Wang Yanbing

Wang Yanbing (王延稟) (d. 931), né Zhou Yanchen (周彥琛), formally Prince Weisu of Wuping (武平威肅王), was an adoptive son of Wang Shenzhi (commonly considered the founding ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Min). After Wang Shenzhi's death and succession by Wang Shenzhi's biological son Wang Yanhan, Wang Yanbing, jointly with another biological son of Wang Shenzhi's, Wang Yanjun, overthrew Wang Yanhan to allow Wang Yanjun to rule Min. However, he later developed a rivalry with Wang Yanjun and tried to overthrow Wang Yanjun. His army was defeated by Wang Yanjun's, and he was captured and executed.

It is not known when Wang Yanbing was born. It is also not known what his birth family's background was, other than that he was originally named Zhou Yanchen, or how and when he came to become an adoptive son of Wang Shenzhi's. One of his eyes was deformed or injured, such that he became known by a nickname of "single-eyed dragon" (獨眼龍). In 918, when Wang Shenzhi had already assumed the title of the Prince of Min as a vassal of Later Liang, Wang Yanbing was initially provisionally put in charge of the governance of Jian Prefecture (建州, in modern Nanping, Fujian), and later officially made its prefect.

Wang Shenzhi died in 925. His biological son Wang Yanhan took over the realm and, in 926, declared himself the King of Min, effectively declaring independence from Later Liang's successor state Later Tang. It was said that he did not value his relationships with brothers and, shortly after taking over from Wang Shenzhi, sent a younger brother, Wang Yanjun, out of the capital Fu Prefecture (福州, in modern Fuzhou, Fujian) to be the prefect of Quan Prefecture (泉州, in modern Quanzhou, Fujian). He subsequently issued orders to both Wang Yanjun and Wang Yanbing, ordering them to find beautiful women to serve in his palace. Both Wang Yanjun and Wang Yanbing wrote back in rebuke, thus causing tension between them and him. Around the new year 927, Wang Yanjun and Wang Yanbing decided to jointly attack him. Heading down the Min River from Jian, Wang Yanbing reached Fu first, and defeated Wang Yanhan's general Chen Tao (陳陶). Chen committed suicide, and the city fell. Claiming that Wang Yanhan and his wife Lady Cui had murdered Wang Shenzhi by poison, he had Wang Yanhan publicly executed. Wang Yanjun arrived the next day, and Wang Yanbing welcomed him into the city and supported him as the acting military governor of Weiwu Circuit (威武, headquartered at Fu Prefecture, i.e., the Min realm). (Thus, de jure, Min thus stopped being independent by this point and reverted to be a vassal of Later Tang, but was still de facto independent.)

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