to Fu as "uncle."

Struggle for control of lower Yangtze region

By fall 616, Du had settled in at Liuhe (六合, in modern Nanjing, Jiangsu). Fellow rebel leaders Li Zitong and Zuo Xiangcai (左相才) were also nearby, and Emperor Yang of Sui, then at Jiangdu (江都, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), sent his general Chen Leng against them. Initially, Chen enjoyed some successes against them, but in spring 617, Du intentionally enraged Chen by sending Chen women clothes and referring to him as "Grandmother Chen"—a tactic (unsuccessfully) employed by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms era against Sima Yi—causing Chen to attack him prematurely with insufficient preparation, and he defeated Chen, who barely escaped with his life. Du then captured Gaoyou (高郵, in modern Yangzhou) and then Liyang (歷陽, in modern Chaohu, Anhui), making Liyang his headquarters and declaring himself the commandant of Liyang. He thereafter gathered more troops among the local rebels.

Around this time, Du selected 5,000 elite soldiers and called them the Shangmu (上募, i.e., "the best conscriptees"), giving them special privileges. Whenever there were battles, the Shangmu would battle first, and after the battle, he would examine their backs; if anyone had wounds on his back, Du would execute him, believing him to have retreated. Du himself did not gather wealth, but gave the plunder to the soldiers. If a soldier died in battle, Du would force the soldier's wife and concubines to die as well and then bury them together. It was said that these actions inspired his soldiers to fight hard and appreciate him.

In spring 618, Emperor Yang was killed in a coup led by his general Yuwen Huaji. Yuwen declared Emperor Yang's nephew Yang Hao emperor and soon abandoned Jiangdu, heading north back toward the eastern capital Luoyang, where Emperor Yang's grandson Yang Tong was declared emperor by a group of Sui officials. Before Yuwen departed Jiangdu, he sent messengers to Du, commissioning Du as the governor of Liyang Commandery. Du refused the commission, instead offering submission to Yang Tong. Yang Tong commissioned Du as the grand commandant of the eastern forces and created him the Prince of Chu.

Meanwhile, Du was contending for the control of the region with Chen Leng, who took over Jiangdu after Yuwen's departure; Li Zitong, then at Hailing (海陵, in modern Taizhou, Jiangsu); and Shen Faxing, then at Piling (毗陵, in modern Changzhou, Jiangsu) and who claimed the title of Prince of Liang. In fall 619, Li was sieging Chen at Jiangling, and Chen sought help from both Shen and Du. Shen sent his son Shen Guan (沈綸) with an army to assist Chen, along with Du. However, Li tricked Shen Guan and Du into attacking each other, and neither was able to assist Chen. Li was able to capture Jiangdu, and then defeated Shen Guan in battle. Both Shen Guan and Du withdrew, and Li took over the Jiangdu region. Li declared himself the Emperor of Wu. With Yang Tong's regime having fallen earlier that year when Yang Tong's official Wang Shichong forced Yang Tong to yield the throne to him, ending Sui and establishing a new state of Zheng, Du decided to submit to Tang Dynasty. Emperor Gaozu of Tang commissioned Du as the commandant of He Prefecture (i.e., Liyang) and the commander of the forces south of the Huai River. He also continued to have Du hold the title of Prince of Chu.

Submission to Tang Dynasty

In summer 620, Emperor Gaozu changed Du Fuwei's title to Prince of Wu, and bestowed on him the imperial surname of Li. Du was thereafter known as Li Fuwei. Fu Gongshi was created the Duke of Shu.

Later that year, Li Zitong attacked Shen Faxing, taking over several major cities from Shen, including Jingkou (京口, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), Danyang (丹楊, in modern Nanjing), and Shen's capital Piling, forcing Shen to flee. Li Fuwei, in turn, sent Fu to attack Li Zitong, with Kan Leng and Wang Xiongdan as Fu's assistants. They defeated Li Zitong, whose food supplies soon ran out. Li Zitong abandoned Jiangdu and fled to Jingkou, and then further east, attacking Shen and forcing Shen to commit suicide. Li Zitong took over modern Zhejiang from Shen, while modern central and southern Jiangsu came under Li Fuwei's control, and Li Fuwei moved his headquarters from Liyang to Danyang.

