Five Dynasties · Ruler

Yelü Deguang 德光

Deguang

c. AD 902 - AD 947

Passages: 9
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Yelü Deguang was a ruler.

Life and dates

Death

AD 947 四月十八日
At Luancheng 欒城 · Summary Essentials of the Five Dynasties dates the death to the eighteenth day of the fourth month.
Textual variant · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 170
AD 947 是月二十一日
At Luancheng 欒城 · Summary Died on the twenty-first day of the fourth month, aged 46, after 22 years ruling the Khitan; a star fell on the 18th.
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passages 165-166

Age

46
AD 947 是月二十一日 · Reckoning Sui
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 166

Attested activity

AD 947 十五日
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 150
AD 947 是月二十一日
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 166

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Parent of Yelü Le (勒)
father 父
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 177

Places and affiliations

Polity Id liao · Relation Ruled
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 166

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Direct quotation · With Gao Xun (高勛) · Mode quotation Speaker Yelü Deguang (德光)
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 157
Speech · Speaker · Direct quotation · Mode quotation Speaker Yelü Deguang (德光)
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passages 161-163, 165

Events and relationships

Held court
AD 947 三月朔日 · Ritual · Ruler · At Chongyuan Hall 崇元殿
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 154
Massacred
AD 947 四月四日 · Military · Commander · With Liang Hui (梁暉) · At Xiangzhou 相州
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passages 159-160
Returned north
AD 947 十七日 · Travel · Ruler
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passages 156-157
Stripped titles
AD 947 十五日 · Political · Ruler · With Liu Zhiyuan (劉知遠)
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 150

Assessments and attributes

Item salted corpse / emperor's cured meat 帝羓 · Relation Body treated as
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passage 167

Source notes

Main narrative: 4th month day 21; Wudai Huiyao: 4th month day 18.
Field death-date · Witness 五代會要
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 137, passages 166, 170

References in the histories

Search passages

History

9 passages

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 137Volume 137: Foreign States Biographies 1: Khitan · 9 passages

十五日，漢高祖建號於晉陽，德光聞之，削奪漢祖官爵。 On the fifteenth day the Han founder proclaimed his reign at Jinyang. Deguang heard of it and stripped him of all titles.

三月朔日，德光坐崇元殿，行入閣之禮，睹漢家儀法之盛，大悅。 On the first day of the third month he sat in Chongyuan Hall for the entering-the-pavilion ceremony. Delighted by the grandeur of Chinese court ritual, he was in high spirits.

十七日，德光北還。 On the seventeenth day Deguang marched north.

發離東京，宿於赤岡，有大聲如雷，起於牙帳之下，契丹自黎陽濟河，次湯陰縣界，有一岡，土人謂之愁死岡，德光憩於其上，謂宣徽使高勛曰：「我在上國，以打圍食肉為樂，自及漢地，每每不快，我若得歸本土，死亦無恨。」 Leaving the Eastern Capital he camped at Chigang. Thunder sounded beneath his tent. The Khitan crossed the river at Liyang and halted in Tangyin county at a hill the locals called Sorrow-Death Mound. Resting there, Deguang told Palace Secretariat commissioner Gao Xun, "At home I took joy in the hunt and fresh meat. Since I came to Han lands I have known little pleasure. If I can reach my own country again, I will die content."

時賊帥梁暉據相州，德光親率諸部以攻之。 The bandit Liang Hui held Xiangzhou, and Deguang led his tribes against him in person.

德光聞河陽軍亂，謂蕃漢臣僚曰：「我有三失：殺上國兵士，打草谷，一失也； Hearing of the mutiny at Heyang, Deguang told his Khitan and Han officials, "I have committed three errors. I killed my own soldiers and let them plunder the countryside. That is the first.

十六日，次於欒城縣殺虎林之側，時德光已得寒熱疾數日矣，命部人賫酒脯，禱於得疾之地。 On the sixteenth day he halted beside Tiger-Slaying Grove in Luancheng county. He had been feverish for days and ordered his men to offer wine and meat at the spot where he had fallen ill.

十八日晡時，有大星落於穹廬之前，若迸火而散，德光見之，西望而唾，連呼曰：「劉知遠滅，劉知遠滅！」 Late on the eighteenth day a great star fell before his tent like a burst of fire. Deguang looked west, spat, and cried again and again, "Liu Zhiyuan is finished! Liu Zhiyuan is finished!"

據《五代會要》云：四月十八日，德光卒於欒城。 According to the Essentials of the Five Dynasties, Deguang died at Luancheng on the eighteenth day of the fourth month.