Yelü Jing

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Yelü Jing belonged to the core of the Liao imperial house. His father, Emperor Taizong Yelü Deguang, was the dynasty’s second emperor and had expanded southward into the Central Plains while promoting administrative institutions for governing Han populations. His mother, Empress Jing'an Xiao, came from the Liao consort clan. As Taizong’s eldest son, Yelü Jing was enfeoffed as Prince of Shou'an in 939.

As Taizong’s eldest son, Yelü Jing might have expected to succeed to the throne. When Taizong died in 947 while returning from a campaign against Later Jin, however, the army enthroned Yelü Ruan, son of Yelü Bei, as Emperor Shizong. This created intense rivalry between Taizong’s line and the line of the Prince of Dongdan. During Shizong’s reign, Yelü Jing remained Prince of Shou'an and did not obtain the throne.

The Huoshendian Coup and Accession

In 951 Emperor Shizong Yelü Ruan assembled tribal leaders to discuss military aid for Northern Han against Later Zhou. In the ninth lunar month, after making offerings to the spirit of his father Yelü Bei, Shizong held a banquet and became heavily intoxicated. Prince Taining Yelü Chage, a son of Yelü Anduan, took advantage of the situation, entered the imperial tent with Yelü Pendu and others, and killed the emperor.

Yelü Wuzhi escaped from the camp and urgently summoned the princes and their troops to suppress the rebels. Yelü Jing, then Prince of Shou'an, joined the counterattack, and Yelü Chage was killed. After the rebellion was suppressed, officials enthroned Yelü Jing and presented him with the honorific Tianshun Emperor. He adopted Yingli as the era name, returning the throne to Emperor Taizong’s branch of the imperial family.

Early Rebellions and Consolidation of Power

In the first month of 952, Grand Commandant Hugu Zhi rebelled and was executed. In the sixth month, the imperial relative and chief councillor Xiao Meigude and the scholar Li Han plotted to flee south to Later Zhou; the plot was discovered and proclaimed publicly. In the seventh month, chief councillor Yelü Louguo, Yelü Dili, Yelü Shendu, Yelü Haili, and others were arrested for conspiracy. Xiao Meigude and Yelü Louguo were executed, while Li Han was caned and released.

In 953 Yelü Wan, Yelü Jigan, Yelü Dili, and others plotted rebellion. Their testimony implicated Prince Yansage, Yelü Huage, Yelü Xinluo, and others. Yelü Huage and Yelü Jigan were executed, while Yelü Wan and Yansage were eventually released.

Further conspiracies followed. In 959 Prince Yelü Dili, former commissioner Yelü Haisi, Xiao Dagan, and others were interrogated for rebellion. In 960 Yelü Shouyuan and other officials were executed for treason. Later that year Yelü Xiyin rebelled, and his testimony implicated his father Yelü Lihu, who died in prison. Through repeated purges, Muzong’s government strengthened the position of Taizong’s branch of the imperial family and suppressed rival factions within the clan.

Wars with the Central Plains States

In 954 Later Zhou founder Guo Wei died and was succeeded by his adopted son Chai Rong. When Later Zhou attacked Northern Han, Muzong ordered Yelü Dilu to lead forces in support. Later that year, after Xin and Dai prefectures defected from Northern Han to Later Zhou, Southern Court Prince Yelü Talie joined the Liao relief effort and defeated the Later Zhou commander Fu Yanqing at Xinkou.

In 955 Later Zhou again attacked Northern Han, which requested Liao assistance. When Northern Han ruler Liu Chong died, his son Liu Chengjun sent envoys to report the death and seek investiture. Muzong dispatched envoys to mourn and formally invested Liu Chengjun as ruler of Northern Han.

In 958 Xiao Siwen, Liao commander at Nanjing, attacked Later Zhou border prefectures, but Later Zhou forces captured Shucheng. Xiao Siwen requested reinforcements and urged Muzong to lead a campaign personally, but the emperor was occupied with hunting and did not hold court. In 959 Later Zhou Emperor Shizong Chai Rong personally launched a northern expedition. Liao commanders at Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass surrendered, Mo and Ying prefectures fell, and Later Zhou took a series of passes, prefectures, and counties. Only Chai Rong’s sudden illness and withdrawal prevented further losses, exposing the severe neglect of Liao’s southern defenses under Muzong.

