60 Facts About Li Cunxu

Li Cunxu was the son of Li Keyong, an ethnic Shatuo Jiedushi of the Tang dynasty.

Li Cunxu was considered one of the most militarily capable rulers of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

Li Cunxu carefully rebuilt the Former Jin state, using a series of conquests and alliances to take over most of the territory north of the Yellow River, before starting a lengthy campaign against Later Liang.

Li Cunxu conquered the Later Liang dynasty in 923 and proclaimed himself emperor of the Later Tang, which he referred to as the "Restored Tang".

Li Cunxu himself lived only three years after the founding of the dynasty, having been killed during an officer's rebellion led by Guo Congqian in 926.

Li Cunxu was succeeded by his adoptive brother Li Siyuan.

Li Cunxu's father was the late-Tang dynasty major warlord Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit.

Li Cunxu was said to understand music, and often sang or danced before his father.

Li Cunxu had a rudimentary understanding of the Spring and Autumn Annals.

Li Cunxu was said to be intelligent, brave, and alert even in his youth.

Li Cunxu pointed out that Zhu had become so strong at that point that nearly all of the other warlords had submitted to him as vassals, and that Hedong and Lulong were two of the few remaining holdouts.

Li Cunxu advocated aiding Liu to stop Zhu's expansion, while at time helping Li Keyong gain a reputation for magnanimity.

Li Cunxu claimed to be the proper ruler for all of the former Tang realm, but Li Keyong, as well as Li Maozhen, Yang Wo the military governor of Huainan Circuit, and Wang Jian the military governor of Xichuan Circuit, refused to recognize him as emperor, effectively becoming sovereigns of their own realms.

Li Cunxu then died and was succeeded as the Prince of Jin by Li Cunxu.

Under Li Kening's and Zhang Chengye's insistence, Li Cunxu took the titles of Prince of Jin and military governor of Hedong.

Lady Meng agreed with their idea, and therefore urged Li Kening to go with the idea, causing Li Kening's resolve to support Li Cunxu to be shaken.

Li Cunxu thereafter killed an officer, Li Cunzhi, without Li Cunxu's approval, and requested to be made the military governor of Datong Circuit.

Li Cunxu met with Lady Dowager Cao and Zhang and initially offered to resign to try to avoid a conflict, but Zhang persuaded him to act against Li Kening.

At the feast, soldiers that Li Cunxu had previously hidden seized Li Kening and Li Cunhao, and then executed them.

Li Cunxu decided to lead the army himself to try to lift the siege.

Li Cunxu thereafter instituted policies that, during the next several years, gradually let Jin regain its strength from the nadir late in the Li Keyong years.

Li Cunxu ordered the prefectures and counties to recommend people who were good and talented; he deposed the greedy and the cruel, relaxed the tax burden, comforted the weak and the poor, corrected injustice and excesses, such that the realm became well-governed.

Li Cunxu trusted Zhang Chengye greatly, honoring him as an older brother.

For some time thereafter, Li Cunxu did not wage major campaigns, although he did involve himself in the war between Liu Shouwen and his younger brother Liu Shouguang by aiding Liu Shouguang, after Liu Shouguang had overthrown Liu Rengong and taken over Lulong Circuit.

Liu Shouguang refused, but Li Cunxu launched armies commanded by Zhou and later, himself.

When Wang Chuzhi sought aid, Li Cunxu sent Zhou to rendezvous with the Zhao and Yiwu armies, to jointly attack Yan.

When Zhu Yougui subsequently sent the general Kang Huaizhen to attack Zhu Youqian, Li Cunxu went to Zhu Youqian's aid and repelled Kang's attack, forcing Kang to withdraw.

Liu, desperate, claimed that if Li Cunxu himself came to You, he would surrender.

When Li Cunxu arrived he did not do so, despite Li Cunxu's assurance that his life would be spared if he surrendered.

Li Cunxu took him and his family, including his father Liu Rengong back to Taiyuan, and then executed them there.

Li Cunxu commissioned Zhou as the military governor of Lulong and added Yan territory to his own.

