Xiao Fengxian (蕭奉先)

Overview

The translated histories identify Xiao Fengxian as an aristocrat, courtier, general, and official. This record brings together 32 passages from 6 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Xiao Fengxian	蕭奉先	Xiāo Fèngxiān
Personal name	Fengxian	奉先
Personal name	Fengxian	奉先	Fèngxiān
Given	Fengxian	奉先
Personal name	Fengxian	奉先	Fengxian
Given	Fengxian	奉先	Fengxian
Title	Prince of Lanling	蘭陵郡王
Surname	Xiao	蕭
Surname	Xiao	蕭	Xiao
Personal name	Xiao Fengxian	蕭奉先
Personal name	Xiao Fengxian	蕭奉先	Xiāo Fèngxiān
Personal	Xiao Fengxian	蕭奉先	Xiao Fengxian
Personal name	Xiao Fengxian	蕭奉先	Xiao Fengxian

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0170, liaoshi:027:s0230, liaoshi:028:s0022, liaoshi:030:s0162, liaoshi:054:s0025, liaoshi:062:s0093, liaoshi:102:s0002

Roles

Aristocrat
Courtier
General
Official
Statesman

Life and dates

Death

Manner: granted death / execution · Authority Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧)
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0035

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 冬十月壬寅朔 · Sexagenary Day: 壬寅 · Lunar Month: 10 · Western Year: AD 1114
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:027:s0230, liaoshi:027:s0227
Source Date: Text: 保大二年 · Regnal Year: 2 · Western Year: AD 1122
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:102:s0023, liaoshi:102:s0024, liaoshi:102:s0026, liaoshi:102:s0030, liaoshi:102:s0035
Source Date: Text: 天慶二年 · Regnal Year: 2 · Western Year: AD 1112
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:102:s0005, liaoshi:102:s0007, liaoshi:102:s0009
Source Date: Text: 四年 · Regnal Year: 4 · Western Year: AD 1114
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:102:s0013, liaoshi:102:s0014, liaoshi:102:s0017
Source Date: Text: AD 1101-1125 · Western Year: AD 1101
Strongly inferred · liaoshi:030:s0162
Source Date: Text: 五年 · Western Year: AD 1115
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:028:s0022
Source Date: Text: 天慶二年 · Western Year: AD 1112
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0170, liaoshi:054:s0023, liaoshi:054:s0025
Source Date: Text: 天祚未年 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1110 · End: AD 1125
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:062:s0093, liaoshi:062:s0091

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Sibling of Primary Consort of Emperor Tianzuo (天祚元妃)
Kinship Term: brother / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: uncertain · Subject Relative Age: uncertain · Subject Role: brother · Object Role: sister
Sibling of Primary Consort (元妃)
Kinship Term: elder brother / 兄 · Subject Role: sister · Object Role: brother · Subject Relative Age: younger
Parent of Xiao Ang (昂)
Kinship Term: eldest son / 長子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 1
Parent of Xiao Yu (son of Fengxian) (昱)
Kinship Term: second son / 次子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 2
Sibling of Xiao Sixian (蕭嗣先)
Kinship Term: younger brother / 弟 · Parentage: biological · Subject Relative Age: elder · Object Role: younger-brother · Subject Role: elder-brother · Shared Parentage: uncertain
Kinship Term: younger brother / 弟 · Shared Parentage: uncertain · Subject Relative Age: elder · Subject Role: elder-brother · Object Role: younger-brother

Kinship Role: sons · Count: 2
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0030, liaoshi:102:s0033, liaoshi:102:s0034

Career and standing

Label: Privy Commissioner / 樞密使 · Action: appointed
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0004
Label: imperial camp commander-in-chief / 御營都統 · Action: held
Explicit · liaoshi:028:s0022
Label: Northern Privy Commissioner / 北樞密使 · Action: held
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0037
Label: Privy Commissioner / 樞密使 · Action: held
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0170, liaoshi:027:s0185
Title: Prince of Lanling / 蘭陵郡王 · Action: enfeoffed
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0004
Status: death · Action: executed · Authority Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧)
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0035

Places and affiliations

Polity Id: liao · Relation: active-in
Explicit · liaoshi:062:s0093
Polity Id: liao · Relation: served
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0230, liaoshi:054:s0025, liaoshi:102:s0004

Works and attributed material

Kind: memorial · Role: author · Action: memorialized that routed eastern expedition troops plundered and urged a sweeping pardon lest they gather into trouble · Other Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧) · Provenance: Mode: quotation · Speaker Person Id: Xiao Fengxian (蕭奉先)
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0230
Kind: memorial · Role: author · Other Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧) · Quoted: true
Explicit · liaoshi:054:s0027, liaoshi:054:s0028
Kind: memorial · Role: author · Other Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧)
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0017
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧)
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0172, liaoshi:027:s0173, liaoshi:102:s0010, liaoshi:102:s0011, liaoshi:102:s0024, liaoshi:102:s0025, liaoshi:102:s0028

