唐の「元和中興」におけるテュルク軍團

Abstract

During the Yuanhe 元和 era (806-20) of the Tang, the Xianzong 憲宗 emperor achieved a certain degree of success in restoring the centralization of power after a period in which the power of military governors had gone largely unchecked, and this achievement resulted in the so-called "Yuanhe restoration." An important factor behind the restoration was that the subjugation of military governors opposed to the central government had proceeded favourably, and the driving force in these campaigns against the military governors has been considered the Army of Inspired Strategy (shencejun 神策軍), made up of reinforced units of the imperial army. Nevertheless, among the series of military campaigns conducted during the Yuanhe era, it was only in the first campaign that the government relied primarily on the power of the Army of Inspired Strategy, and the main function of the Army of Inspired Strategy was coercion and control of military governors rather than actually fighting. The series of military campaigns against military governors opposed to the central government was conducted by combining the forces of supportive military governors, as was done during the Dezong 德宗 era. In these campaigns against recalcitrant military governors, a noteworthy figure was Li Guangyan 李光顏, a chieftain of the Tiele-Adie 鐵勒阿跌 tribe. He participated as either a regional commander under the military governor of Hedong or as the commander of the army of the Zhongwu 忠武 circuit in the principal campaigns against the military governors from the Yuanhe to Changqing 長慶 eras and was always active as a central force in the government armies. The realization of the Yuanhe restoration was in fact due to a large extent to his military exploits. Then, what sort of troops would he have led when participating in the campaigns against the military governors? When one reads source materials relating to the Li family, consisting chiefly of the epitaphs of Li Guangyan and his father and elder brother, it becomes clear that by marrying into the Turkic Ashina 阿史那 clan across two generations and by becoming related by marriage to the Turkic Sheli 舍利 clan, Li Guangyan and his father and brother established close relations with Turkic groups living within Tang territory. Consequently, Li Guangyan and his brother were given command by the Tang of nomadic groups in northern Hedong from the time of the Dezong 徳宗 emperor, and in the campaigns against the military governors during the reigns of Xianzong and his successor Muzong 穆宗, Li Guangyan participated at the head of Turkic nomadic groups consisting of the Tiele and Shatuo 沙陀 tribes, as well as Turks living within Tang territory and achieved the greatest military results with his mounted forces. In other words, it was precisely because it was possible to commit Turkic mounted troops from northern Hedong to the campaigns against the military governors by employing Li Guangyan and his brother that the Xianzong emperor was able to achieve the military successes that brought about the Yuanhe restoration.