Hou Tian

Hou Tian (510–9 April 561), courtesy name Boyu, was a military general of the Liang and Chen during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. During the Hou Jing Disturbance, he vacillated his allegiance between the competing powers and delivered the final blow to Hou Jing's army while serving under Wang Sengbian. Hou Tian effectively became a semi-independent warlord in the Jiangxi area, but after his followers ousted him from his territory, he went to join the future Emperor Wu of Chen at Jiankang. Under the Chen, he decisively defeated the Hunan warlord, Wang Lin in 560, ending a three-year-long conflict that threatened the dynasty. Despite his history of defections and betrayals, Hou Tian was one of the few southern commanders at the time who boasted victories against both the rival Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, and played pivotal roles in the suppression of Hou Jing and Wang Lin. After his death in 561, he was posthumously honoured and enshrined in Emperor Wu's ancestral temple.