From The Erchu’s Inscriptions To See The Vicissitude Of The Erchu Family In The Formation Of Sui And Tang Empire

Erchu is one branch of Jie Hu rised suddenly in the unrest political situation in the last stage of the Northern Wei,afler putting down the rebellions of Ruru, Xianyu Xiuli, Gerong and Xinggao, a military and political group came to form, Erchu Rong was the chief leader, the Erchu famliy was the core, Jiehu warriors were the main military strength, the Beizhen Xianbei arm forces were the periphery military strength. However, after Erchu helping the Northern Wei government putting down rebellions, Erchu Rong started the Heyin Incident, with his manipulation, Yuan Ziyou, Yuan Ye and Yuan Gong became the emperor one after another. Soon, the Northern Wei perished, Gao Huan of the Eastern Wei, Yuwen Tai of the Western Wei, including main members of the later Guanlong aristocracies, most of them were from the Erchu Group. Though Erchu waned rapidly after they rised, they had a far-reaching impact to the political situation after the Northern Wei perished.The Erchu Group waned, but as a family, they contimued developing. A surviving branch of Erchu went to the Western Wei, made their fortune as an aides of Yuwen Tai, then they fighted in the Northern Zhou, then the Sui Empire, until the Tang Empire. The Erchu famliy itself was also changing as the political situation in north China changed. Its members were not Jiehu warlords any more, they read books, knew cultures, also knew how to fight and command soldiers, they became members of the Guanlong Group, came into politics of Sui and Tang.From the Northern Wei to Sui and Tang Empire, the change of Erchu Family was also the portray and epitome of the whole history. This paper will start with tens of Erchu’s inscriptions and epitaph which we can see so far, use the branch of Erchu Yanbo as the clue, combine unearthed documents and historical records, relate to other system influences at the same time, investigate changes of political and military structure in the forming progress of Sui and Tang Empire, also analyse effects and changes of Erchu.Erchu developed from an ethnic group came from the grassland in north China, the precess of their raise was so similar with Hun, Xianbei, Di and Qiang during the Sixteen Kingdoms, but they lived in Bing Zhou and Si Zhou for a long time after Dengguo in the Northern Wei, they farely knew Han culture, they could’t avoid theri limits. Their raise,wane and reborn, was also the process of conquer, fight and agaist, acception to rebirth of barbarous and civilization. It reflected the developing trend of the whole history.Besides the preface, this paper will comprise of two parts:The preface sorts out current study situation of Hu Zu in the Northern Dynasties that Erchu represents, points out that, even we have a lot of achievements in the study of famliies of medieval history, we still have developping room for study of Erchu. The material we use now is not comprehensive enough, besides historical records, we have to use unearthed documents and historical relics. Then elaborates major objecs and basis of this paper.The first chapter is the summarize of Erchu’s inscripntions and epitaph. Introduceing main Erchu’s inscriptions and epitaph that we can see so far, choosing nine of them, because the persons of the nine articals wrote have kinship, they are the main base of this paper. Related to another articles which wrote about two women who have marriage relationship with Erchu famliy, make the relationships of all the members of Erchu that both articles and historical records wrote clear, so as their career experiences.The second chapter was about the destiny and change of Erchu Family. Base on the clear relationship between Erchu family members and their main experiences, we discussing changes of the Erchu family in different times, main in last stage of the Northern Wei, from confrontation of Eastern and Western Wei to the begining of Sui and Tang Empire, after the Tang Empire founded. Combining the rebellion of Liuzhen, the Heyin Incident, Yuan Hao built a regime, the confrontation of Eastern and Western Wei, the Xuanwu Gate Event.