Ding Hui ( general ) Ding Hui ( 丁會 ) ( died 910 / 911 ) , courtesy name Daoyin ( 道隱 ) , was a general who , for most of his career , served under Zhu Quanzhong ( formerly known as Zhu Wen ) while Zhu was a major warlord late in the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty . In 906 , as Zhu was planning on seizing the Tang throne and establishing his own dynasty ( which he eventually did , establishing Later Liang Dynasty as its Emperor Taizu ) , Ding defected to Zhu ' s rival Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit ( 河東 , headquartered in modern Taiyuan , Shanxi ) and thereafter served in Li Keyong ' s state of Jin until his death . Background . It is not known when Ding Hui was born , but it is known that he was from Shouchun ( 壽春 , in modern Lu ' an , Anhui ) . His father ' s name was Ding Ji ( 丁季 ) . In his youth , Ding Hui was said to be frivolous and inattentive to proper conduct . Instead of farming ( which , implicitly , appeared to have been his family ' s profession ) , he followed professional mourners and learned their songs . When he grew older , the Tang realm was then overrun by agrarian rebellions , and he gathered strong young men around him to engage in banditry , gaining some acclaim in the process . He eventually joined the army of the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao , and came to serve under Huang ' s officer Zhu Wen . Service under Zhu Quanzhong . After Zhu Wen later defected to the Tang cause and was made the military governor ( " Jiedushi " ) of Xuanwu Circuit ( 宣武 , headquartered in modern Kaifeng , Henan ) ( with his name changed to the Tang - bestowed name of Quanzhong ) , Ding Hui became the commander of his headquarter guards . In 888 , when Zhang Quanyi the mayor of Henan Municipality ( 河南 , i . e . , the region of the eastern capital Luoyang ) turned against his ally Li Hanzhi the military governor of Heyang Circuit ( 河陽 , headquartered in modern Luoyang ) and expelled Li from Heyang , Li sought aid from Zhu ' s major rival Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit . Li Keyong sent his officer Kang Junli ( 康君立 ) to aid Li Hanzhi in trying to recapture Heyang Circuit ; in turn , Zhang sought aid from Zhu , who sent Ding , Ge Congzhou , and Niu Cunjie ( 牛存節 ) to aid Zhang . They defeated Kang and his army , forcing him to withdraw . Zhu made Ding the acting military governor of Heyang after the victory . Later in the year , Ding also sought off another attempt by Li Hanzhi to recapture Heyang . In 890 , when Zhu asked Luo Hongxin the military governor of Weibo Circuit ( 魏博 , headquartered in modern Handan , Hebei ) for permission to go through Luo ' s territory to attack Hedong , Luo refused . Zhu reacted by sending Ding , Ge , Pang Shigu ( 龐師古 ) , and Huo Cun ( 霍存 ) to attack Weibo . They won a series of battles , as did Zhu himself , against Weibo . In 891 , Luo sued for peace , submitting a tribute of money . Zhu agreed , and it was said that from that point on , Weibo became a vassal of Zhu ' s . Later in 891 , under Zhu ' s orders , Ding attacked Su Prefecture ( 宿州 , in modern Suzhou , Anhui ) , leading to Su ' s prefect Zhang Yun ( 張筠 ) surrendering to him . Later in the year , Ding and Zhang Guiba ( 張歸霸 ) engaged Zhu Jin the military governor of Taining Circuit ( 泰寧 , headquartered in modern Jining , Shandong ) , who had been locked in years of warfare with Zhu Quanzhong ; they defeated him and inflicted great casualties on his troops ; he himself barely escaped . While most of Ding ' s subsequent battles were not spelled out in history , it was said that he had great contributions in Zhu Quanzhong ' s victorious campaigns against the rebel emperor Qin Zongquan whose capital was at Cai Prefecture ( 蔡州 , in modern Zhumadian , Henan ) , Shi Pu the military governor of Ganhua Circuit ( 感化 , headquartered in modern Xuzhou , Jiangsu ) , and Zhu Jin and his cousin Zhu Xuan the military governor of Tianping Circuit ( 天平 , headquartered in modern Tai ' an , Shandong ) , helping Zhu Quanzhong