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Liu Min, Son Chengjun, and Chengjun’s Sons Ji’en and Jiyuan
Liu Min [C.E. 896–955] was the younger brother of Gaozu of the Later Han, born to the same mother. Originally named Chong, he had a handsome beard and double pupils in his eyes. A wastrel in youth, given to heavy drinking and frequent gambling, he was even tattooed upon induction as an ordinary foot soldier. He eventually rose to chief military director when the future Gaozu was Hedong governor. With the accession of Gaozu to the Han throne, Min was appointed metropolitan custodian of Taiyuan and interim custodian of the northern capital, with ministerial standing. Honors included palace secretary in the era of Emperor Yin.
The minority of Emperor Yin caused senior officials to govern on his behalf. The military commissioner at the time, the future Taizu of Zhou, had emerged as exceptionally distinguished in the wake of recent suppressions of three separate mutinies. Liu Min had a history of tensions with Taizu, however, leaving him uneasy. Turning to administrative aide Zheng Gong, he confided, “The monarch young and vulnerable, governance now rests with powerful officers. Moreover, my relations with Guo Wei have been strained. How do we cope with such times?” Gong confided, “The Han regime totters on chaos. As for Jinyang [your Taiyuan base], the valor of troops ranks first in the world, the terrain is securely defended, and its ten prefectures yield enough tax receipts to support autonomy. As a member of the imperial clan, should you fail to lay plans at this moment, Sir, your eventual domination by others is a certainty!” “Your words reflect precisely my own thoughts,” Min responded, whereupon he ceased tax payments to the court and expanded his army by recruiting men of valor and enlisting commoners. Taizu’s insurgency at Weizhou and the regicide perpetrated against Emperor Yin, in the third year [C.E. 950], convinced Min to consider military recourse.
Once Taizu of Zhou entered the capital from Weizhou, his intent to rebel was perfectly clear. However, leading Han courtiers had yet to support his further elevation, so he dared not claim the throne. Instead, he told the Empress Dowager of Han to install Liu Yun, the son of Min, as successor to the Han line and sent chief minister Feng Dao to escort Yun back from Xuzhou¶. Everyone at the time fully appraised Taizu as ingenuous, save for Min, who said joyfully, “My son will become Emperor. What peril need I fear?” He thus disbanded his army and dispatched a messenger to the capital.
Taizu of Zhou, humble in station as a youth, carried on his neck a flying-sparrow tattoo, so people commonly dubbed him the “Sparrow Guo.” He spoke at length upon meeting Liu Min’s messenger, reiterating his intent to install Yun. Pointing to the tattoo on his neck, he asserted, “Since antiquity, has a Son of Heaven ever carried such markings? I hope that you will find nothing suspect in me.” His comments pleased Min, whose faith in their veracity only increased. The deputy custodian of Taiyuan, Li Xiang, had warned him, “The raising of troops by Mr. Guo is an act of insubordination. Political conditions will not permit him to remain loyal to Han and surely no scion of the Liu house will be installed by him.” He thereby urged Min to lead an army down from Taihang to neutralize Meng Jin and hold vigil against a mutiny. If Yun managed to be enthroned, he could then disband his army. Min roundly reviled Li Xiang, however, stating, “A rotten Confucian, Xiang seeks to plant rifts between me and my son.” Attendants were instructed to drag him away for beheading. As execution approached, Xiang said with remorse, “I conspired with an idiot and die out of sincerity, which I can wholly accept, but my infirm wife cannot live without me. Permit us to die together.” The request incited Min to have the wife simultaneously stabbed to death at the marketplace. He also reported the incident to the Han court to affirm the absence of ulterior motives on his part.
Ultimately, Taizu of Zhou did overturn the Han and demote Liu Yun’s noble status to Duke of Xiangying. Liu Min subsequently delivered a letter to Taizu through military attaché Li Bian requesting his son’s return to Taiyuan, although he had died by now. Min wept bitterly. He also erected an ancestral temple to Li Xiang to conduct sacrifices every year.
