Yelü Jun

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Yelü Jun was born in 1058, the fourth year of the Qingning era, as the eldest son of Emperor Daozong Yelü Hongji and Empress Xuanyi Xiao Guanyin. From an early age he displayed exceptional intelligence, eloquence, and a love of learning. Emperor Daozong once remarked that the boy’s intelligence seemed almost heaven-bestowed. In 1062, at the age of six, Yelü Jun was enfeoffed as Prince of Liang. The next year he accompanied Emperor Daozong on a hunt and struck game with three consecutive arrows, displaying the riding and archery skills traditionally valued by the Khitan imperial house. Daozong praised him for preserving the martial tradition of his ancestors. On another hunt Yelü Jun encountered ten deer and shot nine of them, prompting the emperor to hold a celebratory banquet. In 1064, when he was eight, Yelü Jun was formally established as crown prince.

Years as Crown Prince

After becoming crown prince, Yelü Jun enjoyed Emperor Daozong’s confidence and favor. In 1075, at the age of seventeen, he was placed concurrently in charge of the Northern and Southern Privy Councils and began to participate in the central administration. At the same time, however, the Liao court was entering a period of intense political intrigue. In the eleventh month of 1075, his mother Empress Xuanyi Xiao Guanyin was falsely accused of an illicit relationship with the performer Zhao Weiyi and ordered by Emperor Daozong to take her own life. Yelü Jun was deeply distressed but powerless to intervene. Meanwhile, Northern Privy Commissioner Yelü Yixin had become increasingly dominant at court. Knowing that his own position would be endangered if the crown prince later succeeded to the throne, Yelü Yixin began plotting to remove him.

Framed, Deposed, and Killed

In 1077, the third year of the Dakang era, Yelü Yixin’s associate Xiao Shisan warned him that officials and common people alike supported the crown prince and that Yixin and his faction would be in danger if Yelü Jun succeeded. Yelü Yixin and his allies then devised a series of accusations against the crown prince. They first used Xiao Hugu in a purported assassination plot against Yelü Yixin, and after that affair failed they secretly had the guard officer Yelü Chala accuse Yelü Sala, Xiao Susa, Xiao Hugu, and others of plotting to depose the emperor and enthrone the crown prince. Emperor Daozong ordered an investigation, but no evidence was found.

Yelü Yixin then arranged for Xiao Eduwo and others to come forward with new testimony, claiming that the earlier accusations were true and that they themselves had taken part in a plan to kill Yelü Yixin and raise Yelü Jun to the throne. Emperor Daozong believed the charges, confined Yelü Jun in a separate palace, and ordered Yelü Yange to interrogate him. Yelü Jun explained his innocence and argued that, as crown prince and future heir, he had no reason to seek anything further. Yelü Yange, however, was an associate of Yelü Yixin and altered the prince’s defense into what appeared to be a confession. Emperor Daozong, enraged, reduced Yelü Jun to commoner status.

As Yelü Jun was taken from the palace, he protested that he had committed no crime. Xiao Shisan ordered him into a closed carriage, and he was transported to the Supreme Capital and imprisoned there. In the eleventh month of the same year, Yelü Yixin sent Xiao Dalugu and Xiao Saba to the Supreme Capital, where they killed the twenty-year-old Yelü Jun. The Supreme Capital commander Xiao Tade then falsely reported that the former crown prince had died of illness. Emperor Daozong was deeply grieved and ordered his burial at Longmen Mountain. Seeking to eliminate any remaining threat, Yelü Yixin also secretly arranged the killing of Yelü Jun’s consort, Lady Xiao.

Posthumous Rehabilitation

After Yelü Jun’s death, Emperor Daozong gradually learned the truth and regretted what had happened. He posthumously named his son Crown Prince Zhaohuai and reburied him at Yufeng Mountain with the rites of an emperor. In 1101, Yelü Jun’s son Yelü Yanxi succeeded to the throne as Emperor Tianzuo. He posthumously elevated Yelü Jun as Emperor Daxiao Shunsheng and gave him the temple name Shunzong; Yelü Jun’s consort Lady Xiao was posthumously honored as Empress Zhenshun. The formal rehabilitation of Yelü Jun was thus completed.