In spring 621, with Emperor Gaozu's son Li Shimin the Prince of Qin putting the Zheng capital Luoyang under siege, Du sent his generals Chen Zhengtong and Xu Shaozong (徐紹宗), with 2,000 men, to assist Li Shimin in his campaign. Chen and Xu were able to capture the Zheng city Liangcheng (梁城, in modern Ruzhou, Henan).

In winter 621, Li Fuwei sent Wang Xiongdan against Li Zitong. Wang, after first tricking Li Zitong into a panic back to Hangzhou (杭州, in modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang), forced Li Zitong to surrender. Li Fuwei sent Li Zitong and Li Zitong's key official Le Botong to the Tang capital Chang'an, but Emperor Gaozu spared them. Wang Xiongdan subsequently also persuaded two other major rebel leaders, Wang Hua and Wenren Sui'an (聞人遂安), to surrender. It was said that, by this point, Li Fuwei controlled all of the territory south of the Huai River, as far south as the Xianxia Mountain (仙霞嶺, i.e., roughly the border of modern Zhejiang and Fujian).

Death

By this point, although Li Fuwei still outwardly treated Fu Gongshi as a brother, he was actually suspicious of Fu, and so he made Wang Xiongdan and Kan Leng be in actual command of his forces. Fu resented the treatment but, in response, pretended to no longer care about earthly matters, practicing alchemy with his friend Zuo Youxian (左遊仙). It was said that Li Fuwei himself was acquainted with alchemy and, as part of the exercise to try to live long, consumed mica frequently notwithstanding the poisons contained therein.

In fall 622, Li Shimin was attacking and prevailing over Xu Yuanlang the Prince of Lu, and his army was near Li Fuwei's domain. Li Fuwei, fearing that his loyalty might be doubted, requested to go to Chang'an to pay homage to Emperor Gaozu, taking Kan with him. Before he departed, he left Fu in command, with Wang as Fu's deputy, in actual command of the forces, secretly warning Wang, "If I suffer no ill consequences, make sure that Fu does nothing rash." When Li Fuwei got to Chang'an, Emperor Gaozu gave him the special treatment of allowing him to sit with Emperor Gaozu on the imperial seat and, at other occasions, honor even above Emperor Gaozu's son Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi. However, he did not permit Li Fuwei or Kan to return to Danyang, making Kan a general. In spring 623, he further bestowed the honorific office of Taibao (太保, one of the Three Excellencies) on Li Fuwei.

Meanwhile, in fall 623, Fu, after tricking Wang into surrendering his command and killing him, rebelled, claiming that Li Fuwei had been detained and had secretly ordered him to rise against Tang. Fu soon declared himself the Emperor of Song. In spring 624, Li Fuwei died suddenly—with official sources suggesting that he was poisoned by the substances he was taking as a part of alchemical exercises, but also, in a veiled manner, leaving open the possibility that he was assassinated on Emperor Gaozu's orders. After Li Xiaogong the Prince of Zhao Commandery, a son of a cousin of Emperor Gaozu, defeated and killed Fu later that year, Li Xiaogong believed Fu's declaration that he was rebelling under Li Fuwei's orders, and therefore reported it to Emperor Gaozu. Emperor Gaozu ordered that Li Fuwei's titles be posthumously stripped, and that his wife and children be arrested and made slaves. After Li Shimin became emperor (as Emperor Taizong) in 626, he knew that Li Fuwei was not part of Fu's plot, and therefore restored Li Fuwei's titles, released his wife and children, and reburied him with honor, albeit not with the honor due to a prince, but only of a duke.

