Emperor Xizong of Tang
Kong Xun was born in 884, during the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang, but his ancestry and home territory has been lost to history, as was his original personal name. He became an orphan early in his life, and gradually ended up in Bian Prefecture (汴州, in modern Kaifeng, Henan). He was taken into the household of a rich man named Li Rang (), and Li raised him as an adoptive son. Later, when Zhu Quanzhong became the military governor ("Jiedushi") of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered at Bian Prefecture), Li became an adoptive son of Zhu's, and so Kong also changed his family name to Zhu. As he grew older, he served in Zhu Quanzhong's army, and became favored by a wet nurse of one of Zhu Quanzhong's sons. She thus took him as an adoptive son, and as her husband's family name was Zhao, Kong took the family name of Zhao and a new personal name of Yinheng.