Major Activities

Ability as Heir Apparent

Yelü Jun was described as intelligent from childhood, eloquent, studious, and well read, and was deeply favored by Emperor Daozong. He also inherited the Khitan imperial tradition of riding and archery: at age seven he struck his targets with three consecutive arrows and later shot nine deer out of a group of ten. As crown prince, he took concurrent charge of the Northern and Southern Privy Councils in 1075 and began to participate in central government affairs.

The Injustice of the Crown Prince

The defining event of Yelü Jun’s life was his destruction through Yelü Yixin’s political machinations. Seeking to secure his own power, Yelü Yixin exploited Emperor Daozong’s suspicions and fabricated charges of treason against the crown prince. After Yelü Yange altered the interrogation record, Yelü Jun was unable to clear his name. He was reduced to commoner status, confined at the Supreme Capital, and eventually killed. The case became one of the best-known political tragedies of the middle and late Liao and was remembered as the “Injustice of the Crown Prince.”

Posthumous Honors

After Yelü Jun’s death, Emperor Daozong regretted the case, posthumously named him Crown Prince Zhaohuai, and had him reburied with imperial rites. After Emperor Tianzuo took the throne, Yelü Jun was posthumously honored as Emperor Daxiao Shunsheng with the temple name Shunzong, while his consort was posthumously named Empress Zhenshun. These honors constituted the court’s formal rehabilitation of a prince who had died under false accusations.

Personal Relations

• Father: Emperor Daozong of Liao, Yelü Hongji
• Mother: Empress Xuanyi Xiao Guanyin
• Wife: Empress Zhenshun, Lady Xiao
• Son: Emperor Tianzuo of Liao, Yelü Yanxi
• Emperor Daozong of Liao, Yelü Hongji: father and sovereign
• Yelü Yixin: Northern Privy Commissioner who framed him
• Yelü Yange: interrogator and associate of Yelü Yixin
• Xiao Shisan: deputy inspector, associate of Yelü Yixin, and participant in the accusations
• Xiao Eduwo: official of the seal office who took part in the false accusation
• Xiao Dalugu and Xiao Saba: killed Yelü Jun on Yelü Yixin’s orders
• Xiao Tade: Supreme Capital commander who falsely reported that Yelü Jun had died of illness

Historical Assessment

Liao / Contemporary

• Emperor Daozong Yelü Hongji praised him as exceptionally intelligent and as preserving the superior riding and archery tradition of the Liao imperial house. (History of Liao, juan 72)
• Officials and common people were said to have supported Crown Prince Yelü Jun, indicating that he enjoyed substantial contemporary backing. (History of Liao, juan 72)

Yuan Period

• The History of Liao, compiled under Toqto’a and others, lamented that Emperor Daozong recognized the prince’s worth but failed to see through Yelü Yixin’s deception, thereby severing the bond between father and son; it used the case as a warning about treacherous ministers. (History of Liao, juan 72)
• The same work described Yelü Jun as having been articulate from childhood and fond of learning and books. (History of Liao, juan 72)

Ming and Qing Periods

Ming and Qing historians generally followed the account in the History of Liao, expressing sympathy for Yelü Jun’s wrongful death and condemning Yelü Yixin’s treachery. They also regarded Emperor Daozong’s failure of judgment as an important cause of the tragedy.

Modern and Contemporary

Modern historians commonly treat Yelü Jun’s death as a representative example of political corruption and ministerial manipulation in the Liao, and as one marker of the dynasty’s transition from strength to decline. The case also illustrates the acute conflict between imperial authority and powerful ministers in the middle and late Liao period.