Li Yantu (李彥圖) (died 913) was a ruler of Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern

Ganzhou Ganzhou (), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District. Hist ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

) from 912 to 913, early 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 ...

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...

. Nearly nothing is known about Li Yantu's personal background, including where or when he was born. In 912, when

Li Qiu Li Qiu (黎球) (died 911/912''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 268.) was an army officer who ruled Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi) briefly after assassinating the previously ruler Lu Yanchang in 911, early in the Chinese Five Dynasties ...

, who had seized control of Qian Prefecture after assassinating the prior ruler

Lu Yanchang Lu Yanchang (盧延昌) (died 911) was a ruler of the Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi) region early in the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He inherited his position from his father Lu Guangchou, who had ruled th ...

and subsequently was given the title of defender of Qian by

Zhu Wen Emperor Taizu of Later Liang (), personal name Zhu Quanzhong () (December 5, 852 – July 18, 912), né Zhu Wen (), name later changed to Zhu Huang (), nickname Zhu San (朱三, literally, "the third Zhu"), was a Chinese military general, mona ...

, died, Li Yantu took over by himself and apparently took the title of defender of Qian as well. (It is not clear from the extant historical records whether he received official sanction from Later Liang and/or its rival Wu, to whom Lu had previously submitted.) After Li Yantu's seizure of power, the senior officer

Tan Quanbo Tan Quanbo (譚全播) (died 918?''Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms'' (十國春秋)vol. 8/ref>''Zizhi Tongjian'', :zh:s:資治通鑑/卷270, vol. 270.) was a ruler of Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern Ganzhou, Jiangxi) from 913 to 918, ...

, a long-time strategist for Lu Yanchang's father

Lu Guangchou Lu Guangchou (盧光稠) (died 910) was a warlord late in the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty and who nominally submitted to both the succeeding Later Liang and Later Liang's rival Wu after the end of Tang, who controlled the Qian Prefecture (虔州, ...

, whom Li Qiu had considered killing, claimed to be seriously ill and retired from military service. Upon hearing of Tan's illness, Liu Yan the military governor of Qinghai Circuit (清海, headquartered in modern

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

), nominally a Later Liang vassal, attacked Shao Prefecture (韶州, in modern

Shaoguan Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province (Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch H ...

), which had been part of the domain of the Qian Prefecture rulers since Lu Guangchou's time. Liao Shuang (廖爽) the prefect of Shao, whom Lu Yanchang had commissioned, abandoned Shao and fled to

Chu Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the Ha ...

, ending Qian rulers' control of Shao.''

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. 268. In 913, Li Yantu died. The people of the prefecture supported Tan to succeed him.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Yantu 9th-century births 913 deaths Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms generals