In 880, they were defeated by the joint forces of military governor Li Zhuo (李琢) and Tuyuhun chieftain Helian Duo, and the Shatuo army fled northward to the Yin Mountains where they sought refuge with a Mohe tribe. In 878, however, Li Guochang and his son Li Keyong rebelled against the Tang. His mother was a Lady Liu, who was later honored with the title of Lady of Song.

His father, referred in Chinese historiography books by his Chinese name Li Ni (李霓), was a military general under Li Guochang, the Shatuo leader in the region who received the imperial surname Li for contributions to the Tang dynasty court.

Li Siyuan was born with the Shatuo name of Miaojilie in 867 in Yingzhou (應州 present-day Ying County, Shanxi), without a surname like his nomadic Turkic ancestors. Despite an abundance of natural disasters, his reign was markedly more peaceful than the half-century preceding it. In 926 he seized power by a coup d'état when a mutiny called the Xingjiao Gate Incident killed Li Cunxu, and ruled with both discipline and compassion for the next seven years.

He was an ethnic Shatuo originally named, in the Shatuo language, Miaojilie (邈佶烈).Īdopted by the ethnic Shatuo ruler Li Keyong of the Former Jin dynasty, Li Siyuan became a trusted general under both Li Keyong and Li Keyong's successor Li Cunxu (Emperor Zhuangzong), the Later Tang founder. Li Siyuan (李嗣源, later changed to Li Dan (李亶) ) (10 October 867 – 15 December 933 ), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (後唐明宗), was the second emperor of the Later Tang dynasty of China, reigning from 926 until his death.

Ni Hao, Li Huan Ying instaling