Notes and references

• Old Book of Tang, vol. 56.https://web.archive.org/web/20071011055105/http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/tan07.htm

• New Book of Tang, vol. 92.https://web.archive.org/web/20080210053058/http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan14.htm

• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 182, 183, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190.

生平

自幼家貧，慣于偷盜，與輔公祏是刎頸之交。輔公祏常從姑家裡偷羊送給杜伏威吃。因盜案案發，官府追捕，兩人落草為寇，時年十六。大業九年（613年）逃竄到長白山（今山東章丘東北）地區，組織山賊，與輔公祏率眾起義。後轉戰到淮南，漸漸擴張勢力，自稱將軍，陸續合併苗海潮部、趙破陣部等起義軍，勢力大增，屯併六合，威脅江都（在今江蘇省揚州市境），江都留守派校尉宋顥前來鎮壓，杜伏威用計將其引入蘆葦蕩中，放火將其燒死。

大業十二年（616年）七月，隋煬帝派虎牙郎將公孫上哲率軍前往鎮壓，雙方戰于鹽城（今江蘇鹽城），公孫上哲軍隊被全殲。次年（617年）伏威又擊敗名將陳稜率領的隋軍，乘勝破高郵，之後在淮南的歷陽（今安徽省和縣）自稱總管，以輔公祏為長史，又合併江淮各部，占有江淮間廣大地區。伏威善治軍，能與將士同甘共苦，每次戰鬥，將士皆奮勇衝殺，爭效死力。所獲財物，皆賞將士；戰死者，以其妻妾殉葬。故將士皆為他戰，所向無敵。伏威又實施減賦稅、廢殉葬、懲貪污等措施，逐漸贏得了民眾的信任。

大業十四年（618年），杜伏威向東都（今河南洛陽）越王楊侗稱臣，獲封為楚王，拜東道大總管。唐高祖武德二年（619年），由于唐朝實力強大，便歸安于唐朝，授東南道行台尚書令、江淮以南安撫大使、上柱國，封吳王，賜姓李，預宗正屬籍，封其子杜德俊為山陽公。次年，擊敗李子通，將根據地遷至江南的丹陽（今江蘇南京）。武德四年，唐軍攻圍洛陽，伏威遣兵助戰。

武德五年（622年），秦王李世民鎮壓河北劉黑闥、徐圓朗，連下十餘城，淮北震動，七月，召杜伏威入朝，臨行前以輔公祏留守丹陽，將兵權交給右將軍王雄誕，輔公祏心生不滿。武德六年（623年）春正月，朝廷以伏威為太子太保兼行台尚書令，位在齊王李元吉之上，以示寵遇。同年八月，輔公祏偽稱接到杜的命令起兵反唐，兵敗被殺。此時距杜伏威和輔公祏共同起事已十三年。武德六年三月廿七日（623年5月2日），杜伏威因為憂懼而死，虛歲四十一。兵敗後，輔公祏偽造的書信被發現，唐高祖不辨真假便除去杜伏威之官，並籍沒其家眷。貞觀五年二月廿一日（631年3月29日），唐太宗詔令以國公禮安葬杜伏威，派別將戴士文監護喪事，當年四月庚寅廿日己酉（631年5月26日）將杜伏威安葬于雍州萬年縣義善鄉少陵原。

文學作品

• 《大唐雙龍傳》中，將杜伏威塑造成老謀深算、精明幹練而且武功非凡的黑道霸主、義軍領袖。他頭頂高冠，容貌古樸，性格凶殘，而且殺人如麻，唯獨對主角寇仲及徐子陵有著複雜的感情，既討厭而又欣賞他們，起初為了「楊公寶庫」而脅持二人，考慮到方便在江湖上並行而迫令二人稱自己為爹，但杜伏威大勢已去後，雄心不再，反倒懷念二人之情，直接成為了二人的乾爹。外號「袖裡乾坤」，喜歡穿著寬袍大袖，兩袖裡暗藏尺許長的護臂，招式詭祕莫測，於小說中是當代高手之一。