Li Quanzhong () (d. 886) was a warlord late in the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

dynasty

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, who controlled Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

) from 885, when he overthrew the prior military governor (''

Jiedushi The ''jiedushi'' (), or jiedu, was a title for regional military governors in China which was established in the Tang dynasty and abolished in the Yuan dynasty. The post of ''jiedushi'' has been translated as "military commissioner", "legate", ...

'')

Li Keju Li Keju (李可舉; died 885 CE) was a warlord late in the Chinese dynasty Tang dynasty, who controlled Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) from 876 to 885. Background It is not known when Li Keju was born. His father Li M ...

, to his death in 886. His sons

Li Kuangwei Li Kuangwei () (d. 893) was a warlord late in the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, who controlled Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) after inherited it from his father Li Quanzhong in 886, until he was overthrown by his brother Li ...

and

Li Kuangchou Li, li, or LI may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Landscape Institute, a British professional body for landscape architects * Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia, US, that teaches "political tec ...

successively served as military governors after he died.

Background

It is not known when Li Quanzhong was born, but it is known that he was from Lulong Circuit's capital Fanyang (). During Emperor Xizong's ''Guangming'' era (880-881), he served as the military advisor to the prefect of Di Prefecture (棣州, in modern

Binzhou Binzhou (, ), formerly Putai, is a prefecture-level city in northern Shandong Province in the People's Republic of China. The city proper sits on the northern bank of the Yellow River, while its administrative area straddles both sides of its ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

). After that term, he returned to Lulong and served under the military governor

.''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

'', vol. 180.

Seizure of Lulong

In spring 885, Li Keju and his ally Wang Rong the military governor of Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang (; ; Mandarin: ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijin ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

), were apprehensive that

Wang Chucun Wang Chucun () (831–895) was a general of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, who controlled Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) in late Tang. He was one of the main contributors in Tang's eventual defeat of the agrarian ...

the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern

Baoding Baoding (), formerly known as Baozhou and Qingyuan, is a prefecture-level city in central Hebei province, approximately southwest of Beijing. As of the 2010 census, Baoding City had 11,194,382 inhabitants out of which 2,176,857 lived in the b ...

), was allied with the powerful warlord

Li Keyong Li Keyong () (October 24, 856 – February 24, 908) was a Chinese military general and politician of Shatuo ethnicity, and from January 896 a Prince of Jin (, ''Jin Wang''), which would become an independent state after the fall of the Tang dyn ...

the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern

Taiyuan Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

), as they feared that Li Keyong would eventually have designs on their territory. They therefore entered into a pact to jointly attack Yiwu (which lay between Lulong and Chengde), conquer it, and divide its territory.''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

'', vol. 256. To that end, Li Keju had Li Quanzhong take 60,000 soldiers and attack Yiwu's Yi Prefecture (易州, in modern Baoding). Li Quanzhong's subordinate

Liu Rengong Liu Rengong () (died 914) was a warlord late in the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty who controlled Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) from 895 (when his one-time lord Li Keyong conquered Lulong and left him in charge of it) to 907 ...

dug a tunnel into Yi Prefecture's city walls, and the Lulong troops were able to use the tunnel to capture it. However, after the Lulong troops took Yi Prefecture, they became arrogant and did not take precautions against an Yiwu counterattack. Wang Chucun thereafter had his soldiers put on sheepskin at night to appear to be sheep and approached Yi. The Lulong troops thought that there was a large herd for them to pillage, and therefore came out of the city to seize it. They were surprised by the Yiwu soldiers, who attacked and retook Yi. Li Quanzhong, after the defeat, fled back toward You Prefecture (幽州, i.e., Fanyang). Fearing that Li Keju would punish him for the defeat, Li Quanzhong decided to instead attack You Prefecture. He caught Li Keju by surprise, and Li Keju, despondent over the situation, committed suicide with his family by climbing up a tower and setting fire to it. Li Quanzhong took over the circuit and claimed the title of acting military governor; this act was then confirmed by the imperial government.

Brief rule

In spring 886, Emperor Xizong officially commissioned Li Quanzhong as the military governor of Lulong. Li Quanzhong died in fall 886, and the imperial government then commissioned his son

as acting military governor, and later full military governor.

Notes and references

* ''

'', vol. 180. * ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', vol. 212. * ''

'', vol. 256. {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Quanzhong 9th-century births 886 deaths Tang dynasty politicians from Beijing Tang dynasty jiedushi of Lulong Circuit Tang dynasty generals from Beijing