structural:summarization
Tang dynasty and An Lu Shan rebellion

In the wake of the An Lu Shan rebellion, a further wave of Han migrants from northern China headed the south. At the start of the rebellion in 755 there were 52.9 million registered inhabitants of the Tang Empire, and after its end in 764, only 16.9 million were recorded. It is likely that the difference in census figures was due to the complete breakdown in administrative capabilities, as well as the widespread escape from the north by the Han Chinese and their mass migration to the south.

By now, the Han Chinese population in the south far outstripped that of the Bai Yue. Guangdong and Fujian both experienced a significant influx of Northern Han Chinese settlers, leading many Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew individuals to identify themselves as "Tang people" (唐人; Tángrén), which has served as a means to assert and acknowledge their ethnic and cultural origin and identity.