An Qingxu

An Qingxu (安慶緒) (730s – 10 April 759[2]), né An Renzhi (安仁執), was a son of An Lushan, a general of the Chinese Tang dynasty who rebelled and took the imperial title, and then established his own state of Yan.

In response to An Lushan's rebellion, An Qingxu's mother Lady Kang and older brother An Qingzong (安慶宗), then at Chang'an, were executed, and after An Lushan captured Chenliu Commandery (陳留, roughly modern Kaifeng, Henan), it was An Qingxu who realized that An Qingzong had been executed and who tearfully informed his father, sending his father into a rage in which he executed the Tang soldiers who surrendered to him at Chenliu.

In 756, after An Lushan declared himself emperor of a new state of Yan at Luoyang, he created An Qingxu the Prince of Jin.

Once he declared imperial title, he spent most of his time inside the Luoyang palace, and his generals rarely saw him, with most important matters going through his official Yan Zhuang (嚴莊)—but even Yan and a favorite eunuch of An's, Li Zhu'er (李豬兒), were being frequently battered.

He also sent the general Yin Ziqi (尹子奇) to attack the city of Suiyang, then under the defense by the Tang generals Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan (許遠), intending to capture Suiyang first and then send Yin south to capture Tang territory south of the Huai River (Yin, however, was locked into a siege of Suiyang that would last until winter 757, stopping any possibility of Yan's advancing south).

In winter 757, An put together his forces and sent them, under Yan Zhuang's command, to defend Shan Commandery (陝郡, roughly modern Sanmenxia, Henan).

Soon, however, Yan generals Ashina Chengqing (阿史那承慶), Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi, and Wu Lingxun (武令珣), who had been attacking other Tang cities, headed to Yecheng and coalesced there, allowing An to have over 60,000 soldiers under his disposal and thus regaining some measure of strength.

Many other cities previously under Yan's control also submitted to Tang, and An Qingxu's territory shrank to just Yecheng and the surrounding area.

It was said that An Qingxu became cruel and paranoid in light of these military losses, and that if generals submitted to Tang, he would slaughter their families if they were Han and their tribes if they were non-Han.

An Qingxu tried to fight out of the siege, but was defeated by Tang forces, and his brother An Qinghe (安慶和) was killed.

I did not know that Your Royal Highness would, on account of the Taishang Huang [i.e., An Lushan], arrive from afar to save me from death.

I am attacking the bandits on behalf of the Taishang Huang, and I will not listen to your flattery.Shi then executed An Qingxu, his four brothers, Gao, Sun, and Cui.