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An Lushan

The barbarian warlord who held three military governorships and raised the An Lushan Rebellion

Souls of the Battlefield · Generals & Commanders

The An Lushan RebellionMilitary governorRising in arms at Fanyang

Who they are

An Lushan was a mixed-blood barbarian of Yingzhou who spoke six frontier languages and rose by both military merit and scheming to hold the three military governorships of Pinglu, Fanyang, and Hedong, controlling nearly two hundred thousand of the Tang’s finest frontier troops. Weighing over three hundred catties, he danced the whirling Sogdian dance before Xuanzong and took Consort Yang as his adoptive mother, playing the "guileless barbarian boy" until the emperor believed it utterly. In 755 he rose in arms from Fanyang on the pretext of punishing Yang Guozhong, sweeping all before him — taking Luoyang, breaking Tong Pass, entering Chang’an, and proclaiming himself emperor of Great Yan. Two years later he was killed by his own son An Qingxu. This eight-year rebellion cut the Tang’s population sharply and locked the warlord domains in place — the whole course of Chinese history was rerouted at the waist by this man.

Key stories

The whirling dance and the adoptive mother

An Lushan’s belly hung past his knees, and he claimed it weighed three hundred catties. Xuanzong asked, "What is in this barbarian’s belly?" He answered, "Nothing else — only a loyal red heart." Yet when he danced the whirling Sogdian dance he was "swift as the wind." He asked to take Consort Yang, sixteen years his junior, as his adoptive mother, bowing to her before the emperor — "a barbarian honors the mother before the father." The ruler and ministers of Chang’an took all this for a joke of loyalty, while the arsenals of Fanyang forged weapons day and night.

The war drums of Yuyang come shaking the earth

In the eleventh month of 755, An Lushan led a hundred and fifty thousand troops south from Fanyang — "the war drums of Yuyang come shaking the earth, shattering the tune of Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat." Long at peace, the prefectures and counties had no troops to field, and the rebels took Luoyang in thirty-four days. Xuanzong at first refused to believe the reports of war. The next year Tong Pass fell and Chang’an was lost — as dazzling as the Kaiyuan golden age’s paper figures were, so startling was the hollowness within the empire.