Liu Chengyou

Also known as Houhan Yindi

Liu Chengyou, second son of the Later Han founder Liu Zhiyuan, came to the throne at eighteen as Prince of Zhou when his father died early in 948, keeping the era name Qianyou while the regents Yang Bin, Shi Hongzhao, Wang Zhang and Guo Wei divided the government. In the eleventh month of 950, conspiring with his favorite Li Ye and others, he had Yang, Shi and Wang cut down at court, sent agents to Yedu to kill Guo Wei, and put to death all of Guo's family in the capital. Guo marched south claiming to rid the throne of evil advisers, and Liu went out to meet him, lost the battle at Liuzi Slope, and on 2 January 951 was killed at Zhaocun by his own attendant Guo Yunming, at the age of twenty. Guo Wei first had the empress dowager govern, then made himself emperor of the Later Zhou early in 951; Liu was given the posthumous title Yin, 'the hidden', and buried at the Ying Mausoleum.