Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Zuwu Khan belonged to the Yaonian clan, a prominent lineage within the Khitan tribal confederation. Historical sources preserve little information about his early life. In the early Tang period, the Khitans formed a tribal confederation whose supreme ruler bore the title of khagan, while effective power was often held by a separate military chief. During the Kaiyuan era, Ketuyu dominated Khitan military and political affairs for many years, repeatedly deposing and installing khagans and alternately fighting and negotiating with Tang. In 734, the twenty-second year of Kaiyuan, Zhang Shougui, the Tang Military Commissioner of Youzhou, defeated the Khitans and Ketuyu was killed. Nieli, a surviving leader of his faction, continued resistance. In 735, the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan, Nieli killed Li Guozhe, the Tang-appointed Governor-General of Songmo, and enthroned Dinian Zuli as khagan, namely Zuwu Khan.
Enthronement as Khagan
In 735, under Nieli's direction, Zuwu Khan was elected by the tribes as leader of the confederation and, following Turkic precedent, took the title of khagan. He assumed office through a ritual in which firewood was burned and the sun was worshipped, making this firewood-burning and sun-worship election and enthronement rite a regular institution. Real power, however, remained in the hands of Nieli, the military chief, so Zuwu Khan was the nominal head of the confederation but possessed limited effective authority. At the end of the same year he sent envoys to Tang and maintained good relations. In 737, after the Khitans were defeated by Tang forces, Zuwu Khan rebuilt the Yaonian Eight-Tribe Confederation, was selected as leader of the eight tribes, and formalized the institution of a separate military chief within the confederation. In 743, the second year of Tianbao, he again sent a delegation of eighty officials to Tang, reflecting a posture of submission toward the dynasty.
Relations with Tang and the Rebellion
In March 745, the fourth year of Tianbao, after the collapse of the Second Turkic Khaganate, the Khitans submitted to Tang. In the traditional narrative, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang granted Zuwu Khan the Chinese name Li Huaixiu, appointed him Governor-General of Songmo, enfeoffed him as Prince of Chongshun, and married his granddaughter Lady Dugu to him as Princess Jingle. Miao Runbo, however, argues that this Li Huaixiu and Zuwu Khan were different people. Li Huaixiu was the sixth and last Khitan leader to marry a Tang princess, while Princess Jingle was the fourth and last Tang princess to marry a Khitan ruler. In the ninth month of the same year, Li Huaixiu, angered by the provocations and mistreatment of the newly appointed Yingzhou governor and frontier commissioner An Lushan, killed Princess Jingle, rebelled against Tang together with the Xi, and aligned with the Turks. He subsequently fought An Lushan several times with mixed results. In 746, the fifth year of Tianbao, Tang invested Li Kailuo to replace Li Huaixiu.
Later Years and the Battle at Tuhuzhen River
In the eighth month of the tenth year of Tianbao (751; according to another account, the eleventh year), An Lushan, Military Commissioner of Fanyang, led more than one hundred thousand troops against the Khitans. Zuwu Khan, or possibly his successor, inflicted a major defeat on An's army south of the Huang River, at Tuhuzhen River in the upper reaches of the present-day Laoha River. The battle was a major Khitan victory over Tang and effectively checked Tang military pressure. Nothing definite is known of Zuwu Khan thereafter. After the establishment of the Liao dynasty, his descendants were counted among the Nine Yaonian Tents, indicating the importance later Khitan tradition attached to his lineage.