Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang (), personal name Li Cunxu (), nickname Yazi (), stage name Li Tianxia (), was the second ruling prince of the Former Jin dynasty (r. 908–923) who later became the founding emperor of the Later Tang dynasty (r. 923–926) during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of Chinese history.Cihai: Page 1266. He 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. When he succeeded his father Li Keyong as the Prince of Jin, the Former Jin had been weakened in the late years of Li Keyong's rule and not considered capable of posing a military threat to its archrival to the south, Later Liang, whose founding emperor Zhu Quanzhong had seized the Tang throne. 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". As a part of "restoring Tang", the capital was moved back to the old Tang eastern capital of Luoyang. As with all of the other dynasties of the Five Dynasties, Later Tang was a short-lived regime lasting only thirteen years. 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. He was succeeded by his adoptive brother Li Siyuan (Emperor Mingzong).
Background Li Cunxu was born in 885, at Jinyang (i.e., Taiyuan), during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. His father was the late-Tang dynasty major warlord Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). His mother was Li Keyong's concubine Lady Cao. He was Li Keyong's oldest biological son.
In 895, when Li Keyong was on an (eventually successful) campaign against the warlords Wang Xingyu the military governor of Jingnan Circuit (靜難, headquartered in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), Li Maozhen the military governor of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), and Han Jian the military governor of Zhenguo Circuit (鎮國, headquartered in modern Weinan, Shaanxi)—who, earlier, had entered the capital Chang'an and executed the chancellors Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi over Emperor Zhaozong's objections—Li Keyong sent Li Cunxu to pay homage to the emperor.
Emperor Zhaozong, upon seeing Li Cunxu's appearance, caressed him and stated, "You, son, will be a pillar for the state. Please be faithful to the imperial house."Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 260. After Li Keyong defeated the three warlords (killing Wang and forcing Li Maozhen and Han to nominally resubmit to the emperor), Li Cunxu was given the honorific title of acting Sikong () and made the prefect of Xi Prefecture (隰州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi), and later successively the prefect of Fen () and Jin () Prefectures (both in modern Linfen), but as he did not report to those prefectures, the titles were honorary. He was said to understand music, and often sang or danced before his father. He had a rudimentary understanding of the Spring and Autumn Annals. When he grew older, he became capable at riding and archery.
Li Cunxu was said to be intelligent, brave, and alert even in his youth. In or around 902, seeing his father's distress at years of losses against archrival Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), he pointed out that his father's public display of distress would merely distress the troops and the people as well, and that it was better to lie low and wait for Zhu to make a mistake before trying to react, allowing the troops and the people to rest for the time. He also spoke to Li Keyong about what he saw as the issue of the ethnically Shatuo soldiers pillaging the civilian populace—although Li Keyong was unwilling to curb the soldiers' behaviors at that time, pointing out that if he did, the soldiers might scatter and be unable to be gathered again.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 263.
In 906, Zhu was on campaign against another major warlord, Liu Rengong the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing), and he put Liu Rengong's son Liu Shouwen the military governor of Yichang Circuit (義昌, headquartered in modern Cangzhou, Hebei) under siege at Yichang's capital Cang Prefecture (). Liu Rengong sought aid from Li Keyong—whom he had previously rebelled against and thereafter became independent from. Li Keyong, bearing that grudge, initially refused to aid Liu. 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.
He advocated aiding Liu to stop Zhu's expansion, while at time helping Li Keyong gain a reputation for magnanimity. Under Li Cunxu's advocacy, Li Keyong agreed, and requested Liu send troops to him to jointly attack Zhu's possession Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi) to open a second front. Liu did so. Subsequent, when Li Keyong attacked Zhaoyi's capital Lu Prefecture (), Zhaoyi's military governor Ding Hui, who had secretly resented Zhu for having killed Emperor Zhaozong in 904, surrendered Zhaoyi to Li Keyong, forcing Zhu to abandon his campaign against Liu.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 265.
