Li Tao

Li Tao (李濤) (c. 898?–961?), courtesy name Xinchen (信臣), formally the Duke of Ju (莒國公), was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period Chu, Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou, states, as well as the Song dynasty. He briefly served as chancellor during Later Han. Background Assuming that Li Tao died in 961, he would be born in 898, during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. He was from Wannian, one of the two counties making up the Tang dynasty capital Chang'an. He was a 10th-generation descendant of Li Yi, an uncle of Tang's founding emperor Emperor Gaozu and was a great-grandnephew of the Tang chancellor Li Hui. His grandfather Li Zhen served as a county magistrate, while his father Li Yuan served as the director of palace construction (將作監, Jiangzuo Jian). He had at least one younger brother, Li Huan, who would later be known for literary capabilities. In 907, the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong seized the throne, ending Tang and establishing Later Liang. Li Yuan, as he was a member of Tang's imperial clan, feared that disaster would come to him, and therefore took Li Tao to the land of Later Liang's vassal state Chu to look for refuge from Chu's ruler Ma Yin. Ma commissioned Li Tao as the magistrate of Hengyang County (衡陽, in modern Hengyang, Hunan). Li Tao's cousin Li Yu served in the Later Liang imperial guards and apparently informed Zhu about Li Yuan's and Li Tao's flight to Chu. Zhu ordered Ma to send Li Yuan and Li Tao back to Later Liang proper and made Li Tao the magistrate of Heyang County (河陽, in modern Luoyang, Henan). During Later Tang Early in the Tiancheng era (926-930) of Later Liang's successor state Later Tang's emperor Li Siyuan, Li Tao passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class, and thereafter became an assistant to the prefect of Jin Prefecture (晉州, in modern Linfen, Shanxi), and later successively served as an imperial censor with the title of Jiancha Yushi, and then You Bujue, a consultant at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng). When Li Siyuan's son Li Conghou the Prince of Song was made the military governor (Jiedushi) of Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei), Li Tao was made his assistant in his role as governor (觀察使, Guanchashi). After about a year of serving at Tianxiong, Li Tao was recalled to the imperial government to serve as an imperial chronicler (起居舍人, Qiju Sheren).