TangDynasty
  | Li Bai DRINKING ALONE WITHTHE MOON From a pot of wine among the flowers |
![[Map of Tang]](tang.gif)
TheTang dynasty (A.D. 618-907), with its capital at Chang'an, is regardedby historians as a high point in Chinese civilization--equal, or even superior,to the Han period. Its territory, acquired through the military exploitsof its early rulers, was greater than that of the Han. Stimulated by contactwith India and the Middle East, the empire saw a flowering of creativityin many fields. Buddhism, originating in India around the time of Confucius,flourished during the Tang period, becoming thoroughly sinicized and apermanent part of Chinese traditional culture. Block printing was invented,making the written word available to vastly greater audiences. The Tangperiod was the golden age of literature and art. A government system supportedby a large class of Confucian literati selected through civil service examinationswas perfected under Tang rule. This competitive procedure was designedto draw the best talents into government. But perhaps an even greater considerationfor the Tang rulers, aware that imperial dependence on powerful aristocraticfamilies and warlords would have destabilizing consequences, was to createa body of career officials having no autonomous territorial or functionalpower base. As it turned out, these scholar-officials acquired status intheir local communities, family ties, and shared values that connectedthem to the imperial court. From Tang times until the closing days of theQing empire in 1911, scholar-officials functioned often as intermediariesbetween the grass-roots level and the government.
Bythe middle of the eighth century A.D., Tang power had ebbed. Domestic economicinstability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia,marked the beginning of five centuries of steady military decline for theChinese empire. Misrule, court intrigues, economic exploitation, and popularrebellions weakened the empire, making it possible for northern invadersto terminate the dynasty in 907. The next half-century saw the fragmentationof China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms.
The Tang are considered to be one of the greatdynasties of Chinese history; many historians rank them right behind theHan. They extended the boundaries of China through Siberia in the North,Korea in the east, and were in what is now Vietnam in the South. They evenextended a corridor of control along the Silk Road well into modern-dayAfghanistan.
There are two interesting historical thingsabout the Tang. The first is the Empress Wu, the only woman ever to actuallybear the title 'Emperor' (or, in her case, Empress).The second was theAn Lushan Rebellion, which marked the beginning of the end for the Tang.
TheEmpress Wu was not a nice person. She makes Catherine the Great look likean angel of mercy. While Empress Wu was still a concubine in theimperial Tang household, she deposed of a rival by murdering her own son,and then claiming her rival did it. In her own vicious, ruthless, schemingway, she was absolutely brilliant. Had Machiavelli known of her, he probablywould have written "The Princess."
The An Lushan Rebellion had its roots in thebehavior of one of the great emperors of Chinese history, Xuanzong. Untilhe fell in love with a young concubine named Yang Guifei, he had been agreat ruler, and had brought the Tang to its height of prosperity and grandeur.He was so infatuated with Yang that the administration of the governmentsoon fell into decay, which was not made any better by the fact that Yangtook advantage of her power to stuff high administrative positions withher corrupt cronies. She also took under her wing a general named An Lushan,who quickly accumulated power.
An Lushan eventually decided that he wouldmake a pretty good emperor, and launched his rebellion. The civil war lastedfor eight years, and was, for the years 755-763, pretty destructive. Theemperor was forced to flee the capital, and on the way, the palace guard,blaming Yang Guifei for all the problems that had beset the dynasty (tobe fair, it wasn't all her fault; there were forces of political economyat work that were pretty much beyond anybody's control), strangled herand threw her corpse in a ditch. There is a legend that what actually happenedwas that the emperor had procured a peasant look-alike who was actuallythe one killed, but as far as I know, that is only fiction. Anyway, therebellion pretty much shattered centralized Tang control, and for the remaining150 years of the dynasty, the country slowly disintegrated.