Background
Li Keyong — although he would have initially carried the surname of Zhuye — was born in 856, during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong. His father was the Shatuo chieftain Zhuye Chixin, whose people were then living in the Shenwu River (神武川, flowing through modern Shuozhou, Shanxi) region. His mother was Lady Qin, and it is not clear whether she was Zhuye Chixin's wife or concubine. He was Zhuye Chixin's third son.
In 869, during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong's son Emperor Yizong, as the Tang imperial general Kang Chengxun was commissioned to suppress the rebellion of Pang Xun at Xu Prefecture (徐州, in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), he invited Zhuye to bring his Shatuo soldiers and serve under him. Zhuye agreed, and then-14-year-old Li Keyong fought in the campaign so fiercely that he became known as the "Son of the Flying Tiger" (飛虎子). After the campaign, to recognize Zhuye Chixin's contributions during the campaign, Emperor Yizong bestowed on him the imperial surname of Li, and gave him a new name of Guochang. Li Keyong presumably took the imperial surname of Li at that time as well. Li Guochang was subsequently made the military governor (Jiedushi) of Zhenwu Circuit (振武, headquartered in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia). Li Keyong went to Zhenwu as well to serve under his father.
Read more about this topic: Li Keyong
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)