Li Na (Tang Dynasty)

Li Na (李納) (758 – June 13, 792), formally the Prince of Longxi (隴西王), was a general of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. Inheriting the post from his father Li Zhengji, he served as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong) semi-independently from the imperial government.

Li Na was born in 758, during the reign of Emperor Suzong. His father Li Huaiyu, who was of Goguryeo extraction, was then serving as a military officer at Pinglu Circuit (then headquartered in modern Chaoyang, Liaoning) under Li Huaiyu's cousin Hou Xiyi (侯希逸), who was the acting military governor of the circuit at that time. By 761, however, the Pinglu army, which was cut off from the rest of the Tang realm by the rebel state of Yan at that time and had to further fend off not only Yan forces, but forces of Khitan and Xi tribes, could no longer stand, and they abandoned Pinglu Circuit and fought their way south. In 762, Emperor Suzong's son and successor Emperor Daizong made Hou the military governor of Ziqing Circuit (淄青, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) as well, and the names of Ziqing and Pinglu merged. In 765, the soldiers overthrew Hou because he was overburdening them with labor, and they supported Li Huaiyu as his successor. Emperor Daizong agreed and made Li Huaiyu military governor, changing his name to Li Zhengji. Li Zhengji proceeded to, despite nominally submitting to imperial authority, rule Pinglu effectively as a semi-independent realm.

In Li Na's youth, Li Zhengji had put him in command of an army to aid in the seasonal defense of Tang's western border with Tufan, and Li Na, as part of this deployment, was at Chang'an to pay homage to Emperor Daizong. Emperor Daizong met him and gave him a number of honors. Later, after that deployment was over, Li Zhengji made him the prefect of Zi Prefecture (淄州, in modern Zibo, Shandong). During Li Zhengji's imperially-sanctioned campaign against Tian Chengsi, the military governor of Weibo Circuit (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei) in 775, Li Na served as acting military governor in Li Zhengji's absence from Pinglu. Later, after a campaign against another rebellious military governor, Li Lingyao (李靈曜), Li Zhengji took five prefectures from Li Lingyao's Biansong Circuit (汴宋, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) and merged them into Pinglu Circuit. He then moved the headquarters of Pinglu from Qing Prefecture (青州) to one of the Biansong prefectures that he took, Yun Prefecture (鄆州, in modern Tai'an, Shandong), and made Li Na the prefect of Qing Prefecture, in charge of the old headquarters.

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