Later Misgovernment and Violence

From 964 onward, Muzong increasingly abandoned government for hunting and drinking. He hunted at Baiying Mountain, Yushan, and Weiziling for weeks at a time, and after an all-night winter solstice drinking session he fell into a pattern of sleeping during the day and drinking at night. Between 965 and 968 he spent much of each year hunting at places such as Black Mountain and Red Mountain, often remaining away from court for long periods.

At the same time, his brutality toward attendants became extreme. In 965 he personally stabbed the attendant Dong'er to death because a spoon was not delivered quickly enough. The gamekeeper Shaladie was subjected to torture with heated instruments after a delay in scouting swans. In 966 the emperor wrongfully killed the attendant Baihai and several servants and officials. In 967 he killed or ordered the killing and dismemberment of falconers, deer keepers, pheasant keepers, wine attendants, swineherds, and palace servants. In the twelfth month he personally killed the cook Haili and had the body cut apart. The killings continued into 968.

Muzong also listened to the sorceress Xiaogu, who advised using human gallbladders as medicine; when he later concluded that her claims were fraudulent, he had her executed. Despite the violence against attendants, historical accounts state that his killings generally did not extend upward to senior ministers or downward to the ordinary population.

Assassination and Death

In the second lunar month of 969, Muzong went hunting in Huaizhou. After shooting a bear, he returned to the Black Mountain traveling palace and became heavily intoxicated at a banquet. When food was not produced quickly enough, he threatened to kill the cooks. Fearing for their lives, the attendants Xiaoge, Huage, Xingu, and others killed him while he lay drunk. He died at age thirty-nine after eighteen years on the throne. Emperor Jingzong Yelü Xian, son of Emperor Shizong, succeeded him. Muzong was posthumously named Emperor Xiao'an Jingzheng and buried at Huailing.

His Family, His Titles and His Accession

Yelü Jing, whose Khitan name was Yelü Shulü, was of the Khitan people, the fourth emperor of the Liao and eldest son of Emperor Taizong, Yelü Deguang, his mother the empress Jing'an, lady Xiao. In the third month of the second year of Huitong, 939, he was enfeoffed as prince of Shou'an. In the ninth month of the fifth year of Tianlu, 951, Emperor Shizong, Yelü Ruan, sacrificed to the prince of Dongdan and gathered the tribal chiefs to consider an expedition against the Later Zhou in aid of the Northern Han; and on the day guihai of that month the emperor was murdered and the rebel minister Chage and the rest were put to death. Yelü Jing escaped, brought up troops and, with Yelü Shulü, seized the occasion to put down the rebellion and take the throne, being enthroned on the day dingmao, the ministers giving him the honorific of the heaven-favouring emperor and changing the era name to Yingli: he was Emperor Muzong of Liao. On the day wuchen he went to Nanjing and that month sent Liu Chengxun to announce the mourning to Han. His accession brought the Liao throne back to the line of Taizong.

His Suppression of the Plots of Kinsmen and Ministers

In the first month of the spring of the second year of Yingli, 952, the grand commandant Huguzhi plotted treason and was put to death; in the sixth month the empress's kinsman and political commissioner Xiao Meigude with the academician of the Xuanzheng hall Li Huan and others plotted to flee south, and the matter coming out their crimes were proclaimed; and in the seventh month the political commissioner Louguo, the linya Dielie, the palace attendant Shendu and the lord Haili plotted rebellion and were arrested, and in the eighth month Xiao Meigude, Louguo and the rest were executed while Li Huan was flogged and released. In the tenth month of the winter of the third year he ordered the grand preceptor Tanggude to prepare the tomb of the late empress dowager; and Li Hu's son Yelü Wan with the lord Jigan and Dielie plotted rebellion and it came out, the testimony implicating the prince of Taiping, Wosage, the linya Huage and the lord Xinluo, all of whom were arrested, Huage and Jigan being executed while Yelü Wan and Wosage were pardoned. In the intercalary month of the ninth year the prince Dielie, the former assistant commissioner of the palace of ceremonies Haisi and Xiao Dagan plotted rebellion, and the matter being discovered they were tried; on the day xinsi he sacrificed to heaven and earth and to his forefathers to announce the failure of the treason, and on the day bingshen summoned his ministers to discuss the government of the time. Afterwards the political commissioner Yelü Shouyuan, the grand guardian Chu'abu and others plotted and were put to death, and Muzong beat to death the attendant Guge with a lion figure of cushion stone; and Yelü Li Hu's son Yelü Xiyin plotting rebellion, the confession implicated Li Hu, who was arrested and died in prison. To secure his own position Muzong excluded those not of his party: the ministers who had been close to Emperor Shizong were dismissed or no longer employed, as with Yelü Tuixian, who had done great service in his taking the throne and had been promised the place of a tribal prince, but who, always remembering Shizong's kindness to him, so displeased Muzong that the promise was shelved; and those who openly opposed him or plotted rebellion he suppressed without mercy. Besides suppression he forbade the ministers to discuss the government at will, and many were degraded or dismissed for doing so: in the sixth month of the second year, less than a year after his accession, Xiao Meigude, having said that the ruler of the Later Zhou was no good and thought only of wine and hunting without great ambition, and having advised the Zhou to take up arms, was discovered and killed.

