Yang Guozhong
Chinese statesman during the Tang dynasty
Yang Guozhong (traditional Chinese: 楊國忠; simplified Chinese: 杨国忠; pinyin: Yáng Guózhōng; Wade–Giles: Yang Kuochung) (died July 15, 756), né Yang Zhao (楊釗), was a Chinese politician who served as principal chancellor of the Tang dynasty from 752 to 756, late in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. Known in his youth as a gambler and wastrel, Yang rose rapidly to political power after his second cousin, Yang Yuhuan, became Emperor Xuanzong's favorite consort in 744. His familial ties and skills as a financial administrator helped him navigate the tumultuous court politics of the late 740s and early 750s to become the emperor's leading chancellor in 752. While Yang enjoyed Emperor Xuanzong's trust, his competence as chancellor was questioned and he became entangled in a fierce rivalry with an erstwhile political ally, the general and imperial favorite An Lushan. Yang was blamed for precipitating An's cataclysmic rebellion in 755. In the following year, he forced the Tang army of Geshu Han, then holding favorable defensive positions in Tong Pass, to confront the rebel army, leading to a rout of Tang forces and the fall of the imperial capital, Chang'an. Yang attempted to flee to his base in Chengdu with Emperor Xuanzong, but when the imperial party stopped at Mawei Station in modern Shaanxi, Yang and his family, including Yang Yuhuan, were massacred by imperial guard soldiers who blamed them for the chaos.
Background
It is unknown when Yang Zhao was born. His family was from Pu Prefecture (蒲州, roughly Yuncheng, Shanxi) and traced its ancestry to the great Han dynasty official Yang Zhen (楊震), as well as officials of Later Yan, Northern Wei, and Sui dynasty. Yang Zhao's great-great-grandfather Yang Wang (楊汪) was an important official during Sui.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Yang Guozhong” as chinese statesman during the Tang dynasty. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as chinese statesman during the Tang dynasty. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1069299. VIAF identifies the subject as 26541655. The Library of Congress control number is n2008068455. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yang Guozhong” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.