Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Shi Siming was originally named Zugan and came from Ningyi Prefecture, a loose-rein prefecture under the Yingzhou Area Command. The *Old Book of Tang* describes him as a “mixed Turkic Hu of Ningyi Prefecture in Yingzhou,” while the *New Book of Tang* calls him “of Turkic stock.” Modern scholars have interpreted this evidence differently. Some, relying on his surname Shi and the distribution of Hu populations in Yingzhou, argue that he belonged to the Sogdian Shi kingdom among the Nine Surnames of Zhaowu. Others regard him as of mixed Turkic and Sogdian ancestry or as a Turkicized Sogdian. The two positions remain unresolved. His original name Zugan is described in the source as Turkic and is presented as evidence of a close cultural connection with the Turks.
Shi Siming was thin, with raised shoulders and a bent back, protruding eyes, a slanting nose, sparse beard and hair, and an impatient and deceitful temperament. He was from the same region as An Lushan. The biography states that he was born on January 21, 703, the thirtieth day of the twelfth month of the second year of the Wu Zhou Chang'an era, one day before An Lushan, and that the two were companions from youth. As an adult, Shi entered the service of Wu Zhiyi, commander at Yingzhou, as a light cavalryman. He made captures whenever sent to scout enemy forces, and because he knew the languages of six frontier peoples he was promoted to trade intermediary for the border markets.
Shi came from humble circumstances and was looked down upon locally. A daughter of the prominent Xin family of Youzhou saw him and told her parents that she must marry Shi Siming. Her relatives opposed the match, but she insisted. Shi later boasted that after marrying her he had been promoted and had many sons, regarding this as a sign of destined wealth and honor.
Rise to Prominence
In 736 Shi could not repay an official debt and attempted to flee into Xi territory. Xi patrol cavalry captured him on the way. Remaining calm, he claimed to be a marriage-alliance envoy sent by the Tang emperor. The patrol believed him and took him to the Xi ruler's camp. When the Xi ruler did not bow, Shi asserted the dignity of an imperial envoy, and the ruler accepted the story and treated him as an honored guest. Shi then deceived the Xi ruler into sending his general Suogao with three hundred elite troops to accompany him to “pay court to the emperor.” When the party reached Pinglu, present-day Chaoyang in Liaoning, Shi secretly informed the Pinglu commander Pei Xiuzi that the Xi outwardly claimed to be coming to court but actually planned an attack. Pei laid an ambush, captured the entire group, sent Suogao to Youzhou, and buried the three hundred elite soldiers alive.
Zhang Shougui, Military Commissioner of Fanyang, was delighted by Suogao's capture and brought Shi into his staff, recommending him as Commandant of Resolute Courage. Like An Lushan, Shi also served as a raiding commander. Both were described as talented, bold, and accomplished in battle.
In 742 Shi had risen to general and acting commander of Pinglu. During an audience at court, Emperor Xuanzong admired his military ability and invited him to sit and converse. When asked his age, Shi replied that he was already forty. Xuanzong patted him on the back and told him to strive hard because he would one day become highly honored. The emperor promoted him to Grand General and military commander of Pinglu and bestowed the name “Siming.”
In the eighth month of 751, Shi joined An Lushan in an expedition against the Khitan and suffered a major defeat at Tuhuzhen River. An Lushan escaped to Shizhou and blamed the generals Ge Jie and Yu Chengxian, executing them. Shi hid in a mountain valley for nearly twenty days and gathered seven hundred scattered soldiers. When An Lushan returned to Pinglu and found most of his men gone, Shi emerged with the recovered troops. An was overjoyed, took his hand, and said that he had thought Shi dead and now had nothing to fear. Shi later remarked privately that a man had to know when to advance and retreat, since had he emerged earlier he might have been executed together with Ge Jie. The Khitan then attacked Shizhou. Liu Zhengchen, the local garrison commander, abandoned the city, but Shi drove the attackers away. In the twelfth month of the following year An Lushan recommended him concurrently as Administrator of Beiping and commander of the Lulong Army.
