Mavericks › Uprising Leaders
Dou Jiande
Hebei rebel leader from Zhangnan who proclaimed himself King of Xia, executed Yuwen Huaji, and was captured by Li Shimin at Hulao in 621
A mountain camp at night, with a beacon fire burning on a wooden platform at the upper left, several white tents on the slope and a red cloth tied to a rope; a wooden palisade with a gate stands at the right beyond a timber bridge over a rough river, under a clouded moon.
- Roles
- Uprising Leaders
Dou Jiande, from Zhangnan in Beizhou, was known in his youth for keeping his word and served as a village head. Picked in 611 to command two hundred conscripts for the war against Koguryo, he sheltered a neighbour, Sun Anzu, who had killed the county magistrate, and urged him to raise men in the Gaojibo marshes. He then joined the rebel Gao Shida, took over his followers when Gao was killed, declared himself King of Changle at Leshou in 617, and the next year took the title King of Xia. He employed captured Sui officials, and in 619 took Liaocheng and put to death Yuwen Huaji, the murderer of Emperor Yang, afterwards making Mingzhou his capital. In 621, marching with over a hundred thousand men to relieve Wang Shichong at Luoyang, he was held at Hulao Pass by Li Shimin and captured, and was beheaded at Chang'an at forty-nine. His officer Liu Heita soon rose again in Hebei in his name.
Life and times
Dates c. 573 CE–621 CE