Li Yixing (李彝興) (died October 20, 967[1][2]), né Li Yiyin (李彝殷), formally the Prince of Xia (夏王), was an ethnically-Dangxiang warlord of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period and the early Song Dynasty, ruling Dingnan Circuit (定難, headquartered in modern Yulin, Shaanxi) from 935 to his death in 967, as its military governor (Jiedushi) in de facto independence.
[3] In 943—by which time Later Tang had fallen and its former territory was reigned by the Later Jin's emperor Shi Chonggui—there was a plot for an uprising against Li Yiyin's rule, from within Dingnan itself, led by the commander of the headquarters guards, Tuoba Chongbin (拓拔崇斌).
[8] In 944, during a time that there were major military confrontations between Later Jin and its northern rival, the Khitan Liao Dynasty, which was at that time aiding Yang Guangyuan, a Later Jin general who had rebelled at Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong), Li Yiyin submitted a report to Shi indicating that he had taken his 40,000 men and made an incursion into Liao territory, across the Yellow River, from his Lin Prefecture (麟州, in modern Yulin).
The nearby Qing Prefecture (慶州, in modern Qingyang, Gansu), recommended that the Later Han imperial government take precautions (apparently distrusting Li Yiyin's intentions).
Liu issued an edict, urging Li Yiyin to stand down, using the rationale that the imperial astronomers had stated that the year was, as a matter of astrology, unsuitable for military actions.
Li Yiyin mobilized his troops and sent them to the borders with Zhangwu, but thereafter, hearing that the Later Han imperial forces, under the command of Guo Wei, had put Huguo's capital Hezhong Municipality (河中) under siege, he withdrew.
To further placate Li Yiyin, who had developed a reputation for encouraging rebellions so that he could benefit from them, the Later Han imperial government further allocated Jing Prefecture (靜州, in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia) to him in 949.
Emperor Taizu posthumously created him the greater title of Prince of Xia, and subsequently commissioned his son Li Kerui as the new military governor of Dingnan.