Liu Min

Biography

Early Career

Liu Chong enjoyed drinking and gambling in his youth and joined the army with tattoos on his face. He initially served in the Hedong Army. During the Late Tang Changxing era, he was transferred to Weizhou as a military officer. When Liu Zhiyuan served as Hedong Military Commissioner under Later Jin, Liu Chong served as Infantry Command Commander. He successively held the posts of Governor of Linzhou, Commander of Horse and Foot in Hedong and Inspector of the Three Cities, and Defense Commissioner of Sizhou. After Liu Zhiyuan founded Later Han, he was appointed Governor of Taiyuan, Guardian of the Northern Capital, and Grand Councilor of State. During the reign of Emperor Yin, he was given the additional title of Zhongshu Ling (Secretariat Director), recruiting soldiers and effectively ruling as an independent warlord.

Founding Northern Han

In the third year of Qianyou (950), Guo Wei rebelled against Later Han, killed Emperor Yin Liu Chengyou, and established Later Zhou. Liu Chong initially intended to march south but desisted upon hearing that Guo Wei planned to install his eldest son Liu Yun as emperor. However, Guo Wei soon killed Liu Yun and took the throne himself. In 951, Liu Chong proclaimed himself emperor in Taiyuan, continuing the Later Han dynasty under the name Liu Min, maintaining the Qianyou era name. Historians call his state Northern Han.

Dependency on the Liao

The Northern Han was small and poor, controlling only twelve prefectures including Bing and Fen. Liu Min, committed to restoring Later Han, sought aid from the Liao dynasty, establishing an uncle-nephew relationship in which he addressed the Liao emperor as uncle and styled himself nephew emperor. The Liao granted him the title Great Han Divine Martial Emperor. With Liao assistance, Northern Han fought multiple campaigns against Later Zhou, though with more defeats than victories. Internal taxation and corvée labor were heavy, and the people suffered greatly.

The Battle of Gaoping and Death

In the seventh year of Qianyou (954), Guo Wei died. Liu Min took advantage of the new emperor Chai Rong's recent accession to launch a joint attack with Liao forces against Later Zhou, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Gaoping by Chai Rong's personal command. Liu Min fled dressed as a farmer with only a hundred or so cavalry, losing his way en route. Old and exhausted, he barely made it back to Taiyuan. The battle permanently weakened Northern Han. Liu Min fell ill from grief and frustration and died in the eleventh month of that year. His temple name was Shizu, and his second son Liu Chengjun succeeded him.

Liu Min, originally Liu Chong, was a native of Taiyuan and younger brother of Liu Zhiyuan, founder of the Later Han. A gambler and idler in youth, he enlisted at about twenty and afterward followed his brother into the army, accumulating merit in the founding of the Later Han and rising to military governor of Hedong and governor of Taiyuan, holding military power as one of the dynasty's clan leaders.

In 951, after the Later Han emperor was killed and Guo Wei founded the Later Zhou, Liu Chong took the imperial title at Taiyuan, still using the Later Han era name Qianyou and the dynastic name Han, known as the Northern Han. Holding only the corner of Hedong, he could not face the Later Zhou alone and depended on Liao support, styling himself Liao's nephew and vassal to borrow its armies — a dependence that gave the Northern Han an unusual place among the Ten Kingdoms: a state claiming to restore the Han that had made an unequal alliance with its northern neighbor.

In 954 Guo Wei died and Chai Rong came to the Later Zhou throne. Liu Chong, seeing his chance, marched south with a Liao army, and the two forces met at Gaoping, where the Northern Han and Liao were crushingly defeated and Liu Chong barely escaped to Taiyuan. He died soon after, his son Liu Chengjun succeeding. The Northern Han lasted more than twenty years until the Northern Song destroyed it in 979, the last of the Ten Kingdoms to be absorbed. The defeat at Gaoping is directly bound up with his underestimation of the enemy and the failure of the allied armies to cooperate, and it greatly raised the standing of Chai Rong, laying the ground for the later unification.

The Northern Han centered on Taiyuan and held only a few prefectures of Hedong, the weakest of the Ten Kingdoms, and so depended on the Liao for the long term. This situation subjected its government and diplomacy to Liao constraint: the succession of its rulers and the timing and scale of its campaigns generally required coordination with the Liao, whose tribute also weighed heavily on its finances.

Northern Han campaigns were generally conducted in concert with Liao troops, its manpower and supplies depending on Liao and on Hedong itself. After Gaoping its field capability was much reduced and its strategy became essentially defensive, holding the cities until the Song army broke Taiyuan.

The Northern Han's survival and its dependence on the Liao restrained each other: the Liao needed it as a piece against the central plains while it needed Liao troops and supplies, the relationship maintained for more than twenty years between enfeoffment and tribute. After the Northern Song was founded it took Jinghu, the Later Shu, the Southern Han and the Southern Tang before destroying the Northern Han in 979, when Taiyuan fell and its ruler Liu Jiyuan surrendered.

He reigned four years, in which the Northern Han's military strength was gravely damaged by the defeat at Gaoping, its survival thereafter resting chiefly on the strong walls of Taiyuan and Liao support.

The Qianyou era name used by the Northern Han was that of the Later Han, its retention meant to show that the state continued that dynasty — a common device in the Ten Kingdoms, asserting legitimacy through the continuation of an era name.

