The History Book

84

THE RULER IS

WEALTHY BUT THE

STATE IS DESTROYED

THE AN LUSHAN REVOLT ( 756 ce)

relative political stability, and

economic growth that triggered

a cultural and artistic renaissance

and technological innovation.

But in 755, this golden age was

violently interrupted by An Lushan,

a discontented army general who

led an internal rebellion against the

Tang that plunged northern China

into a devastating war, after which

the dynasty was never again fully

in control of the country.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Tang China

BEFORE

618 Li Yuan becomes first

emperor of the Tang dynasty.

632–35 Chinese armies

capture Kashgar, Kokand,

and Yarkand in Central Asia.

751 Tang armies are defeated

by Arab forces at the Battle of

Talas River (Kyrgyzstan).

AFTER

762 Luoyang is retaken by the

Tang, and in 763 the last Yan

emperor commits suicide,

ending the An Lushan revolt.

874 The faction-torn Tang

court is unable to resist the

first of a series of revolts by

over-taxed peasants.

907 The last Tang emperor

is overthrown by rebel leader

Zhu Wen, who founds the

Later Liang dynasty.

960 China is reunified

under the Song dynasty.

Tensions and competition for power in the Tang

court between aristocrats, bureaucrats, and

military commanders leads to An Lushan revolt.

Tang authority is restored, but central control is weakened,

eventually leading to the break up of China.

Protecting China’s borders

requires a larger military,

leading to the rise of

powerful army commanders

and increased taxation.

Civil service reforms

reduce the political power

traditionally wielded by

noble families.

I

n 618, the Tang dynasty

succeeded the Sui as rulers of

China, ushering in one of the

most glittering eras in the country’s

history. The early Tang emperors

directed military campaigns that

pushed China’s frontiers deep into

Central Asia, and established

a centralized government with a

highly competent bureaucracy to

administer the empire. Later rulers

presided over long periods of peace,

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85

An Lushan’s rebels conquered and

occupied Chang’an, but the general

himself remained in Luoyang, where

he was later assassinated by one of his

sons in a dispute over the succession.

See also: The First Emperor unifies China 54–57 ■ Kublai Khan conquers the Song 102–03 ■

Marco Polo reaches Shangdu 104–05 ■ Hongwu founds the Ming dynasty 120–27

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

The seeds of rebellion

Under Xuanzong (712–56), the Tang

dynasty reached the zenith of its

power and prestige, yet several key

economic, social, and political

issues threatened to destabilize it.

Firstly, the state was struggling

to raise sufficient taxes to fund a

sharp rise in military expenditure.

The fu-bing, the cost-effective and

self-supporting national militia

system in which soldiers worked

the land when not required for

active military duty, was proving

inadequate in the face of repeated

invasions by neighboring groups.

Xuanzong was forced to establish

military provinces along China’s

northern frontiers, headed by local

governors who commanded huge

armies, and who came to acquire

considerable power and autonomy.

The Tang’s coffers were drained

further by the failure of the “equal

field” system, a program of land

distribution and tax collection that

protected small farmers from the

depredations of wealthy landowners

by periodically reallocating land to

them. Its gradual demise enabled

the nobility to grab land to increase

their regional power bases, and led

to unrest among the peasantry.

Lastly, earlier reforms made by

Emperor Taizong (reigned 626–649)

to the examination system used to

recruit civil servants, which opened

it up to able men from humbler

backgrounds without connections,

had created a bureaucracy based

on merit that eroded the power

and influence of the aristocracy.

Xuanzong now had to manage rival

factions in his court—potentially

rebellious nobles, ambitious

professional bureaucrats, and

military governors, some of whom

had begun to intervene in politics.

However, it was a series of

military debacles that provided the

spark for revolt against the Tang,

including the defeat by Abbasid

Arabs in 751 that halted China’s

expansion into Central Asia.

Turning on the Tang

Discontent exploded among the

military, which saw its position

threatened now that the era of

conquest was over. An Lushan,

a prominent military governor who

had become a court favorite, rose

up against his masters. Claiming

that the emperor had asked him to

remove Yang Guozhong (the court’s

chief minister, with whom An

Lushan was engaged in an intense

power struggle), he mobilized a

rebel army and marched south.

At first the revolt looked set for

success: it captured the eastern

capital, Luoyang, early in 756—

where An Lushan declared a rival

dynasty, the Yan—before storming

Chang’an, the primary capital.

Xuanzong fled from his court, only

just escaping An Lushan’s clutches.

After eight years of war, the

Tang finally crushed the revolt, but

the effort had fatally weakened it.

Over the next century it lost more

political power to the military, and

further rebellions broke out. By 907,

the empire had fragmented into

local dynasties and kingdoms that

vied for power for 50 years. ■

Ten thousand

houses with stabbed

hearts emit the

smoke of desolation.

Wang Wei

Tang poet (756)

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