Xiao Han

Xiao Han (蕭翰) (d. 949), probably né Shulü Han (述律翰), also named Dilie (敵烈), courtesy name Hanzhen (寒真), was a general of the Khitan Liao dynasty. After a brief Liao conquest of central China after Liao's second emperor Emperor Taizong destroyed Later Jin, Xiao was left in control of Later Jin's former capital Daliang, but was unable to hold it. He later plotted against Emperor Taizong's nephew and successor Emperor Shizong and was executed.

It is not known when Xiao Han was born. His father was Xiao Dilu (蕭敵魯) — probably still using the surname of Shulü (述律) at the time — who was a chancellor of Khitan Empire (which would later become Liao) northern court, and who was a brother of Empress Shulü Ping, the wife of Khitan's first emperor Emperor Taizu and a son of Emperor Taizu's aunt. Despite this close relationship, at some point, Xiao Han's mother was put to death by Empress Shulü, causing him to resent the empress from that point on.

The earliest reference to Xiao Han's military career was in 922, when Zhang Wenli, then in control of Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), was under the attack by the army of Khitan's southern neighbor Jin and sought Khitan aid. While the Chinese accounts were that then Jin-commander Li Sizhao (adoptive cousin of Jin's prince Li Cunxu) died in battle with Zhang's army, Xiao's biography in the History of Liao contained a different narrative — that it was Xiao, whom Emperor Taizu sent to aid Zhang, who killed Li Sizhao.

In any case, after Emperor Taizu's death and succession by Emperor Taizu's son Emperor Taizong — who had married Xiao Han's sister Xiao Wen as his empress, and whose sister, according to the Chinese historical source Zizhi Tongjian, Xiao Han might have married, although it might have been a confusion with Xiao Han's later marriage — Xiao Han became the commander of Emperor Taizong's Han guards. In 945 (by which time Emperor Taizong had changed the name of his Khitan state to Liao, and by which time central China was ruled by Later Jin), when Emperor Taizong's army was battling that of the Later Jin general Du Wei and initially prevailed, Xiao advocated having the Liao cavalry get off their horses and shooting at Du's army with bows. Emperor Taizong agreed, but once the Liao cavalry soldiers did so, a Later Jin counterattack caused the battle to go against Liao with heavy losses, much to Emperor Taizong's regret.

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