Yangzhou massacre (760)

Yangzhou massacre
Location	Yangzhou
Date	760
Target	Arabs and Persians
Deaths	thousands
Perpetrators	rebel army under Tian Shengong (T'ien Shen-kung) 田神功

In the Yangzhou massacre, Chinese rebels under Tian Shengong engaged in a slaughter of foreign Arab and Persian merchants in 760 AD during the Tang dynasty in Yangzhou.

Background

The foreign merchants and traders incurred xenophobic feelings among the Chinese population, and they were scapegoated as the Tang dynasty declined.^[1]

Massacre

The massacre took place during the An Shi Rebellion. Arab and Persian merchants in the city were massacred in the thousands when Tian Shengong's (T'ien Shen-kung) 田神功 rebel soldiers entered the city. The merchants were targeted for being foreign and for their wealth.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]} (大食波斯賈胡死者數千人 ; 殺商胡波斯數千人)^[15]

Related events

In the Guangzhou massacre in 879, 120,000 Muslim Arabs, Persians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians were killed by the Chinese rebel leader Huang Chao.

See also

• List of massacres in China

References

1. Jacques Gernet (1996). A History of Chinese Civilization (2, illustrated, revised, reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN 0521497817. Retrieved March 12, 2012. In 760 several thousand Arab and Persian merchants were massacred at Yangchow by insurgents bands led by T'ien Shen-kung, and a century later, in 879, it was also the foreign merchants who were attacked at Canton by the troops of Huang Ch'ao.
2. Perkins, Dorothy (2000). Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. Roundtable Press. ISBN 978-0816043743.
3. Yarshater (1993). William Bayne Fisher, Yarshater, Ilya Gershevitch, ed. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3 (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 553. ISBN 052120092X. Retrieved 2012-01-10. Probably by the 7th century Persians had joined with Arabs to create the foreign emporium on the Grand Canal at Yangchou mentioned by the New T'ang History. The same source records a disturbance there in 760 in which a thousand of the merchants were killed.
4. Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization (2, illustrated, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN 0521497817. Retrieved 2012-01-10. The wealth of the foreign merchants established in the big cities may have provoked the xenophobia that became apparent during rebellions. In 760 several thousand Arab and Persian merchants were massacred at Yangchow by insurgent bands led by T'ien Shen-kung, and a century later, in 879, it was also the foreign merchants who were attacked at Canton under the troops of Huang Ch'ao.
5. Tan Ta Sen, Dasheng Chen (2009). Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia (illustrated, reprint ed.). Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 104. ISBN 9812308377. Retrieved 2012-01-10. these manliao ( j§ w) [Southern barbarians] would pollute the Chinese culture through intermarriage and upset the land ownership system through land acquisition. . .For example, in AD 760, Yangzhou was attacked by a nearby garrison troop led by Tian Shengong (HJ^ff-w), who was ironically invited by the local authorities to help crush a local uprising. Consequently, a few thousand Arab and Persian merchants were robbed and killed (Jin Tangshu, ch. 110). In the 830s, a mandarin in Guangzhou took steps to control the Arab and Persian Muslims by ordering that Chinese and barbarians must live in separate quarters and must not intermarry; barbarins were also not allowed to own land and paddy fields (Jin Tangshu, ch. 177) Thereafter, Arab and Persian traders lived in designated quarters . . .they also enjoyed religious freedom and kept their Islamic lifestlye intact. . .the Arab and Persian Muslims were also contented to stay out of the Confucian Chinese world so long as the authorities concerned pledged to provide aman [security] for them to lead a peaceful life according to the Islamic doctrines.
6. Jacques Gernet (2007). El mundo chino (in Spanish). Editorial Critica. p. 263. ISBN 8484328686. Retrieved 2012-01-10. en 760, varios millares de mercaderes árabes y persas fueron masacrados en Yangzhou por bandas insurgentes dirigidas por Tian Shengong; un siglo más tarde las tropas de Huang Chao la emprendieron también en Cantón con los mercaderes extranjeros.