In 907, Zhu had Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai yield the throne to him, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang as its emperor. He 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 (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), and Wang Jian the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan), refused to recognize him as emperor, effectively becoming sovereigns of their own realms (Jin, Qi, Hongnong, and Former Shu, respectively). Zhu thereafter sent his general Kang Huaizhen () to put Li Cunxu's adoptive cousin Li Sizhao, whom Li Keyong had made the military governor of Zhaoyi, under siege at Lu. Kang built walls and trenches around Lu to cut off communications with the outside, and subsequent relief forces that Li Keyong sent under Zhou Dewei's command, while having some minor successes against Later Liang forces, were unable to lift the siege. By spring 908, Li Keyong had fallen seriously ill. He entrusted Li Cunxu, whom he designated as his heir, to his brother Li Kening, the eunuch monitor Zhang Chengye, Li Cunxu's adoptive brother Li Cunzhang, the officer Wu Gong (), and the secretary general Lu Zhi (), while repeatedly stating to Li Cunxu that the immediate urgency after his death would be to rescue Li Sizhao. He then died and was succeeded as the Prince of Jin by Li Cunxu.
As Prince of Jin
Initial consolidation of power After Li Keyong's death, Li Kening initially took over the discipline of the army, and no one dared to create a disturbance. By contrast, the officers and the soldiers did not then respect the young (then 22) Li Cunxu, and they were constantly commenting about him. Li Cunxu, in fear, offered the command of the army to Li Kening, but Li Kening declined, pointing out that he was Li Keyong's lawful heir. Under Li Kening's and Zhang Chengye's insistence, Li Cunxu took the titles of Prince of Jin and military governor of Hedong.
Many of Li Keyong's adoptive sons who served as officers, however, were older and more accomplished militarily than Li Cunxu, and they did not respect him; many refused to meet him to pay homage, and some refused to bow to him. One of those, Li Cunhao (), tried to persuade Li Kening to take over the command himself, but Li Kening refused Li Cunhao's overture, going as far as to threaten him with execution. However, Li Cunhao and several other adoptive sons sent their wives to persuade Li Kening's wife Lady Meng. 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. Further, he was also encountering policy disagreements with Zhang and Li Cunzhang and argued with them frequently. He thereafter killed an officer, Li Cunzhi (), without Li Cunxu's approval, and also requested to be made the military governor of Datong Circuit (大同, headquartered in modern Datong, Shanxi). Li Cunxu agreed.
Despite Li Cunxu's agreement with Li Kening, the conspiracy around Li Kening continued. Li Cunhao specifically planned, with Li Kening's understanding, to seize Li Cunxu when Li Cunxu would visit Li Kening's mansion, deliver Li Cunxu and his mother Lady Dowager Cao to the Later Liang emperor, and take over Hedong Circuit. Li Kening met the officer Shi Jingrong () to try to get Shi to join the plot and to surveil Li Cunxu. Shi pretended to agree, and then informed the plot to Li Cunxu. 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. Zhang summoned Li Cunzhang, Wu Gong, as well as the officers Li Cunjing () and Zhu Shouyin to prepare against Li Kening.
On March 25, 908, Li Cunxu held a feast at his own mansion, and all the high-level officers attended. At the feast, soldiers that Li Cunxu had previously hidden seized Li Kening and Li Cunhao, and then executed them.
Meanwhile, the crisis of Lu being under siege continued. However, believing that Lu would fall by itself without aid from the outside in light of Li Keyong's death (particularly because Li Cunxu withdrew Zhou Dewei from the area back to Taiyuan for some time), Zhu Quanzhong left the siege, leaving his generals to continue the siege against Lu. Li Cunxu decided to lead the army himself to try to lift the siege. With he himself attacking the Later Liang forces from one side and Zhou from the other, the surprised Later Liang forces collapsed, ending the siege on Lu.
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. As described by the Song dynasty historian Sima Guang in the Zizhi Tongjian:
Li Cunxu also began to exercise imperial powers, in the name of the Tang emperor (even though there was no Tang emperor at that time any more)—an authority that Emperor Zhaozong had previously granted Li Keyong, but which Li Keyong never exercised. He 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,Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 267. after Liu Shouguang had overthrown Liu Rengong and taken over Lulong Circuit. (Liu Shouguang eventually captured Liu Shouwen at the Battle of Jisu, uniting Lulong and Yichang under his control.) He also jointly attacked Later Liang with Li Maozhen's Qi state after the major Later Liang general Liu Zhijun submitted to Qi.