The Wars with the Later Zhou and the Northern Han

In Muzong's time the reforms of the Later Zhou greatly increased its strength. In the second month of the fourth year of Yingli, the first year of Xiande of the Later Zhou, 954, when Emperor Shizong of Zhou had just taken the throne and the Zhou attacked Han, Muzong ordered the political commissioner Yelü Dilu to relieve Han; and in the fifth month, when Xin and Dai submitted to Han, he sent the great prince of the southern court, Dalie, to help Dilu, and Dalie defeated the Zhou general Fu Yanqing at Xinkou and took his officer Shi Yanchao, so that the Zhou army fled and the lost cities were recovered. Moreover, the Zhou failing before Jinyang and its soldiers being worn out, Chai Rong had to withdraw and the Han prefectures the Zhou had taken had to be given up. In the fourth month of the fifth year the Zhou attacked Han again and Han sent an envoy to the Khitan for help; and in the eleventh month the ruler of Han dying, his son Liu Chengjun sent to announce it and to ask to be confirmed, and Muzong sent envoys to sacrifice and granted him the patent. In the fourth month of the eighth year the governor of Nanjing, Xiao Siwen, took the border prefectures and envoys were sent to encourage him; in the fifth month the Zhou took Shucheng county; and in the sixth month Xiao Siwen asked for more troops and begged the emperor to come to Yan. But Muzong was busy hunting and had no leisure for the Zhou's raids: in the seventh month he hunted at Yela mountain, and from then to the ninth month shot deer in the mountains without holding court; and in the eleventh month Han sent to say that the Zhou had come again, and thereafter envoys came several times and Muzong paid no heed. In the fourth month of the ninth year the Zhou invaded and Muzong made the governor of Nanjing, Xiao Siwen, commander of the troops against them; that month the Zhou took the three passes of Yijin, Waqiao and Yukou, and in the fifth month Ying and Mo. Afterwards Emperor Shizong of Zhou led his armies north against the Khitan and the inspector of Liaozhou, Wang Hong, surrendered his city, and the commanders of the Yijin and Waqiao passes brought their prefectures over one after another; in the fifth month Ying and Yi were taken by the Zhou, who made Waqiao pass the prefecture of Xiong and Yijin pass that of Ba, and their van commander broke several hundred Khitan horse north of Waqiao and took Gu'an county — so that the Zhou in one campaign took three passes and three prefectures with seventeen counties, and only Chai Rong's grave illness made them withdraw, so that Youzhou was saved. Xiao Siwen, the governor of Nanjing whom Muzong had appointed, was utterly cowardly and dared not fight, only memorialising that the emperor should come in person, and so the Zhou won the three passes. But Emperor Shizong died of exhaustion in his camp, and the Zhou withdrew while Muzong returned to Shangjing.

