Geshu Han

Geshu Han (Chinese: 哥舒翰; pinyin: Gēshū Hàn) (died December 1, 757), formally Prince Wumin of Xiping (西平武愍王), was a general of Tang China who was of Turgesh extraction. He became a powerful general late in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and in 756 became responsible for defending Tong Pass against the rebel forces of An Lushan.

After being forced by the Chancellor Yang Guozhong to engage An Lushan's forces, he was defeated and subsequently kidnapped by his own subordinate, Huoba Guiren (火拔歸仁), to An Lushan's camp. An Lushan tried to use him to get his subordinate generals Li Guangbi, Lai Tian (來瑱), and Lu Gui (魯炅) to surrender as well, but when those generals refused to do so, put him under house arrest in Luoyang, the capital of An's newly established state of Great Yan.

In 757, after An Lushan's son and successor An Qingxu was defeated by Tang forces and forced to abandon Luoyang, An Qingxu executed Geshu and some thirty other captive Tang generals.

It is not known when Geshu Han was born. His ancestors were Geshu tribal chiefs, of Tuqishi extraction. His grandfather Geshu Ju (哥舒沮) served as an officer in the Tang army, and his father Geshu Daoyuan (哥舒道元) served as the deputy to the Protectorate General to Pacify the West, and thus lived in Anxi Circuit (安西, headquartered in modern Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang). Geshu Han's household was said to be rich, and he used the wealth to further what he saw were just causes, and he also drank heavily. When he was 39, his father died, and he spent three years in the Tang capital Chang'an. On one occasion, he was disrespected by the sheriff of Chang'an County, and he took this disrespect as a reason to serve in the military.

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