to greatly expand his territory . In 899 , under Zhu ' s recommendation , several of his officers , including Ding , who had been made acting military governors , were made full military governors of their circuits . Under these recommendations , Li Hanzhi ( who had , in 898 , turned from his allegiance to Li Keyong to Zhu and seized Lu Prefecture ( 潞州 , in modern Changzhi , Shanxi ) , the capital of Zhaoyi Circuit ( 昭義 ) , which had been under the control of Li Keyong ' s subordinate Xue Zhiqin ( 薛志勤 ) until Xue ' s recent death ) was made the military governor of Zhaoyi , and later in the year , Zhu sent Ding to help Li Hanzhi recapture Ze Prefecture ( 澤州 , in modern Jincheng , Shanxi ) , which Li Hanzhi had held but which had been captured by Li Keyong ' s adoptive nephew Li Sizhao . Ding was able to capture Ze Prefecture , and when Li Keyong ' s officer Li Junqing ( 李君慶 ) then put Lu Prefecture under siege , Ding and another subordinate of Zhu ' s , Zhang Cunjing ( 張存敬 ) , came to Li Hanzhi ' s aid and defeated Li Junqing , lifting the siege . Subsequently , when Li Hanzhi became very ill , Zhu made him the military governor of Heyang and Ding the military governor of Zhaoyi . ( Li Hanzhi died shortly after . ) However , then , for reasons unclear in history , Zhu sent Ge to defend Lu Prefecture instead of Ding , and , after another officer under Zhu , He Delun ( 賀德倫 ) , was defeated by Li Sizhao , Ge withdrew , allowing Li Keyong to retain Zhaoyi . Not until 901 , when , in the aftermaths of a major attack Zhu launched on Li Keyong ' s capital Taiyuan , Li Keyong ' s subordinate Meng Qian ( 孟遷 ) surrendered Zhaoyi to Zhu , that Ding was actually able to take over Zhaoyi Circuit and govern it . Subsequently , then - reigning Emperor Zhaozong formally commissioned Ding as the military governor of Zhaoyi and Meng as the military governor of Heyang . Defection to and service under Li Keyong and Li Cunxu . In 904 , Zhu forced Emperor Zhaozong , who was then under his physical control , to move the capital from Chang ' an to Luoyang . Later in the year , he further had Emperor Zhaozong assassinated and replaced with his son Emperor Ai . When the news of Emperor Zhaozong ' s death reached Zhaoyi , Ding had his army bear mourning clothes and wept for a long time . Thereafter , in 906 , when Zhu was attacking Liu Rengong the military governor of Lulong Circuit ( 盧龍 , headquartered in modern Beijing ) and Li Keyong tried to aid Liu by attacking Zhaoyi again to divert Zhu ' s troops , Ding surrendered the circuit . He stated to Li Keyong : Li Keyong treated him with great respect , putting him in honored position above other officers , but made Li Sizhao the acting military governor of Zhaoyi to replace him . Zhu , upon hearing news of Ding ' s surrender , abandoned his campaign against Liu and withdrew . In retribution , he also killed Ding Zhihang ( 丁知沆 ) , one of Ding Hui ' s seven sons . In 907 , Zhu had Emperor Ai yield the throne to him , ending Tang Dynasty and starting a new Later Liang Dynasty as its Emperor Taizu . Li Keyong and several other warlords inimical to Zhu refused to recognize him as emperor . Li Keyong maintained the Tang era name ( and is commonly viewed as the ruler of his own state from this point on , under the Tang - bestowed title of Prince of Jin ) . Late in 907 , Emperor Taizu ordered Liang forces to put Lu Prefecture under siege , but Li Keyong himself , being severely ill , was unable to render aid to Li Sizhao . He died early in 908 and was succeeded as the Prince of Jin by his son Li Cunxu . Li Cunxu planned a major campaign to save Li Sizhao , and he put Ding in overall command of the operations — although , in the subsequent victory over Liang troops that lifted the siege on Lu , it was Li Cunxu himself , along with Zhou Dewei , who achieved the victory , with Ding ' s role unclear . Ding died in late 910 or early 911 , and , after Li Cunxu established his own Later Tang Dynasty and destroyed Later Liang in 923 , he bestowed posthumous honors on Ding .