Li Yan (Wu)

Li Yan (李儼) (died 918), né Zhang Xiu (張休) and later Zhang Bo (張播), was an emissary that Emperor Zhaozong of Tang sent to the warlord Yang Xingmi the military governor (Jiedushi) of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu) in 902, who would remain at Huainan Circuit as the Tang emperor's representative even after Tang's eventual destruction in 907. He would be the one who formally bestowed Yang Xingmi's sons and successors Yang Wo and Yang Longyan with their formal titles on behalf of the Tang emperor during the initial years of the Yang family-ruled state of Wu (also known as Hongnong). In 918, after the general Zhu Jin assassinated Xu Zhixun the son of Wu's regent Xu Wen, Xu Wen believed that Li was complicit in Zhu's plot and put him to death.

It is not known when Li Yan was born. He was originally named Zhang Xiu, and later also became known as Zhang Bo, and was a younger, if not youngest, son of the chancellor Zhang Jun. Because of his heritage, he came to serve in the imperial government during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong, initially serving as a copyeditor (校書郎, Xiaoshulang) at the Palace Library, eventually becoming a general of the imperial guards.

As of 902, Emperor Zhaozong was at Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), having been forcibly taken there by the powerful eunuchs, led by Han Quanhui, as the eunuchs feared a general slaughter by Emperor Zhaozong and the chancellor Cui Yin. (Fengxiang was then under the rule of the eunuch's ally Li Maozhen.) Cui summoned his ally, the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) to put Fengxiang's capital Fengxiang Municipality under siege. In 902, Emperor Zhaozong, perhaps at the eunuchs' behest, gave Zhang Bo the imperial clan surname of Li and the new name of Yan, sending Li Yan as his personal representative to Huainan Circuit to commission its military governor Yang Xingmi as the supreme commander of the southeastern circuits, honorary chancellor title of Zhongshu Ling (中書令), and the Prince of Wu and ordering him to organize a major attack on Zhu's territory. The bestowment also granted Yang permission to exercise imperial powers in the emperor's absence. Part of Li Yan's mission was also to bestow various honors on Yang's subordinates Zhu Jin and Zhu Yanshou, as well as on the independent warlords Feng Hongduo (then ruling the Shangyuan (上元, in modern Nanjing, Jiangsu) region) and Ma Yin (then the military governor of Wu'an Circuit (武安, headquartered in modern Changsha, Hunan), apparently hoping that Feng and Ma would join Yang's attack on Zhu. (Feng and Ma, however, did not, although Feng would soon be defeated, and his territory absorbed into that of, Yang's subordinate Tian Jun the military governor of Ningguo Circuit (寧國, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui).) Yang did launch an attack on Zhu later in 902, but, running into food supply issues, withdrew shortly after. It was said that, after Li Yan bestowed on him the imperial authorities, Yang, while establishing an office to issue edicts on the emperor's behalf, would nevertheless inform Li Yan and present the proposed edicts to a statute of Emperor Zhaozong's ancestor Emperor Xuanzong before issuing them.

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