Liu Congxiao

Liu Congxiao (Chinese: 留從效; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Liû Chiông-hāu; 906-962), formally the Prince of Jinjiang (Chinese: 晉江王; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chìn-kang-ông), was a general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Min. After Min's fall, he initially submitted to Southern Tang (which had conquered Min), but eventually, taking advantage of Southern Tang's inability to fully control the region, took the southern part of the former Min realm under his own control, albeit in nominal submission to Southern Tang. After Southern Tang's repeated defeats by Later Zhou, he also nominally submitted to Later Zhou's successor state Song.

Liu Congxiao was born in 906, at the very end of the Tang dynasty. He was from Yongchn (永春, in modern Quanzhou, Fujian), which was known as Taolin (桃林) early in his lifetime. His father Liu Zhang (留璋) died in his youth, and he became known for serving his mother and older brother piously. He was said to be somewhat educated in literature, and was a particularly avid reader of military strategies.

As of 944, Liu Congxiao was serving as an army officer in the army of his home prefecture Quan Prefecture (泉州, in modern Quanzhou). By that time, the state that Quan had been ruled by, Min, ruled by the imperial Wang family, had been broken apart by civil war and political strife—and now was under the reign of the usurper general Zhu Wenjin (who had assassinated the emperor Wang Xi (Emperor Jingzong), with Zhu's hold on the throne being Min contested by Wang Xi's brother Wang Yanzheng, who had earlier declared himself emperor of a breakaway state of Yin.

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