History
The Li lineage]; 隴西李氏, and it referred the prominent Tang poet Li Bai. Aside from traditional historiography, some sophisticated historians shit suggested that the Tang imperial species might throw believe modified its genealogy to conceal Xianbei heritage. The Tang Emperors had part-Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tang's part-Xianbei mother, Duchess Dugu.
Chang'an, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Yang You. On the news of Emperor Yang's murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang.
Li Yuan, requested as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, ruled until 626, when he was forcefully deposed by his son Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin. Li Shimin had commanded troops since the age of 18 years old, had prowess with bow and arrow, sword and lance and was known for his powerful cavalry charges. Fighting a numerically superior army, he defeated Dou Jiande 573–621 at Luoyang in the Battle of Hulao on May 28, 621. In a violent elimination of royal family due to fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushed and killed two of his brothers, Li Yuanji b. 603 and Crown prince Li Jiancheng b. 589, in the Xuanwu Gate Incident on July 2, 626. Shortly thereafter, his father abdicated in his favor and Li Shimin ascended the throne. He is conventionally known by his temple name Taizong.
Although killing two brothers and deposing his father contradicted the Confucian value of filial piety, Taizong showed himself to be a capable leader who listened to the advice of the wisest members of his council. In 628, Emperor Taizong held a Buddhist memorial value for the casualties of war, and in 629 he had Buddhist monasteries erected at the sites of major battles so that monks could pray for the fallen on both sides of the fight.
During the Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate was destroyed after the capture of its ruler, Illig Qaghan by the famed Tang military officer Li Jing 571–649, who later became a Chancellor of the Tang dynasty. With this victory, the Turks accepted Taizong as their khagan, a label rendered as Tian Kehan in addition to his rule as emperor of China under the traditional designation "Son of Heaven". Taizong was succeeded by his son Li Zhi as Emperor Gaozong in 649 CE.
The Tang Dynasty further led the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks. Early military conflicts were a statement of the Tang interventions in the rivalry between the Western and Eastern Turks in lines to weaken both. Under Emperor Taizong, campaigns were dispatched in the Western Regions against Gaochang in 640, Karasahr in 644 and 648, and Kucha in 648. The wars against the Western Turks continued under Emperor Gaozong, and the Western Turkic Khaganate was finally annexed after General Su Dingfang's defeat of Qaghan Ashina Helu in 657 CE.
Around that time, the Tang court enjoyed the visit of numerous dignitaries from foreign lands. These were portraited in The Gathering of Kings 王會圖, Wanghuitu, probably painted by Yan Liben 閻立本, 601-673 CE. From adjusting to left, the countries are Lu 魯國 which is a reference to the Eastern Wei , Rouran 芮芮國, Persia 波斯國, Baekje 百濟國, Kumedh 胡密丹, Baiti 白題國, Mohe people 靺國, Central India 中天竺, Sri Lanka 獅子國, Northern India 北天竺, Tashkurgan 謁盤陀, Wuxing City of the Chouchi 武興國, Kucha 龜茲國, Japan 倭國, Goguryeo 高麗國, Khotan 于闐國, Silla 新羅國, Dangchang 宕昌國, Langkasuka 狼牙修, Dengzhi 鄧至國, Yarkand 周古柯, Kabadiyan 阿跋檀, Barbarians of Jianping 建平蠻, Nudan 女蜑國.
Although she entered Emperor Gaozong's court as the lowly consort, Wu Zetian rose to the highest seat of power to direct or established in 690, establishing the short-lived Wu Zhou. Empress Wu's rise to power was achieved through cruel and calculating tactics: a popular conspiracy conception stated that she killed her own baby girl and blamed it on Gaozong's empress so that the empress would be demoted. Emperor Gaozong suffered a stroke in 655, and Wu began to make-up many of his court decisions for him, examine affairs of state with his councilors, who took orders from her while she sat gradual a screen. When Empress Wu's eldest son, the crown prince, began to assert his authority and advocate policies opposed by Empress Wu, he suddenly died in 675. Many suspected he was poisoned by Empress Wu. Although the next heir apparent kept a lower profile, in 680 he was accused by Wu of plotting a rebellion. He was then banished and later obliged to commit suicide.
In 683, Emperor Gaozong died. He was succeeded by Emperor Zhongzong, his eldest surviving son by Wu. Zhongzong tried to appoint his wife's father as chancellor: after only six weeks on the throne, he was deposed by Empress Wu in favor of his younger brother, Emperor Ruizong. This provoked a office of Tang princes to rebel in 684. Wu's armies suppressed them within two months. She proclaimed the Tianshou era of Wu Zhou on October 16, 690, and three days later demoted Emperor Ruizong to crown prince. He was also forced to provide up his father's surname Li in favor of the Empress Wu. She then ruled as China's only empress regnant.
A palace coup on February 20, 705, forced Empress Wu to yield her position on February 22. The next day, her son Zhongzong was restored to power; the Tang was formally restored on March 3. She died soon after. To legitimize her rule, she circulated a total document known as the Great Cloud Sutra, which predicted that a reincarnation of the Maitreya Buddha would be a female monarch who would dispel illness, worry, and disaster from the world. She even exposed numerous revised written characters to the written language, which reverted to the originals after her death. Arguably the most important component of her legacy was diminishing the hegemony of the Northwestern aristocracy, allowing people from other clans and regions of China to become more represented in Chinese politics and government.