His Relations with the Northern Song and His Dealings with Han and the Southern Tang

The Northern Song was founded in the later part of Muzong's reign, between 960 and 969; and there was no direct military conflict between Liao and Song, their clashes all arising out of the Northern Han. In framing its foreign policy Muzong's court never relaxed its vigilance and defence against the Song, holding firmly to the Yan-Yun region, and repeatedly sent troops to thwart the Song's plans to fortify the frontier: in the first month of the spring of the thirteenth year of Yingli, 963, when "the Song wished to fortify Yijin pass," the governor of Nanjing was ordered against them; and in the second month of the spring of the seventeenth year, 967, Gao Xun memorialised that the Song wished to fortify Yijin pass and asked leave to harass them with a detached force, which the emperor granted. The northern border of the Song being thus comparatively quiet gave that dynasty an excellent external setting for its aim of unifying the central plain; and the Song destroyed Jingnan in the thirteenth year of Yingli and the Later Shu in the fifteenth, and brought the Southern Tang, Wuyue and the Southern Han to submission, so achieving a partial unification of the south. As to the Northern Han, in the tenth month of the winter of the first year of Yingli Liao sent troops to help it attack the Later Zhou, but the stubborn resistance of the Zhou drove back the allied armies; and in the second year of Yingli Han, having been repeatedly beaten by the Zhou, sent to Liao for help, and the two armies fought on the southern plain at Gaoping in Luzhou, where the allied Liao and Han forces, of divided mind, were routed and Liu Chong fled over the hills with a dozen horsemen. Besides sending troops for Han against the Zhou, Liao also helped it put down internal rebellion: in the fifth month of the fourth year of Yingli, when "Xin and Dai submitted to Han, the great prince of the southern court, Dalie, was sent to help Dilu against them," with much plunder. In the ninth year of Yingli, when the Later Zhou marched north and met Liao in the field, Liao's armies were routed and lost Ying and Mo, so that Liao asked Han for aid against the Zhou. In the sixth month of the tenth year, 960, "Han sent word that Song troops were besieging Shizhou, and the military commissioner of Datong, Ala, was sent with four divisions to help, with orders that Xiao Siwen assist with three." In this period Liao stood high above the Northern Han in their relations, and Han, unable to escape its control under Liao's protection, had to submit and keep itself safe by tribute. In Muzong's time Liao's connexion with the Southern Tang in the south was also close: in the eleventh month of the winter of the first year of Yingli, "Han, Zhou and the Southern Tang each sent envoys to condole," the first Tang mission after his accession; and in Muzong's time the Tang sent envoys more often and more frequently than before, as in the second year of Yingli when it sent four missions, twice in the third month alone; and the Tang conveyed letters to the Northern Han through Liao, so that the intimacy of the three attested a league among them. With Koguryo, however, Liao lost touch in Muzong's time, the Liao history having very little on Koguryo in his reign, while Koguryo's dealings with the central dynasties appear often in the records.

His Neglect of Government, His Drinking and Hunting, and the Name of the Sleeping King

After putting down the risings and steadying his rule in the first years, Muzong, feeling that the throne was no longer in danger, gave himself up the more to licence: he drank and made merry at night until the next morning and then slept all day, putting government out of his mind, so that he won the name of the sleeping king. By the New History of the Five Dynasties he "loved hunting and drinking and took no thought for the state, and whenever he drank deep it was from night till dawn, sleeping by day, so that his people called him the sleeping king." His hunting knew no season, in deep winter or high summer he would go out whenever he pleased, leaving the government wholly to the Khitan and Chinese ministers; and his favourite places were the Black mountain, the Red mountain and the Great Precious mountain, where he hunted all the year round amid "peerless hills and waters and herds of deer." In the fifth month of the fourteenth year of Yingli, 964, he hunted at the White Eagle mountain for ten days; in the sixth month he hunted at Yu mountain and forgot to return for a whole month; and in the eighth month he shot deer at Naozi ridge, taking four and richly rewarding his attendants. On the winter solstice of the eleventh month he feasted till dawn, and from then on slept by day and drank by night, neglecting the government. In the intercalary eighth month of the sixteenth year he watched wild deer join the tame herd and feasted on horseback till late afternoon; in the ninth month he feasted at the double ninth from night to night until the day renzi; and in the twelfth month he went to the house of the wine-maker Balage and then to that of the inspector of the palace guard, Yelü Yelage, feasting for days together. By the records too he was "of weak constitution and hated the sight of women": when prince, the empress dowager Shulü wished to marry him and he excused himself on grounds of illness; and after his accession, with consorts ranged before him, he never once looked at them, refusing all who spoke of filling the empress's place, and his attendants and those who served his chamber were all eunuchs. When Ying and Mo were lost and Youzhou sent urgent word, Muzong said that the three passes were originally Chinese land and that to return them to Han was no loss at all, so slack and careless was he of the state. Yet in his reign the state attended to the recovery and growth of the economy, and later ages said of his time that taxes and corvée were lightened and the people were content with their lives.

