Later Shu

The other Shu kingdom of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, today known as the Former Shu, was founded in 907 after the end of the Tang dynasty. It was conquered in 925 by the Later Tang, the second of the five dynasties that would rule the Central Plain during this period.

Meng Zhixiang, one of the Later Tang military governors assigned to the conquered Shu territories, became remarkably powerful in the years following the invasion. In 930 he entered into open rebellion with fellow military governor Dong Zhang; although their rebellion was initially successful, Meng wished to submit once more to the rule of the Later Tang and so in 932 the two rebel leaders turned on each other. Meng defeated Dong and, in addition to taking control of Dong's lands, was given even greater authority than before by the Later Tang government. This arrangement did not last long: in December of 933 the emperor Li Siyuan died of an illness and was succeeded by the 19-year-old Li Conghou, and in the spring of 934 Meng declared himself the Emperor of a newly independent Shu.

The Later Shu kingdom held essentially the same territory as the Former Shu kingdom. The kingdom held most of present-day Sichuan, along with southern Gansu and Shaanxi, western Hubei and all of present-day Chongqing. As with the Former Shu, the capital of the kingdom was at Chengdu.

Meng Zhixiang died less than a year after declaring himself emperor of Shu. His son Meng Chang ruled for thirty years until the kingdom was invaded by and incorporated into the expanding Song empire in 965.

• Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China (900–1800). Harvard University Press. pp. 11–15. ISBN 0-674-01212-7.

• Chinaknowledge.de: Tang/rulers-houshu(in German)