The Shatuo: From the Western Regions to the Central Plains

This book is a general history of the Shatuo people. The Shatuo were one of the ethnic groups of the Tang and Five Dynasties period. As political circumstances changed at the end of the Tang dynasty, they moved from the Western Regions into the Central Plains, steadily growing in power. Beginning in 883, the third year of the Zhonghe era under Emperor Xizong of Tang, when Li Keyong became military governor of Hedong and the Shatuo established a regional regime, they went on to found the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han, known as the “Three Shatuo Dynasties,” as well as the Northern Han, one of the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. They ruled northern China, or parts of it, for nearly a century. Building on previous research, this book traces and explains the history of the Shatuo in accessible language, covering their origins, migrations, development, and eventual decline. It is a dedicated study of Shatuo history, combining scholarly rigor with fluent narrative.