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The An Lushan Rebellion was a devastating rebellion against the Tang Dynasty of China. The rebellion overtly began on December 16, 755, when general An Lushan declared himself emperor in Northern China, thus establishing a rival Yan Dynasty, and ended when Yan fell on February 17, 763 (although the effects lasted past this). This event is also known (especially in Chinese historiography) as the An-Shi Rebellion or An-Shi Disturbances, as it continued after An Lushan's death under his son An Qingxu and his deputy and successor Shi Siming, or as the Tianbao Rebellion, as it began in the 14th year of that era.

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The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed, and involved a wide range of regional powers; besides the Tang dynasty loyalists, others involved were anti-Tang families, especially in An Lushan's base area in Hebei, Arab, Gokturk, and Sogdian forces or influences, among others. The rebellion and subsequent disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction. It significantly weakened the Tang dynasty, and led to the loss of the Western Regions.

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Censuses taken in the half-century before the rebellion show a gradual increase in population, with the last census undertaken before the rebellion, that of 755, recording a population of 52,919,309 in taxpaying 8,914,709 households. However a census taken in 764, the year following the end of the rebellion, recorded only 16,900,000 in 2,900,000 households. Later censuses count only households, but by 855 this figure had risen to only 4,955,151 households, little over half the number recorded in 755. Some scholars have interpreted the difference in the census figures as implying the deaths of 36 million people, about two-thirds of the population of the empire. This figure was used in Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels of Our Nature, where it is presented as proportionally the largest atrocity in history with the loss of a sixth of the world's population at that time, though Pinker noted that the figure was controversial.

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Weakening of Tang

The rebellion of An Lushan and its subsequent aftermath greatly weakened the centralized bureaucracy of the Tang Dynasty, especially in regards to its perimeters. Virtually autonomous provinces and ad hoc financial organizations arose, reducing the influence of the regular bureaucracy in Chang'an. The Tang Dynasty's desire for political stability in this turbulent period also resulted in the pardoning of many rebels. Indeed, some were even given their own garrisons to command. Political and economic control of the northeast region became intermittent or was lost, and the emperor became only a sort of puppet, set to do the bidding of the strongest garrison. Furthermore, the Tang government also lost most of its control over the Western Regions, due to troop withdrawal to central China to attempt to crush the rebellion and deal with subsequent disturbances. Continued military and economic weakness resulted in further subsequent erosions of Tang territorial control during the ensuing years, particularly in regard to the Uighur and Tibetan empires. By 790, Chinese control over the Tarim Basin area was completely lost.

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Cultural influence

The events involved with the An Lushan rebellion had and have an immense cultural influence both in China and beyond. For instance, in China itself, events were reflected through the verses of those contemporary poets who were all caught up in events of the rebellion.

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Li Bai's colleague Du Fu had finally attained a minor appointment in the imperial bureaucracy when the rebellion broke out. He spent the winter of 756 and the summer of 757 as a captive in rebel-occupied Chang'an,[25] but later managed to escape and join with Suzong's side, and thus avoid charges of treason. Living until 770, his subsequent poetry is a primary source of information about the massive upheavals of the period.

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Wang Changling, was another Tang official and renowned poet who died in the rebellion, in about 756.

Later poets, such as Bai Juyi (who was not born until 772) also wrote famous verses about the events of the period of the Anshi affairs.

The tragic events were epitomized in the story of Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, and generations of Chinese and Japanese painters depicted various iconic scenes, such as Yang Guifei bathing or playing a musical instrument or the flight of the imperial court on the "hard road to Shu" (that is, the royal progress to Sichuan). These artistic themes were also a major source of inspiration in Japan, in regards to the Tale of Genji, which was largely inspired by the story of Yang Guifei.

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