ABSTRACT
The Tang frontier generals and the men under them came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were assimilated to varying degrees into mainstream Chinese culture. The most infamous Tang officer, An Lushan, was not literate in Chinese, but nonetheless rose to a high position in the army. The biographical information about these officers with foreign surnames among the Tang's border forces gives the impression that they were of highly heterogenous origin, but Chinese culture was a bonding element. A close examination of the evidence contradicts the putative 'barbarity' and presumed disloyalty of the frontier troops in the decades before the rebellion. Two of the most influential modern scholars of the Tang, however, have accepted uncritically the negative evaluation of Li Linfu and Xuanzong's frontier policy in the traditional histories. Finally, the military censorial system—an investigative institution common throughout imperial Chinese history—was allowed to deteriorate, which denied to the court the ability to monitor the frontier army.
