The An Lushan rebellion signaled a period of disorder spanning the reigns of three Tang dynasty emperors, beginning during the final (
Tianbao era) period of the reign of
Xuanzong (8 September 712 to 12 August 756), continuing through the reign of
Suzong (12 August 756 to 16 May 762) and ending during the reign of
Daizong (18 May 762 to 23 May 779), as well as spanning the four imperial claimants of the failed Yan dynasty.
Revolt and capture of Luoyang At the end of 755 An Lushan revolted. On 16 December, his army surged down from Fanyang (near modern
Beijing). Along the way, An Lushan treated surrendered local Tang officials with respect. As a result, more and more of them joined his ranks. He moved rapidly along the
Grand Canal and captured the "Eastern Capital" city of
Luoyang on 18 January 756, defeating the poorly supplied General
Feng Changqing. There, on 5 February, An Lushan declared himself Emperor of the new Great Yan dynasty (). His next steps would be to capture the Tang western capital of Chang'an and then to attempt to continue into southern China to complete his conquest.
Battle of Yongqiu However, the
Battle of Yongqiu, in the spring of 756, went badly for An Lushan. Although his army, under Linghu Chao, was numerous, it was unable to make further territorial gains due to the failure to wrest control of
Yongqiu (modern
Qi County, Kaifeng, in
Henan) and (later) the nearby
Suiyang from the Tang defenders led by
Zhang Xun. This prevented the Yan forces from conquering southern China, before the Tang were able to recover. The Yan army did not take control of Suiyang until after the
Siege of Suiyang (January–October 757), almost two years after their initial capture of Luoyang.
Advance on Chang'an (1235–1305) Originally, An Lushan's forces were blocked from the main imperial (or "Western") capital at Chang'an (modern
Xi'an), by loyal troops placed in nearly impregnable defensive positions in the intervening high mountain passes of
Tongguan. Unfortunately for Chang'an, the two generals in charge of the troops at Tong Pass,
Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing, were executed due to a court intrigue involving the powerful eunuch Bian Lingcheng. Yang Guozhong, with grossly inept military judgment, then ordered the replacement General
Geshu Han, who was in charge of the troops in the passes, together with reinforcement troops, to attack An's army on open ground. On 7 July, the Tang forces were defeated. The road to the capital now lay open.
Flight of the emperor (651–716), from the 11th century, shows Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fleeing to Sichuan province from Chang'an to escape the violence. Later artists produced numerous versions of this painting, including one by
Qiu Ying in the Ming dynasty. With rebel forces clearly an imminent threat to the imperial seat of Chang'an, and with conflicting advice from his advisers, Tang emperor
Xuanzong determined to flee to the relative sanctuary of
Sichuan with its natural protection of mountain ranges so the Tang forces could reorganize and regroup. He brought along the bulk of his court and household. The route of travel from Chang'an to Sichuan was notoriously difficult, requiring hard travel on the way through the intervening
Qin Mountains. However, the geographical features of the terrain were not the only hardships on the journey: there was a matter that first had to be settled, involving the relationship between Xuanzong and the Yang family, especially the emperor's beloved Yang Guifei. So, before progressing more than a few kilometers along the way, an incident occurred at Mawei Inn, in today's
Xingping in
Xianyang,
Shaanxi. Xuanzong's bodyguard troops were hungry and tired, and very angry with Yang Guozhong for exposing the whole country to danger. They demanded the death of the much-hated Yang Guozhong, and then of his cousin and imperial favorite, Yang Guifei. Soon the angry soldiers killed Yang Guozhong, Yang Xuan (his son), Lady Han and Lady Qin (Yang Guifei's sisters). With the army on the verge of mutiny, the Emperor had no choice but to agree, ordering the strangling of Lady Yang. The incident made Xuanzong fear for his own safety, so he fled to Chengdu at once. However, people stopped his horse, not wanting him to go away. So he made the crown prince, Li Heng, stay to hold the fort. Instead, Li Heng fled in the other direction to Lingzhou (today called
Lingwu, in
Ningxia province). Later, on 12 August, With Uyghur assistance, the Tang Imperial forces recaptured both Chang'an and Luoyang in late 757. However, they failed to capture or subdue the rebel troops, who fled to the rebel heartland in the northeast. Uyghur Khaganate diplomats clashed against Arab Abbasid diplomats over who would enter the diplomatic hall in Chang'an first in 758.
Role of Nestorian Christians and Esoteric Buddhists against An Lushan The
Nestorian Church of the East Christians like the
Bactrian Priest Yisi of
Balkh helped the Tang dynasty general Guo Ziyi militarily crush the An Lushan rebellion, with Yisi personally acting as a military commander and Yisi and the Nestorian Church of the East were rewarded by the Tang dynasty with titles and positions as described in the
Nestorian Stele.
