Mai Thúc Loan’s rising against the Tang
Early in the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong, Mai Thúc Loan, a chieftain in the Tang protectorate of Annam, rose in revolt, proclaimed himself the Black Emperor and, allied with Linyi (Champa) and Chenla, took the seat of the protectorate. In 722 the eunuch general Yang Sixu, with an army of more than a hundred thousand, as the Chinese histories put it, recruited from the sons and kinsmen of southern chieftains, marched by the old road of the Han general Ma Yuan, took the rebels by surprise and crushed them.
- Date
- 722year known
- Place
- Vạn An, Mai Thúc Loan’s citadel in Hoan provinceapproximate locationtoday: Nam Đàn area (former district), Nghệ An province, Vietnam · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Mai Thúc Loan, Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Champa, Chenla
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Mai Hắc Đế; Mai Thuc Loan; Mai Xuancheng; Mai Shuluan; Black Emperor; Yang Sixu; Khởi nghĩa Hoan Châu; Восстание Май Хак Де; Чёрный император; Ян Сысюй
The story is told from the victors’ side, and the Chinese histories differ in detail. The biographies of Yang Sixu in the Old and New Books of Tang place the rising ‘at the beginning of the Kaiyuan era’ (from 713) and call its leader Mai Xuancheng or Mai Shuluan. According to the Old Book of Tang, he conspired with Linyi and Chenla and seized the seat of the Annan protectorate; the New Book of Tang adds that he raised the people of 32 prefectures, allied also with Jinlin (‘Golden Neighbour’), held the southern coast and had a host said to number 400,000 — a figure to be treated with caution — and that Yang marched together with the protector-general Guang Chuke. The annals of Emperor Xuanzong in the Old Book of Tang record under the eighth month of the tenth year of Kaiyuan (722) the report that ‘the Annan rebel leader Mai Shuluan’ was besieging prefectures and counties, and the dispatch of Yang Sixu against him. The Zizhi tongjian, under the same year, says that Yang recruited more than a hundred thousand young men of the southern tribes, beheaded the rebel leader and piled the corpses of the dead into a victory mound. George Coedès notes that Land Chenla sent an expedition to help the rebels.
The Vietnamese annals, compiled centuries later, call the leader Mai Thúc Loan — the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the name Mai Shuluan (梅叔鸞) — a native of Hoan province (present-day Hà Tĩnh and Nghệ An), say that he built his citadel at Vạn An, in the Nam Đàn area, and explain his title Mai Hắc Đế, ‘Black Emperor Mai’, by his dark complexion; they give other figures for his army. The rising belongs to the series of revolts against Chinese rule in northern Vietnam, after those of the Trưng sisters and Lý Bí, and in modern Vietnam Mai Hắc Đế is honoured as a national hero.
Connections
Related events
- Trưng sisters’ rebellionMarch 40 – 43 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaYang Sixu marched by the old road of Ma Yuan, the Han general who had crushed the Trưng sisters in 43
- Lý Bí’s rising against the Liang and the kingdom of Vạn Xuânbetween 541 and 542 – 548 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniaone of the series of risings against Chinese rule in northern Vietnam
- Reign of Emperor Xuanzong: the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras8 September 712 – 12 August 756 · East Asiathe rising was crushed by the Tang early in Xuanzong’s Kaiyuan era
Same participants
- Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Chenla
- The Sui expedition of Liu Fang sacks the capital of Linyi605 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Champa
- Wu Zetian proclaims the Zhou dynasty16 October 690 · East Asiavia Tang dynasty
- The Orkhon inscriptions: memorial stelae of Kül Tegin and Bilge Qaghan1 August 732 – 735 · Central and Northern Asiavia Tang dynasty
- Raiders from overseas attack Champa: Po Nagar (774) and a temple near Virapura (787)774–787 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniavia Champa
Adjacent events in the thread
- Srivijaya’s first conquests and its Old Malay inscriptionsbetween 682 and 683 – 686 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- The Canggal inscription: Sanjaya and the rise of Mataram6 October 732 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Covadongabetween 718 and 722
- Mission of Boniface in Germany15 May 719 – 5 June 754
Eastern Europe
- Second Arab–Khazar War: from Balanjar to Marwan’s campaign to the Volga722–737
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
South Asia
- Indian kings repel the Arab raids from Sind: Nagabhata I and the battle of Navsari723 – between 738 and 739
- Lalitaditya Muktapida rules Kashmir: the Sun temple of Martandbetween 724 and 725 – between 760 and 761
- The Pallava monuments of Mamallapurambetween 600 and 630 – between 700 and 728
East Asia
- Reign of Emperor Xuanzong: the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras8 September 712 – 12 August 756
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Mai Thúc Loan
- Wikipedia (Russian): Май Хак-де
- Wikipedia (vi): Mai Hắc Đế
- Old Book of Tang (Jiu Tang shu), ch. 184: biography of Yang Sixu — Chinese text
- New Book of Tang (Xin Tang shu), ch. 207: biography of Yang Sixu — Chinese text
- Zizhi tongjian, ch. 212 (722) — Chinese text
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 86.