Professor Chen Yinque thought that the Tang Empire was actually separated into two parts after An Lushan and Shi Siming's Revolt, those milirary governors' prefectures in Hebei forming a separate barbarized region. This view of Chen's reflected realistically a universal social psychology in the court and society of the Tang Dynasty, especially in areas directly controlled by the imperial court. However, this didn't mean that “Ceremonies of the Zhou Dynasty and Confucianism” were excluded in the military governors' prefectures in Hebei. Besides those scholars immigrated to the region, local families with Confucian traditions continued their “hereditary schooling”. As a result, the military governors' prefectures, which seemed to be “a separate state” militarily and politically, were made to maintain internal connections with the imperial court in Chang'an by means of culture. The town of Chengde described in the tablet inscriptions provided a real case.

military governor's prefecture; governors in the Tang Dynasty; tablet inscription; image of the military governor's prefecture; Confucianist tradition