Epitaphs were found dating from the Tang dynasty of a Christian couple in
Luoyang of a Nestorian Christian Sogdian woman, Lady An () who died in 821 and her Nestorian Christian Han Chinese husband, Hua Xian () who died in 827. These Han Chinese Christian men may have married Sogdian Christian women because of a lack of Han Chinese women belonging to the Christian religion, limiting their choice of spouses among the same ethnicity. Amoghavajra used his rituals against An Lushan while staying in Chang'an when it was occupied in 756 while the Tang dynasty crown prince and Xuanzong emperor had retreated to Sichuan. Amoghavajra's rituals were explicitly intended to introduce death, disaster and disease against An Lushan. As a result of Amoghavajrya's assistance in crushing An Lushan, Esoteric Buddhism became the official state Buddhist sect supported by the Tang dynasty, "Imperial Buddhism" with state funding and backing for writing scriptures, and constructing monasteries and temples. The disciples of Amoghavajra did ceremonies for the state and emperor. Tang dynasty Emperor Suzong was crowned as
cakravartin by Amoghavajra after victory against An Lushan in 759 and he had invoked the Acala vidyaraja against An Lushan. The Tang dynasty crown prince Li Heng (later Suzong) also received important strategic military information from Chang'an when it was occupied by An Lushan through secret messages sent by Amoghavajra.
Siege of Suiyang In the beginning of 757 and continuing through October of that year, a protracted stalemate between the Yan and Tang forces occurred in
Suiyang. The siege was noted for the Tang army's determination to fight to the last man, as well as the large-scale
cannibalism practised by the defenders, who in this way were able to hold out longer. Their resistance effectively blocked the Yan forces from attacking the extensive areas south of the
Yangzi River, which remained relatively untouched by the An–Shi disturbances.
Death of An Lushan, An Qingxu became Emperor of Yan in the act of shooting The Tang imperial forces were also helped by the newly formed dynasty's internal fighting. On 29 January 757, An Lushan was betrayed and killed by his son,
An Qingxu, (An Lushan's violent paranoia posed too much of a threat to his entourage). The rebel An Lushan had a Khitan eunuch named Li Zhu'er (, Li Chu-erh) who was working for An Lushan when he was a teenager but An Lushan used a sword to sever his genitals and he almost died after losing multiple pints of blood. An Lushan revived him after smearing ashes on his injury. Li Zhu'er was An Lushan's eunuch after this and highly used and trusted by him. Li Zhu'er and another two men helped carry the obese An Lushan when he was taking off or putting on his clothes. (A horse was once crushed to death under An Lushan's sheer weight due to his fatness.[36]) Li Zhu'er helped clothe and unclothe him at the Huaqing (Hua-ch'ing) steam baths granted by Emperor Xuanzang. Li Zhuer was approached by people who wanted to assassinate An Lushan after An Lushan became paranoid and blind, stricken with skin disease and started flogging and murdering his subordinates. An Lushan was hacked to death by Li Zhuer and another conspirator, Yan Zhuang (, Yen Chuang) who was beaten by An previously. An Lushan screamed "this is a thief of my own household" as he desperately shook his curtains since he could not find his sword to defend himself. An Lushan's intestines came out of his body as he was hacked to death by Li Zhuer and Yan Zhuang. It was said that An Qingxu was an introvert who couldn't speak to others properly. As a result, Yan Zhuang advised him not to meet officials frequently, and he entrusted most of affairs of state to Yan and created Yan the Prince of Fengyi. He tried to ingratiate his generals by promoting their positions. Meanwhile, with the major general Shi Siming besieging the Tang general Li Guangbi at
Taiyuan, An Qingxu ordered Shi to return to his base of Fanyang and leave the general Cai Xide () at Taiyuan to watch Li Guangbi's actions. He also sent the general Yin Ziqi () to attack the city of
Suiyang, then under the defense by the Tang generals
Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan (), intending to capture Suiyang first and then send Yin south to capture Tang territory south of the
Huai River (Yin, however, was locked into a
siege of Suiyang that would last until winter 757, stopping any possibility of Yan's advancing south). To show favor to Shi, he created Shi the Prince of Guichuan and made him the
jiedushi of Fanyang Circuit; instead, Shi, hoarding the supplies that An Lushan had previously shipped to Fanyang, began to disobey An Qingxu's orders, and An Qingxu could not keep him in check. When the Tang general Guo Ziyi attacked Tong Pass, intending to recapture Chang'an, however, An was able to send forces to repel Guo's attack.
