Zhang Yichao


Zhang Yichao was a Han Chinese general of the Tang Dynasty who was a resident of Sha Prefecture. When the Tibetan Empire plunged into civil war, he led a rebellion, capturing several cities and reverted the area's allegiance to the Tang Dynasty. He subsequently conquered the Hexi Corridor and governed it as the military commissioner of Guiyi Circuit under nominal authority of the Tang emperors.

Rebellion against the Tibetans

Little is known about Zhang Yichao's early life, other than that he was a resident of Sha Prefecture.
Following the Anshi Rebellion, Tibet conquered Sha and Gua prefecture of Tang dynasty in the year of 781. Chinese population of the locality remained.
By 851, the Tibetan Empire which had ruled the southern Tarim Basin and modern Gansu region since 790 was being torn by civil war.
In 848, Zhang secretly planned a rebellion with the other Han Chinese, Yugur, Tuyuhun and Qiang residents of Sha Prefecture to return Sha Prefecture to Tang allegiance. One day, he led armed soldiers and approached the city gates, and the Han all rose in response. The Tibetan garrisons abandoned the city and fled. Zhang thereafter claimed the title of acting prefect of Sha Prefecture and submitted a petition to Emperor Xuānzong of Tang, offering his loyalty and submission. Xuānzong thus made him Official Guard of Sha Prefecture.
Later in the year, Zhang's launched an attack on ten other nearby prefectures with Tibetan garrisons — Gua ; Yi ; Xi ; Gan ; Su ; Lan ; Shan ; He ; Min ; and Kuo. Afterwards they prepared maps of the 11 prefectures and his brother Zhang Yize submitted them to Xuānzong at Chang'an to prove their allegiance to the Tang dynasty. Xuānzong named the 11 prefectures Guiyi Circuit, with its capital at Sha Prefecture, and made Zhang Yichao its military commissioner and his secretary Cao Yijin its secretary general.

As military governor of Guiyi

In 863, Zhang Yichao led a group of 7,000 Han and non-Han soldiers to capture Liang Prefecture.
In 866, Zhang submitted a report stating that the Uyghur chieftain Gujun had recaptured from the Tibetan Empire Xi Prefecture, Ting Prefecture, Luntai, and Qingzhen — apparently implying that Gujun did so under his command.
In 867, Zhang visited Chang'an and paid homage to Emperor Yizong of Tang. Yizong made him a general of the imperial guards and kept him at Chang'an. Yizong also commissioned Zhang's nephew Zhang Huaishen to serve as the acting military governor of Guiyi. He died in 872, probably while residing at Chang'an.