In the inaugural year of Guangshun, by the Zhou calendar, sixteenth day of the inaugural month [C.E. February 24, 951], Liu Min acceded the imperial throne at Taiyuan. His son Chengjun was installed as metropolitan custodian of Taiyuan, administrative assistants Zheng Gong and Zhao Hua appointed chief ministers, military administrator Chen Guangyu named commissioner of palace armies, and diplomatic secretary Li Bian selected as special emissary to the Khitan. The Khitan Prince of Yongkang, Wuyu, proposed alliance with Liu Min’s kingdom on a “father-to-son” basis. Min reciprocated with a letter delivered by chief minister Zheng Gong, where he referred to himself as the “Nephew Emperor,” effectively conceding only to serve the Khitan ruler as “uncle.” Wuyu now deputized the Prince of Yan, Shuya, and secretary of political affairs Gao Xun to invest Min as the Divinely Martial Emperor of the Great Han, investing his wife as Empress. Wuyu could be boorish in character: whenever envoys of Han arrived, he invariably ensnared them into binge eating and drinking. Gong was similarly plied to drink despite ongoing illnesses, and he died the next day of alcohol consumption. Wuyu saw opportunity in the Middle Kingdom’s multitude of distractions attendant to Min’s installation, so his return mission included the esteemed courtiers Shuya and Gao Xun. They brought as gifts a bay horse with yellow mane and the jade sash designed with nine dragons on twelve squares, so prized by Wuyu himself.
Once Wuyu succumbed to an act of regicide by Shuya, Shulü replaced him as ruler and Min commissioned Wang Dezhong, the auxiliary academician at the military bureau, as envoy to Shulü; he appealed for reinforcements to attack the Zhou. A force of fifty thousand led by Xiao Yujue was sent, as Min departed from Yindi Pass to launch a raid against Jinzhou. He was routed by Wang Jun, losing more than half of his men to starvation or exposure in the bitter cold of that winter. A raid on Fuzhou† occurred in the next year [C.E. 952], ending in Min’s defeat by She Deyi, who now claimed the Kelan command for Zhou.
The Zhou ruler Taizu’s passing came as good news to Liu Min, whose envoys conveyed a plea to the Khitan for troop support. They committed as relief some ten thousand “Iron Horse” cavalry and fifty to sixty thousand Xi tribesmen: commanded by Yang Gun, the force was allegedly a hundred thousand strong. Min designated as vanguard Zhang Yuanhui, while personally commanding thirty thousand horsemen in a raid on Luzhou. Li Yun of Luzhou responded by sending a mixed force of three thousand to intercept the intruders at Taiping station, led by Mu Lingjun. They were vanquished by Yuanhui in a sortie, the siege of Luzhou ensuing.
Newly acceded to power at the time, Shizong fully appreciated Liu Min’s intention to exploit his disinclination to war owing to important mourning rituals and a recent accession to power. He thus preferred to storm Min unexpectedly. Many counseled against the action, including chief minister Feng Dao and cohort, although Shizong’s resolve only intensified. Shizong personally led the campaign in the inaugural year of Xiande, opening hostilities at Gaoping County on the twentieth day of the third month [C.E. April 25, 954]. Commanding his left flank were Li Chongjin and Bai Chongzan, on his right were Fan Aineng and He Hui, presiding over regiments in the center were Xiang Xun and Shi Yanchao, while Zhang Yongde provided personal cover for Shizong with contingents of the Imperial Guard. Min similarly arrayed soldiers in three columns: Zhang Yuanhui served as eastern auxiliary, Yang Gun as western auxiliary, and Min presided over the center.
