Tutu Chengcui

Tutu Chengcui (吐突承璀; died 820), courtesy name Renzhen (仁貞), was a powerful eunuch of the Chinese Tang dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

[5] In 806, Tutu was also made the commander (中尉, Zhongwei) of the Left Shence Army (左神策軍), as well as the director of religious affairs (功德使, Gongdeshi).

The chancellor Pei Ji opposed military action, but Tutu volunteered to command an army against Wang Chengzong.

[3] Meanwhile, around the same time, there was an incident where Tutu, in his role as director of religious affairs, remodeled Anguo Temple (安國寺) and, in the process, built a magnificent stele and asked for Emperor Xianzong to designate an official to author the text of the stele, to praise Emperor Xianzong.

In winter 809, Emperor Xianzong stripped Wang of his titles and commissioned Tutu as the commander of the forces against Chengde.

[6] In spring 810, Tutu arrived at the northern front against Chengde, but it was said that he lacked the respect of the generals, and the military actions were therefore less than successful.

In particular, after one key imperial general, Li Dingjin (酈定進) was killed in battle, the morale took a major blow.

[6] After Tutu returned to the capital Chang'an, Emperor Xianzong initially had him resume the command of the Left Shence Army.

However, Pei, Duan Pingzhong (段平仲), Lü, and Li Jiang all advocated that, because Tutu was unable to defeat Wang as he promised, he should be punished.

Emperor Xianzong thus demoted Tutu out of the capital to serve as the monitoring eunuch at Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu).

[9] In spring 820, Emperor Xianzong died suddenly—and historians generally believed that it was the eunuch Chen Hongzhi (陳弘志) who murdered him.