The fanzhen system during the reign of Emperor Xizong and the fall of the Tang Dynasty

Generally speaking, the impression has persisted among historians that the fanzhen system of provincial military organization under the Tang Dynasty was detrimental to the centralization of power; however, recent research has shown that the Dynasty was actually dependent on fanzhen for not only military, but also, administrative and fiscal reasons. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was the fanzhen system that allowed the Tang Dynasty to survive after the An Lushan Rebellion. On the other hand, it has been argued that the system, which coexisted with the Imperial Court, transformed itself in the wake of the Huang Chao Rebellion during the reign of Emperor Xizong. Exactly what changes did the fanzhen system undergo that led to its ultimate collapse is the subject of the present article, in which the author examines whether there were any shortcomings in military policy pursued during the reign of Emperor Xizong and discusses the relationship between the downfall of the Tang Dynasty and the failures of the fanzhen system.<br> Regarding the outbreak of the Huang Chao Rebellion, the Imperial Court attempted to respond through the fanzhen of that region; but such a strategy proved ineffective, since its troops were no different from a band of thieves. Rather, a more effective response would have been to deploy the region's nomadic military forces during the initial phase of the Rebellion, due to the simultaneous outbreak of the Li Keyong Rebellion, mainly by the Shatuo forces, in the northern frontier territories. Although geographically both of these rebellions should have been handled by their respective fanzhen garrisons, during the reign of Emperor Xizong, both these military forces, consisting of locally born Han Chinese and nomads-had become virtually ineffective. This state of affairs enabled the rebellions, working in conjunction, to spread, suggesting that it was the dysfunction of the fanzhen system that precipitated the fall of the Tang Dynasty.<br> It has been the conventional understanding that the Huang Chao Rebellion was the sole cause of the fall of the Tang Dynasty, due to the success of imperial forces in subduing the Shatuo. In contrast, the author argues that the downfall was the result of the interaction between the two rebellions that was occurring simultaneously north and south of the Huanghe, a perspective that leads, in turn, to placing the historical significance of the Tang downfall within a much broader geographical context than merely the Tang mainland.