Gaozu of Later Han
| Liu Zhiyuan | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||||||
| Reign | March 10, 947 – March 10, 948 | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | March 4, 895 | ||||||||||||||||
| Died | March 10, 948 | ||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Later Han | ||||||||||||||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Era dates | |
| Tiānfú (天福) (adopted from Shi Jingtang (Emperor Gaozu of Later Jin) 947 Qiányòu (乾祐) 948 |
|
| Posthumous name | |
| Emperor Rùìwén Shèngwǔ Zhāosù Xiào (睿文聖武昭肅孝皇帝) (full) | |
| Temple name | |
| Gāozǔ (高祖) |
Liu Zhiyuan (劉知遠) (March 4, 895 – March 10, 948), later changed to Liu Gao (劉暠), formally Emperor Gaozu of (Later) Han ((後)漢高祖), was the ethnically-Shatuo founder of the Later Han, the fourth of the Five Dynasties in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It, if the subsequent Northern Han is not considered part of its history, was also one of the shortest-lived states in Chinese history, lasting only three years.
Liu Zhiyuan was born in 895, during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, at Taiyuan. His ancestors were of Shatuo extraction. His father Liu Dian (劉琠) served as an officer under the major late-Tang warlord Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered at Taiyuan). His mother was a Lady An, likely Liu Dian's wife. He had at least one other brother of the same father (and possibly of the same mother), Liu Chong. Lady An — likely after Liu Dian's death — bore a son to a man with the surname of Murong. This half-brother of Liu Zhiyuan's was named Murong Yanchao. Liu Zhiyuan was said to be serious in his disposition as a young man. He became a guard soldier for Li Keyong's adoptive son Li Siyuan.
In 907, Li Keyong's rival Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), who then had the Tang imperial court under his control, seized the throne from Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai, ending Tang and starting a new dynasty known as Later Liang. Li Keyong and several other warlords refused to recognize him as the new emperor, and Li Keyong, from that on, became effectively the ruler of an independent state of Jin, which, under him and his son and successor Li Cunxu, engaged in numerous wars with Later Liang. In 919, there was a battle at Desheng (德勝, in modern Puyang, Henan), a fortress on the Yellow River that Li Cunxu was trying to enlarge. During the battle, Li Siyuan's son-in-law Shi Jingtang, who served as one of the commanders under him, was stricken by a Later Liang soldier, and his horse's armor was broken. Liu Zhiyuan, who was near Shi at that time, gave Shi his own armored horse, while taking Shi's horse and moving gradually, such that the Later Liang soldiers in pursuit believed that he was leading them into a trap, and broke off the pursuit. From this point on, he became close to Shi.
...
Wikipedia