Qian Liu

Also known as Qian Poliu · Wu Yue Wu Su Wang · Wuyue Wang

Qian Liu, courtesy name Jumei and childhood name Poliu, was a salt smuggler from Lin'an. In 875 he joined the garrison commander Dong Chang against the rebel Wang Ying, and later ambushed Huang Chao's vanguard near Lin'an. When Dong Chang proclaimed himself emperor at Yuezhou in 895, Qian Liu was ordered to suppress him; his general Gu Quanwu took the city the next year and Dong drowned himself, leaving Qian in command of both Zhejiang circuits. The Tang made him Prince of Yue in 902 and Prince of Wu in 904, and in 907 the new Later Liang named him King of Wuyue; after a jade investiture from the Later Tang he styled himself King of the Wuyue State, and local stone inscriptions use the era names Baoda and Baozheng. The Wuyue beishi credits him with building a stone seawall on the Qiantang River at Hangzhou in 910. He died in 932, was canonised as Wusu, and his grandson Qian Chu surrendered the state to the Song in 978.