Siege of Yecheng However, the Tang prince
Li Chu the Prince of Guangping (the son of Li Heng, who by this point had taken imperial title as Emperor Suzong), with aid from
Huige, was able to recapture Chang'an in summer 757 by defeating Yan forces in the
Battle of Xiangji Temple. Tang forces under Li Chu and Huige forces then advanced east, toward Luoyang. In winter 757, An put together his forces and sent them, under Yan Zhuang's command, to defend Shan Commandery (, roughly modern
Sanmenxia, Henan). When Yan forces engaged Tang forces, however, they saw that Huige forces were on Tang's side, and, in fear, they collapsed. Yan Zhuang and Zhang Tongru () fled back to Luoyang to inform An, and An, after executing some 30 Tang generals who had been captured, abandoned Luoyang and fled north, to
Yecheng, which he converted to Ancheng Municipality. At the time that An arrived at Yecheng, he had only 1,000 infantry soldiers and 300 cavalry soldiers. Soon, however, Yan generals Ashina Chengqing (), Cai Xide,
Tian Chengsi, and Wu Lingxun (), who had been attacking other Tang cities, headed to Yecheng and coalesced there, allowing An to have over 60,000 soldiers under his disposal and thus regaining some measure of strength. Meanwhile, apprehensive of Shi, he sent Ashina and An Shouzhong () to Fanyang to order Shi to contribute troops, but was intending to have Ashina and An Shouzhong take over Shi's command if possible. Instead, Shi arrested Ashina and An Shouzhong and submitted to Tang. Many other cities previously under Yan's control also submitted to Tang, and An Qingxu's territory shrank to just Yecheng and the surrounding area. It was said that An Qingxu became cruel and paranoid in light of these military losses, and that if generals submitted to Tang, he would slaughter their families if they were
Han and their tribes if they were non-Han. Meanwhile, believing accusations that Zhang made against Cai, he killed Cai, which further led to dissension among his soldiers, particularly since he then put Cui Qianyou () in command of his army, and the soldiers resented Cui for his harshness. By winter 758, the Tang generals Guo Ziyi, Lu Jiong (), Li Huan (), Xu Shuji (),
Li Siye, Ji Guangchen (), Cui Guangyuan (), Dong Qin (),
Li Guangbi, and Wang Sili (), were gathering at Yecheng and putting it under siege. An Qingxu tried to fight out of the siege, but was defeated by Tang forces, and his brother An Qinghe () was killed. Meanwhile, with Shi recently having again rebelled against Tang, An sent the general
Xue Song to Fanyang to seek aid from Shi, offering the throne to him. Shi thus advanced south toward Yecheng. Meanwhile, Tang forces, under the command of nine generals (with Li Siye having died during the siege), were uncoordinated. On 7 April 759, Shi engaged Tang forces—and, when a storm suddenly arrived, both armies panicked; Shi's forces fled north, and Tang forces fled south, lifting the siege on Yecheng. An Qingxu's forces gathered the food and supplies abandoned by Tang forces, and An thereafter considered, with Sun Xiaozhe () and Cui, the possibility of refusing Shi, who gathered his troops and again approached Yecheng, admittance. Shi himself was not communicating with An, but was feasting his soldiers and watching Yecheng. Zhang and Gao Shang () requested permission to meet Shi, and An agreed; Shi gave them gifts and let them return to Yecheng. An, unsure what to do, again offered the throne to Shi, which Shi declined. Shi instead suggested to him that perhaps they could both be emperors of independent, allied states. An, pleased, exited Yecheng and met with Shi to swear to the alliance.