After a reconnaissance of Zhou armies, Gun said to Liu Min, “The enemy is exceptionally fit. We cannot act impetuously.” Ruffling his beard, Min warned, “An opportunity of the sort cannot be squandered. Do not speak rashly!” Gun left embittered. Min ordered his eastern column to advance first, causing Wang Dezhong to complain as he struck furiously at his horse, “Extremely intense southern winds are unfavorable to this northern army—some delay is necessary.” Min retorted angrily, “I warn you, crusty old fart, not to impede needlessly my armies.” He promptly motioned to Yuanhui to storm the right flank of Zhou. Initial engagements forced Fan Aineng and He Hui to retreat as chaos overtook their cavalry. Several thousand of their infantry doffed armor to defect to Yuanhui, bellowing cheers for “Ten Thousand Years” with a sound that reverberated across the river canyon. A flabbergasted Shizong assumed personal direction of warriors, who were so invigorated as to vie for the chance to fight first. The winds had gathered such strength by now that Min motioned to Red Banner units to regroup, but his armies were out of control and met defeat. By sunset, Min withdrew remnants of roughly ten thousand to set up defenses in a ravine.
The Zhou army’s rear regiments, commanded by Liu Ci, had yet to catch up when Shizong decided to avail himself of a speedy engagement. Ci’s armies arrived on the heels of Shizong’s victory and exploited this momentum to harass Min’s men and deliver an even worse rout. Zhou armies now captured carts of heavy weapons and armor, plus the imperial carriage and other paraphernalia. Astride his bay horse with yellow mane from the Khitan, Min singularly absconded posthaste, taking side-roads through the Diaoke Mountains. There he lost his way in a ravine during nighttime travel and secured a villager as a guide, who mistakenly took him toward Pingyang before an alternate route back was found. Zhang Yuanhui died in the thick of battle. Yang Gun’s indignation toward Min had incited him to immobilize the western column and refuse to fight, his army singularly managing to return completely intact. Once Min had returned, he built a special stable for the bay horse, which, outfitted in gold and silver, was provided meals of the superior third grade and dubbed the “Liberated General.”
Resting armies at Luzhou, Shizong held a large banquet for commanders and troops and beheaded more than seventy of his own vanquished commanders such as Fan Aineng and He Hui—stirring imposing awe in his men. An offensive against Taiyuan ensued, Shizong sending to the north Fu Yanqing and Shi Yanchao to neutralize Xinkou and thereby sever Khitan relief routes. The walled city of Taiyuan was forty li in circumference, and Zhou troops, three hundred paces from the wall, formed a contiguous circle around it. From the fourth month through the sixth, their offensive yielded no concrete results. Meanwhile, Yanqing and his men were defeated by the Khitan and Yanchao died in battle. Shizong’s armies quickly withdrew.
During the Zhou blockade of Taiyuan, Liu Min dispatched Wang Dezhong to escort Yang Gun back to the Khitan while requesting reinforcements. They followed through with several tens of thousands of cavalry as relief and allowed Dezhong to return in advance. Dezhong had reached Daizhou when local commander Sang Gui, having killed defense commander Zheng Chuqian, surrendered the city to the Zhou. He turned over Dezhong to the Zhou as well. Shizong summoned Dezhong to inquire about the number of troops in the barbarian relief and he indicated that Min had made no additional requests since Yang Gun’s escort home. Shizong believed him. Later, the Khitan vanquished Fu Yanqing at Xinkou and Dezhong was slain [for misrepresentations].
In the wake of setbacks at Gaoping and the blockade at Taiyuan, Liu Min grew depressed and physically ill, dying in the eleventh month of the next year [C.E. 955] at sixty sui. His son Chengjun succeeded him.
Liu Chengjun [r. C.E. 955–967], second son of Min, had an affinity for learning and a proficiency at calligraphy in youth. Upon the death of Min, he petitioned the Khitan ruler for investiture, acknowledging himself as “baron.” Shulü employed an imperial rescript in response, calling Chengjun “son” and approving his accession.
Before this, Liu Min often said to Zhang Yuanhui and cohort, “In preserving the legacy of Gaozu and redressing the injustice against Liu Yun, righteous principle precludes my submission to Guo Wei. I hope, along with you, to exert every effort in exacting revenge for family and country. As for declaring myself Emperor over one corner of the world, what could I possibly gain? What sort of Son of Heaven do you see in me, what sort of governors do you see in yourselves?” Although assuming bogus titles of royalty, he conformed to the Qianyou reign [of Later Han] with no changes. Nor did Min erect his own ancestral temple. In conducting the rituals of each season, he limited himself to the rites appropriate for a clansman. Only with the ascent of Chengjun was an amnesty announced for the domain, the tenth year of Qianyou changed to the inaugural year of Tianhui [C.E. 957], and seven ancestral altars erected in the Xiansheng temple.
