Shi Jingtang (Chinese: 石敬瑭; 30 March 892 – 28 July 942), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Gaozu of Later Jin (後晉高祖), was the founding emperor of the Later Jin dynasty of China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, reigning from 936 until his death.
Shi was an ethnic Shatuo and was an important military general for the Later Tang before rebelling in 936. He enlisted the help of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty in his struggle against the Later Tang dynasty. For this he was called Emperor Taizong of Liao's adopted son (even though he was 10 years older).
After Shi's rise to power, the Liao would later annex the strategically crucial Sixteen Prefectures and eventually annex the entire Later Jin. The rise of the Liao in northern China and the Mongolian Plateau would shape Chinese politics for the centuries leading up to the Mongol Empire.
The official history Old History of the Five Dynasties stated that his family was originally descended from Shi Que (石碏), an official of the Spring and Autumn period state Wey, through the Han prime minister Shi Fen (石奮), and further stated that Shi Fen's descendants fled west when Han fell, settling in what would eventually become Gan Prefecture (甘州, in modern Zhangye, Gansu), apparently in an attempt to try to link Shi with a Han Chinese ancestry despite the Shatuo origin. Under the Old History of the Five Dynasties account, his great-great-grandfather, whose name was given as Shi Jing (石璟), followed the Shatuo chieftain Zhuye Zhiyi (朱邪執宜) in submitting to Tang, and was settled, along with the rest of the Shatuo people under Zhuye, in Tang territory. Shi Jingtang's father Nieliji (臬捩雞), who was referred to by the Han Chinese name Shi Shaoyong (石紹雍), was said to be a successful general under Zhuye Zhiyi's grandson Li Keyong, who was an important late-Tang warlord, and Li Keyong's son Li Cunxu, who ruled the independent state of Jin after Tang's fall. The other official history for the period, the New History of the Five Dynasties, apparently was skeptical of this account of Shi Jingtang's ancestry, and instead merely gave Nieliji's name, further stating that it was unclear when or how he received the surname of Shi. Most likely, Shi Jingtang descended from the Shatuo sub-tribe Anqing (安慶), specifically, from the Shi clan (石) of ultimately Sogdian origin.
Shi Jingtang was born in 892, during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, in Taiyuan. His mother was stated to be a Lady He, and it was not stated whether she was Shi Shaoyong's wife or concubine. (However, after he later became emperor, Shi Jingtang honored Shi Shaoyong's concubine Lady Liu, first as consort dowager, and then as empress dowager, suggesting the possibility that Lady He was Shi Shaoyong's wife and Shi Jingtang's "legal" mother, but that Lady Liu was his birth mother.) In his youth, Shi Jingtang was said to be quiet and stern. He studied the military strategies and particularly tried to take after Li Mu and Zhou Yafu.
When he grew up, he was known as one of the strongest warriors in the region due to his valor and martial prowess.
The region that Li Keyong ruled subsequently became the state of Jin after Tang's fall in 907 (as Li Keyong carried the Tang-bestowed title of Prince of Jin), and after Li Keyong's death in 908, Li Cunxu succeeded him as the Prince of Jin, in rivalry with Tang's main successor state Later Liang. Li Cunxu subsequently made his adoptive brother (Li Keyong's adoptive son) Li Siyuan, a major general, the prefect of Dai Prefecture (代州 in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi). While Li Siyuan served as the prefect of Dai, he became impressed with Shi Jingtang and gave his Empress Li to Shi in marriage. Shi subsequently served under Li Siyuan in campaigns, becoming one of the two prominent officers under Li Siyuan (along with Li Siyuan's adoptive son Li Congke) due to his battlefield accomplishments.
Despite the familial relationship between Shi and Li Congke and their serving together under Li Siyuan, the two did not like each other and had a rivalry, although not overtly.
In 923, Li Cunxu declared himself emperor of a new state called the Later Tang. He subsequently carried out a campaign that destroyed Later Liang later in the year—a campaign in wherein Li Siyuan played a prominent role. Shi Jingtang and Li Congke both had battlefield accomplishments during the campaign, but Shi did not receive prominent honors as his contributions were not well-known. According to traditional accounts, it was because he did not like to brag about them. However, Li Siyuan was aware of his contributions.
