Famous Sogdian names that stand out from the pack are surprisingly few despite the great number of Sogdians active along the Silk Routes. But among the few prominent Sogdian names that have come down to us through history emerges the figure of An Lushan, likely the most famous Sogdian in Silk Road history.
An Lushan was of mixed Turkco-Sogdian descent (although he may have been adopted, therefore his true origin is unknown). "According to the somewhat mythologized account of his birth that is found in his biography in the T'ang histories, he was the son of a Turkish shamaness and a Sogdian father"(1). His surname An was one of several surnames used by Sogdian families in China, "deriving ultimately from the Chinese name for Parthia, An-hsi (Anxi)...[and] at this period referred specifically to [Sogdians from] Bokhara (Bukhara)"(2).
At the time of the rise of An Lushan's family, the T'ang were engaged militarily on the western frontiers of their empire. The T'ang forces in these regions were made up of and commanded by local, non-Chinese soldiers (3). A testament to the warrior nature of his family, An Lushan's father and cousin rose to prominent ranks in such frontier armies in their own right (4). An Lushan became a favorite at court with Emperor Xuanzong and his consort, Yang Guifei. Even though he enjoyed favorite status with the emperor and the imperial consort, he became embroiled in court intrigues and quarrels, particular with the minister Yang Kou-chung(5). Hansen states that An Lushan was to be made chief minister by the emperor, but An Lushan's enemies fought against such an appointment for the frontier general. "The emperor compromised by appointing [An Lushan] Commissioner of the Imperial Stables, a position that allowed An to purchase many new horses for his army. This was a dangerous position to give to someone whom others suspected of plotting a revolt"(6). Below is Hansen's summary of An Lushan's rebellion:
Hansen goes on to discuss the legacy of the rebellion in terms of the fall of the Tang dynasty. She discusses the way in which the centralized government was undermined by regional authorities, and how the power vacuum at the center ceded power to the provincial governors (9). She also points out that the central government lacked the records to collect taxes. "[The central authorities] were forced to rely on locally powerful families to collect taxes for them. They were permanently weakened as a result"(10). Thus, An Lushan's legacy in China was a Tang dynasty, limping along to its ultimate demise at the hands of other, stronger, regional powers. There would be no one, powerful central Chinese authority in China until the establishment of the Sung dynasty in 960 CE (11).
Vaissiere discusses in great detail in Sogdian Traders what Beckwith summarizes nicely in his text Empires of the Silk Road, that An Lushan was building his power in alliance with Sogdian warriors and merchants. Vaissiere and Beckwith both point to the evidence that An Lushan was in contact with Sogdian merchants throughout northern China, and drew from their connections to fund and supply his rebellion(12).
An Lushan's meteoric rise to power and his gambit to overthrow the Tang left its mark on China and its resident peoples. His bid for power left the Tang in such disarray that no one central dynasty would emergey for some 200 years after the end of the rebellion. His connections to the Sogdian trade network, his Sogdian descent, and his Sogdian family name would, of course, create associations that would prove to have dire consequences for the Sogdians in China, as we discussed in our previous article.
Sources
1) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
2) Ibid.
3)Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History. Illustrated edition. New York: Oxford, 2012, pg. 107
4) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
5) Ibid.
6) Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 223.
7) Ibid, pg. 224, 227-228.
8) de la Vaissiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2005, pg. 216.
9) Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 244.
10) Ibid, pg. 245.
11) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
12) de la Vaissiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2005, pg. 217-218. and Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, pg. 146.
Map
Unknown. The An Lushan Rebellion [map]. 1" = 300 miles. In: Valerie Hansen.
The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 223.
An Lushan was of mixed Turkco-Sogdian descent (although he may have been adopted, therefore his true origin is unknown). "According to the somewhat mythologized account of his birth that is found in his biography in the T'ang histories, he was the son of a Turkish shamaness and a Sogdian father"(1). His surname An was one of several surnames used by Sogdian families in China, "deriving ultimately from the Chinese name for Parthia, An-hsi (Anxi)...[and] at this period referred specifically to [Sogdians from] Bokhara (Bukhara)"(2).