Rebellion against Tang
On the ninth day of the eleventh month of 755, the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era, An Lushan claimed to possess a secret order to punish Yang Guozhong and led 150,000 troops south from Fanyang, beginning the An Lushan Rebellion. In the twelfth month Yan Gaoqing held Changshan, issued proclamations calling on the Hebei commanderies to resist, and attempted to persuade Jia Xun, the defender of Fanyang, to return to Tang. The plan was exposed and Jia was killed. An Lushan appointed Shi Siming defender of Fanyang. With three thousand cavalry Shi joined Cai Xide in a rapid attack on Changshan. The city fell after eight days and Yan Gaoqing was captured. Shi then pressed on to Raoyang, besieged it for nearly a month, and defeated a relief force of fifteen thousand from Hejian and Jingcheng.
In the first month of 756 An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor of Great Yan and ordered Shi to take charge of Hebei. In the second month Li Guangbi led more than thirteen thousand mixed frontier and Han infantry, cavalry, and Taiyuan crossbowmen through Jingxing Pass and recovered Changshan. Shi lifted the siege of Raoyang and marched twenty-five thousand infantry and cavalry two hundred li day and night toward Changshan. Li used crossbowmen against Shi's cavalry vanguard and ambushed the infantry in the rear, forcing Shi to withdraw to Jiumen. The armies confronted one another. In the fourth month Guo Ziyi joined Li Guangbi with twenty thousand troops and defeated Shi south of Jiumen, forcing him to retreat to Boling. In the fifth month An Lushan sent Cai Xide with thirty thousand reinforcements. Guo and Li fortified deeply and waited. At Mount Jia near Hengyang they inflicted a crushing defeat, reportedly killing forty thousand and capturing more than one thousand. Shi fled bareheaded and barefoot to Boling, which Li Guangbi then nearly captured under siege.
In the sixth month Geshu Han was defeated at Tong Pass and Chang'an fell. In the seventh month Emperor Suzong urgently recalled Shuofang and Hedong troops westward, forcing Li Guangbi to abandon the siege. Shi took advantage of the withdrawal to defeat Pinglu Military Commissioner Liu Zhengchen, killing more than seven thousand, capturing two thousand carts of weapons and supplies, and absorbing elite Pinglu soldiers. He returned to attack Changshan. At Jiumen the defenders pretended to surrender and ambushed him from the walls. Shi was struck by a halberd and fell, with defensive stakes injuring his left side, but survived. After the city fell he ordered its buildings burned and the families of the defenders massacred. He then captured Changshan and Zhao Commandery, joined Yin Ziqi's forces, defeated twelve thousand men under Yan Zhenqing of Pingyuan, forcing Yan to abandon the commandery, and took Hejian, Jingcheng, Qinghe, Le'an, Boping, and other commanderies. Wu Cheng'en, Administrator of Xindu and son of Shi's former superior Wu Zhiyi, surrendered after the rebels held his mother, wife, and son. Shi drank with him arm in arm and gained three thousand horses and fifty thousand soldiers. In the tenth month of 756 Raoyang fell; Administrator Li Xi burned himself to death. Deputy commander Zhang Xing was captured and urged Shi to return to Tang. Shi had him sawn to death, and Zhang continued cursing him until the end. The Hebei commanderies had now largely fallen to the rebels.
Surrender to Tang and Renewed Rebellion
In the first month of 757, Shi Siming, Cai Xide, Gao Xiuyan, and others combined one hundred thousand troops to attack Taiyuan, intending to advance toward Lingwu from the north. Li Guangbi mounted stone-throwing machines on the walls, dug tunnels and traps, and sent detachments to raid and disrupt supply routes. More than ten thousand rebel soldiers were captured or killed. Meanwhile internal conflict erupted among the rebels: An Qingxu killed An Lushan and made himself emperor. Shi withdrew to Boling. An Qingxu enfeoffed him as Prince of Guichuan, appointed him Military Commissioner of Fanyang with concurrent authority over Hengyang, and granted him the name An Rongguo.
Fanyang had been the An clan's base, and much of the treasure An Lushan looted from Chang'an and Luoyang had been stored there in enormous quantities. Shi increasingly contemplated independent rule and no longer wished to accept An Qingxu's control. In the tenth month of 757, the rebels suffered a major defeat at Shanjun, present-day Sanmenxia, and An Qingxu abandoned Luoyang for Yejun, present-day Anyang. His general Li Guiren fled toward Fanyang with thirty thousand elite Yeluohe, Tongluo, and other non-Han troops, plundering along the road. Shi prepared heavy defenses while also sending envoys to conciliate him. Li Guiren submitted. When the Tongluo contingents resisted, Shi defeated them, killed more than three thousand, and recovered all the goods they had seized.
