An Exploratory Study on the Mutiny of the Shuofang and the Hedong Army in the Reign of Emperor Suzong

In the late days of the An and Shi Rebellion, the Shuofang and the Hedong Army, the two main forces to bring down the rebel troops, rose in rebellion one after the other. The former historians believed that the rebellion resulted from the commanders-in-chief’s improper treatment, but the author of this paper argues that this view is poorly grounded. In fact, this mutiny resulted from the intensification of the contradiction between the central government and the local military governors rather than from the private ambition of individual generals. In addition, it also showed that the central government headed by Emperor Suzong started to adjust the local governors’ troops to prevent the rise of some new centrifugal forces.