The course of the battle of Gaoping is recorded in the Comprehensive Mirror and the New History of the Five Dynasties: the Later Zhou emperor led his army in person, the Northern Han and Liao troops at first holding the better ground but losing because the two armies could not cooperate and the Northern Han generals advanced rashly. Afterward the Northern Han could never again mount a large offensive against the central plains.

His offices and ceremonial largely followed the Later Han, the Northern Han court being small in scale yet preserving the basic forms of a central-plains dynasty — a "little court" typical of the Ten Kingdoms.

In his reign he tried to link with the Southern Tang and Later Shu to check the Later Zhou, but distance and divergent interests kept these contacts from becoming real military cooperation.

Though its offices imitated the central plains, the Northern Han's working was subject to Liao interference, its ruler having to consult the Liao first in foreign affairs — increasingly evident under Liu Chengjun, Liu Ji'en and Liu Jiyuan. Three of its four rulers were enfeoffed by the Liao, making it the Ten Kingdoms state most distant from the central dynasties.

His son Liu Chengjun continued the dependence on Liao while chancellors and generals managed the government; Liu Ji'en and Liu Jiyuan followed with continual palace quarrels until the Song army invested Taiyuan. The period is often cited as typical of how small states survived between strong neighbors at the end of the Five Dynasties.

After Gaoping the Later Zhou emperor Chai Rong pressed on to Taiyuan and besieged it for months without success, withdrawing when Liao troops threatened; the Northern Han and the Later Zhou then stood off for several years until the Northern Song was founded.

The passage from the Later Han to the Northern Han reflects the tangled relation of clan and province in the Five Dynasties: Liu Zhiyuan had risen from Hedong to found the Later Han, and his brother Liu Chong, based there too, could set up a court of his own once the central power changed hands, on the strength of blood and territory.

The Northern Han's finances rested chiefly on the farming of the Taiyuan basin and on salt and iron, its taxes heavy and its people burdened; its armies relied on local levies and Liao aid, with limited capacity for prolonged war.

Another of his measures was to strengthen contact with the Liao, sending envoys repeatedly for aid and accepting its enfeoffment under the title Great Han Divine and Martial Emperor — a title showing the Northern Han's titular dependence on the Liao.

The month and day of his death and his burial place are briefly recorded, his son Liu Chengjun honoring him posthumously as Shizu.

Accounts of him come chiefly from the Eastern Han hereditary house in the old and new histories of the Five Dynasties and the Later Zhou annals of the Comprehensive Mirror, their content centering on the military and diplomatic traffic among the Northern Han, the Later Zhou and the Liao.

The Northern Han's fate was bound to Liao policy toward the central plains: the Liao used support for it as an important means of checking the dynasties there, and after the Northern Song was founded, as its strength grew and its relations with the Liao shifted, the Northern Han's strategic value declined.

Most Ten Kingdoms states made a policy of guarding their borders and comforting their people; the Northern Han was an exception, aiming from its founding to restore the Later Han and campaigning frequently with meager results, its strength steadily drained by the constant fighting.

The records of his four years concern chiefly dealings with the Liao and the war with the Later Zhou, with little on domestic government — reflecting the wartime character of the Northern Han state.

In a longer view, the Northern Han's contest with the Later Zhou and the Northern Song is one link in the unification of the central plains at the end of the Five Dynasties: as those dynasties reduced the states of south and north in turn, a single corner of Hedong could not long stand apart.

Historians judge his policy of allying with the Liao against the Zhou variously: some see it as the realistic choice of a weak state, others as the dependence that kept the Northern Han from standing on its own.

His change of name to Min came after he took the imperial title, in keeping with the practice of renaming at accession and of avoiding taboo characters.

The Northern Han had the smallest territory of the Ten Kingdoms, with very limited population and troops, and endured nearly thirty years chiefly through the strength of Taiyuan's defenses and Liao aid.

His burial place and tomb name are briefly recorded, the Northern Han imperial tombs lying in the Taiyuan area.

Four years on the throne is among the shorter reigns of the Ten Kingdoms rulers, and the Northern Han moved toward its end as the unification of the central plains advanced.

His posthumous and temple names were settled by his successors, being known in history as Shizu of the Northern Han.

Major Activities

After the fall of the Later Han, Liu Min held the Hedong region and continued the Han title, and he was the key figure in the formation of the Northern Han. Abroad he used Liao military aid to balance the Later Zhou, while at home he simplified the bureaucracy and cut salaries and expenses, though war and payments to the Liao increased the burden on the people. The defeat at the Battle of Gaoping changed the Northern Han's position of attack and defence against the Later Zhou. His regime was maintained after his death by Liu Chengjun, and the whole of the Northern Han's nearly thirty later years should not be attributed to Liu Min's own rule.

Personal Relations

• Liu Zhiyuan**: Elder brother, Emperor Gaozu of Later Han
• Liu Chengyou**: Nephew, Emperor Yin of Later Han
• Liu Yun**: Eldest son, Military Commissioner of Wuning, killed by Guo Wei
• Liu Chengjun**: Second son, successor
• Chai Rong**: Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou, defeated Liu Min at Gaoping

Historical Assessment

Liu Min was one of the most resilient regional rulers of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. After the fall of Later Han, he held firm in the Hedong region and established the only kingdom among the Ten Kingdoms located in the north. Though he depended on Liao assistance and his territory was small and impoverished, he never abandoned his resistance against Later Zhou throughout his life. The defeat at Gaoping ended his dream of restoring Later Han.