The Khitan dispatched Gao Xun to support Chengjun, who in turn deployed Li Cungui to join Xun in a raid on Shangdang County [Luzhou]. They obtained nothing and retreated. In the next year [C.E. 958], Shizong launched a northern expedition against the Khitan, conquering the three passes. A Khitan envoy alerted Chengjun to emergency conditions, the incident ending after Shizong withdrew armies before Chengjun’s reinforcements could depart.
After the Song-dynasty ascent, the Zhaoyi governor Li Yun betrayed the new mandate, directing commander Liu Jichong and administrative aide Sun Fu to seek “vassal” status under the Northern Han. He also delivered [Songdynasty] military overseers Zhou Guangxun and Li Tingyu to Taiyuan, requesting military assistance. Chengjun had planned consultations with the Khitan, but Jichong conveyed Yun’s opposition to Khitan involvement. Chengjun thus commanded only local troops in departing from Tuanbai Canyon. Leading officials held a farewell party at the Fen River, where Secretariat associate Zhao Hua cautioned, “Li Yun has endorsed a frivolous action and Your Majesty has depleted the empire’s resources to wage war without due consideration for success or failure. Your Subject is genuinely distraught.” Still, as Chengjun reached Taiping Post, he invested Yun as Prince of Longxi. Once Yun saw Chengjun without the escort of ceremonial guard and devoid of an imperial presence, he came to regret accepting vassalage under him. He now began affirming the Zhou dynasty’s charity toward him, thereby making any disavowal of it unthinkable. Chengjun was especially displeased to learn of Yun’s sentiments, in light of the historic feud between Han and Zhou, and sent Lu Zan, the commissioner of palace armies, to oversee his army. The appointment left Yun ill at ease, his conflicts with Zan so frequent that Chengjun had to dispatch chief minister Wei Rong to mediate matters.
Li Yun later perished in battle. Wei Rong was apprehended and taken to the Song capital, where Emperor Taizu asked about the level of Chengjun’s involvement in Yun’s rebellion. When his response seemed disrespectful, Taizu had Rong struck on the head with an iron cudgel. “Alas, I have found the right occasion to die,” Rong shouted as blood covered his face. Taizu looked to attendants, admitting, “This is a truly loyal subject.” Rong was released, provided the best of medicine for his wounds, and directed to write Chengjun a letter requesting the return of Zhou Guangxun and cohort in exchange for his own return to Taiyuan. Chengjun did not respond, and Rong remained in the capital. Turning to Zhao Hua, Chengjun admitted, “I was nearly ruined for not heeding your counsel, but my only regret is the loss of Wei Rong and Lu Zan.”
Liu Chengjun came increasingly to value Confucians, and in consequence, appointed the recluse of Baofu Mountain, Guo Wuwei, as consultant on government affairs. This native to Dizhou had a square forehead and nose resembling a bird’s beak. Fond of learning and well informed, Wuwei was a gifted rhetorician. He later donned coarse clothing to enter the Daoist priesthood, residing in the Wudang Mountains. The future Taizu of Zhou was in the throes of the Li Shouzhen suppression in Hezhong when Wuwei appeared at the portals to his barracks to visit. Taizu consulted him about affairs of the day and deemed him a rare talent. Someone remarked to Taizu, however, “For a senior officer of Han like yourself commanding vast armies away from court, such receptions of wandering scholars is not the most discreetly subtle and farsighted approach.” Taizu thus opted against recruiting Wuwei, and he departed for reclusion in the Baofu Mountains. A military commissioner for Chengjun’s inner palace, Duan Chang, knew of Wuwei and praised his talents. Chengjun now summoned Wuwei to serve as master of admonitions and eventually chief minister. In the fifth year [C.E. 961], the palace uncovered a conspiracy to mutiny led by column leaders of the Palace Guard: Wang Yin, Liu Shao, and Zhao Luan. The conspirators were executed, and their confessions further implicated Duan Chang, who was demoted from military commissioner to prefect of Fenzhou, later to be murdered by hanging.