At Yejun, An Qingxu subsequently fought desperately and defeated Tang forces, recovering prestige. Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi, Wu Lingxun, and others joined him, bringing his army to sixty thousand. Yet An thereafter neglected government, feasted through the night, allowed advisers to struggle for power, and listened to Zhang Tongru's slander, killing the general Cai Xide. Support gradually dispersed. Concerned by Shi Siming's growing strength, An sent Ashina Chengqing, An Shouzhong, and Li Lijie to levy troops from Hebei and secretly planned to eliminate Shi.
Geng Renzhi, administrative judge of Fanyang, advised Shi that his previous service to the An clan had been forced by their power and that with Tang revived under an able emperor, submitting with his troops would turn disaster into good fortune. Wu Chengbi, a clansman of Wu Cheng'en, likewise argued that An Qingxu was like dew on a leaf and could not last, and that surrendering to Tang would wash away Shi's guilt. Shi agreed.
Ashina Chengqing arrived at Fanyang guarded by five thousand elite cavalry. Shi went out with tens of thousands of troops and sent word that his frontier soldiers were pleased by the visitors but frightened by the sight of a large force and would feel secure only if the newcomers unstrung bows and removed armor. Chengqing, an old acquaintance, agreed. Shi brought him and his officers inside for a banquet, while other men collected the armor and weapons of their troops. Levied soldiers from the various commanderies were given provisions and released; those who wished to stay received generous rewards and were distributed among Shi's camps. The next day Shi detained Ashina Chengqing, executed An Shouzhong and Li Lijie, and submitted a memorial offering thirteen commanderies and eighty thousand troops to Tang. He also contacted Gao Xiuyan, Military Commissioner of Hedong, to surrender together.
Emperor Suzong was delighted and enfeoffed Shi as Prince of Guiyi, senior administrator of Fanyang, Censor-in-Chief, and Military Commissioner of Hebei. Shi Chaoyi and his other sons were given senior court ranks. Wu Cheng'en and the eunuch Li Sijing were sent to pacify him and ordered him to lead his troops against An Qingxu.
Proclaiming Himself Emperor and Death
After Wu Cheng'en reached Fanyang, he secretly attempted to turn Shi's subordinates against him. The plot was exposed and Wu was arrested. Questioned by Shi, he admitted that Li Guangbi had directed him. Shi executed Wu and his fellow conspirators and petitioned the court to execute Li Guangbi, thereby openly breaking with Tang. In 758, the first year of the Qianyuan era, Shi rebelled again.
On the first day of the first month of 759, Shi proclaimed himself Great Sage Prince of Yan at Weizhou, present-day Daming in Hebei, and adopted the Yingtian era name. In the third month, nine Tang military governors were besieging An Qingxu at Xiangzhou, or Ye. Shi marched south to relieve him. The Tang army of six hundred thousand had been under the walls for a long time, supplies were failing, and commanders lacked unified orders. Shi raided the Tang supply lines and sent elite cavalry to harass them. On the third day of the third month the armies fought. A sudden gale filled the air with dust, and Tang troops panicked and collapsed, with the military governors retreating separately. Shi entered Ye, killed An Qingxu and four of his brothers, absorbed their troops, left his son Shi Chaoyi to defend Xiangzhou, and returned to Fanyang.
In the fourth month Shi changed the state name to Great Yan, proclaimed himself Yingtian Emperor, and changed the era name to Shuntian. He made his wife Lady Xin empress, Shi Chaoyi Prince of Huai, Zhou Zhi chancellor, and Li Guiren a general. Fanyang was styled Yanjing, Luoyang Zhoujing, and Chang'an Qinjing.
