An Lushan

An Lushan (Traditional Chinese: 安祿山; Simplified Chinese: 安禄山; pinyin: Ān Lùshān) (703 - 757) was a military leader of Turkic-Sogdian origin during the Tang Dynasty in China. He rose to prominence by fighting during the Tang Frontier Wars between 741 and 755. Later, he precipitated the catastrophic An Shi Rebellion, which lasted from 755 to 763.

An Lushan is in fact the Sinicized version of the name An Rokhan. The first part is the family name, and the second part is the personal name. An implies that he was from the city of Bukhara in Sogdiana and Rokhan in the Sogdian language means "light" (related to the female name Roxana, borne by the Sogdian lady who married Alexander the Great).

An Rokhan was part of a large population of expatriate Turks and Sogdians living in the frontier trade colonies of northwestern China. His father was a Bukharan sartapo (merchant) employed by the Turkic Khanate to administer their domains. At this time, many Sogdians were working as diplomats and administrators for the Turks. His mother was a full-blooded Turkic Shaman, no doubt coerced into a political marriage. Growing up in a town in Ürümqi, Rokhan was working as a sartapo in the market when he was accused of sheep theft and sentenced to death. He escaped from the city and joined the Tang army as a mercenary. By distinguishing himself in the border wars of the northwestern frontier, particularly the Khitan invasion of 751-752, Rokhan rose through the ranks to become the military governor of Fanyang Province (Hebei) as (jiedushi) of Manchuria. Enormously fat, he became the favorite of the Emperor's beloved concubine, the lady Yang Guifei. Through her influence, he was appointed a Duke in the latter year, and eventually was made governor of three major frontier provinces in the northeast, each with a sizable army.

He had good relations with Li Linfu, the high chancellor. But when the latter died, An came into conflict with Li's replacement, Yang Guozhong. Eventually, stung by repeated accusations of plotting treachery, An launched the An Lushan Rebellion in 755. That year marked the watershed of Tang power. Rokhan led an army of about 150,000 soldiers from Peking (Beijing) and captured the eastern capital city of Loyang (Luoyang) in the fall of that year. Gross military incompetence by Chief Minister Yang Guozhong (Lady Yang's cousin and An's accuser) then permitted the capture of the main Tang capital of Chang'an (Sian/Xi'an) in 756, and Rokhan proclaimed himself emperor. However, in 757, he was murdered by his own son, when he showed signs of extreme paranoia to those around him. (It has been suggested that this was a symptom of acute diabetes, due to his obesity.) Although his rebellion was eventually crushed, it forced the Tang dynasty to became overdependent on the goodwill of provincial governors and military commanders, thus irretrievably eroding the Tang's central authority.

An Shi Rebellion

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The cataclysmic An Shi Rebellion (Simplified Chinese: 安史之乱; Traditional Chinese: 安史之亂; pinyin: Ān Shǐ Zhī Luàn) took place in China during the Tang Dynasty, from 755 to 763. It is also known as the Tianbao Rebellion (天寶之亂), because An Lushan started it in the 14th year of that namesake era. The alternative term An Lushan Rebellion neglects the participation of Shi Siming, a subordinate of An Lushan who later became the leader of the rebellion.

An Lushan was a general of non-Han Turkic-Sodgian ancestry. He was appointed by the Xuanzong emperor (following the suggestion of Yang Guifei and with the agreement of Li Linfu) to be commander (節度使) of three garrisons in the north—Pinglu, Fanyang and Hedong. In effect, An was given control over the entire area north of the lower reaches of the Yellow River. With such power and land in his control (including garrisons about 164,000 strong), An Lushan planned a revolt, taking advantage of the absence of strong troops guarding the palace and of the popular discontent with the extravagant Tang court caused by a string of natural disasters. He avoided suspicion by pleasing the Emperor in as many ways as possible, even calling himself the adopted son of Xuanzong's favorite concubine, Yang Guifei. In this way, he was protected from criticism, even when the Chief Minister, Yang Guozhong, demanded his dismissal. (This version of events is disputed by some historians; see the articles about the Yangs, An and the emperor.)

In 755, An Lushan revolted under the pretense of punishing his tormentor Yang Guozhong. His army surged down from Fanyang (near Beijing in modern Hebei province). Along the way, An Lushan treated all surrendered local Tang officials with respect. As a result, more and more local officials joined his ranks. He moved rapidly along the Grand Canal of China and captured the city of Luoyang within the year. There, An Lushan declared himself Emperor of the new Great Yan dynasty (大燕皇帝). His next step would be to overake the Tang capital and the rest of southern China.

However, the battle for eastern China, went badly for An Lushan. Although his army was numerous, it was unable to take control of the Suiyang District(near modern dam Henan) from the Tang defenders. This prevented him from quickly conquering southern China, before the Tang were able to recover. By the time the the Yan army took control of the Suiyang Distract, it was almost two years after the fall of Luoyang.

