 The administrations of the Five Dynasties and the early Song dynasty shared a pattern of being disproportionately drawn from the families of military governors in northern and northwestern China (Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi), their personal staff, and the bureaucrats who served in the capitals of the Five dynasties.These families had risen to prominence due to the unraveling of central authority after the An Lushan Rebellion, despite lacking esteemed ancestry.The historian Deng Xiaonan argued that many of these military families, including the Song imperial family, were of mixed Han Chinese-Turkic-Kumo Xi ancestry.