Emperor Taizu of Liao

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Taizu was the first emperor of the Liao Dynasty (907-926). His given names were Yelü Abaoji (耶律阿保磯).

He was born in 872 and died in 926 in China. He had a turbulent childhood. His grandfather was killed in a conflict between tribes, and his father and uncles fled. Yelü Abaoji was hidden by his grandmother for his safety.

In 901, Yelü Abaoji was made great Khan of the Khitan tribe, elected to a three year term^[1]. For the next several years, he raided areas around Khitan.

In 907, when the T'ang dynasty collapsed, he was elected to be the leader of a military alliance to exploit the power vacuum. During the next 9 years, Yelü Abaoji killed off unwilling leaders and consolidated his power while trying to set up a dynasty and make his son his heir. During this time period, his brothers rose up and rebelled against him three times, but Yelü Abaoji successfully defeated them.

On March 17, 927, Yelü Abaoji was crowned as emperor and in 947, declared to be the Liao Dynasty; he had rendered considerable assisstance to Gaozu of Later Jin (who founded the Later Jin Dynasty) in the latter's control of north China, who rewarded Taizu with the northeast corner of Hopeh province, an area inside the Great Wall of China encompassing the present site of Beijing.

He ordered a writing system to be created for his language . He also destroyed the Kingdom of Bohai. He died on the road back from one of his many campaigns in 926.

Taizu was succeeded by Taizong (926-947).