Li Yantu (李彥圖) (died 913) was a ruler of Qian Prefecture (虔州, in modern

Ganzhou Ganzhou (), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District. His ...

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

) from 912 to 913, early in the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Nearly nothing is known about Li Yantu's personal background, including where or when he was born. In 912, when Li Qiu, who had seized control of Qian Prefecture after assassinating the prior ruler Lu Yanchang and subsequently was given the title of defender of Qian by Zhu Wen, died, Li Yantu took over by himself and apparently took the title of defender of Qian as well. (It is not clear from the extant historical records whether he received official sanction from Later Liang and/or its rival Wu, to whom Lu had previously submitted.) After Li Yantu's seizure of power, the senior officer Tan Quanbo, a long-time strategist for Lu Yanchang's father Lu Guangchou, whom Li Qiu had considered killing, claimed to be seriously ill and retired from military service. Upon hearing of Tan's illness, Liu Yan the military governor of Qinghai Circuit (清海, headquartered in modern

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

), nominally a Later Liang vassal, attacked Shao Prefecture (韶州, in modern

Shaoguan Shaoguan is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province ( Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch Huineng. Its built-u ...

), which had been part of the domain of the Qian Prefecture rulers since Lu Guangchou's time. Liao Shuang (廖爽) the prefect of Shao, whom Lu Yanchang had commissioned, abandoned Shao and fled to Chu, ending Qian rulers' control of Shao.''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vol. 268. In 913, Li Yantu died. The people of the prefecture supported Tan to succeed him.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Yantu 9th-century births 913 deaths Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms generals