An Lushan

An Lushan (simplified Chinese: 安禄山; traditional Chinese: 安祿山; pinyin: Ān Lùshān) (703 - 757) was a military leader of Turkic-Sogdian or Iranian 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. The prefix An in An Lushan's name is an abbreviation of Anxi (Ch:安息), meaning Parthia in ancient Chinese (Anxi is a transcription of "Arsaces", the founder of the Arsacid Dynasty of Parthia. Most Parthian visitors who took a Chinese name received the An prefix to indicate their Parthian origin, as in An Shih Kao). Rokhan in the Sogdian language means "light" (related to the female name Roxana, borne by the Bactrian 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.

References

• 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