Li Congyi

Li Congyi (李從益) (931 – June 23, 947), known as the Prince of Xu (許王), was an imperial prince of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang. He was the youngest son of its second emperor Li Siyuan (Emperor Mingzong). In the confusion of the destruction of Later Tang's successor state Later Jin, he was forced into claiming imperial title by Xiao Han, a general of the Khitan Liao Dynasty (whose forces had destroyed Later Jin), and was subsequently killed by Liu Zhiyuan, the founder of the succeeding Later Han.

Li Congyi was born in 931. He was Li Siyuan's youngest son, and the only one born after he became emperor. His biological mother was a concubine of Li Siyuan's, but nothing further is known in history about her identity. Li Siyuan gave Li Congyi to his favorite concubine, Consort Wang, to raise. (Similarly, Consort Wang raised Li Congyi's younger sister, the later Princess Yong'an.)

In 933, Li Siyuan created Li Congyi the Prince of Xu, at the same time that he created his adoptive son Li Congke and nephews Li Congwen (李從溫), Li Congzhang (李從璋), and Li Congmin (李從敏) princes. (He already created his older biological sons Li Congrong and Li Conghou princes in 930, before Li Congyi's birth.)

Later in 933, Li Congrong tried to seize power in Li Siyuan's illness, but was defeated and killed. When Li Siyuan died shortly after, Li Conghou succeeded to the throne. Subsequently, Li Congyi's wet nurse Lady Wang was exposed to have had an affair with Li Congrong and put to death. Because of this, Li Conghou also suspected Li Congyi's adoptive mother Consort Wang, but did not take further actions against her.

In 934, Li Conghou was overthrown by Li Congke, who took the throne. In 936, Shi Jingtang — who had married Li Congyi's (and Li Congke's) sister the Princess of Jin and therefore was a brother-in-law — in turn, rebelled against Li Congke, initially declaring that as an adoptive son, Li Congke was unfit for the throne and should pass it to Li Congyi, but shortly after, with the support of the Khitan Liao Dynasty's Emperor Taizong, declared himself emperor of a new Later Jin, and attacked south toward the Later Tang capital Luoyang from his power base in Taiyuan after the joint Liao/Later Jin forces defeated the Later Tang forces Li Congke sent against him. The situation at Luoyang appeared hopeless, and Li Congke prepared for a mass suicide of his family members by fire. Li Congyi's mother Consort Wang (who then carried the title of consort dowager) tried to persuade Li Siyuan's wife, Empress Dowager Cao, who was the birth mother of the Princess of Jin, not to join in the mass suicide, but was unable to persuade the empress dowager. The empress dowager, however, urged her to live on, and so she took Li Congyi and Princess Yong'an, and hid in a polo field, while Empress Dowager Cao, Li Congke, Li Congke's immediate family members, and a number of officers loyal to him committed suicide by fire. Shi arrived at Luoyang shortly after and took over the realm.

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