Duan Zhengming, also known by his

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or ...

as the Emperor Baoding of Dali, was the 14th

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

of the

Dali Kingdom The Dali Kingdom, also known as the Dali State (; Bai: Dablit Guaif), was a state situated in modern Yunnan province, China from 937 until 1253. In 1253, it was conquered by the Mongols but members of its former ruling dynasty continued to a ...

. In 1081, the regent

Gao Zhisheng Gao Zhisheng (born 20 April 1964) is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and deta ...

forced Duan Zhengming's predecessor,

Duan Shouhui Duan may refer to: * Duan (surname), a Chinese surname ** Duan dynasty, the ruling dynasty of the Dali Kingdom * Duan tribe, pre-state tribe during the era of Sixteen Kingdoms in China * Duan language, spoken on the Laotian–Vietnamese border * D ...

, to abdicate and replaced him with Duan Zhengming. In 1094,

Gao Shengtai Gao Shengtai (died 1096) was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Dazhong Kingdom from 1094 until his death in 1096. He was from Cang Mountain in the present-day southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Life In 1080, Duan Lianyi, ...

, Gao Zhisheng's son, forced Duan Zhengming to relinquish the throne to him and renamed the Dali Kingdom to "Dazhong Kingdom". Gao Shengtai ruled briefly until his death in 1096, after which the throne was returned to the Duan family – Duan Zhengming's younger brother,

Duan Zhengchun Duan Zhengchun, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Zhongzong of Dali, was the 15thIf Gao Shengtai's reign is taken into consideration, Duan Zhengchun would have been the 16th emperor. Se emperor of the Dali Kingdom. He reigned from 109 ...

, became the new ruler and restored the kingdom's former name.

In fiction

Duan Zhengming is fictionalised as a minor character in the

wuxia ( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted f ...

Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils ''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised concurrently from 3 September 1963 to 27 May 1966 in the newspapers ''Ming Pao'' in Hong Kong and ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' in Singapore. It has been a ...

'' by

Louis Cha Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), pronounced "Gum Yoong" in Cantonese, was a Chinese wuxia ("martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong dail ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duan, Zhengming Dali emperors 11th-century Chinese monarchs Chinese Buddhist monarchs Monarchs who abdicated