Sogdian and Chinese men of the Tang Dynasty 618-907 CE
Despite the An Lushan revolt probably primarily consisting of populations physically similar to modern-day East Asians, as shown by the leadership overwhelmingly of Kumo Xi and Turkic ancestry, Caucasoid populations such as the Sogdians were targeted for their foreign appearance. The butchers actually seem to have been initially on the Turkic side and were defectors who switched sides to join the Tang Chinese side later. Tian Shengong was initially a supporter of the Turkic rebellion but defected to China later, he was the leader behind the Yangzhou Massacre of 760.
Gao Juren was the leader behind the ethnic cleansing of Sogdians in Fanyang and Youzhou. He initially supported the Turkic rebellion and appears to have been of Goguryeo origins (one source said he came from present day North Korea precisely) but defected to China later. Gao Juren was killed a short time after this: "The former Yan rebel general Gao Juren of Goguryeo descent ordered a mass slaughter of West Asian (Central Asian) Sogdians in Fanyang, also known as Jicheng (Beijing), in Youzhou identifying them through their big noses and lances were used to impale their children when he rebelled against the rebel Yan emperor Shi Chaoyi. High nosed Sogdians were slaughtered in Youzhou in 761. Youzhou had Linzhou, another "protected" prefecture attached to it, and Sogdians lived there in great numbers. Because Gao Juren, like Tian Shengong wanted to defect to the Tang dynasty and wanted them to publicly recognize and acknowledge him as a regional warlord and offered the slaughter of the Central Asian Hu "barbarians" as a blood sacrifice for the Tang court to acknowledge his allegiance without him giving up territory, according to the book, "History of An Lushan" (安祿山史記). (taken from Wikipedia)
From Medium:
"Few historical events have caused as much death and destruction as the World Wars. The An Lushan rebellion was one of them. The An Lushan revolt, also called the An-Shi rebellion, occurred in China from 755 to 763 AD. It was one of the bloodiest wars in human history. In 754, 52 million people lived in China, but after the war, that number dropped to 16.3 million in 764.
You may wonder if a fight in the eighth century killed as many people as the First World War.
If Chinese censuses are to be trusted, the answer is yes. Steven Pinker, a rationalist thinker, called the disaster “the biggest atrocity in history,” since it wiped away one-sixth of humanity.
Historians are divided about the death toll. Many of the deaths happened during the period because the empire was in chaos. Some experts suggest people leaving Tang China and taking refuge in neighboring regions caused the drop in population.
At Fanyangn, the Tang general Gao Jure killed all the Sogdians, even the children. He distinguished them by recognizing them by their eyes and noses. This is one of the earliest documented cases of ethnic cleansing in history, in which the rulers targeted citizens based on their ethnicity.
Tang forces slaughtered thousands of Persian and Arab merchants during the Yangzhou massacre (760) on the suspicion of assisting the rebels.
In Chinese society, the trust had completely broken down.
One of the worst tragedies happened in the city of Suiyang. After a brutal siege by the Yan forces, the Tang defenders ran out of food. The Tang soldiers, however, refused to submit. Zhang Xun, the general defending the city, murdered his concubine in front of his men and fed her to them. The troops cried, but when commanded by the general, they ate the poor woman.
Cannibalism was rampant during the siege of Suiyang. People began devouring the dead, and families began exchanging their children for food. The soldiers soon started eating the old women and then turned on young women and men of all age groups. Estimates suggest that 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten. Yet, the Tang army refused to submit.
The number of people who died during the An Lushan rebellion could have been anywhere from 13 million to 36 million. It is easy to argue that the civil war was one of the most catastrophic disasters in human history."
-Prateek Dasgupta, The Bloody 8th Century Conflict That Wiped Out One-Sixth of the Human Population
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