Li Jing

Who was Li Jing?

Li Jing, originally Xu Jingtong, also known by his temple name Yuanzong, was the second ruler of imperial China's Southern Tang state during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He reigned his country from 943 until his death.

During Li Jing's earlier reign, he expanded Southern Tang's borders by extinguishing a few smaller neighboring states: Yin In 945, Min in 946, and Chu in 951. However, the warfare also exhausted the wealth of the country, leaving it ill-prepared to resist the Later Zhou Dynasty invasion in 956. Forced to cede all prefectures north of the Yangtze River, he also had to relinquish his title as an emperor and accept Later Zhou's overlordship in 958, and later Song Dynasty's overlordship after 960 when Song succeeded Later Zhou.