At the time of the rise of An Lushan's family, the T'ang were engaged militarily on the western frontiers of their empire. The T'ang forces in these regions were made up of and commanded by local, non-Chinese soldiers (3). A testament to the warrior nature of his family, An Lushan's father and cousin rose to prominent ranks in such frontier armies in their own right (4). An Lushan became a favorite at court with Emperor Xuanzong and his consort, Yang Guifei. Even though he enjoyed favorite status with the emperor and the imperial consort, he became embroiled in court intrigues and quarrels, particular with the minister Yang Kou-chung(5). Hansen states that An Lushan was to be made chief minister by the emperor, but An Lushan's enemies fought against such an appointment for the frontier general. "The emperor compromised by appointing [An Lushan] Commissioner of the Imperial Stables, a position that allowed An to purchase many new horses for his army. This was a dangerous position to give to someone whom others suspected of plotting a revolt"(6). Below is Hansen's summary of An Lushan's rebellion:
The situation at court worsened, and in 755, when the emperor summoned An Lushan to attend the wedding of one of his sons, General An refused. The emperor sent an envoy, but the general refused him even the most basic courtesy of standing in his presence. Four months later the general rebelled. The advantage lay with his powerful army, and his forces took the eastern capital of Luoyang with ease. A few months later, after a particularly disastrous defeat, the emperor, accompanied by a few troops and Precious Consort Yang, fled Changan for Sichuan. Blaming Precious Consort Yang for their predicament, the troops mutinied and refused to go on unless the emperor killed his beloved concubine. Giving in to the mutineer's wishes, the emperor ordered his chief eunuch to strangle her...Internal schisms surfaced following the rebels' early succes in 755, and after the assassination of their commander An Lushan in early 757, the rebel forces split into two factions, one led by An Lushan's son, the other by a rival general. The new emperor Suzong (reigned 756-762) was able to regain Changan only with the help of Uighur mercenaries. After a long stalemate, the rebellion finally ended in 763, following the suicide of the rebels' leading general. Still dependent on hired Uighur troops from Central Asia, and unable to defeat the rebels decisively, the court was forced to give them a blanket pardon...The uncertain peace was short lived. At the end of 763, Tibetan troops entered Changan for two weeks of pillaging and then withdrew, only to attack the capital every autumn for the next twenty years(7).This is Vaissiere's summary of the rebellion:
An Lushan revolted in December 755 and took the capital in July 756. He was assassinated by his son, An Qingxu, who succeeded him in January 757. From Gansu the imperial armies recaptured the capital of Chang'an with the aid of the Uighurs in November, and Luoyang in December. Luoyang was taken a second time in October 759 by Shi Shiming, one of An Lushan's generals, who proclaimed himself emperor after having killed An Qingxu. The rebellion was definitively quelled only in January 763. The seven years of revolt ruined Tang China. The dynasty never succeeded in reimposting a centralized state. The provincial governors seized their autonomy. The most distant provinces, in particular the Tarim basin and Turkestan, were completely lost: their armies were recalled to fight against the rebellion, and the Tibetans to the south and the Uighurs to the north divided the old imperial possessions between them.(8).
 |
| Map of all the action during the An Lushan Rebellion. Note An Lushan's powerbase in the northeast, where Sogdian communities were present. Source: Valerie Hansen's The Open Emire. |
Hansen goes on to discuss the legacy of the rebellion in terms of the fall of the Tang dynasty. She discusses the way in which the centralized government was undermined by regional authorities, and how the power vacuum at the center ceded power to the provincial governors (9). She also points out that the central government lacked the records to collect taxes. "[The central authorities] were forced to rely on locally powerful families to collect taxes for them. They were permanently weakened as a result"(10). Thus, An Lushan's legacy in China was a Tang dynasty, limping along to its ultimate demise at the hands of other, stronger, regional powers. There would be no one, powerful central Chinese authority in China until the establishment of the Sung dynasty in 960 CE (11).
Vaissiere discusses in great detail in Sogdian Traders what Beckwith summarizes nicely in his text Empires of the Silk Road, that An Lushan was building his power in alliance with Sogdian warriors and merchants. Vaissiere and Beckwith both point to the evidence that An Lushan was in contact with Sogdian merchants throughout northern China, and drew from their connections to fund and supply his rebellion(12).
An Lushan's meteoric rise to power and his gambit to overthrow the Tang left its mark on China and its resident peoples. His bid for power left the Tang in such disarray that no one central dynasty would emergey for some 200 years after the end of the rebellion. His connections to the Sogdian trade network, his Sogdian descent, and his Sogdian family name would, of course, create associations that would prove to have dire consequences for the Sogdians in China, as we discussed in our previous article.
Sources
1) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
2) Ibid.
3)Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History. Illustrated edition. New York: Oxford, 2012, pg. 107
4) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
5) Ibid.
6) Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 223.
7) Ibid, pg. 224, 227-228.
8) de la Vaissiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2005, pg. 216.
9) Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 244.
10) Ibid, pg. 245.
11) Pulleyblank, E.G. "An Lu-shan", Encyclopedia Iranica, I/9, pp. 1000; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/an-lu-shan-frontier-general (accessed online October 21, 2015).
12) de la Vaissiere, Etienne. Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2005, pg. 217-218. and Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, pg. 146.
Map
Unknown. The An Lushan Rebellion [map]. 1" = 300 miles. In: Valerie Hansen.
The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, pg. 223.
Always good to have an individual personal story to tell when you're covering several centuries of history.
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