Li Yu

Also known as Tang Daizong · Li Chu · Chu Wang

Li Yu, first named Li Chu, was Suzong's eldest son, born at Luoyang in January 727 and made Prince of Guangping under Xuanzong. In 757, as supreme marshal with Uighur troops in support, he recovered Chang'an and then Luoyang, and in 758 he was named crown prince and renamed Yu. He took the throne in the fourth month of 762 after Li Fuguo and Cheng Yuanzhen confined Empress Zhang, and reigned under the era names Baoying, Guangde, Yongtai and Dali. The rebellion ended in 763 with Shi Chaoyi's death, but Hebei was left to surrendered rebel generals such as Tian Chengsi and Li Huaixian, and that autumn a Tibetan army took Chang'an and drove him to Shanzhou. He put Liu Yan in charge of canal transport and the salt monopoly, and in turn removed the overmighty Li Fuguo, the eunuch Yu Chao'en and the minister Yuan Zai. He died in June 779 and received the temple name Daizong and burial at the Yuan Mausoleum.