Since the times of Liu Min, affairs of the Han court invariably required written authorization from the Khitan, although Chengjun often slighted such procedures upon assuming power. The Khitan dispatched an emissary to censure him for ignoring consultations concerning the change in reign, relief for Li Yun, and Duan Chang’s murder. The reproof left Chengjun flustered, and he issued a formal apology for his misdeeds. The Khitan inexplicably detained the envoy, causing Chengjun to serve them with heightened deference even as their contempt for him grew. In the wake of Li Yun’s defeat and the loss of Khitan support, Chengjun grew uninterested in invading the south. Meanwhile, his kingdom’s resources dwindled daily owing to his land’s stunted size and meager manufactures, plus the flow of annual payments to the Khitan. The Buddhist monk Jiyong of Wutai Mountain was named master of state ceremonies.
The son of Liu Shouguang, the former Prince of Yan, Liu Jiyong was spared death along with him because his mother had been a mere concubine. He later accepted tonsure as a Buddhist cleric to reside in the Wutai Mountains. The Han had relied on Jiyong, a man of versatility who excelled at trade and finance, since the times of Liu Min. Jiyong could lecture so deftly on the Huayan Sutra that accumulated donations from the four corners often served to subsidize the state. With Wutai located inside the Khitan domain, Jiyong often obtained Khitan horses—several hundred a year—for transfer to the Han as “cavalry supplement for the capital.” He also established a silver refinery at Bai Canyon, conscripting commoners to harvest ore from nearby mountains to smelt silver for the government. The Liu ruling house depended on him to meet its needs and established the Baoxing command at the foundry site. Jiyong later held a succession of official posts culminating in grand preceptor and palace secretary. Dying of old age, he was posthumously invested Prince of Ding.
Emperor Taizu of Song once conveyed a message to Liu Chengjun through a spy in the north: “Your family feud with the Zhou dynasty having lasted generations, refusing to submit to its sovereignty seemed wholly fitting. Today, in the absence of rifts between you and me, why continue to impose such hardship on your own people? If you have designs on the Middle Kingdom, you should descend the Taihang Mountains to settle matters in a showdown!” Chengjun had the spy return with the response, “The territories and troops of the Hedong region do not even constitute one-tenth of those in the Middle Kingdom, while my royal house has never engaged in treachery. I defend this small land for fear that no one will offer rites to the Han gods.” Sobered by his words, Taizu broke with a smile and said to the spy, “By speaking to Chengjun for me, you have opened a channel to life.” He applied no further military pressure on the Han for the rest of his reign. In power for thirteen years, Chengjun died of illness, and adopted son Ji’en was installed.
Liu Ji’en [r. C.E. 967–974] was originally surnamed Xue, his father Xue Zhao a foot soldier to whom Liu Min married a daughter, the two giving birth to Ji’en. Zhao being a son-in-law, Gaozu of Later Han eliminated his armies to assume personal command of them. Zhao was devoid of talents, so Gaozu fed and clothed him without ever employing him. Because his wife was Min’s daughter, she often stayed with him, and Zhao rarely saw her. This left him despondent, and, in a drunken stupor, he grabbed his hip-sword to stab her, injuring without killing her, and then killed himself. The daughter of Min later married into the He family and gave birth to Jiyuan. After Min’s daughter and her husband had both died, Min instructed son Chengjun to adopt the two boys as sons, as he personally had none.
Upon the installation of Chengjun, Liu Ji’en became metropolitan custodian of Taiyuan. Chenjun once commented to Wuwei, “Ji’en is pure and filial in character, but lacks the skills to save the age and is unfit to assume family affairs, I fear.” Wuwei did not respond. Later, as Chengjun lay bedridden in the Qinzheng chambers, he summoned Wuwei and clasped his hand in entrusting future decisions to him.