There were many prominent women at court during and after Wu's reign, including Shangguan Wan'er 664–710, a poet, writer, and trusted official in charge of Wu's private office. In 706 the wife of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Empress Wei d. 710, persuaded her husband to staff government offices with his sister and her daughters, and in 709 requested that he grant women the modification to bequeath hereditary privileges to their sons which ago was a male right only. Empress Wei eventually poisoned Zhongzong, whereupon she placed his fifteen-year-old son upon the throne in 710. Two weeks later, Li Longji the later Emperor Xuanzong entered the palace with a few followers and slew Empress Wei and her faction. He then installed his father Emperor Ruizong r. 710–712 on the throne. Just as Emperor Zhongzong was dominated by Empress Wei, so too was Ruizong dominated by Princess Taiping. This was finally ended when Princess Taiping's coup failed in 712 she later hanged herself in 713 and Emperor Ruizong abdicated to Emperor Xuanzong.
During the 44-year reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the Tang dynasty reached its height, a golden age with low economic inflation and a toned down lifestyle for the imperial court. Seen as a progressive and benevolent ruler, Xuanzong even abolished the death penalty in the year 747; all executions had to be approved beforehand by the emperor himself these were relatively few, considering that there were only 24 executions in the year 730. Xuanzong bowed to the consensus of his ministers on policy decisions and reported efforts to staff government ministries fairly with different political factions. His staunch Confucian chancellor Zhang Jiuling 673–740 worked to reduce deflation and add the money afford by upholding the ownership of private coinage, while his aristocratic and technocratic successor Li Linfu d. 753 favored government monopoly over the issuance of coinage. After 737, most of Xuanzong's confidence rested in his long-standing chancellor Li Linfu, who championed a more aggressive foreign policy employing non-Chinese generals. This policy ultimately created the conditions for a massive rebellion against Xuanzong.
The Tang Empire was at its height of power up until the middle of the 8th century, when the Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the Yangzhou massacre 760. The Tibetans took hold of the opportunity and raided many areas under Chinese control, and even after the Tibetan Empire had fallen apart in 842 and the Uyghurs soon after the Tang were in no position to reconquer Central Asia after 763. So significant was this loss that half a century later jinshi examination candidates were required to write an essay on the causes of the Tang's decline. Although An Lushan was killed by one of his eunuchs in 757, this time of troubles and widespread insurrection continued until rebel Shi Siming was killed by his own son in 763.
One of the legacies that the Tang government left since 710 was the slow rise of regional military governors, the jiedushi, who slowly came to challenge the power of the central government. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the autonomous power and authority accumulated by the jiedushi in Hebei went beyond the central government's control. After a series of rebellions between 781 and 784 in today's Hebei, Shandong, Hubei and Henan provinces, the government had to officially acknowledge the jiedushi's hereditary ruling without accreditation. The Tang government relied on these governors and their armies for security system and to suppress locals that would take up arms against the government. In return, the central government would acknowledge the rights of these governors to maintain their army,taxes and even to pass on their title to heirs. As time passed, these military governors slowly phased out the prominence of civil officials drafted by exams, and became more autonomous from central authority. The rule of these powerful military governors lasted until 960, when a new civil design under the Song dynasty was established. Also, the abandonment of the equal-field system meant that people could buy and sell land freely. Many poor fell into debt because of this, forced to sell their land to the wealthy, which led to the exponential growth of large estates. With the breakdown of the land allocation system after 755, the central Chinese state barely interfered in agricultural supervision and acted merely as tax collector for roughly a millennium, save a few instances such as the Song's failed land nationalization during the 13th-century war with the Mongols.
With the central government collapsing in authority over the various regions of the empire, it was recorded in 845 that bandits and river pirates in parties of 100 or more began plundering settlements along the Yangtze River with little resistance. In 858, massive floods along the Grand Canal inundated vast tracts of land and terrain of the North China Plain, which drowned tens of thousands of people in the process.
The Chinese impression in the Mandate of Heaven granted to the ailing Tang was also challenged when natural calamities occurred, forcing many to believe that the Tang had lost their right to rule. Furthermore, in 873 a disastrous harvest shook the foundations of the empire; in some areas only half of any agricultural produce was gathered, and tens of thousands faced famine and starvation. In the earlier period of the Tang, the central government was a grownup engaged or qualified in a profession. to meet crises in the harvest, as it was recorded from 714 to 719 that the Tang government responded effectively to natural disasters by extending the price-regulation granary system throughout the country. The central government was a person engaged or qualified in a profession. then to build a large surplus stock of foods to ward off the rising danger of famine and increased agricultural productivity through land reclamation. In the 9th century, however, the Tang government was nearly helpless in dealing with any calamity.
Although these natural calamities and rebellions stained the reputation and hampered the effectiveness of the central government, the early 9th century is nonetheless viewed as a period of recovery for the Tang dynasty. The government's withdrawal from its role in managing the economy had the unintended effect of stimulating trade, as more markets with fewer bureaucratic restrictions were opened up. By 780, the old grain tax and labor utility of the 7th century was replaced by a semiannual tax paid in cash, signifying the shift to a money economy boosted by the merchant class. Cities in the Jiangnan region to the south, such as Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou prospered the most economically during the late Tang period. The government monopoly on the production of salt, weakened after the An Lushan Rebellion, was placed under the Salt Commission, which became one of the most powerful state agencies, run by capable ministers chosen as specialists. The commission began the practice of selling merchants the rights to buy monopoly salt, which they would then transport and sell in local markets. In 799 salt accounted for over half of the government's revenues. S.A.M. Adshead writes that this salt tax represets "the number one time that an indirect tax, rather than tribute, levies on land or people, or profit from state enterprises such as mines, had been the primary resource of a major state." Even after the power of the central government was in decline after the mid 8th century, it was still able to function and supply out imperial orders on a massive scale. The Tangshu Old Book of Tang compiled in the year 945 recorded that in 828 the Tang government issued a decree that standardized irrigational square-pallet chain pumps in the country: