The last emperor of the Liao Kingdom was named Yelü Yanxi, the grandson of Emperor Daozong Yelü Hongji, whose father was Crown Prince Yelü Jun, who was framed and killed by the treacherous minister Yelü Yixin in the infamous Ten Fragrant Words case; after Yelü Hongji's death, the throne was directly passed to his grandson Yelü Yanxi, historically known as Emperor Tianzuo.
When Emperor Tianzuo ascended the throne, the Northern Song Dynasty was launching a military campaign against the Western Xia. The Chongzong Emperor of Western Xia then earnestly requested a marriage alliance with the Liao Dynasty, hoping to forge an alliance between Liao and Western Xia to halt the Northern Song's advance. Emperor Tianzuo granted his request, bestowing the title of princess upon a young woman of the same clan and sending her far away to marry into Western Xia. Subsequently, Emperor Tianzuo dispatched envoys to the Northern Song and successfully persuaded them to withdraw their troops from Western Xia.
In the spring of 1112, Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao Dynasty traveled to the Songhua River region in the northeast and hosted a banquet for local Jurchen tribal leaders, including Wanyan Aguda. After getting drunk, the emperor ordered all the tribal leaders to dance for his entertainment. Among them, only Wanyan Aguda refused to obey the emperor's command. This marked the beginning of Wanyan Aguda's rebellion against the Liao Dynasty. Unfortunately, during this period, Emperor Tianzuo never took this matter seriously, always believing that a small Jurchen tribe could not amount to much. However, what he never expected was that this seemingly insignificant Jurchen tribe would, just over a decade later, destroy the Liao Dynasty's empire, which had stood for more than two hundred years.
In 1114, Wanyan Aguda led his forces to attack the Liao Dynasty first. Despite having an overwhelming numerical advantage, the Liao army suffered repeated defeats on the battlefield. Amid the raging flames of war, Wanyan Aguda established the Jin Dynasty. Emperor Tianzuo, who had initially dismissed the Jurchen tribe with contempt, finally began to realize the powerful threat they posed to the Liao. He decided to personally lead an expedition, commanding a massive army of 700,000 troops to attack the Jin forces.
At this critical moment, the Liao minister Yelü Zhangnu launched a rebellion in the Supreme Capital. Emperor Tianzuo, unable to handle multiple crises, hastily led his army back to suppress the revolt. The rebellion was quickly quelled, and the mastermind Yelü Zhangnu was executed. However, Wanyan Aguda seized the opportunity to nearly annihilate the Liao army, inflicting devastating losses. Meanwhile, domestic unrest grew, and the political situation began to fragment. During this period, Gao Yongchang, a Liao general stationed in the Eastern Capital, also rebelled, capturing fifty-four prefectures of the Liao Eastern Capital Circuit and proclaiming himself Emperor of Great Bohai. Emperor Tianzuo sent forces to suppress Gao Yongchang, who then sought reinforcements from Wanyan Aguda. The Liao army, caught between the rebels and the Jin forces, suffered a crushing defeat. Subsequently, Wanyan Aguda executed Gao Yongchang and seized control of those fifty-four prefectures for himself.
Wanyan Aguda was not content with his immediate victories; he pressed his advantage and led his army to capture the Spring Prefecture and the Supreme Capital of the Liao Dynasty one after another. By this point, half of the Liao Dynasty's territory had fallen into the hands of the Jin Dynasty. During this period, a major event occurred within the Liao Dynasty: the high-ranking official Yelü Yudu defected from the Liao and surrendered to the Jin.
Emperor Tianzuo's Consort Wen had three sisters in her family; she was the second eldest, with her elder sister married to the Liao noble Yelü Tagele and her younger sister married to Yelü Yudu. Consort Wen's son, Yelü Aoluwo, was Emperor Tianzuo's eldest son, enfeoffed as Prince of Jin, and held considerable prestige both in court and among the people, making him the undisputed candidate for the next emperor.
