Biography
Uprising in Xiangguo
In 349, following the regicide of Shi Zun by Shi Jian, Shi Zhi held territory in Xiangguo. Maintaining friendly relations with the Qiang leader Yao Yizhong and the Di leader Fu Hong, he mobilized military strength to form an alliance intended to strike back against the rising powers of Ran Min and Li Nong. Unsettled by these developments, Shi Jian appointed Shi Kun as Great Commander and launched a campaign against Shi Zhi, leading seventy thousand infantry and cavalry composed of various tribes.
By February 350, the establishment of the Ran Wei regime followed the execution of Shi Jian. Recognizing that the situation had reached a breaking point, Shi Zhi formally ascended the throne in Xiangguo and inaugurated the Yongning era. To solidify his legitimacy and alliances, he granted high positions to non-Jie leaders: appointing Yu Yin as Right Chancellor and King of Zhao; assigning Yao Xiang as General of Agile Cavalry and Governor of Yuzhou; and conferring titles such as Supervisor of Military Affairs in Henan, Protectorate-General of Southern China, and Governor of Youzhou upon Fu Jian.
Confrontation with Ran Wei
Upon his accession, Shi Zhi immediately initiated military operations against Ran Wei. In April 350, he ordered Chancellor Shi Kun to lead an army of one hundred thousand toward Ye City, successfully occupying Handan. Although reinforcements arrived via Liu Guofu from Fanyang, the campaign ended in disaster when Ran Min crushed Shi Kun’s forces near Handan, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties and forcing Liu Guofu to retreat to Fanyang. Concurrently, Fu Jian advanced through Fangtou to seize territories in western Later Zhao.
The conflict intensified in August 350. A combined force of commanders including Zhang Hedu, Duan Qin, Liu Guo, and Jin Chun converged at Changcheng to launch an offensive against Ye City. However, Ran Min responded with overwhelming force, deploying twelve0,000 troops commanded by Liu Qun alongside eighty thousand elite reserves. During the fierce fighting at Cangting, the opposition collapsed; twenty-eight thousand soldiers were slain, and Jin Chun was pursued and executed in Ying'an Village. This victory allowed Ran Min to consolidate his momentum.
Defense of Xiangguo
In November 350, Ran Min returned with a massive host of one hundred thousand infantry and cavalry to lay siege to Xiangguo. By early 351, the siege had lasted over a hundred days, with Ran Min's forces employing sophisticated tactics, including tunneling and constructing permanent fortifications to maintain the blockade. Faced with imminent destruction, Shi Zhi relinquished his imperial title, assuming the rank of King of Zhao, and sent envoys to seek urgent assistance from Murong Jun of Former Yan and Yao Yizhong.
A decisive turningest occurred when relief forces arrived from multiple directions. Yao Yizhong dispatched his son Yao Xiang with thirty-eight thousand cavalrymen from Maotou, while Murong Jun sent General Yue Wan with thirty thousand armored troops from Longcheng. These three armies created a coordinated encirclement totaling over one hundred thousand elite combatants. While Ran Min attempted to hold off parts of the relief force using generals such as Hu Mu and Sun Wei, both efforts failed, leaving only single riders to escape back to their lines.
As the relief columns closed in, Ran Min committed his entire remaining force to battle. Under pressure from the simultaneous attacks of Yao Xiang, Yue Wan, and Shi Kun—and supported by a rear assault from Shi Zhi—the Ran Wei army suffered a catastrophic rout. Ran Min narrowly escaped to Ye City with only a handful of horsemen. Among those captured were several officials and family members of Ran Min, who were subsequently executed by Shi Zhi. The scale of the carnage was immense, with over one hundred thousand deaths reported among officers and common soldiers, causing widespread famine across the Sizhou and Jizhou regions.
Collapse of the Regime
Following the triumph at Xiangguo, Shi Zhi dispatched Liu Xian with seventy thousand troops to storm Ye City. However, Ran Min secretly returned to defend the capital, decisively defeating Liu Xian's army and pursuing them to Yangping, where over thirty thousand men fell. Terrified by the counterattack, Liu Xian entered secret negotiations with Ran Min, promising to kill Shi Zhi to secure his own survival.
In April 351, fulfilling his treacherous pact, Liu Xian assassinated Shi Zhi and other senior officials, including Grand Minister Zhao Lu, in Xiangguo. The severed head of Shi Zhi was presented at Ye City as proof of loyalty. With the central authority shattered and its leadership liquidated, the Later Zhao dynasty officially ceased to exist.
