Jia Su (賈餗) (died December 17, 835[1][2]), courtesy name Zimei (子美), formally the Baron of Guzang (姑臧男), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving briefly as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Wenzong.
It is not known when Jia Su was born, but it is known that his family was from Henan Municipality (河南, i.e., the region of the Tang dynasty eastern capital Luoyang).
He was eventually promoted to be Kaogong Yuanwailang (考功員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, Libu), and put in charge of drafting edicts.
He was soon made Kubu Langzhong (庫部郎中), a supervisory official at the ministry of defense (兵部, Bingbu), and continued to be in charge of drafting edicts.
While he was thus on tour in the region, he was made the prefect of Chang Prefecture (常州, in modern Changzhou, Jiangsu),[5] because of the machinations of the official Zhang Youxin (張又新).
In 834, he was made the mayor of Jingzhao Municipality (京兆, i.e., the Chang'an region), and was also given the honorary title as chief imperial censor (御史大夫, Yushi Daifu).
Pursuant to protocol at the time, when the mayor of Jingzhao arrived, he was supposed to get off his horse at the outer gates and greet the censors.
[3] (The modern historian Bo Yang believed that this sudden promotion after the incident was a case where Zheng was trying to display how much sway he had over the emperor.
Soon thereafter, however, the eunuch-commanded Shence Army (神策軍) soldiers began attacking the governmental buildings, as the eunuchs believed the officials to be complicit with the plot.
[2] On December 17,[1] the Shence Army soldiers escorted Jia, along with Wang Ya, Wang Fan (王璠), Luo Liyan (羅立言), Guo Xingyu (郭行餘), Shu, and Li Xiaoben (李孝本), along with Li Xun's head, to the imperial ancestral shrine, to be presented like sacrifices.
[2] In his Zizhi Tongjian, the Song dynasty historian Sima Guang had this to say about Jia's and Wang Ya's deaths:[2] The commentators all state that Wang Ya and Jia Su were both talented in literary abilities and had good reputations, and that they did not know about the conspiracy of Li Xun and Zheng Zhu but were nevertheless massacred with their families.
Instead, within an instant disaster fell, the feet of the ding broke, the food spilled, and punishments were carried out in dark rooms.
It is that Heaven destroyed them, not Qiu Shiliang [(one of the leading eunuchs)].Jia Su's son Jia Xiang (贾庠) fled to Liu Congjian the reigning Military Governor of Zhaoyi.