Li Yan

Who is Li Yan?

Li Yan, né Zhang Xiu and later Zhang Bo, was an emissary that Emperor Zhaozong of Tang sent to the warlord Yang Xingmi the military governor of Huainan Circuit in 902, who would remain at Huainan Circuit as the Tang emperor's representative even after Tang's eventual destruction in 907. He would be the one who formally bestowed Yang Xingmi's sons and successors Yang Wo and Yang Longyan with their formal titles on behalf of the Tang emperor during the initial years of the Yang family-ruled state of Wu. In 918, after the general Zhu Jin assassinated Xu Zhixùn the son of Wu's regent Xu Wen, Xu Wen believed that Li was complicit in Zhu's plot and put him to death.