Li Guochang (Chinese: 李國昌; pinyin: Lǐ Guóchāng) (died 887[1]), né Zhuye Chixin (朱邪赤心), courtesy name Dexing (德興), posthumously honored by the Later Tang dynasty as Emperor Wenjing (文景皇帝) with the temple name of Xianzu (獻祖), was a Chinese general of Shatuo ethnicity during the waning years of the Tang dynasty.
Zhuye Chixin's ancestors had been hereditary chiefs of the Shatuo tribe, and, after they had come under the rule of Tubo and settled at the formerly-Tang dynasty-controlled Gan Prefecture (甘州, in modern Zhangye, Gansu), had often served as forward troops for Tufan.
Zhuye Zhiyi was able to make it through to Tang's Ling Prefecture (靈州, in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia), where the Tang military governor (Jiedushi) of Shuofang Circuit (朔方, headquartered at Ling Prefecture), Fan Xichao (范希朝), welcomed the Shatuo under Zhuye Zhiyi.
In 809, when Fan was transferred from Shuofang to Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), the Tang imperial government feared that the Shatuo would betray Tang, and therefore had them relocate, with Fan, to Hedong Circuit, and the area of Huanghuadui (黃花堆, in modern Shuozhou, Shanxi) became Zhuye Zhiyi's possession.
[4] In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the officer Shi Xiong, participated in a raid against the Huigu that rescued Tang's Princess Taihe, an aunt of then-reigning Emperor Wuzong, who had been married to a former khan as part of the heqin system of marriage alliances.
[6] In 868, during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong's son Emperor Yizong, soldiers from Xusi Circuit (徐泗, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) who had been sent to Lingnan West Circuit (嶺南西道, headquartered in modern Nanning, Guangxi) to defend against a potential Dali attack were incensed when they were informed that they were to stay another year at the border, mutinied.
Emperor Yizong reacted by commissioning the imperial guard general Kang Chengxun as the military governor of Yicheng Circuit (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan) and the overall commander of the operation against Pang.
To reward Zhuye, Emperor Yizong gave him the imperial surname of Li and a new personal name of Guochang (國昌, meaning "prosperity to the empire"),[7] having him adopted into the branch house of the Prince of Zheng.
[3] He carved out a new Datong Circuit (大同) from Hedong, with its headquarters at Yun Prefecture (雲州, in modern Datong, Shanxi), to have Li Guochang serve as its military governor, but then kept Li Guochang at the capital Chang'an for some time to serve as an imperial guard general.
[7] In 870, Emperor Yizong commissioned Li Guochang as the military governor of Zhenwu Circuit (振武, headquartered in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia).
[8] He was apparently thereafter allowed to remain at Zhenwu, and subsequently sent soldiers to participate in the imperial campaign against the agrarian rebel Wang Xianzhi.
[9] Several months later, Helian, who was consequently made the defender of Datong, secretly tried to persuade the Dada to slaughter the Shatuo who fled to them.
After Li Keyong made that proclamation, the Dada became convinced that he would not stay and pose a threat to them, and therefore did not slaughter the Shatuo.