Shi later marched south and captured Luoyang. In the second month of 761, the second year of the Shangyuan era, he defeated Tang forces under Li Guangbi and Pugu Huai'en at Mount Mang and threatened Shanzhou. Shi had never liked his eldest son Shi Chaoyi and often wanted to kill him and make the younger son Shi Chaoqing crown prince. Shi Chaoyi repeatedly failed to take Shanzhou, and Shi Siming declared that once Shanzhou fell he would kill him. Shi Chaoyi's commanders Luo Yue and Cai Wenjing urged a coup. Luo and the others had Xu Jichang, son of Xu Shuji, summon General Cao. When Cao learned that the commanders all resented Shi Siming, he did not dare oppose them. That night Luo and others led three hundred of Shi Chaoyi's soldiers against Shi Siming's headquarters at Luqiao Post Station. Shi heard the commotion, climbed over a wall to the stables, and tried to flee on horseback, but Zhou Zijun, one of Luo's men, shot him in the arm and he fell and was captured.
When Luo told him that the Prince of Huai had revolted, Shi Siming said that his own reckless words had brought this retribution, but that killing him before Chang'an had been captured would prevent the enterprise from succeeding. He reportedly called out three times that the Prince of Huai should not kill him, saying it was better to imprison one's father than bear the name of patricide. Luo and the others confined him at Liuquan Post Station. On April 18, 761, the jiawu day of the third month, fearing a reversal, they strangled him, wrapped his body in felt, and sent it to Luoyang on a camel. Shi Chaoyi immediately proclaimed himself emperor. In the fifth month of 762, the first year of the Baoying era, Shi Chaoyi held mourning rites for his father, gave him the posthumous title Emperor Zhaowu, and buried him at Fanyang, in what is now the Wangzuo area of Fengtai District, Beijing.
Family, Early Years, and the Stratagem That Took Suogao
Shi Siming, originally named Zigan, was a Turkic half-breed "Hu" of Ningyizhou in Yingzhou: "slight of figure, scant of beard and hair, with shoulders like a kite's and a stooping back, protruding eyes and a flat nose, hasty by nature," hasty and crafty. Born at Liucheng in Yingzhou (modern Chaoyang in Liaoning) on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month of 702, he was "born one day before (An Lushan), and being of the same district the two became companions in boyhood"; the biography says that "when grown they were on good terms and both known for their daring." As a man he entered the tent of the governor of Yingzhou (Wu Zhiyi) as a light horseman, and when sent to scout the enemy "he always brought back a prisoner alive"; knowing the six barbarian languages, he was made a market commissioner for frontier trade, and was a market commissioner together with An Lushan.
In 736, unable to repay a debt owed to the government and meaning to flee to the Xi, he was found on the way by (patrols), who meant to kill him; Shi Siming put on a grave face and said: "I am the envoy sent by the Son of Heaven of Great Tang to make peace; to kill me would bring disaster on your tribe. Better take me to the king of the Xi; if he spares my life, you too will have merit." The patrols thought it reasonable and brought him to the king of the Xi (Li Shi); and he would not bow to the king, claiming that "by the rites, the envoy of the Son of Heaven need not bow to the ruler of a small state," whereupon the king, angry yet struck by his commanding air, took him for a Tang envoy and received him with the honours due a guest of rank. He then contrived a yet bolder trick: the king of the Xi, fearing Tang power, decided to send a hundred men to court with him, and since "Suogao, the king of the Xi's great general, had much fame in the tribe," Shi Siming, wishing to seize him to make amends for his own offence, tricked the king by saying that those he was sending were "mostly shallow fellows — how should such men see the Son of Heaven?" and asking that Suogao be sent instead; the king dared not refuse, and sent Suogao with three hundred of his men to "pay homage to the Son of Heaven." Reaching (Pinglu), he sent word to the (commissioner) of Pinglu, Pei Xiuzi, that "the Xi have sent Suogao with their picked troops, ostensibly to pay homage but in fact to raid Pinglu; let the general be ready and strike first," and Pei Xiuzi, turning the trick back on them, drew up his men in pretended welcome; the Xi, wholly unprepared, were all seized in the hostel and Suogao sent under guard (to Youzhou), while his three hundred picked men were all buried alive. Zhang Shougui, delighted to see the Xi chief taken alive, "took Shi Siming into his tent and memorialized to make him (a guard commander)" — a gamble with his life that became his ladder into the frontier commands.
