Emperor Xianzong of Tang (4 March to 1 April 778 – 14 February 820; r. 805 – 820), personal name Li Chun, né Li Chun (), was an emperor of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. He was the eldest son of Emperor Shunzong, who reigned for less than a year in 805 and who yielded the throne to him late that year. Once emperor, Emperor Xianzong set out to curb the power of the military governors (Jiedushi), and, when they would not heed his orders, he waged wars against them. His initial campaigns were quite successful, and Xianzong's army defeated warlords such as Liu Pi, Yang Huilin () in 806 and Li Qi in 807. In 813, after the submission of one of the key holdouts, Weibo Circuit (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei) under Tian Xing, Emperor Xianzong appeared poised to reunite the empire, many parts of which had effectively been ruled independently by regional warlords. Xianzong's first setback was in 813 when he failed to defeat military governor Wang Chengzong. However, by 817, after the defeat of Li Shidao and Wang's submission, all of the empire was under imperial authority again. Later historians referred to Emperor Xianzong's reign as the Yuanhe Restoration (). Emperor Xianzong's reign briefly stabilized Tang from the destructive forces of the military governors, but saw the rise of the power of eunuchs. Emperor Xianzong himself was allegedly murdered by the eunuch Chen Hongzhi () in 820. (There were nagging suspicions, never proven, that Xianzong's wife Consort Guo and her son Li Heng (who succeeded Xianzong as Emperor Muzong) were involved.) Background Li Chun was born in 778, during the reign of his great-grandfather Emperor Daizong, at the Eastern Palace (i.e., the palace of his grandfather, then-Crown Prince Li Kuo). His father Li Song was Li Kuo's oldest son, and he himself was Li Song's oldest son. His mother was Li Song's concubine Consort Wang. When Li Chun was five or six, by which time Li Kuo was emperor (as Emperor Dezong), there was an occasion when Emperor Dezong held Li Chun on his lap and asked, "Who are you, such that you are in my lap?" His response of, "I am the third Son of Heaven" surprised Emperor Dezong, who thereafter showed him much favor. As the Prince of Guangling and Crown Prince In 788, by which time Li Song (Shunzong) was crown prince, Li