1 - The Slow Collapse of the Tang Dynasty in China
Setting the stage: 580 to 756 AD
(Detail from a Tang Dynasty scroll)
In general, the best histories of China are found in the 20,000+ pages of the Cambridge History of China (16 volumes as of 2024). However, Volume 3 Sui & Tang China is the least good in the series. There is a lot of information in Volume 3 but we are given minutia instead of a clear, accurate summary of the important events decade by decade. Volume 5 - The Sung Dynasty and It’s Precursors is a much better history (weighing in at 2,000 pages!). The late great Frederick Mote started his wonderful 1,100 page history Imperial China in the year 900, when the Tang had already collapsed.
Like the collapse of each major dynasty of China (Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing) the collapse of the Tang government was a complex end to a multifaceted system of rule. Why it happened is hard to explain, and many different reasons could be offered. I will attempt to give my own summary view of the issue but I fully admit that my view can be critiqued by other experts who think different factors were far more important.
To begin: all systems of government are going to fail eventually. The longest civilization we know of was found in Ancient Egypt. Based on our very limited information, it appears the Old Kingdom of Egypt lasted for around 500 years (2700 BC - 2200 BC). No Chinese dynasty lasted longer than 320 years and even that is a bit of an exaggeration.
The Tang began when a highly placed noble named Li Yuan decided to lead his army against the unpopular Huangdi (Emperor) Yang of Sui. Li Yuan was the head of one of the great families of China at the time. His aunt was the Huangho (Empress) Dugu Qieluo and she was the mother of Yang of Sui, making Li Yuan a distant cousin of the Huangdi. In Chinese terms, the Tang are a different dynasty from the Sui but for American and English historians, the two dynasties are extremely similar. So, either the Tang begin in 620 or, if we start with the Sui, the government begins in 589 when Wen of Sui conquered the capital of his last rival in China: the Southern Dynasty of Chen.
The Tang under Li Shimin (Taizong of Tang) became the greatest power in East Asia. They took control over Vietnam (again) and they took outright control over the Silk Road cities in central Asia (Turfan, Kashgar, and even Samarkand). The northern barbarians (Goturks and Blue Turks) were defeated and were transformed into subordinate nations. [Li Shimin’s tomb was completely looted but some of the structures remain and can be seen today.]
Li Shimin’s son and heir Gaozong allied with the kingdom of Silla and together Tang & Silla conquered the north Korean nation of Goguryeo. Gaozong suffered several strokes around 660 and he ceded all power to his prime wife, the only woman to rule China: Wu Zetian (she ruled from 665 till 705). [The tombs of Gaozong and Wu Zetian, called the Qian Mausoleum, are largely intact and can be visited today. They are located 50 miles north of Xian.]
Wu Zetian was eventually succeeded by her grandson, Xuanzong of Tang who ruled for 44 years (712-756), one year less than his grandmother had ruled. Xuanzong is one of the most important rulers in Chinese history. He was a ruler with enormous talent and ambition but he ended up being driven out of his magnificent palace in 756. He also was forced to order the execution of his famous love, Yang Guifei. I think it is safe to say that Xuanzong has been the subject of more films & TV series than any other man in Chinese history.
The rebellion which drove Huangdi Xuanzong out of his capital city was started by a barbarian general named An Lushan. This once trusted commander of the Tang army rebelled in 755 and the resulting conflict lasted for eight years. The An Lushan rebellion nearly destroyed the Tang government. In many ways, the Tang government never recovered, though it managed a partial recovery under Xuanzong’s great-grandson Xianzong. The last powerful Huangdi of Tang died in 820 and his successors were largely unable to use the power which their ancestors had passed down to them.
An Lushan’s Rebellion
An Lushan was not Han Chinese. Instead he was one of the million Gokturks (proto-Mongols) who lived in what is now Mongolia. As mentioned above, Li Shimin led the Tang army against the northern barbarians early in his reign and effectively conquered them by 630. Li Shimin added many tribes to his military and as a result, many men like An Lushan were part of the Tang military.
An Lushan, a moderately capable military leader was apparently quite charismatic and he gained the favor of Yang Guifei, and her cousin who was a top minister of the Tang government, and even the Huangdi, Xuanzong. As a result, by 753 An Lushan had attained a position of enormous military power. He and his brother were given command of the large Tang/Gokturk armies stationed on the northern border of China.
The Tang military was stretched thin at this time. The Tang were (1) fighting against the new Moslem invaders in Central Asia (see the Battle of Talas in 751), (2) waging a war against the Kingdom of Tibet and (3) fighting with the aggresive state of Nanzhao (in what is now Yunnan province).
Partly due to vicious political battles inside the Tang court at the time - characterized by losers being murdered - being close to the Huangdi was extremely dangerous. Officials in the Tang court who lost power were often killed and everyone knew this. The evil minister Li Linfu (one of the major villains in the TV series The Longest Day in Chang’an) made sure his political enemies and their families suffered terrible fates, which is why Li Linfu gets some of the blame for An Lushan’s rebellion. [I wrote about The Longest Day TV series here: The Sage Reviews the Longest Day of Chang’an]
As a result of these factors: An Lushan when faced with the prospect of being removed from his command in the fall of 755, he decided that he wasn’t going to just suffer a convenient death like so many other former officials. Instead he would use his army to depose the Huangdi and take the throne himself. Nearly his entire army supported him, and quite suddenly the Tang government faced a very powerful enemy.
The Tang government was caught out by An Lushan’s rebellion. For the previous 100 years, inner provinces of China had very small military forces, the vast majority of the Tang army was deployed on the border. The Tang tried to build up its forces and regional military units. They had little time, as within a month, the rebel army rode to Luoyang (a former capital during the Han Dynasty). At Luoyang, An declared he was the first Huangdi of the Great Yan 大燕皇帝 (January 756).
Again, for stupid reasons directly related to internal political disputes, the Tang government ordered the execution of the top general defending Chang’an and ordered his replacement to leave their defensive position and attack the Great Yan army. This attack played into An Lushan’s hand, and the Tang army was smashed. The Great Yan army arrived at the gates of Chang’an in July of 756 and the Xuanzong Huangdi fled before his coming.
Amid the chaos caused by the defeat of the Tang army and the Huandi fleeing the city, the Imperial guard staged their own revolt. The Imperial guard killed Yang Guifei’s brother and demanded that Yang Guifie commit suicide. Xuanzong was in no position to refuse; after all everything that had happened was ultimately his responsibility. He had been warned against giving An Lushan command over so many soldiers and he had ordered the Tang army to go forward and fight the Great Yan army on the plains near Luoyang. So he ordered Yang Guifie’s death and continued on to the city of Chendu, in the refuge of Szechuan.
Xuanxong’s involvement in the war against the Great Yan seems minimal from this point on. His son, the Crown Prince, Li Heng, declared he was the now the Huangdi and his father agreed to retire when he heard the news in September of 756.
See Part Two