釋氏稽古略 3.496

3.496

Previously, Liu Chong, Military Commissioner of Hedong and concurrently Secretariat Director, was the younger brother of Han Gaozu by the same mother. When Gaozu ascended the throne, he appointed Chong as Prefect of Taiyuan and Defender of the Northern Capital. When Emperor Yindi of the Han was murdered, he wished to raise troops and march south, but hearing that his son Yun had been welcomed to become emperor, he stopped, saying: "My son is becoming emperor; what more could I seek?" When Zhou Taizu replaced the Han and killed Yun in Songzhou, Chong was furious. On that day, he ascended the imperial throne in Jinyang, naming his state Han and calling the era the fourth year of Qianyou. In the second month, the Liao ruler, hearing that the Northern Han had been established, sent Pacification Commissioner Pan Yulian with a letter to his son Liu Chengjun. The Han ruler had Chengjun reply, stating: "Our dynasty has fallen and perished; we wish to follow the precedent of the Jin royal house to seek aid and request troops." The Liao ruler was overjoyed. In summer, the fourth month, the Han ruler dispatched Zheng Gong to deliver a letter to the Liao addressing himself as nephew and requesting the performance of an investiture ceremony. The Liao emperor ordered Shuzha, King of Yan, to invest the Han [ruler] as Shenwu Emperor of the Great Han, and he changed his name to Min.