When Zhu refused to meet Zhang Yan's demands that the division be cancelled, Zhang Yan forced He Delun to write Li Cunxu, offering to surrender Tianxiong to him.

Li Cunxu subsequently arrived at Tianxiong and, after killing Zhang Yan for his violent behavior, assumed the military governorship of Tianxiong himself and incorporated into Jin.

In winter 917, Li Cunxu, believing that he was in shape to destroy Later Liang once and for all, gathered all of his major generals, preparing to cross the then-frozen Yellow River and attack Later Liang's capital Daliang.

Li Cunxu greatly trusted the eunuch Shi Ximeng, who encouraged him in such tendencies.

However, Zhang himself was apprehensive of how Li Cunxu viewed him, and therefore made overtures to both Later Liang's emperor Zhu Zhen, and Khitan's Emperor Taizu.

Li Cunxu put Wang Chuzhi and Wang Chuzhi's wife under house arrest, while slaughtering Wang Chuzhi's descendants at Yiwu's capital Ding Prefecture.

Li Cunxu commissioned him as the acting military governor of Yiwu, thus effectively turning Yiwu into a vassal.

Li Cunxu, leaving his generals to besiege Zhen Prefecture, personally led an army to confront the Khitan army.

Li Cunxu defeated the Khitan army, forcing Emperor Taizu's withdrawal and leaving the Chengde mutineers without outside allies.

Li Cunxu subsequently commissioned Li Cunshen to attack the Chengde mutineers, and Zhen fell to him.

Li Cunxu killed Zhang Chujin and his brothers, and incorporated Chengde into his territory.

Thereafter, Li Sizhao's son Li Jitao seized power at Zhaoyi, and Li Cunxu, not wanting to create another disturbance, changed the name of the circuit to Anyi and commissioned Li Jitao as the acting military governor.

However, subsequently, fearing that Li Cunxu would act against him, particularly when Li Cunxu recalled the eunuch monitor Zhang Juhan and the secretary general Ren Huan to his provisional imperial government, Li Jitao submitted Anyi to Later Liang.

Li Cunxu renamed Wei to Xingtang Municipality and made it his temporary capital.

Li Cunxu believed that this was an opportunity to change the tide of the war, and put Li Siyuan, who supported the plan, in charge of an army to launch a surprise attack on Tianping's capital Yun Prefecture.

Li Cunxu decided to take the risky move himself, and advanced to Yun to join forces with Li Siyuan, and then engage Wang and Zhang Hanjie.

Li Cunxu defeated them, capturing both Wang and Zhang Hanjie at Zhongdu, and then headed directly toward the defenseless Daliang.

Li Cunxu ordered his general Huangfu Lin to kill him; Huangfu did, and then committed suicide himself.

Li Cunxu subsequently entered Daliang and claimed all of Later Liang territory.

Li Cunxu accepted Li Maozhen's submission and created him as the Prince of Qin.

However, despite being a capable general, Li Cunxu was not capable at governance.

Li Cunxu alienated his army by trusting performers and eunuchs, such that he made three performers prefectural prefects, while soldiers who had followed him for hundreds of battles were not similarly rewarded.

Meanwhile, Li Cunxu planned to conquer Former Shu and, in late 925, put his plans into action.

Li Cunxu commissioned his oldest son with Empress Liu, Li Jiji, as the titular commander of the operations, but put his chief of staff, Guo Chongtao, in actual command of the operations as Li Jiji's deputy.

Li Cunxu was unwilling to act against Guo without further proof.

Subsequently, with the eunuchs and performers accusing the major general Li Jilin of having plotted rebellion with Guo, Li Cunxu killed Li Jilin and his family members as well.

When Li Cunxu subsequently sent Li Siyuan to take over the operations, Li Siyuan's own soldiers mutinied and forced him to join the Yedu mutineers.

Li Siyuan tried to send messengers to Li Cunxu to explain he had not intended to rebel, but his messengers were intercepted by Li Shaorong.

Li Cunxu suffered an arrow wound in the battle and shortly after died from it.