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: accuser · Action: falsely-accused · Other Person Id: Yelü Yudu (耶律余睹) · Provenance: Mode: allegation · Witness Person Id: Xiao Fengxian (蕭奉先)
Explicit · liaoshi:062:s0094
Kind: political · Role: accuser · Action: framed · Other Person Id: Yelü Yudu (耶律余睹)
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0021, liaoshi:102:s0083, liaoshi:102:s0084
Kind: political · Role: memorialist · Action: intervened to spare his younger brother Sixian from punishment · Other Person Id: Xiao Sixian (蕭嗣先)
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0230, liaoshi:027:s0231
Kind: political · Role: instigator · Action: urged execution · Other Person Id: Prince of Jin (晉王) · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 保大二年 · Regnal Year: 2 · Western Year: AD 1122
Explicit event contextual date · liaoshi:102:s0024, liaoshi:102:s0025, liaoshi:102:s0026
Relation: advisor-of · Person Id: Yelü Yanxi (延禧)
Explicit · liaoshi:054:s0025, liaoshi:054:s0027
Relation: rival-of · Person Id: Aoluwo (敖盧斡)
Explicit · liaoshi:062:s0093

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: blocked preventive plans and caused innocent death of Prince of Jin · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · liaoshi:102:s0102
Assessment: put private interest above public good; first caused disaster · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · liaoshi:030:s0162

Source notes

Historicity: historical
Explicit · liaoshi:027:s0170

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

History of Liao, Chapter 27Volume 27 Annals 27: Emperor Tianzuo 1 · 4 passages

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他日，上密謂樞密使蕭奉先曰：「前日之燕，阿骨打意氣雄豪，顧視不常，可托以邊事誅之。 Another day the emperor secretly told Privy Commissioner Xiao Fengxian, "At the banquet the other day Aguda's spirit was bold and heroic and his glances were unusual; he could be entrusted with a border affair and executed.

奉先曰：「寏人不知禮義，無大過而殺之，恐傷向化之心。 Fengxian said, "These wild people do not know ritual propriety; to kill them without great offense would surely wound hearts inclined toward transformation.

樞密使蕭奉先作常事以聞上，仍送咸州詰責，欲使自新。 Privy Commissioner Xiao Fengxian reported it as an ordinary matter to the emperor and still sent them back to Xian Prefecture to be questioned and rebuked, intending that they reform themselves.

蕭奉先懼其弟嗣先獲罪，輒奏東征潰軍所至劫掠，若不肆赦，恐聚為患。 Xiao Fengxian feared his younger brother Sixian would be punished and memorialized that the eastern expedition's routed troops everywhere plundered; unless a sweeping pardon were granted they might gather into trouble.

History of Liao, Chapter 28Volume 28 Annals 28: Emperor Tianzuo 2 · 1 passage

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蕭奉先充御營都統，諸行營都部署耶律章奴為副，<二>以精兵二萬為先鋒。 Xiao Fengxian served as imperial camp commander-in-chief; all mobile camp deployment director Yelü Zhangnu was deputy; [2] twenty thousand elite troops formed the vanguard.

History of Liao, Chapter 30Volume 30 Annals 30: Emperor Tianzuo 4: Ye Luchun, Ye Luyali, Ye Ludashi and Son: Yilie, Yi Lie and Younger Sister: Pu Suwan, Yi Lieci and Son: Zhilugu · 2 passages

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奉先挾私滅公，首禍構難，一至於斯。 Fengxian put private interest above the public good, first stirred disaster and difficulty, until matters came to this pass.

天祚窮蹙，始悟奉先誤己，不幾晚乎！ Tianzuo in extremity at last saw that Fengxian had misled him—was it not nearly too late?

History of Liao, Chapter 54Volume 54 Treatises 24: Music · 2 passages

Open chapter

上謂蕭奉先曰：「阿骨打意氣雄豪，顧視不常，可托以邊事誅之。 The emperor said to Xiao Fengxian, "Aguda's bearing is bold and proud, and his gaze is unsettled. Find a pretext on the frontier and have him killed.

奉先奏：「阿骨打無大過，殺之傷向化之意。 Fengxian replied, "Aguda has committed no serious offense. To kill him would wound our policy of winning others to allegiance.

History of Liao, Chapter 62Volume 62 Treatises 32: Punishment and Law 2 · 2 passages

Open chapter

蕭奉先乃元妃兄，深忌之。 Xiao Fengxian, elder brother of the Primary Consort, deeply resented him.

會文妃之女兄適耶律撻曷裏，女弟適耶律余睹，奉先乃誣告余睹等謀立晉王，尊天祚為太上皇。 Consort Wen's elder sister was married to Yelü Tahieli and her younger sister to Yelü Yudu; Fengxian then falsely accused Yudu and others of plotting to enthrone the Prince of Jin and make Tianzuo Retired Emperor.

History of Liao, Chapter 102Volume 102 Biographies 32: Xiao Fengxian, Li Chuwen, Zhang Lin, Yelu Yudu · 21 passages