Court official Xiao Fengxian's younger sister was Emperor Tianzuo's primary consort, bearing him two sons, the Prince of Qin and the Prince of Xu. Xiao Fengxian was determined to have his nephew inherit the throne, making Yelü Aolüwo a major obstacle. To eliminate this thorn in his side, Xiao Fengxian devised a venomous plot. At the time, Yelü Yudu was leading Liao forces against the Jin army, with his wife accompanying him at the front. When the Wen Consort's sister visited the camp to see her younger sister, Xiao Fengxian learned of this and used it as a pretext to falsely accuse Yelü Yudu and Yelü Tagele of conspiring to rebel, aiming to force Emperor Tianzuo to abdicate and install the Prince of Jin on the throne. Xiao Fengxian also claimed that the Wen Consort was complicit in this scheme.
Emperor Tianzuo was politically inept and often displeased when his Consort Wen repeatedly admonished him. Having already endured two rebellions, upon hearing Xiao Fengxian's report, the emperor flew into a rage, executing Consort Wen's sister and Yelü Dage Li along with others suspected of plotting rebellion, and also ordered Consort Wen to commit suicide. Enraged, Yelü Yudu led his troops to surrender to the Jin state. Upon receiving the news, Emperor Tianzuo hastily dispatched generals to pursue him. However, the generals, resentful of the emperor's blind trust in Xiao Fengxian's slander, sided with Yelü Yudu and deliberately let him escape.
After defecting to the Jin state, Yelü Yudu helped the Jin army turn around and attack the Liao state. Based on this, Xiao Fengxian said to Emperor Tianzuo: "Yelü Yudu, in order to support Prince Jin's ascension to the throne, actually sought aid from the Jin army. Now, if Your Majesty wishes to make Yelü Yudu withdraw his troops, the only option is to execute Prince Jin, thereby extinguishing Yelü Yudu's hopes. In this way, although we sacrifice one prince, we can preserve the Liao state's territory."
Emperor Tianzuo believed Xiao Fengxian's words were reasonable, so he ordered Yelü Aoluwo to be executed by forced suicide. After this incident, within the Liao Kingdom, "the people's hearts became even more disunited," and the subjects' dissatisfaction with Emperor Tianzuo had reached an unbearable extreme.
Yelü Yudu, filled with grief and indignation, led his troops in hot pursuit of Emperor Tianzuo. The emperor fled from place to place, finally realizing that he should not have heeded Xiao Fengxian's one-sided words, which led him to wrongly kill his wife, children, and key ministers. Overcome with regret, Emperor Tianzuo first banished Xiao Fengxian and later ordered him to be executed.
In fact, Emperor Tianzuo had prepared for escape from the war's outset, stocking ample money and horses to flee to Song or Western Xia at any moment.
When he actually began his escape, Emperor Chongzong of the Western Xia Dynasty proactively extended an invitation to him. However, Emperor Tianzuo of Liao had not been in Western Xia long before the kingdom, under pressure from the Jin Dynasty, sent him away. Emperor Tianzuo continued his exile, but when he fled to Yingzhou, he was captured by Jin soldiers and taken to the Jin capital, Shangjing. The Jin emperor granted him the title of Prince of Haibin.
According to the "History of Liao," three years later, Emperor Tianzuo died of illness at the age of fifty-four. However, the "Anecdotes of the Xuanhe Era of the Great Song" claims that Emperor Tianzuo lived to be eighty-one. At that time, Emperor Qinzong of Song was also taken captive to the Jin Kingdom. The Jin emperor, Wanyan Liang, ordered these two former monarchs to play polo together. Emperor Qinzong, being frail, fell off his horse, and the chaotic herd trampled him to death. Seeing the situation turn dire, Emperor Tianzuo tried to spur his horse and flee, but was shot dead on the spot by the Jin soldiers. Once rulers of their own nations, they met such tragic ends—truly lamentable.
In 907 AD, Emperor Taizu of Liao, Yelü Abaoji, established the Liao Dynasty, which lasted for over two hundred years until it was conquered by the Jin Dynasty in 1125. After its fall, his descendants successively established regimes such as Northern Liao, Eastern Liao, Later Liao, and Western Liao, but these regimes all perished within a very short time, and the former glory of the Liao Dynasty never returned.