Zhao (Five Dynasties)

Zhao (趙, ~910-~921) was a state early in the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, located in modern central Hebei. The ancestors of its only prince, Wang Rong, had long, during the Tang Dynasty, governed the region as military governors (Jiedushi) of Tang's Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), and after Tang's end in 907, the succeeding Later Liang Dynasty's founding emperor Emperor Taizu created Wang, then his vassal, the Prince of Zhao. In 910, when Emperor Taizu tried to directly take over the territory of Zhao and its neighbor Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei), Wang Rong and Yiwu's military governor Wang Chuzhi turned against Later Liang, aligning themselves with Later Liang's archenemy Jin's prince Li Cunxu instead. In 921, Wang Rong's soldiers assassinated him, slaughtered the Wang clan, and supported his adoptive son Zhang Wenli (known as Wang Deming while under Wang Rong's adoption) to succeed him instead. Li Cunxu soon defeated Zhang Wenli's son and successor Zhang Chujin and incorporated Zhao into Jin territory.

Notes and references

• Book of Tang, vol. 142.
• New Book of Tang, vol. 211.
• History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 54.
• New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 39.
• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 266, 267, 268, 269, 271.