The Three ''Fanzhen'' of Hebei () were three regions in what is now

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

governed by powerful ''

jiedushi The ''jiedushi'' (), or jiedu, was a title for regional military governors in China which was established in the Tang dynasty and abolished in the Yuan dynasty. The post of ''jiedushi'' has been translated as "military commissioner", "legate ...

'' in the post-

An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...

(755-763)

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(618–907). After the rebellion, the three regions of Chéngdé (), Lúlóng () and Wèibó () were controlled by ex-rebel generals who held substantial territory and forces. Although nominally under the authority of the Tang dynasty, they were functionally independent '' fanzhen'' that continued to the end of the Tang dynasty. In the south, however, the court took a much more aggressive stand against such defense commands as Zīqīng () (mainly in Shandong), Biànsòng () (in east Henan), and Huáixī () (in south Henan), which posed a more immediate and palpable threat to the transportation of strategic grains through the Grand Canal, on which the court depended. During Emperor Xianzong's reign the northeast region was briefly subdued, but after his death it became independent again. By the reign of Emperor Wenzong, the central government had lost all control over this region. The situation was summed up thus by Tang dynasty's chancellor Niu Sengru:

"Ever since the Anshi Rebellion, the three ''Fanzhen'' have not been part of the country. Although Liu Zong briefly gave the area to the central government, in the end it became independent and 80 million strings of cash were wasted. These regions are fought over frequently; one day Zhicheng has it, the next day
Zaiyi Zaiyi (; Manchu: ; ''dzai-i''; 26 August 1856 – 10 January 1923),Edward J.M. Rhoads, ''Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928'', University of Washington Press, 2001 better ...
. As long as the ''jiedushi'' can fend off the northern barbarians, we will not care about its allegiance."

Sources

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingd ...

Administrative divisions of the Tang dynasty Military history of Hebei {{China-hist-stub

See also

Sources