1
Empress Liu, wife of the deposed Later Tang emperor.
2
Empress Liu, wife of the deposed emperor, was the daughter of Maowei of Hunyuan in Ying Prefecture. She was fierce and domineering by nature, and the deposed emperor had always been afraid of her. She was first created Lady of Pei; when the deposed emperor acceded, she was enthroned as empress. Her brother Yanhao had served the deposed emperor as a guards officer in his youth; on his accession Yanhao was made commissioner of the palace parks and of the southern court of the Bureau of Palace Attendants. In Qingtai 2 he was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs and military governor of the Tianxiong Army. Yanhao had been modest and honest, but once he rose in rank he changed his conduct; relying on his sister’s position he took power, accepted bribes, seized gardens and residences, and at Ye neglected the troops, who came to hate him. Zhang Lingzhao, chief inspector of the Pengsheng command, expelled Yanhao with the troops stationed under him, and Yanhao fled to Xiangzhou. Shi Jingtang had already rebelled and fighting was under way when Lingzhao’s revolt erupted. Lingzhao closed the city and sent his deputy Bian Rensi to ask that he be appointed military governor. The deposed emperor appointed Lingzhao general of the Right Thousand-Bull Guards and acting administrator of the Tianxiong headquarters. He then sent Fan Yanguang against him; Lingzhao was defeated, fled to Xingzhou, was pursued to Shahe and executed, and more than three thousand mutinous garrison soldiers were killed. Officials asked that Yanhao be punished under military law, but because of the empress the deposed emperor only removed his offices and titles.
3
廢帝二子
The deposed emperor’s two sons.
4
廢帝二子，曰重吉、重美，一女為尼，號幼澄，皆不知其所生。 廢帝鎮鳳翔，重吉為控鶴指揮使，與尼俱留京師。 控鶴，親兵也。 愍帝即位，不欲重吉掌親兵，乃出重吉為亳州團練使，居幼澄於禁中，又徙廢帝北京。 廢帝自疑，乃反。 愍帝遣人殺重吉于宋州，幼澄亦死。 重美，幼而明敏如成人。 廢帝即位，自左衞上將軍領成德軍節度使、兼河南尹、判六軍諸衞事，改領天雄軍節度使、同中書門下平章事，封雍王。 石敬瑭反，廢帝欲北征，重美謂宜持重，固請毋行。 廢帝心憚敬瑭，初不欲往，聞重美言，以為然，而劉延皓與劉延朗等迫之不已，廢帝遂如河陽，留重美守京師。 京師震恐，居民皆出城以藏竄，門者禁止之。 重美曰：「國家多難，不能與民為主，而欲禁其避禍，可乎？」 因縱民出。 及晉兵將至，劉皇后積薪于地，將焚其宮室，重美曰：「新天子至，必不露坐，但佗日重勞民力，取怨身後耳！」 后以為然。 廢帝自焚，后及重美與俱死。
His sons bore the names Chongji and Chongmei; a daughter took vows as a nun under the sobriquet Youcheng. History does not record who bore any of them. While the deposed emperor governed Fengxiang, Chongji served as commander of the Crane-Controlled Guard and stayed in the capital with the nun. The Crane-Controlled were the sovereign’s personal guard. When the Min emperor acceded, unwilling to let Chongji command the personal guard, he posted Chongji to Bozhou as regimental commissioner, kept Youcheng in the inner palace, and transferred the deposed emperor to the northern capital. The deposed emperor grew suspicious and rose in revolt. The Min emperor sent agents to kill Chongji at Songzhou, and Youcheng died as well. Chongmei had been clever and quick-witted from childhood, like a grown man. When the deposed emperor acceded, Chongmei advanced from general of the Left Guard to military governor of the Chengde Army, concurrently grand guardian of Henan and overseer of the Six Armies and all guards; he was then transferred to military governor of the Tianxiong Army, made grand councilor, and enfeoffed as Prince of Yong. When Shi Jingtang rebelled, the deposed emperor wanted to march north; Chongmei urged caution and firmly pleaded that he not go. The deposed emperor feared Jingtang and at first did not want to march; hearing Chongmei, he agreed, but Liu Yanhao, Liu Yanlang, and others kept pressing him, so he proceeded to Heyang and left Chongmei to hold the capital. The capital was gripped by panic; residents fled the city to hide, and gatekeepers tried to stop them. Chongmei said, “The realm is in grave trouble; we cannot protect the people, yet would forbid them to escape disaster—how can that be right?” He therefore allowed the people to go out. As the Jin army neared, Empress Liu heaped firewood to burn the palace. Chongmei said, “When the new emperor arrives he will not sit in the open air; this would only waste the people’s labor later and bring hatred after our deaths!” The empress agreed. The deposed emperor set himself afire; the empress and Chongmei perished with him.
5
Alas! The norms that govern household and kin must be upheld. Ritual exists precisely to dispel doubt and bring fine distinctions to light. How far things had fallen! In the Five Dynasties the reciprocal duties of ruler and ruled, father and child, collapsed together; temple and palace alike were scenes where neither men nor shades kept their station—truly an era of disorder! Nothing like it appears in the earlier record. The house called Tang ruled under a single dynastic name yet passed through three clans; the house called Zhou did the same with two. Later Tang thus falls into three bloodlines: Taizu and Zhuangzong; Mingzong and the short-reigned Min emperor; and the deposed emperor alone. Later Zhou likewise splits in two: the line of Taizu and that of Shizong. Why, then, does the chronicle cleave the clans yet leave the dynastic label unchanged? For Later Tang the shared name exposes naked usurpation: each claimant seized the throne from the last. For Later Zhou the single title marks legitimate succession: the mandate was handed down within the alliance that founded the state. The separate "families" preserve the temple order of fathers and sons, near kin and far—lines that must not be blurred. Dynastic names may repeat; agnatic lines may not. That, again, is the work of ritual: clearing doubt and marking fine shades. Why, then, does the Later Liang record leave Bo Prince You Wen outside the neat partition of "families" that I have just defended? Because the historian means to expose the taproot: the founder of Later Liang brought ruin on himself starting with You Wen, and the deliberate ambiguity in the record is itself the lesson for posterity.