7. 新江荣 (1999). 唐研究. 北京大學出版社. p. 334. ISBN 7301043937. Retrieved 2012-01-10. Deng Jingshan fßJSlll , the governor of Yangzhou, ordered general Tian Shengong Ш to lead his forces to suppress the rebels. Shengong entered Yangzhou in 760 and sacked the city, plunderSino-Arab
8. 新江荣 (1999). 唐研究. 北京大學出版社. p. 344. ISBN 7301043937. Retrieved 2012-01-10. But, Yangzhou was also a famous trade center with a large foreign community. Chinese sources record several thousand Arabs, Persians, and other foreigner merchants being killed in 760 AD when General Tian Shengong sacked the city during
9. Tan Ta Sen, Abdul Kadir, Abdul Kadir. Cheng Ho (in Malay). Penerbit Buku Kompas. p. 143. ISBN 9797094928. Retrieved 2012-01-10. Misalnya, pada 760, Yangzhou diserang oleh pasukan tentara di bawah pimpinan Tian Shengong (ffltt^d) yang ironisnya diminta oleh penguasa setempat untuk membantu menumpas pemberontakan daerah. Akibatnya, ribuan saudagar Arab dan Persia dirampok dan dibunuh.22 Pada tahun 830-an, seorang pejabat tinggi di Guangzhou mengambil langkah untuk mengawasi orang orang Muslim Arab dan Persian degan memerintahkan orang China dan orang barbar harus tinggal di pemukiman terpisah dan tidak boleh kawin campur; kaum barbar tidak boleh memiliki tanah dan ladang sawah.
10. Jacques Gernet (1972). Le monde chinois (in Spanish) (2 ed.). A. Colin. Retrieved 2012-01-10. milliers de marchands arabes et persans sont massacrés à Yangzhou par les bandes insurgées que mène Tian Shengong; un siècle plus tard, c'est aussi aux marchands étrangers que s'en prennent à Canton les troupes de Huang Chao en 879.
11. Jonathan Neaman Lipman (1997). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China (illustrated ed.). University of Washington Press. p. 27. ISBN 0295976446. Retrieved 2012-01-10. They dealt in a vast variety of commodities, and their numbers were not small.9 For example, Tian Shengong's soldiers killed thousands of Dashi and Bosi at Yangzhou in a Tang battle against local rebels. When Huang Chao's rebel army
12. Jonathan Neaman Lipman (1997). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China (illustrated ed.). University of Washington Press. p. 26. ISBN 0295976446. Retrieved 2012-01-10. Ouyang, Xin Tang Shu 182.6b--a records the order of Lu Jun, governor of Lingnan at Canton, that foreigners and Chinese could not intermarry (Ch. Fan Hua bu de tong hun), in order to prevent conflict.
13. John Guy (1986). John Guy, ed. Oriental trade ceramics in South-East Asia, ninth to sixteenth centuries: with a catalogue of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai wares in Australian collections (illustrated, revised ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 7. Retrieved March 12, 2012. Tang period onwards, were strong enough to sack that city in 758-9 in an act of frustration prompted by the corruption of Chinese port officials, and escape by sea, probably to Tonkin where they could continue their trading activities.11 The sacking of Yang-chou in 760 by Chinese rebels resulted in the deaths of 'several thousand of Po'ssi and Ta-shih merchants'.12 and when massacres occurred in Guangzhou in 878, a contemporary Arab geographer, Abu Zaid, recorded that 'Muslims, Jews, Christians and Parsees perished'.13
14. Edward H. Schafer (1963). The golden peaches of Samarkand: a study of Tʻang exotics (reprint, illustrated ed.). University of California Press. p. 23. ISBN 0520054628. Retrieved March 12, 2012. The eighth was a century when Central Asiatic harpers and dancers were enormously popular in Chinese cities, but it was also the century of the massacre of thousands of harmless (but wealthy) Persian and Arab traders in Yang-chou.
15. http://ac.els-cdn.com/S2212682112000261/1-s2.0-S2212682112000261-main.pdf?_tid=0489be42-90ea-11e5-8a12-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1448177227_25df80938787b3cafe00a7dcc1cb2b71 page 73. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212682112000261 Journal of Marine and Island Cultures Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2012, The “China Seas” in world history: A general outline of the role of Chinese and East Asian maritime space from its origins to c. 1800 ☆ Angela Schottenhammer doi:10.1016/j.imic.2012.11.002