Southern Tang

The Southern Tang was a dynastic state in southern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was founded in 937 by Li Bian, who overthrew the Wu state and initially called his realm Great Qi before adopting the Tang name in 939. The Southern Tang claimed to be the successor of the Tang dynasty, and its capital was at Nanjing, then called Jiangning. At its height around 951 it controlled the whole of modern Jiangxi and parts of Anhui, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangsu. Li Bian's son Li Jing expanded the state by conquering Min in 945 and Chu in 951, but the Later Zhou invaded in 956 and forced the Southern Tang to cede all territory north of the Yangtze and become a vassal in 958. The state survived as a rump in the Jiangnan region until the Northern Song conquered it in 975. Its last ruler, Li Yu, is remembered as one of the greatest poets of the ci form, and his verses about loss and captivity became classics of Chinese literature. The Southern Tang was thus both a political failure and a cultural beacon.