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Guo Ziyi

Tang general who recovered both capitals from the An Lushan rebels as commander of the Shuofang army and later turned back Tibetan and Uyghur invasions

Also known as Fenyang Junwang · Zhong Wu

Guo Ziyi of Zheng county in Huazhou entered service through the military examinations, and when An Lushan rebelled in 755 he became military governor of Shuofang and led his army east. In 757, with Uyghur auxiliaries, he retook Chang'an and Luoyang, and Emperor Suzong told him the dynasty owed its rebirth to him. After nine armies broke before Xiangzhou in 759 the eunuch Yu Chao'en slandered him and he lost his command, but a mutiny at Hezhong brought him back the next year, and he was made Prince of Fenyang. When Tibetan troops took Chang'an in 763 he rallied scattered men and recovered the city; in 765, when Pugu Huai'en brought Tibetans and Uyghurs against the capital, he rode into the Uyghur camp, won its leaders over and drove the Tibetans back. Emperor Dezong honoured him as Shangfu, and he died in 781 aged eighty-five, named Zhongwu. The Old Tang History notes that more than sixty of his staff later became generals or ministers.

Life and times

  1. 697 CEBornTang
  2. 755An Lushan RebellionTook partage 58After An Lushan's revolt, rebel armies seized Luoyang and Chang'an. Eight years of war weakened Tang finances and central authority; the Mawei crisis and postwar military governorships marked a lasting imperial rupture.
    1. An Lushan Captures the Two Capitalsc. 755Military governor An Lushan launched the catastrophic rebellion that captured the twin capitals before loyalist generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi turned the tide.
  3. 759Nine Commanders Routed at Yeage 62In 759 Shi Siming routed the 600,000-strong army of nine Tang military governors besieging Ye, then killed An Qingxu and took over his forces.
  4. 781 CEDied