Service under An Lushan and His Marriage to a Lady Xin
In 742, when An Lushan was made military governor of Pinglu and grew in the Xuanzong emperor's favour, Shi Siming rose to general and to charge of Pinglu's military affairs. The Old History records that "he once came to court, and Xuanzong gave him a seat and talked with him, thinking him remarkable. Asked his age, he said, 'Forty.' Xuanzong patted his back and said: 'Your honour lies ahead; work at it,' and advanced him to grand general and governor of Beiping," and in 752 An Lushan memorialized to make him commander of the troops of Pinglu. In the eighth month of 751, in a campaign against the (Khitan) under An Lushan that went badly, An Lushan blamed his subordinates Ge Jie and the Hedong commander Yu Chengxian and had them beheaded, while Shi Siming fled into the mountains for nearly twenty days and "gathered seven hundred scattered soldiers"; and when An Lushan returned to Pinglu city and, finding his officers and men mostly gone, did not know what to do, Shi Siming came out of the valley with his men to present himself, at which An Lushan, overjoyed, took his hand and said: "I thought you were dead; with you alive, what have I to worry about?" Afterwards Shi Siming remarked privately: "I have heard that in dealing with the world one must know when to advance and when to withdraw; had I come out earlier, I should likely have been beheaded with Ge Jie." When the Khitan then attacked Shizhou and its commander abandoned the city, An Lushan sent Shi Siming to drive off the raiders, and in the twelfth month of the next year memorialized to make him concurrently (governor) of Beiping. His marriage was likewise a tale: of low birth and much despised by his neighbours, he was seen by a daughter of the great Xin house of Youzhou as she was about to be married, and she told her parents that "I must marry Shi Siming"; her kin all objected but she insisted, and they were married, at which he boasted that "since I married her my offices and my sons have multiplied — such is my fortune."
The Fighting in Hebei during the An Lushan Rebellion
On the ninth day of the eleventh month of 755 An Lushan rose in the name of a secret edict to punish Yang Guozhong; Yan Gaoqing (with Yuan Lüqian), holding Changshan, sent proclamations to the commanderies of Hebei to resist, and tried to win over the (Jia Xun) left at Fanyang, but the matter leaked, and An Lushan made Shi Siming commander of Fanyang, who with three thousand of his own horse and (Cai Xide) stormed Changshan, "taking it after eight days," with Yan Gaoqing captured; Shi Siming then pressed on to Raoyang and besieged it nearly a month, and the fifteen thousand sent from Hejian and Jingcheng to relieve it were beaten. In the first month of 756 An Lushan styled himself "emperor of Great Yan" and put Shi Siming in charge of Hebei, and his way of war was savage — "wherever he marched he let his men plunder and seize and kill for sport, and so their spirit was high and they fought fiercely." After Li Guangbi came out of Tumen and recovered Changshan, Shi Siming raised the siege of Raoyang and marched day and night two hundred li with twenty-five thousand foot and horse straight for Changshan; Li Guangbi sent crossbowmen against his vanguard horse and ambushed his rear infantry, forcing him back into Jiumen, where the two armies stood opposite. In the fourth month Guo Ziyi, military governor of Shuofang, joined him with twenty thousand Shuofang barbarian and Chinese troops from Tumen, "and the army's prestige revived," and broke Shi Siming south of Jiumen, so that he fell back on (Hengyang); in the fifth month, when An Lushan sent Cai Xide with thirty thousand foot and horse, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi held deep ditches and high ramparts and waited at ease, and at Jiashan in Hengyang broke Shi Siming heavily, "beheading forty thousand and taking more than a thousand prisoners," so that he fled bare-headed and barefoot to Boling, which Li Guangbi invested and "the city was all but taken." But when Tong pass fell and Emperor Suzong urgently recalled the Shuofang and Hedong troops, Li Guangbi had to raise the siege, and Shi Siming, seizing the moment, drove off the Pinglu governor Liu Zhengchen, "killing more than seven thousand and taking two thousand cartloads of arms and baggage," and absorbed the picked Pinglu troops, "and his arrogance flared again"; he attacked Changshan once more, and at Jiumen the garrison pretended to surrender and set an ambush on the wall, so that he was struck by a halberd and fell from the city, wounded in the left side but surviving by luck; soon Jiumen fell, and he "ordered the houses burned and the whole clan of the garrison slaughtered," then took Changshan and Zhaojun and, with twelve thousand men of (Yin Ziqi), forced (Yan Zhenqing) to abandon Pingyuan, taking Hejian, Jingcheng, Qinghe and other commanderies one after another.