Shi Zhi was a son of the Later Zhao ruler Shi Hu; little is recorded of his early years. First enfeoffed as Prince of Xinxing, he was posted to Xiangguo. After the general-in-chief Shi Min — that is, Ran Min — took power and began massacring the Jie, Jie fled in numbers to Shi Zhi, who made common cause with the Qiang leader Yao Yizhong and the Di leader Fu Hong, joining forces and circulating a proclamation against Ran Min and Li Nong. Shi Jian thereupon sent Shi Kun as grand commander with Zhang Ju and Huyan Sheng at the head of seventy thousand foot and horse in several columns against Shi Zhi and the others.
In the intercalary second month of 350 Ran Min killed Shi Jian and took the imperial title himself. Hearing of Shi Jian's death, Shi Zhi proclaimed himself emperor at Xiangguo, changed the era name to Yongning, made the Prince of Ruyin, Shi Kun, his chancellor, and was answered by the tribal chiefs who held commanderies with troops. He appointed Yao Yizhong right chancellor and Prince of Pro-Zhao, treating him with special ceremony, made Xiang general of chariots and cavalry, governor of Yuzhou and Duke of Xinchang, and made Fu Jian commander of all military affairs south of the Yellow River, general of the southern march, with the insignia of the three offices, governor of Yanzhou and Duke of Lüeyang. Shi Zhi sent Shi Kun with a hundred thousand men against Ye, occupying Handan, and the general Liu Guo came from Fanyang to join him. Ran Min crushed Shi Kun at Handan with more than ten thousand dead; Liu Guo fell back to Fanyang and Fu Jian led his troops through Fangtou into the passes. Soon Zhang Hede and Duan Qin met Liu Guo and Jin Tun at Changcheng to attack Ye; Ran Min in person led eighty thousand picked troops against them at Cangting, where they were routed with twenty-eight thousand dead and all their followers taken.
In the eleventh month of 350 Ran Min advanced on Xiangguo with a hundred thousand foot and horse and besieged it for over a hundred days, raising earth hills, digging tunnels and building houses while turning the soil, to show he would stay. Greatly alarmed, Shi Zhi dropped the imperial title, styled himself Prince of Zhao, and sent envoys to beg troops from Murong Jun of the Former Yan and from Yao Yizhong. Shi Kun came to his aid from Jizhou, Yao Yizhong sent his son Yao Xiang with thirty-eight thousand horse from Getou, and the Former Yan sent the general Yue Wan with thirty thousand armored troops from Longcheng, a combined force of over a hundred thousand. Ran Min posted the chariot general Hu Mu at Changlu against Yao Xiang and the general Sun Wei at Huangqiu to watch for Shi Kun; both were beaten and lost nearly all their men, escaping alone. Attacked on three sides by Yao Xiang, Yue Wan and Shi Kun while Shi Zhi struck their rear from the city, Ran Min's army collapsed and he fled back to Ye with a dozen riders. Surrendered Hu such as Li Tekang seized Ran Min's son Ran Yin and the left deputy director Liu Qi and sent them to Shi Zhi, who put them all to death. More than a hundred thousand died in the fighting, among them the minister of works Shi Pu, the director of the Secretariat Xu Ji, the chariot general Hu Mu, the palace attendant Li Lin and the palace secretary Lu Chen; famine followed in Si and Ji, and men ate one another.
Shi Zhi then sent Liu Xian with seventy thousand against Ye. Ran Min turned out every man, routed Liu Xian's army and pursued to Yangping, taking over thirty thousand heads. Frightened, Liu Xian secretly sued for surrender and offered to kill Shi Zhi as proof. In the fourth month of 351 Liu Xian returned to Xiangguo and duly killed Shi Zhi together with the grand steward Zhao Lu — also written Zhao Shu — and more than ten others, sending the head to Ye with hostages to beg for his own life. The cavalry general Shi Ning fled to Boren, and Ran Min had Shi Zhi's head burned at the crossroads. With this the Later Zhao lost its last sovereign and its line ended.
Shi Zhi's death marks the end of the Later Zhao, and the fate of his clan is bound up with it. Among Shi Hu's sons, Shi Shi and Shi Zun were killed in succession, Shi Jian was killed by Ran Min, Shi Zhi's brother Shi Kun fled with his wife and children to the Eastern Jin after the fall of Xiangguo and was executed with his family there in 352, and Shi Bing died with Shi Zhi at Liu Xian's hands. After Shi Zhi's death Xiangguo and its region fell first to Ran Wei, and the next year Ran Min was defeated at Lantai by Murong Ke of the Former Yan and put to death, leaving Hebei to the Former Yan. Shi Zhi reigned about a year; his accession followed the killing of Shi Jian, his offices largely followed Later Zhao precedent with Shi Kun, Prince of Ruyin, as chancellor and Yao Yizhong as right chancellor, and because the records are fragmentary the exact months of his Yongning era are not fully consistent across the sources.
The *Book of Jin* records that upon his accession "the chiefs of the six tribes holding commanderies with troops all answered him," which shows that his authority reached most of the old Later Zhao provinces, though real control rose and fell with the fighting.