Zhao Yan

Zhao Yan (died 923), né Zhao Lin, was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Later Liang state. As a son-in-law of its founding emperor Zhu Wen and as someone instrumental in the succession of its last emperor Zhu Zhen (Zhu Youzhen), he was influential during Zhu Zhen's reign and was traditionally blamed for corruption and misleading the emperor into making critical mistakes that caused Later Liang's fall at the hands of its rival Later Tang. Background It is not known when exactly Zhao Lin was born, but as he was described as being capable to command soldiers as of the time of his father Zhao Chou's resistance of the agrarian rebel army under Huang Chao while Zhao Chou was serving as the prefect of Chen Prefecture (陳州, in modern Zhumadian, Henan) during the Tang dynasty in 883, he must have been born a number of years prior to 883. He was Zhao Chou's second son, and during the resistance against Huang, he served under his father alongside his uncles Zhao Chang and Zhao Xu, and his older brother Zhao Lu. As Zhu Quanzhong the military governor (Jiedushi) of nearby Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) aided Zhao Chou during both the resistance against Huang and later against another major rebel, Qin Zongquan, whose capital was nearby Cai Prefecture (蔡州, also in modern Zhumadian), Zhao became a vassal of Zhu's as Zhu's power grew, and they entered into a marriage alliance where Zhao Lin, who changed his name to Zhao Yan at some point, married Zhu's daughter (the later Princess Changle). Shortly after Qin was captured and executed by Tang in 889, Zhao Chou, who was by that point the military governor of Fengguo Circuit (奉國, headquartered at Cai Prefecture), also died, and by his recommendation Zhao Chang succeeded him. Nothing was recorded in history about Zhao Yan from this point on for more than a decade. During Emperor Taizu's and Zhu Yougui's reigns After Zhu Quanzhong seized the Tang throne in 907, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang as its Emperor Taizu, Zhao Yan was given the ceremonial titles as minister of the guards (衛尉卿, Weiwei Qing) and Fuma Duwei (駙馬都尉, a title reserved for princesses' husbands). In 908, he was briefly put in charge of Ming Prefecture (洺州, in modern Handan, Hebei) before being recalled to serve in various command posts in the Later Liang imperial guard army.