However, by 926, Li Cunxu's state, which had annexed Former Shu, was thrown into chaos due to his misrule. While a fierce general, he was not a capable ruler, and he had alienated the army by killing two prominent generals, Guo Chongtao and Zhu Youqian. A subsequent mutiny at Yedu (鄴都 in modern Handan, Hebei) was not quickly suppressed. Li Cunxu sent Li Siyuan to suppress it, but Li Siyuan's own soldiers mutinied and forced Li Siyuan to join the Yedu mutineers. While Li Siyuan was subsequently able to escape from Yedu, Shi persuaded him that he could never, after this point, convince Li Cunxu that he was not part of the mutiny from the beginning. With Shi and the others persuading him to act against Li Cunxu, Li Siyuan finally decided to gather his troops and head south, first toward the secondary capital Daliang (Later Liang's former capital) and then the imperial capital Luoyang. During this campaign, both Shi and Li Congke continued to play prominent roles. Before Li Siyuan's and Li Cunxu's armies could engage each other, however, Li Cunxu was killed in a mutiny at Luoyang itself. Li Siyuan subsequently entered the city and claimed the title of regent.
Li Siyuan appeared to be initially hesitant to take the throne himself, as at that time, Li Cunxu's son Li Jiji the Prince of Wei, who had been the commander of the army that destroyed Former Shu, was returning from the Shu lands and heading toward Luoyang with his army, and he initially signaled support for Li Jiji. However, after apparently concluding that he would not be tolerated if Li Jiji became emperor, he sent Shi Jingtang and Li Congke to take up defensive positions at Shan Prefecture (陝州, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan) and Hezhong Municipality (河中, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi) respectively, to block Li Jiji. Li Jiji's own soldiers began to desert, and he committed suicide. Li Jiji's subordinate Ren Huan took over command of the remaining army and rendezvoused with Shi, signaling support for Li Siyuan. With Li Jiji dead, Li Siyuan claimed the throne.
Li Siyuan commissioned Shi as the military governor of Baoyi Circuit (保義, headquartered at Shan Prefecture) and created him a count. In 927, he recalled Shi to Luoyang to serve the deputy commander of the imperial guards (with Li Siyuan's biological son Li Conghou serving as the commander). Later in 927, when the general Zhu Shouyin the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) rebelled against Li Siyuan's rule, Li Siyuan initially sent a small dispatch of soldiers under Fan Yanguang to attack Xuanwu's capital Daliang, but then followed that dispatch by sending Shi, and then followed Shi there himself. Zhu, finding the situation hopeless, committed suicide. LI Siyuan subsequently made Shi the military governor of Xuanwu. In 928, Li Siyuan made him the defender of Yedu and the military governor of Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered at Yedu), and gave him the honorary chancellor designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事).
In 930, the two main military governors of the Shu lands, both commissioned by Li Cunxu before his death—Meng Zhixiang the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川 headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) and Dong Zhang the military governor of Dongchuan Circuit (東川 headquartered in modern Mianyang, Sichuan)—fearing that Li Siyuan's powerful chief of staff An Chonghui was intending to act against them, rebelled together. Li Siyuan sent Shi to command the army against the two circuits—a commission that Shi accepted despite his misgivings about the campaign. Shi quickly advanced to Jianmen Pass, but, after capturing it, could not advance further easily against the Dongchuan and Xichuan armies. When Li Siyuan subsequently sent An to the front to monitor the campaign, Shi took the opportunity to write to Li Siyuan, explaining his misgivings from the campaign, and Li Siyuan began to be convinced. Li Siyuan subsequently forced An into retirement and then killed An, and then recalled Shi's army (although Shi already began to retreat before receiving the retreat orders). Li Siyuan subsequently again made him the deputy commander of the imperial guards (by this point, serving as the deputy to another biological son of Li Siyuan's, Li Congrong the Prince of Qin). He was also given the military governorship of Heyang Circuit (河陽, headquartered in modern Jiaozuo, Henan).