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Yang Guozhong
Tang chief minister who rose through his cousin Yang Guifei's favour, goaded An Lushan into revolt and was cut down by mutinous guards at Mawei in 756
Mural of the event “An Lushan Rebellion”, which this person took part in.
By the late Tianbao era, the Tang court had concentrated extensive northern frontier commands in a small number of military governors while central military and fiscal coordination weakened. Holding three commands, An Lushan acquired the forces with which he rebelled at Fanyang in 755.
Also known as Yang Zhao · Weiguo Gong
Yang Guozhong, first named Zhao, came from Yongle in Puzhou and was a nephew of Empress Wu's favourite Zhang Yizhi; his drinking and gambling shamed his kin. When his cousin Yang Taizhen rose in Emperor Xuanzong's favour, the governor of Jiannan brought him to the capital, where by anticipating the emperor's wishes he soon held more than fifteen commissions, controlled state revenue and received the name Guozhong. He sent two armies against Nanzhao; both were destroyed with nearly two hundred thousand men lost, and he hid the defeats. On Li Linfu's death in 752 he became chief minister, made appointments from his own house and kept warning that An Lushan would rebel while trying to provoke him. An rose in 755 in the name of ridding the court of Yang, who the next year pressed Geshu Han into a disastrous sortie from Tongguan. In 756, as the emperor fled west, guards mutinied at Mawei and beheaded him. The Old Tang History places him in the same chapter as Li Linfu.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–756 CE