His Cruel Slaughter and His Murder

Muzong loved harsh law and severe punishment, building in the capital a prison a hundred feet high for prisoners. If a deer, a wild boar or a hawk or pheasant of the hunt was lost or died, or if an attendant went home privately, overstayed his leave, failed to come when summoned, or answered not to his liking, or if there were some trifle about food and drink, he would visit his anger on the innocent, inflicting the tortures of the hot iron and the iron comb, or killing them with his own hand and then mutilating the body — "cutting, shooting, burning, lopping hands and feet, scalding shoulders and thighs, breaking the loins and shins, slitting the mouth and shattering the teeth" — and casting them into the fields; and more than a hundred were done to death in this way. Soon after his accession, believing the witch Xiaogu, he took men's gall-bladders to make an elixir of long life and so killed many; and afterwards learning the deceit he had her shot with whistling arrows and trampled by horses. He repented too of his excessive punishments and called on his ministers to remonstrate plainly, but they feared him and could seldom correct him, and when they did he would not listen: when he would have killed the pheasant-keepers Shouge and Niangu, the inspector of the palace guard Yelü Yelage remonstrated that they had lost the pheasants in their charge and fled for fear of punishment, and that the law did not condemn them to death, and Muzong in greater anger had them beheaded and dismembered, and of sixty-five deer-keepers in prison had the forty-four chief offenders killed and the rest cruelly flogged, and would have killed some of the survivors had not the prince Bishe and others remonstrated. In the third month of the fifteenth year, when the attendant Dong'er brought the spoon and chopsticks late, Muzong stabbed him with a knife in his own hand; and the huntsman Shaladie, being late in spying out swans, was tortured to death with the hot iron and the iron comb. In the fourth month of the seventeenth year he killed the falconer Dilu, in the fifth the deer-keeper Zhage, in the sixth he dismembered the pheasant-keepers Shouge and Niangu and killed forty-four deer-keepers, in the tenth the wine-maker Cuini, in the eleventh the attendant Tingshou and the swineherds Abuzha, Helu, Shulizhe and Nielikuo, and the deer-keepers Tangguo, Zhige and Sala, and in the twelfth he killed the cook Haili with his own hand and cut him in pieces; and the next year, in the third month, he killed the falconer Hutelu, the attendant Huage and the prison guard Haili, cutting up Haili's body, in the fourth the swineherd Chaolizhi, and in the fifth the deer-keepers Pode, Lage, Taogui, Zhabuge, Sugunie, Chubao, Migure and Dida. In his later years his cruelty grew worse; he told the grand commandant Huage that if in his cups he judged amiss he would review it when sober, but it was only talk with no true repentance. His severity, however, was chiefly visited on those about him, the keepers of the five parks, the beast-keepers, attendants, servers of food and servers of wine, while men like Yelü Yelage and Xiao Haili remonstrated and judged cases fairly, so that it was said that he did not reach the great ministers above nor the common people below. On the sixteenth day of the second month of the nineteenth year of Yingli, 969, he killed the outrider Mo and Yila and ground their bones to dust and threw them away; and on the twenty-second day, having shot a bear at Huaizhou and being toasted by Xiao Siwen and the yilibi Yalisi, he drank himself senseless and rode back to his camp below the Black mountain. That night, demanding food in his drunkenness and unable to get it, he would have killed his attendants; and the attendant Xiaoge, the washer Huage and the cook Xingu, six in all, who were unwilling to wait for death, murdered him in his stupor at thirty-nine. Xiao Siwen with the president of the southern privy council Gao Xun and the flying dragon commissioner Nülü set up Yelü Xian as Emperor Jingzong, gave Yelü Jing the temple name Muzong and buried him at the Huailing, and in the twenty-first year of Chongxi he was given the posthumous name of the filial, peaceful, reverent and upright emperor. In the eleventh month of the fifth year of Baoning, 973, Xiaoge, Huage, Xingu and the other murderers were all taken and put to death.

