The Chenqiao mutiny was a mutiny and coup d'état on 2 February 960 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period of China that resulted in the overthrow of the Later Zhou dynasty and the foundation of the Song dynasty. In response to an invasion by the Northern Han and Liao dynasty, general Zhao Kuangyin led his troops to Chenqiao. His troops soon mutinied and installed him as emperor. Although the official narrative recounts that a yellow imperial robe was forced upon Zhao and that he only accepted the emperorship reluctantly, most modern historians now agree that he helped orchestrate the mutiny. Many apocryphal events, such as a solar eclipse and a previous emperor's discovery of a mysterious wooden tablet, also surround the Chenqiao mutiny, decreasing the inherent illegitimacy of usurpation.

Prior to the foundation of the Song dynasty, China had experienced a period of disunity in the aftermath of Huang Chao's rebellion and during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Military-backed rebellions and usurpations were especially common during this period. The largely bloodless Chenqiao mutiny therefore empowered Zhao to not only maintain the personal loyalty of the Song military, but also to institute centralization reforms that effectively prevented internal military threats from occurring in the future. This stability allowed Zhao and his younger brother, Emperor Taizong, to largely reunify China in 979 following the conquest of the Northern Han.

Following the end of the An Lushan rebellion in the mid-700s, the Tang dynasty largely delegated its regional authority to the Jiedushi, or military governors. The government was further weakened by Huang Chao's rebellion in the late 800s, which destroyed the Tang court's ability to appoint regional governors; the warlords that filled the regional power vacuum would go on to found the Five Dynasties and Ten kingdoms. The Five Dynasties, the first of which was founded following Zhu Wen's usurpation of the throne from Emperor Ai of Tang in 907, ruled over northern China in quick succession, each supplanting the other via usurpation, war, and other violent means.

The southern Ten Kingdoms were generally wealthier than the northern Five Dynasties. However, the Later Zhou, founded in 951 and the last of the Five Dynasties, did lay a "limited foundation of wealth" under the emperors Guo Wei and Chai Rong. Guo and Chai wore down the power of the regional military governors strengthened the bureaucracy, centralized the military, and initiated serious plans to reunify China. Chai in particular oversaw the conquest of significant territories from the Later Shu, Southern Tang (during the Later Zhou conquest of Huainan), and Liao dynasty respectively. These administrative and military successes made Chai more legitimate than any emperor of the previous dynasties and enabled northern China to recover economically. Nonetheless, the Later Zhou's authority was not strong enough to sustain a child as emperor.

Facilitating the military success of the Later Zhou was Zhao Kuangyin, a talented general who would later become the subject of the Chenqiao mutiny. His father, Zhao Hongyin, was himself a general. Zhao Kuangyin joined the regional army of Guo Wei when he was 21 and helped the latter stage a successful coup against the Later Han. Zhao quickly rose through the ranks and endeared himself to Chai Rong by distinguishing himself in campaigns against the Later Shu and Southern Tang. His promotion to inspector-general of the Palace Command (one of the Later Zhou's armies, the other being the Metropolitan Command) gave him the means to cultivate his troops’ personal loyalty. Zhao was therefore in a prime position to usurp the throne following the death of Chai Rong.

The Later Zhou emperor Chai Rong died of illness in 959 and was succeeded by his five-year-old son, Guo Zongxun. Possibly capitalizing on their rival's preoccupation with succession, a joint Liao-Northern Han invasion was launched against the Later Zhou in early 960. Many officials, including inspector-general Han Tong's son, were concerned about Zhao's growing influence. Despite these officials’ warnings against further empowering Zhao, he was still sent to lead an army to counter the northern invasion, after the Later Zhou court consulted its chancellors, Fan Zhi and Wang Pu.

After marching his troops out of the capital, Kaifeng, and crossing the Yellow River on 1 February, Zhao Kuangyin allowed his troops to rest at Chenqiao, a village 20 miles northeast of Kaifeng. He ordered his troops to camp on a piece of flatland near in front of the village's courier station, tied his horse to a pagoda tree, and entered a nearby house to drink some wine before falling asleep. That night, Zhao's officers agreed that he would properly reward them for service if he were emperor. The officers then consulted Zhao Kuangyi, Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother, and Zhao Pu, Kuangyin's advisor, about the plan. Both men supported the usurpation and Kuangyi added that, to remain popular, the generals should "discipline the officers and men under [themselves] and strictly prohibit them from looting". Kuangyi then informed two of Kuangyin's loyal generals in Kaifeng about the imminent coup.

Retrospective propaganda detailed many legitimizing portents that supposedly precipitated the Chenqiao mutiny. The Yuhu Qinghua (玉壺清話), completed in 1078; the Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian, published in 1183; and the History of Song, published in 1346, all claim that an astrologer, Miao Xun, saw the sun being eclipsed by another sun. The Yuhu further states that the new sun appeared above the regular one, implying that a new emperor would replace the old one.