Ji’en deferred his own installation, following Chengjun’s death, until the Khitan could be informed of the mourning underway. Presiding over affairs wearing the coarse skirt of mourning, he insisted on spending day and night in the Qinzheng chambers. But the former civil officials and bodyguard of Chengjun all remained at the Taiyuan prefectural offices. Summoning high officials and imperial clansmen for a banquet, in the ninth month, Ji’en returned to his Qinzheng chambers to rest after finishing drinks. That night, palace services officer Hou Barong led more than ten men with daggers into the chamber to slay him behind closed doors. Other men under Guo Wuwei’s direction now infiltrated the room by ladder to murder Barong, his confederates perishing as well.
Earlier, during Chengjun’s deathbed conversation with Guo Wuwei, Wuwei’s lack of endorsement for Ji’en had incurred his resentment. Once in power, Ji’en wished to purge Wuwei but found no occasion. Everyone therefore considered Wuwei to have instigated the mutiny of Barong and killed him to seal his lips and protect the secret. Wuwei now invited Jiyuan to succeed him.
Liu Jiyuan [r. C.E. 974–979] was a vicious man. None of the over ten sons of Liu Min merit any note. During the times of Jiyuan, his uncles Hao, Kai, Qi, and Xi had all been slain by him, all but Xian, who feigned stupidity and survived. Since youth, Jiyuan and his brother had both treated Chengjun’s wife, née Guo, as their mother. Woman Guo once scolded the wife of Jiyuan, Woman Duan, for some minor misdeed. Soon, Duan died of some illness and Jiyuan suspected Guo of murdering her. After formal installation, he arranged for favorite Fan Chao to assassinate Woman Guo: she was in mourning attire and weeping before Chengjun’s coffin when Chao strangled her to death. The sons and grandsons of the Liu house hereafter had no survivors.
The reign was changed to Guangyun after Jiyuan’s installation [C.E. 974]. As imperial troops of Song campaigned against the north, Jiyuan sealed off Taiyuan in defiance. Emperor Taizu, by formal edict, invited him to emerge and surrender, offering the Pinglu governorship to him and the Anguo command to Guo Wuwei. Wuwei’s face changed color as he held the edict, but the military at Bing [Taiyuan] Prefecture and close aides to Jiyuan all insisted on defying the Song mandate with a staunch defense. Looking to the heavens, Wuwei wept bitterly as he drew a hip-sword, intending to kill himself, only to be restrained by attendants. Jiyuan lowered himself to clasp Wuwei’s hand and invite him to sit down. “How can this isolated city,” Wuwei queried, “resist a royal army of a million men?” His words were intended to jar the Bingzhou leadership, but served only to heighten their resolve. The eunuch Wei Degui managed to uncover evidence of treachery on the part of Wuwei and informed Jiyuan, who sent someone to strangle him to death.
Previously, Emperor Taizu of Song had waters from the Fen River diverted to flood the city. The waters seeped in through gates along the wall, but piles of hay within the city were thrown over the wall to obstruct the water. This coincided with summer rains, as imperial troops quartered in fields of tall weeds contracted assorted contagious diseases, inducing Taizu to withdraw his men. Once imperial armies had departed, Jiyuan could divert the water outside the city walls to Taitai Post, the subsiding waters revealing a city largely ravaged. A visitor currently at Taiyuan, Khitan envoy Han Zhifan, commented with a sigh, “When imperial troops diverted waters to flood the city, they demonstrated knowledge of the first step, but not the second. Had they flooded the city first and drained it later, they could have annihilated Bingzhou defenders.”
Imperial troops resumed their campaign against the north in the fourth year of Taiping-Xingguo [C.E. 979]. Jiyuan’s energy and morale were low, but the military leadership at Bingzhou preferred defiance. His deputy commissioner of military affairs, Ma Feng, who had been confined to home owing to illnesses of old age, proceeded on a stretcher to meet Jiyuan and make a tearful presentation on the rise and fall of dynasties, swaying him to surrender. Emperor Taizong accepted the surrender at an elevated pavilion to the north of the city, conferring honors on Jiyuan as generalissimo of the Right Guard and Duke of Pengcheng. For later events, see the “national histories.”i
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