Major Activities

Suppression of Imperial Clan Rebellions

Rebellion among members of the imperial clan and maternal relatives was frequent during the early part of Muzong’s reign. Plots or uprisings involving Hugu Zhi, Xiao Meigude, Yelü Louguo, Yelü Wan, Yelü Dili, Yelü Shouyuan, Yelü Xiyin, and others were suppressed through severe punishments and executions. Yelü Lihu himself died in prison after being implicated in his son Xiyin’s rebellion. These actions consolidated the succession of Taizong’s branch of the imperial family.

Warfare with Later Zhou and Northern Han

During Muzong’s reign Later Zhou rose rapidly in the Central Plains. In 954–955 Liao troops aided Northern Han and won localized successes against Later Zhou. In 958–959, however, Chai Rong’s northern expedition took three passes, three prefectures, and numerous counties from Liao. Muzong responded passively and continued hunting instead of organizing a major counteroffensive. The southern frontier stabilized only after Later Zhou withdrew.

Campaigns Against the Wugu and Shiwei

In 964 the Wugu rebelled and plundered livestock and property. Muzong ordered several commanders to lead tribal forces against them. The Wugu killed their own chieftain and submitted, then rebelled again. The Greater and Lesser Yellow Shiwei also rose in revolt. Liao forces suffered setbacks before eventually defeating the Wugu. In 967 commanders returned from the campaign and presented prisoners at court, bringing the rebellion to an end.

Economic and Social Measures

Although Muzong neglected government, his reign was not entirely without administrative measures. He ordered that attendants who abused travel-restriction markers to extort the population be punished, and he granted tax remissions after flooding in Nanjing. He also allowed elderly or incapable officials to receive increased stipends and retire rather than remain in office without performing their duties. These policies provided limited relief and helped preserve basic administrative continuity.

Buddhism and Superstition

Muzong was devoted to Buddhism, which continued to develop under his reign. He also maintained strong belief in divination and shamanic practices, at one point accepting a sorceress’s recommendation to use human gallbladders as medicine before later killing her for deception. He carried out rituals involving animals, archery, rain-making, and water, reflecting the continued presence of older religious customs at the Liao court.

His Government and His Penal Law

In the early years of his reign Muzong put down in turn the plots of the grand commandant Huguzhi, of Xiao Meigude, Louguo, Yelü Wan, Dielie, Yelü Shouyuan and Yelü Xiyin, kinsmen and consort kin alike, steadying his rule; he excluded those not of his party, dismissing or no longer employing the ministers close to Emperor Shizong and suppressing without mercy those who openly opposed or plotted against him, and he forbade his ministers to discuss the government at will. On the other hand he issued laws of benefit to the people: in the sixteenth year of Yingli, finding that attendants such as Chugu deliberately buried low in the tall grass the markers forbidding passage where the emperor travelled, so that men strayed in and were extorted of their goods, he forbade it by decree and made it a capital offence for any to do so again, saying that from the former reign the resting places of the imperial progress had always been marked with tall signs and that any who henceforth did otherwise should be punished with death. His severity fell chiefly on the keepers of the five parks, the beast-keepers, attendants, servers of food and wine about him, so that "he did not reach the great ministers above nor the common people below."

His Economy and Agriculture

In Muzong's reign the state attended to the recovery and growth of the economy, and later ages said that in his time taxes and corvée were lightened and the people content. In agriculture, in the ninth month of the second year of Yingli "Yunzhou presented four stalks of auspicious grain with two ears," and by the treatise on food and goods "in the Yingli period Yunzhou presented auspicious grain, which men of the time attributed to the attention paid to farming"; and Muzong himself observed the rites of farming, such as the ceremony of striking the ox of clay and prayers for rain in time of drought, in the first month of the nineteenth year of Yingli ordering the inspector of the palace guard Yeläge to perform the striking of the clay ox in his stead. The princes of the northern and southern courts appointed in the Yingli period, Yelü Wuzhi and Yelü Dalie, both had achievements, helping Muzong to equalise taxes and labour and to encourage farming, so that the number of households grew, and Dalie, who "equalised taxes and labour and encouraged farming so that the tribesmen were transformed and their households multiplied," was called the prince who enriched the people. The central government also remitted taxes in the Nanjing region because of floods, to lighten the peasants' burden: in the winter of the third year of Yingli the emperor, resting at Fengsheng prefecture, decreed the remission of that year's rent because of the flood at Nanjing. When war with the Later Zhou was in prospect and Xiao Siwen asked for more troops to guard Youzhou, Muzong answered that if the enemy came they should join the command and drive him off, and that when he went they should attend to farming and not trouble the soldiers and horses — showing that Liao then valued the recovery of production and would not lightly weary its armies. Moreover, Liao's long campaigns in the central plain had carried off great numbers of agricultural labourers, bringing to Liao agriculture both labour and advanced technique.

