60 China in World History
fair taxes, keeping government expenses under control, and maintain-
ing social order and peace on the borders.
Unfortunately, amid all the court ceremonies, intellectual discussions
and lavish entertainments in Xuanzong’s court, it became easy not to
notice several danger signs on the horizon. A further added distraction
for Xuanzong was that in his later years he fell deeply in love with a
beautiful concubine, Yang Guifei (“Precious Consort Yang”), so much
so that he began to grant her relatives all sorts of privileges and pow-
ers while ignoring the growing problems facing his government. The
emperor would do anything to please his young concubine, who shared
his love of poetry, painting, music, and dance. She became infatuated
with An Lushan, a non-Chinese (Turkish-Sogdian) general who com-
manded a large army in the vicinity of today’s Beijing. She helped An
Lushan gain control of 160,000 troops, the largest armed force under
one commander in the empire. The growing weakness of the dynasty was
dramatically revealed in 751, when Tang armies suffered simultaneous
crushing defeats in the southwest (today’s Yunnan), in the far western
outposts of Central Asia, and along the northeast borders with Korea.
To make matters worse, Xuanzong’s longtime prime minister, who
had effectively controlled the government for at least a decade, died in
752, inspiring new tensions among various factions in the capital. The
many relatives of Yang Guifei had risen to great power and infl uence
at the court because of her ties with the emperor, and they now began
to fear An Lushan’s power and to plot against him. When the emperor
summoned him to attend a wedding at the capital in 755, An Lushan
suspected a trap and refused to comply.
Four months later, the general led his troops in an open rebellion, and
they quickly occupied the “eastern capital” of Luoyang where he pro-
claimed himself emperor. By July of 756, the rebel forces approached the
capital of Chang’an, and Emperor Xuanzong and his “precious consort”
Yang Guifei were forced to fl ee the city for their lives. With a few troops
they headed south, but forty miles outside the city on the second day of
the journey, the troops mutinied and refused to go any further unless the
emperor agreed to have Yang Guifei killed. With some justifi cation, they
blamed her and her family for An Lushan’s rebellion and this perilous
retreat now forced upon them. The emperor tearfully ordered his chief
eunuch to strangle his beautiful concubine, and the sad imperial proces-
sion continued its journey southward and out of danger.
An Lushan was assassinated by one of his own men in 757, and
his troops split into two factions and began fi ghting among themselves.
The Tang court, now under the leadership of Xuanzong’s son, Emperor