Orginally, An Lushan 's forces was blocked from the main imperial capital at Chang'an by loyal troops placed in impregnable defensive positions in the intervening mountain passes. Unfortunately for Chang'an, Yang Guozhong, with grossly inept military judgement, ordered the troops in the passes to attack An's army on open ground. They were demolished, and the road to the capital now lay open. Seeing the imminent threat to Changan, Xuanzong fled to Sichuan with his household. On the way, at Mawei Inn in Shaanxi, Xuanzong's bodyguard troops demanded the death of the much-hated Yang Guozhong, and then of his cousin, Lady Yang. With the army on the verge of mutiny, the Emperor had no choice but to agree, ordering the execution of Yang Guozhong and the suicide of Lady Yang. Meanwhile, the crown prince, Li Heng, fled in the other direction to Lingzhou (today called Lingwu, in modern-day Ningxia province). After reaching Sichuan, Xuanzong abdicated in favour of the crown prince.

This (3rd or 4th) son of Xuanzong, now called Suzong, was then proclaimed emperor, although another group of local officials and Confucian literati tried to proclaim a different prince at Jinling (modern-day Nanjing). One of Suzong's first acts as emperor was to appoint the generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi to deal with the rebellion. The generals, after much discussion, decided to borrow troops from an offshoot of the Turkish Tujue Tribe, the Huihe tribe (ancestors of the modern-day Uighurs). In this way, the Imperial forces recaptured both Changan and Luoyang, though they failed to pursue the fleeing rebels.

The imperial forces were helped by internal dissent in the newly-formed dynasty. An Lushan was killed by his son, An Qingxu, not long after his ascent to the throne. (An's virulent paranoia posed too much of a threat to his entourage.) His son was then killed by a subordinate, general Shi Siming. Shi recaptured the city of Luoyang soon after. However, Shi Siming was killed in turn by "his" son, Shi Chaoyi. By this time, it was clear that the new dynasty would not last long, and generals and soldiers alike started to defect to the Tang army. Finally, after Luoyang was taken by the Tang forces for the second time, Shi Chaoyi committed suicide (in 763), thus ending the 8 year long rebellion.

The rebellion spanned the reigns of three emperors, starting during the reign of Xuanzong and ending during the reign of Daizong. The toll of dead and missing, including those caused by suppression and famine, is estimated at up to 36 million (sources), which would be 2/3 of the total taxroll population at the time. Numerically, this was the highest toll for any event for nearly 1200 years, until World War II surpassed it with over 62 million deaths. The Tang Dynasty's desire for peace after this turbulent period also resulted in the pardoning of many rebels. Indeed, some were even given their own garrisons to command. This effectively ended strong rule by the central government. Economic control of the Northeast region became intermittent, and the emperor became only a sort of puppet, set to do the bidding of the strongest garrison. In addition, by borrowing troops from neighbouring tribes, the Tang Dynasty greatly lowered its prestige in the eyes of the barbarians, who eventually began raiding Tang settlements again. (In fact, so far did Tang power collapse that Changan itself was briefly occupied by the Tibetan army in 764, after the course of the rebellion.)

Thus, the Anshi Rebellion is regarded by most Chinese historians to be the turning point in the Tang Dynasty's fortunes. For the next 144 years, the Tang ceased to exist in all but name, a far cry from the glory days under Taizong and Xuanzong.

External links and references

• Tang (618 - 907) "The An Lushan Rebellion had its roots in the behavior of one of the great emperors of Chinese history, Xuanzong. Until he fell in love with a young concubine named Yang Guifei, he had been a great ruler, and had brought the Tang to its height of prosperity and grandeur. But he became so infatuated with Yang that the administration of the government soon fell into decay, which was made no better by the way that Yang took advantage of her power to stuff high administrative positions with her corrupt cronies. She also took under her wing a general named An Lushan, who quickly accumulated power."

• chinaknowledge.de "From the first years of the reign period Tianbao 天寶 "Heavenly jewels" (741-757) on, Li Linfu 李林甫 served as chancellor. After Li Linfu's death in 752, his opponent Yang Guozhong 楊國忠 became counsellor-in-chief and dominated the court until the rebellion of An Lushan. An Lushan himself, half of Turkish origin, had been installed as military commissioner of Pinglu 平盧, Fanyang 范陽 (around modern Beijing) and Hebei 河北, three regions in the northeast, where he was responsible of the military and civil administration of one of the most important economic zones in Tang China."

• Du Fu. The great poet had finally attained a minor appointment in the imperial bureaucracy when the rebellion broke out. His subsequent poetry is a primary source for the massive upheavals of the period.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• E. G. Pulleyblank, The Background of the Rebellion of An Lu-Shan, London: Oxford University Press (1955)
• E. G. Pulleyblank, "The An Lu-Shan Rebellion and the Origins of Chronic Militarism in Late T'ang China," in Perry & Smith, Essays on T'ang Society, Leiden: E. J. Brill (1976)
• Denis Twitchett (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3, Sui and T'ang China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1979)

See also

• An (Chinese name)
• An Shi Rebellion

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