Its Titles and Its Name

Because he "drank deep from night till dawn and slept by day," Muzong was called by his people the sleeping king. His own name was Yelü Jing, but in Song histories he is called Yelü Ming, as in the Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for the second year of Kaibao, which says that the Khitan ruler Ming was murdered by his attendants; this was not a change of name but a Chinese avoidance of taboo, since in the Later Zhou the founder Guo Wei had honoured his ancestor Guo Jing and the character Jing became a taboo of that dynasty, which the Song inherited. In Liao inscriptions the character Ming is often written lacking its last two strokes, no doubt to avoid Muzong's name; and as another Yelü Jing appears in Liao epigraphy without any sign of avoidance, some scholars hold that Muzong at first had only a Khitan name and that Ming was a Chinese name added to him later.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather: Emperor Taizu of Liao, Yelü Abaoji
• Father: Emperor Taizong of Liao, Yelü Deguang
• Mother: Empress Jing'an Xiao (Xiao Wen)
• Uncle: Yelü Lihu, third son of Emperor Taizu, who died in prison after being implicated in his son’s rebellion
• Cousin: Emperor Shizong of Liao, Yelü Ruan, killed by Yelü Chage
• Wife: Lady Xiao
• Successor: Emperor Jingzong of Liao, Yelü Xian
• Yelü Wuzhi: helped suppress the Huoshendian coup and supported Muzong’s accession; later Northern Court Prince
• Yelü Talie: Southern Court Prince who defeated Later Zhou forces at Xinkou
• Xiao Siwen: commander at Nanjing who resisted the Later Zhou invasion and later became a powerful minister under Emperor Jingzong
• Yelü Yilage: commander of the palace guard; Muzong often visited his residence for banquets
• Yelü Chage: rebel who killed Emperor Shizong and was suppressed by Muzong and Yelü Wuzhi
• Xiao Meigude: imperial relative and senior official who plotted to flee to Later Zhou and was executed
• Yelü Louguo: senior official who plotted rebellion and was executed
• Yelü Lihu: third son of Emperor Taizu, imprisoned after being implicated in his son’s rebellion
• Yelü Xiyin: son of Yelü Lihu and rebel leader
• Xiaoge: palace attendant and leading participant in Muzong’s assassination
• Xingu: cook who joined the assassination after Muzong threatened him
• Huage: washing attendant who participated in the assassination
• Xiaogu: sorceress who advised medicinal use of human gallbladders and was later executed

Historical Assessment

Liao / Contemporary

Official Liao tradition judged Muzong poorly. Although he received the temple name Muzong and posthumous honors, accounts transmitted into the History of Liao preserved extensive records of his violent conduct. The popular epithet “Sleeping King” reflected dissatisfaction with his neglect of government.

Song and Yuan Periods

The Yuan-commissioned History of Liao noted that Muzong was capable of recognizing false sorcery and occasionally accepted remonstrance against abusive punishments, but condemned his addiction to alcohol, endless hunting, arbitrary rewards and punishments, failure to attend court, and repeated killings. It treated his assassination by people close to him as the foreseeable result of his conduct.

Ming and Qing Periods

Ming scholar Wang Qi cited Muzong’s death at the hands of low-ranking attendants as a warning against indulgence and misgovernment. Qing scholar Li E gathered additional materials on his reign. Zhao Yi emphasized the emperor’s extraordinary cruelty toward attendants while also noting that the violence did not generally extend to senior ministers or ordinary subjects.

Modern and Contemporary

Modern general histories often treat Muzong as an important figure in the Liao’s transition from strength toward decline, arguing that his neglect of government contributed to the severe danger created by Later Zhou’s northern expedition. Some modern Liao historians have also stressed that his violence was concentrated among palace attendants and that the state’s institutional foundations remained intact. Chen Shu interpreted the repeated imperial-clan rebellions and Muzong’s severe repression as evidence of deep structural divisions within the ruling elite.