Clarification on Some Historical Facts about the Early History of AN Lushan
The early deeds of An Lushan,as recorded in The Life of AN Lushan and in the two official history books about Tang Dynasty,include some details from which the early connections of An Lushan can be extracted despite the fact that they were written for different political purposes and with some biased descriptions.It can be inferred that An Lushan must be born into the An Yanyan's family,who had migrated from Liuhu Prefecture to the Second Turkic Khanate in the late 7th century.Because of the Turkic Civil war in the 8th century,the family then headed down south to join the An Zhenjie's family in Lanzhou.An Lush-an's brother,An Sishun,used to serve in the Northwest border army and may have had contacts with the Sogdiana An's family in Liangzhou.Zhang Shougui,who promoted An Lushan,had once been the marshal of the Northwest border army stationed in Li-angzhou,or current Hexi Corridor.So An Lushan's emergence in Yingzhou and his dispatch to the Northeast with Zhang Shougui are in contradiction with the story that he was discovered by Zhang Shougui whiling stealing sheep.The rise of An Lushan not only followed the trajectory of many minority military generals in the early Tang Dynasty,but also was the product of the changed mili-tary situations in the frontiers during Emperor Xuanzong's reign of Tang.
An LushanSogdianLiangzhouLanzhouLiuhu Prefectureminority military generals of Tang Dynasty
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