Táng emperor (r. 840–846), personal name Lǐ Yán 李炎, temple name Wǔzōng 武宗. Best known for the Huìchāng 會昌 persecution of Buddhism (845), in which monasteries were dismantled, monks and nuns laicized, and Buddhist property confiscated on a massive scale — the most severe of the “Three Wǔ” persecutions in Chinese history. The persecution broke up the institutional centres of Táng Esoteric Buddhism at Cháng’ān (including the 不空 Amoghavajra lineage at Dàxìngshànsì) and forced the surviving transmission abroad, especially to Japan through Kūkai’s earlier mission (804–806) and the later Chinese disciples of the Tantric masters.