Li Yan

Also known as Tang Wuzong · Li Chan · Ying Wang

Li Yan, born Li Chan in 814, was the fifth son of Emperor Muzong and held the title Prince of Ying. In 840, as Emperor Wenzong lay dying, the eunuchs Qiu Shiliang and Yu Hongzhi forged an edict naming him imperial heir, and he took the throne, opening the Huichang era the next year. He brought back Li Deyu as chief minister; in 843 the general Shi Xiong routed the Uyghur khan Wujie and brought home the Taihe Princess, and in 844 the defiant Liu Zhen in Zelu was crushed. In 845 he ordered Buddhist establishments dismantled across the empire; the Old Tang History counts more than 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 smaller shrines destroyed and 260,500 monks and nuns returned to lay life. A devotee of Daoist elixirs, he died in spring 846, having taken the name Yan shortly before; his temple name is Wuzong and he lies at Duanling. The Japanese monk Ennin, then in Chang'an, described the persecution in his diary of travels in Tang.