Resurgence under Shi Siming On 10 April 759, An Qingxu was killed by Shi Siming who enthroned as Emperor Zhaowu of Yan. Shi Siming soon left Empress Xin's son Shi Chaoqing () in charge of Fanyang and headed south. He quickly captured Bian Prefecture (, roughly modern
Kaifeng, Henan) and Luoyang, but his further attempts to advance were rebuffed by Tang forces at Heyang (, in modern
Jiaozuo, Henan) and Shan Prefecture (, roughly modern
Sanmenxia, Henan), and the sides stalemated. At this time, Shi was described as cruel and prone to kill, terrorizing his army. He favored Shi Chaoqing over
Shi Chaoyi and considered creating Shi Chaoqing crown prince and killing Shi Chaoyi. In spring 761, Shi Siming began another attempt to attack Shan Prefecture, wanting to attack Chang'an. He had Shi Chaoyi serve as his forward commander, but Shi Chaoyi was repeatedly repelled by the Tang general Wei Boyu (). Shi Siming was angered by Shi Chaoyi's failures and considered punishing him and the generals below him. On 18 April, Shi Siming ordered Shi Chaoyi to build a triangular fort with a hill as its side, to store food supplies, and ordered that it be completed in one day. Near the end of the day, Shi Chaoyi had completed it, but had not plastered the walls with mud, when Shi Siming arrived and rebuked him for not applying mud. He ordered his own servants to stay and watch the plastering. He then angrily stated, "After I capture Shan Prefecture, I will kill you, thief!" That night, Shi Chaoyi's subordinates Luo Yue () and Cai Wenjing () warned him that he was in dire straits—and that if he refused to take action to depose Shi Siming, they would defect to Tang. Shi Chaoyi agreed to take action, and Luo persuaded Shi Siming's guard commander General Cao (personal name lost to history) to agree with the plot. That night, Luo led 300 soldiers and ambushed Shi Siming, binding him and then beginning a return to Luoyang with the troops. On the way back to Luoyang, Luo feared that someone might try to rescue Shi Siming, and so strangled him to death. Shi Chaoyi was enthroned as the new emperor of Yan even though he failed to get widespread support from the other Yan generals.
Implosion of Yan and end of the rebellion By 762, Emperor Suzong had become seriously ill; and the combined forces of the Tang and their Huige allies were led by his eldest son. This son, first named Li Chu, was renamed Li Yu in 758, after being named crown prince. On 18 May 762, on the death of his father, he became
Emperor Daizong of Tang. By this time it was clear that the new Yan dynasty would not last and Yan officers and soldiers began to defect to the Tang side. Then, in the winter of 762, the eastern capital Luoyang was retaken by Tang forces for the second time. Yan Emperor Shi Chaoyi attempted to flee, but was intercepted early in 763. Shi Chaoyi chose suicide over capture, dying on 17 February 763, ending the eight-year-long rebellion.
Aftermath The end of the rebellion was a long process of
rebuilding and recovery. Due to the Imperial Court's weakened condition, other disturbances flared up. The
Tibetan Empire under
Trisong Detsän, taking advantage of the Tang's weakness, proceeded to briefly capture Chang'an on 18 November 763 before conquering much of
the western half of Tang territories. In 765,
Pugu Huai'en, allied with Uyghur and Tibetan forces launched another siege on Chang'an. Furthermore, Yan generals who had surrendered to Tang were allowed by Emperor Daizong to retain as independent military governors (Jiedushi), this began an era of warlordism that plagued Tang for the rest of the dynasty. In 781, The Circuits of Shannan East, Chengde, Weibo and Zhiqing rose up against Tang court in what was called the Four Garrisons Rebellion (). In 782, a Tang general-governor of Huaxi-Cicuit,
Li Xilie also rebelled in 782 and proclaimed as the Emperor of Chu. In 783, the
Jingyuan mutiny forced the Emperor Dezong to flee Chang'an.
Zhu Ci, the jiedushi of Lulong, captured the city and declared himself emperor of a new state of Qin (later changed to Han). In 784, Zhu Ci was defeated and killed.
Hebei Three Circuits Tang Empire. Red provinces were lost to the Tang forever while the orange provinces were reincorporated.
Li Huaixian and fellow Yan generals Xue Song, Li Baochen, and Tian Chengsi submitted to Tang thus were allowed to keep their territory. Li Huaixian was made the military governor (jiedushi) of
Lulong Circuit (headquartered in modern Beijing) consisting of
Youzhou, the core territory of the former Yan. In 768, Li Huaixian was killed by his subordinates
Zhu Xicai,
Zhu Ci and
Zhu Tao who then took over command of the circuit. Lulong Circuit remained a semi-independent fief, survived the fragmentation of Tang until being annexed by
Li Cunxu's Jin state in 913.
Li Baozhen kept control of the
Chengde Circuit. His son
Li Weiyue, along with Tian Chengsi's son Tian Yue, rebelled against Tang in 781 but was later killed by his officer
Wang Wujun. Chengde's last ruler,
Wang Rong later founded the
Zhao Dynasty that lasted until 921.
Tian Chengsi had full control of the
Weibo Circuit. He later annexed
Xue Song's Zhaoyi Circuit. Weibo Circuit remained independent until integrated with the
Later Liang state in 910.
Li Zhengji became the powerful ruler of the Pinglu Circuit (modern Tai'an, Shandong). His son
Li Na rebelled and proclaimed to be the King of Qi before submitting to Tang rule.
Wang Wujun also ruled Chengde Circuit as a de facto independent Kingdom of Zhao before submitting to Tang again under
Emperor Dezong.
Liang Chongyi seized control of the Shannan East Circuit before being defeated by Tang in 781. ==Legacy==